Harry Redknapp, finally accepting QPR’s imminent demotion to the Championship, says the club will find the lower level tough next season unless wholesale changes are made.
It remains unclear whether Redknapp will manage Rangers in the second tier next season, and his comments following the weekend defeat against Stoke suggest he is already bartering for assurances on budgets and transfer window activity before committing.
Redknapp told West London Sport: “It’s not easy. You look at this year – Wolves went down and I thought they were a good side. It’s hard that Championship – you ain’t going to suddenly go in there and get straight back out of it. It’s very tough. I don’t think you can go down with the attitude ‘Oh we’ll come straight back up next year, it’s going to be easy’. It ain’t going to be easy for whoever goes down.
“It’s a lot of hard work and a scrap. In that league it’s Saturday-midweek-Saturday every week. You need people who going to be willing to roll their sleeves up and want to play all them games, not people who go ‘Oh I’m tired, I can’t play Tuesday’ – you don’t need that. You need a group of players who are going to scrap. That’s very important.”
He was also quoted in The Guardian saying: "You'd like to freshen it up. When I went to Portsmouth that first year I was lucky, an awful lot of players were out of contract and I could change things around. And I brought characters into the club – like Arjan de Zeeuw from Wigan, who was an absolute leader of men, a fantastic person. That's what you're looking for, you need people like that to come in. I took Paul Merson for five grand a week, Villa were paying him the rest of his wages, and he turned the club around for me with his ability and enthusiasm. That's what you're looking for and they're out there. We've got some. But you'd like to change things around a bit if you can. In the summer I could build my own team if I have the chance but I don't know if I'll be able to."
Redknapp added that he felt missing out on West Brom’s Peter Odemwingie during the January transfer window could have been a key moment in QPR’s demise. Redknapp said: "I would not have changed an awful lot, really. I'd have probably tried harder to get the boy from West Brom, Odemwingie. He might have really given us something up there with Bobby Zamora not being 100% fit. He might have scored four or five goals that make the difference. He did no different to what about 50 other footballers did on the same day. He made one big mistake. He was too honest, he turned up at the football club, he was silly."
Whoever is in charge will oversee another pre-season tour of the Far East if reports in South Korea are to be believed. While that will come as no great surprise, given the way this season has gone it’s perhaps not the most sensible course of action given that a three legged stop over in that part of the world last summer preceded a record-breaking 16-match winless run at the start of the Premier League season.
Nevertheless South Korean side Gyeongnam has announced they will face Rangers with a friendly on July 19, little over two weeks before the start of next season’s Championship season. Of more concern is the assertion by the Korean club that Rangers had guaranteed playing time in the fixture for South Koreans Ji-Sung Park and Yun Suk-Young. Young awaits his QP debut having signed in January while Park has endured a dreadful first season in W12 and is near the top of the list of players the club should be looking to shift on this summer.
Finally, this year’s Sunday Times Rich List shows Tony Fernandes’ personal fortune increasing from £188m to £396m but Lakshmi Mittal has fallen off the top spot after falling from £12.7bn to £10bn. Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov topped the list at £13.3bn.
Mixed fortunes for the four QPR players currently plying their trade overseas. Joey Barton remains out of favour at Marseille – he played just the final two minutes of a 1-0 home win against Brest at the weekend. Barton took to Twitter (where else?) last week to say that he expected his move to the South of France to be made permanent this summer and that an agreement was already in place. Tony Fernandes rejected this suggestion via the social network and CEO Philip Beard used his programme notes at the weekend to say it would be QPR’s decision who stays and who goes this summer if the player is under contract, adding “and that includes players out on loan.”
No action for Ale Faurlin either – he was an unused sub for struggling Palermo as they drew 1-1 with Catania. With five games of the Serie A season remaining Palermo are seven points adrift of safety, third bottom of the table. Faurlin’s agent Lucas Cominelli says his client is much more amenable to a return to W12 this summer than Barton, but suggests an extension to the popular player’s QPR career is unlikely if Harry Redknapp remains at the club.
He told the Fulham Chronicle: “We intend to let the season play out and meet with QPR in the summer to find out what they want to do next. I think it would be difficult for Ale if Harry Redknapp is there. After all, he wasn’t giving him much chance after he took over. But Ali loves London and he loves QPR, where he would be delighted to return if they want him. He has a year left on his contract, and he wants to go somewhere where he can play regularly. It’s all about playing games for him.”
Elsewhere Hogan Ephraim played for Toronto in a 1-1 draw with Houston, while Anton Ferdinand started Bursaspor’s 1-0 victory against Antalyaspor in the Turkish top flight.
Not great news for the various young R’s out on loan in the lower leagues in this country either. Angelo Balanta came on in the first half for Yeovil only to then be substituted himself 20 minutes later as they beat Crewe 1-0 to move up to fourth in League One. Max Ehmer was hauled off 15 minutes from the end of Stevenage’s 3-0 defeat at another promotion chasing side Swindon Town.
In League Two Michael Harriman started and Bruno Andrade came on in the second half as Wycombe were beaten 1-0 by Barnet in the last ever match played at Underhill. Tom Hitchcock was an unused substitute for Bristol Rovers as they lost 1-0 at home to Accrington. Mo Shariff played the final half hour of Dagenham’s 1-0 defeat against Aldershot which leaves them a point away from the relegation zone with one game remaining.
No action this weekend for Michael Doughty at St Johnstone, Jordan Gibbons at Inverness, or Adam Francis and Bradley Simmonds at Woking.
Rob Hulse played the final half hour of Millwall’s 3-0 defeat at relegation haunted Huddersfield in the Championship. Watch out for a horrendous piece of defending from Danny Shittu for the first goal.
Gareth Ainsworth will play the final game of his professional football career this weekend as Wycombe play Port Vale at Adams Park. Wild Thing has however agreed a two year contract to manager the Chairboys after assuming control from Gary Waddock in November.
Ainsworth told the BBC: "It's better to go out on a high. Thank you to everyone who has ever shouted for me at every club I've played for. It's been a rollercoaster, but I wouldn't change any minute of it for anything. "This is enormous for me and I'm really thankful to everyone who has helped me achieve this. I want to repay the supporters' trust and all the supporters by working so hard and bringing back the glory years. I'll give it my best shot, I promise you."
The club’s joint-chairman Don Woodward added: “It's great to secure Gareth's services and we are really looking forward to continuing to work with a young but passionate manager. He's been fantastic at getting the best out of players and if we can keep that going and he can keep learning, he should follow in the footsteps that most Wycombe managers have done by progressing his career and taking us along for the ride."
Ainsworth’s former team mate at Loftus Road Kevin Gallen appeared on TalkSport at the weekend painting a bleak picture of the future of the club. Gallen said: ““QPR spent far too much on wages. Where are they going to go now? Who is going to take them after such a poor season? Both Harry Redknapp and Tony Fernandes face a tough job. Why would you leave the club if you’re earning £60,000-a-week and you’re only going to get £30,000-a-week elsewhere? The transfer policy, especially at the start of the season, has been poor. I don’t blame Tony Fernandes, he’s new to football, and if someone comes up to him and says you can sign Julio Cesar, of course he’s going to say yes. But if you leave Inter Milan and come to QPR what reason are you coming for?”
Finally Darren Peacock has been appointed as the new head coach at Evo-Stik League Division One North club Lancaster City. He will take charge for the first time at the club’s final game of the season against Salford on May 4 according to the Lancaster Guardian.
A statement from the club read: “Lancaster City are delighted to announce the successful conclusion of negotiations with Darren Peacock to become our new head coach. Darren will take overall control of the playing staff next week for our match at Salford City on May 4, and is committed to realising the aspirations of the club and our supporters through the development of local talent.”
A 2-2 draw with Goole at the weekend leaves Lancaster thirteenth in the league with two matches left to play.
- A first half hat trick from Robin Van Persie sealed a twentieth league title for Man Utd this evening as they beat Aston Villa 3-0 at Old Trafford. The result means QPR and Reading live to fight another week at the bottom of the table at least.
- Liverpool say striker Luis Suarez will stay at the club despite biting Chelsea’s Branoslav Ivanovic during Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Anfield. It’s the latest in a long line of transgressions from the Uruguayan and he faces a lengthy suspension from the Football Association. Liverpool MD Ian Ayre said: "Luis is a very important player to the club. As we keep saying, he signed a new four-year contract last summer and we'd all love to see him here throughout that contract. He's a fantastic player, top scorer and everything we'd want in a striker, so there's no change there. This is more about getting him back on the right track and it's largely down to Brendan now to work with him on that side of his character."
- Reading midfielder Jay Tabb could make his loan move to Ipswich permanent this summer as his contract at the Madejski Stadium comes to an end. Town manager Mick McCarthy said: “I know he's on a free and I'd like to sign him. I told him that. He's really added something to us." Striker Adan Le Fondre faces a less certain future – he has yet to start a game under new manager Nigel Adkins and in the wake of a weekend defeat at Norwich said: "I'm like every footballer. I want to start, I want to play games and at this moment I'm not getting anything. If it continues I do not know what will happen."
- New Sunderland manager Paulo Di Canio says a weekend win against Everton that moves his side six points clear of the relegation zone has not made them safe from the drop with four games to play. The Italian said: "I don't think it is enough. Every weekend we can change the prediction for who will go down," said Di Canio. Once again it was one step forward but the main job is not done."
The following tube and train closures are in place this Sunday as QPR head west to Reading:
- The Circle Line is entirely closed all weekend.
- The Hammersmith and City Line is closed between Hammersmith and Baker Street.
- There is no service between Edgware Road and Earl’s Court on the District Line.
- The Bakerloo Line and Overground is closed between Harrow & Wealdstone and Queen’s Park. A replacement bus service will operate.
- The Overground is also closed between Highbury & Islington and Stratford.
Buses replace trains between Virginia Water and Reading on the stopping service from waterloo via Twickenham, Richmond and Staines. After the match buses will operate between Reading and Virginia Water up to and including the 1634 departure. Trains resume at 1654.
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