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Three-game weeks
at 13:39 25 Jan 2026

It was a tough break, that's a fact, but we also love to use it as an excuse.

Football has indeed changed - also a fact - but the other fact that we've gone nowhere in 10 years proves that we've not tackled this as well as other clubs, surely?

As for bringing on Bennie compared to Windass - don't get that. We're QPR, we buy loads of players every single window, have done for donkeys' years. We have £4m+ of Ronnie on the bench.

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Three-game weeks
at 13:05 25 Jan 2026

That is obviously a very fair point, Spaghetti, but we are always unlucky in such things, aren't we? Just watched an interview with Keith Andrews who said "as a football club, we don't look for excuses". I'm surprised we don't have a High Performance Manager of Seeking Where We've Been Hard Done By.

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Three-game weeks
at 11:24 25 Jan 2026

This obsession with three-game weeks is another of our negative mentality narratives that drive me bonkers. Sometimes I wonder why we bother, as a club, ever entering the league and two cups seeing that we always seem to find competitive matches a bit of a bind and a hassle.

Are they three game weeks that must be carefully managed, or are they an opportunity to win three football matches in a row and fly up the table?

Are they a fitness team that are there to protect the players from getting injured or are they a fitness team who are there to get as many players out on the park and as fit as possible for the manager?

Is the league cup our best chance to win a trophy or a chance to rest our amazingly high-achieving superstars after ooh, 1 week of the season? Same with the FA Cup, unless you've got 9,000 away fans potentially breathing down your neck.

Festive period and a load of games? A chance to move forward or to phone in away games at poor sides like WBA just so that we can play even more poorly in the next home game?

I detested Ainsworth's small-club, privilege-to-be-on-the-same-park mentality as I thought it spread a small-time belief throughout the club. I think a major part of the reason Marti was so popular was that he was generally positive, for example publicly often stating he was never happy with a draw, and usually pushed a far more positive mindset.

I don't think many fans demand that much - just some ambition, some high standards throughout the club. It can be done. Things like the injury time debacle yesterday - we've often played for an hour against 10 men without ever looking like scoring. An opposition with a strong mentality sees it as a chance to up their game, come together, thou-shalt-not pass. Do we?

I want (ho ho) the owners to grab this club by the scruff of its neck; to say look, the potential is huge. We sell out home and away despite being served up some bang average tripe on a regular basis for so many years now. We are building a stronger squad. We've worked out that gambling on Burrell-types is far better than previous transfer tactics (although I fear Saito and possibly Edwards could be regressing to the mean) - and we are not just buying these players to potentially improve our FFP, or just make a profit in a year's time. We're building a squad and a team and a club that is going to make a serious aim for promotion and returning to be a regular Premier League side, like all of our near neighbours.

Or we can just drift, tinker around, bitch and moan about the number of games and injuries, give inexperienced / chancers the keys to the controls and go round in circles. We love going round in circles. How many seasons now have we been about building a more open, possession based playing style around exciting youngsters? And how many seasons does it take only a few months to go running back to stalwarts like Steve Cook that we've arrogantly derided in press releases and then saying "oops, now we realise all teams need players like you"?

Do we have management who can look at the ever-deteriorating Loftus Road situation, with a capacity that seems to reduce every season, that sells out even when we are toilet, and say right - we sort out a temporary fix quickly, like more standing, making the whole Loft standing, properly improving facilities and catering, or do we have management that implies you can either have a Kone signing or actually be able to get served a decent pint at 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon?

Round and round and round we go. Ah - but next season, we are always about next season. I will check back in next season with our management and see just how that goes.

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Dembélé new boo boy?
at 12:42 21 Jan 2026

I think that is so harsh. Sure, he's not in the best of form but he has shown me enough recently, in the first half yesterday and at West Ham generally, that there is plenty to work with for a young player. I am probably completely wrong compared to the majority view on here, but I just don't think he has been THAT bad.

The criticism he gets compared to Saito and their relative performances is beyond me.

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Just back
at 07:24 21 Jan 2026

Good point about Joe Walsh - looked to have grown about a foot in stature and confidence to me. Let's hope he can really kick on as another promising youngster.

The game, however, matched our previous Oxford game in being of the worst standard imaginable.

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Dembélé new boo boy?
at 07:22 21 Jan 2026

I agree, Oslo. Obviously faded second half but he wasn't alone in that and in the first half was easily out best player in my opinion. I really don't get (like Varane) why a young talented player seems to get so much criticism. He's not playing brilliantly, but he certainly seems OK to me.

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The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 20:43 20 Jan 2026

Maybe on a couple of occasions, Hunter, but to be fair to him I thought he looked really positive and creative out there. Or maybe I am seeing things!

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The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 20:38 20 Jan 2026

Plus Dembele, surely. Aside from that awful shot he's been our only spark.

Otherwise, my word. Kone's attempt to sprint on to that decent pass into the box was Freyesque.

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The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 18:52 20 Jan 2026

Sometimes I wonder if the fitness team has more of a say in selections than the manager. It is time for Esquerdinha to prove himself and put in a solid away day display rather than a flaky one. I would have picked Edwards or Field back there myself, but hey let's keep the faith.

I presume Kolli isn't fit to start.

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Is the season over?
at 10:02 20 Jan 2026

Not specifically having a go at the club, by "we" I meant the fans who are suggesting building for next year. At least the club had a proper go at the FA Cup, which I acknowledge, but I do still think there is still far too much obsession with three game weeks and fiddling about. Just my view.

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Is the season over?
at 08:22 20 Jan 2026

It's always next week, next season, next year, jam tomorrow isn't it?

We'll rest our players for the cup so we can lose the following week in some awful league game. At least we corrected that for West Ham. Hopefully Nourry understands this should be for all cups, everywhere, not just when we have 9,000 away tickets sold.

Now we are thinking of building for next season. Can't we give it a go now? With our model we have no idea when we are going to have to sell an asset so perhaps we should be going full bore every single game we play. I know that is outdated, but hey.

For me - long-term thinking = Loftus Road, training ground, infrastructure.

Football matches - best possible XI on the pitch every single league and cup game unless it is mathematically impossible to do anything in either direction towards the end of a season.

Regards

Old Fashioned

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love today....
at 14:15 12 Jan 2026

Yes, excellent points. I think you are right, and I am just getting over the Monday blues :-).

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love today
at 13:28 12 Jan 2026

Yeah, right Nix, I have some kind of problem because I was disappointed with a missed opportunity and going out the cup. Thought it was an interesting QPR debate but bringing it down to Chelsea references and "I am a better fan than you" implications - no thanks.

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love today
at 11:55 12 Jan 2026

Didn't mean my post to be carping at all. Wasn't even digging out the playes, perhaps Kone excepted, just reflecting my emotions were more tepid disappointment rather than any great pleasure. I don't agree we were that brilliant though.

I don't mean standards like you do, I mean as a football club, our standards have surely dropped. Fitness standards? Of course Dunne and Cook were great yesterday, but they usually are.

Anyway, perhaps it's just Blue Monday or whatever.

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love today....
at 10:07 12 Jan 2026

I was in the away end, this is not about whether you were there or not. The poster above was bang on for me - yes it was a fun day, being different, and yes it was pleasing that we actually tried and played well. The equaliser was a great moment.

But as a long-standing QPR fan I am still entitled to feel what I feel. I repeat, I don't demand anyone else feels it. It is just how I feel.

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love today....
at 09:13 12 Jan 2026

Nix totally respect your view but please don't tell me I am supporting the wrong club. Although the evidence of most of the past 50 years says that is right!

Your point about the gulf between the clubs financially is undeniable. That is not the standards I refer to of course, what I mean is that bigging up a 3rd round defeat as a great day just highlights how low our standards have gone.

Of course I am capable of enjoying supporting QPR, I love going with my boy and I enjoy regardless of the result usually. But I just don't think we were that amazing yesterday, and I just feel disappointment at the missed opportunity rather than great love for the day.

It's just how I feel; totally not having a go at anyone else for enjoying it.

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love today....
at 08:39 12 Jan 2026

I know that it shows my age, and it was a decent day and I am grateful Nourry / Stephan put out the best side we could.

But I just can't "love" going out the cup yet again, losing to West Bloody Ham and I am not that proud of the lads. They did OK in my eyes, not much more. They aren't fit enough. I will be proud when we actually win. West Ham were so bad, so short on confidence, I am certain it was a missed opportunity. We played the cagey game in the first half, which was all about getting the break at 0-0, but squander the whole plan and possession with 1 minute to go of it, when we had an attacking throw on and could just have kept the ball. So annoying.

And yes having a huge away support was fun, but yet again when we have one....we lose.

There was a moment in the second half yesterday, before he scored, when Kone did that arms thing at the away end to get more noise. Always hate that, but considering he hadn't moved his oversized backside at that point more than 5cm all game, really took the biscuit and sums up every time we have a huge away support. We're there, the players not so much. I was hugely annoyed with him at this point, but then he of course proved his worth in the end. Fair play.

Our standards have slipped so low generally, and specifically in the cup, that we enjoy a 3rd round cup defeat at a relegation-haunted (and very poor) Premier League side.

Yes, I am old and bitter and twisted. Standards. Sorry.

Edit: I meant to say, this is just how I feel, not claiming everyone should feel this way. And life is about enjoyment, so I am jealous of those who felt it was a great day. I am just grumpy as yet again no 4th round draw to look forward to!

[Post edited 12 Jan 8:55]

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GREAT EFFORT TODAY.......
at 08:34 12 Jan 2026

Sam had a shocker but he's proved his quality with us before. Plus he had a shocker at left back rather than midfield, having had very little game time all season. Big ask. He is the type of player who needs a consistent run to show his best, although with Hayden playing well I can't see him getting it.

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Fourth Round Here We Come Match Thread
at 18:49 11 Jan 2026

On way back what a terrible ground in a terrible place.
I thought we did OK, a real opportunity missed though as the one time we went after them we scored. Thought that was where we missed Burrell so much. Other than that we were pretty cagey which I guess made sense but I can't help but feel many a championship side would have had it up 'em for longer then the 5 mins we managed.

Although we deserved to take the game to extra time sadly our dismal fitness levels meant we never looked likely.

Still, it took a piece of absolute brilliance to beat us so no shame in that.

And, for once, we put out a full team to try and win a cup tie. Progress.

[Post edited 11 Jan 18:50]

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West Ham Tickets
at 14:33 10 Jan 2026

If you are on sky or yahoo email the link may not work...try opening on a computer and it may give you a qr code to scan which gives your tickets

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