| Chickens, eggs and sacred cows — Preview on 15:45 - Oct 14 with 1100 views | daveB |
drives me mad this myth about the family stand/lower loft. If we got rid of it the same people would be sat in it. Around me it's been the same people for 10 years in the lower loft all behind the team when we play well,all sat bored when we don't.
During the Holloway years the lower loft was dead, no noise at all in fact it's been no noise from that area of the ground for 20 years apart from the big games or the years we went up.
Get rid of the family stand by all means and lose the 500 odd kids who sit in it but don't expect it to make a jot of difference to the atmosphere in games that are crap. |  | |  |
| Chickens, eggs and sacred cows — Preview on 03:27 - Oct 18 with 613 views | FredManRave |
Brilliant article Clive. Such an important topic that's affecting almost every club in the top two divisions and for the reasons highlighted in the article.
Two things I'd add, fwiw, is first of all, you can say what you like about the video encouraging us to be more vocal but at least the realisation that the atmosphere or lack there of is an issue is important. The video could be viewed as their opening gambit in an attempt to improve the atmosphere. Surely doing nothing or not even acknowledging the issue would be far worse. And hopefully this is just the start of what will be an ongoing campaign that will get better and more effective as time goes on. Absolutely nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.
Secondly, I think there's something that can be added to the list of all the points mentioned in the article and that is the "manager effect". Undoubtedly the football being played is surely the number one factor in crowd response. And wiithout wanting to try and place it anywhere in the long list of reasons why the atmosphere has detoriated so much in the last 20 years I do think the manager effect has a part to play. To continue with the "Name me..." theme, "Name me the last time the incumbent managers name was sung, with gusto, by the whole crowd and for a sustained period?! "Warnock is our King". And since then in the hot seat we've had Mark Hughes, Harry Redknapp, Chris Ramsey and now JFH. That's definitely not an awesome foursome! Quite the opposite in fact. To put it bluntly not one of them has/had any conection to QPR (bear with me). Teh first two didn't give a shÃt about the club with Hughes interviewing us and Redknapp never saying "We" to name one of many attributes that meant the vast majority of fans had zero affinity or feeling towards him. Most wanted Ramsey to do well but hugely out of his depth and unfortunately for him came with the Spurs/Les connection and the highlight of his lack of understanding came when he played SWP at City. And now we have JFH. Another good guy but with a low personality count (I was going to say zero but thought that would be too harsh). It's so hard to get behind him, football aside, but just his demeanour, as with the other 3 mentioned doesn´t get you on his side or make you feel any affinity towards the guy.
When I think back to life after the Prem last time around we obviously started that off with Wilkins and though Houston was tough he still got backed by the fans and more than anything I remember the lift the whole place had when he left and we had John Hollins in for those 4 games and I remember singing his Blue And White Army for what seemed like 20 minutes. Point being a manager with a QPR connection despite having that other connection as well! Ok then Ray Harford, no need to go there but then afterwards you could list, Francis, Holloway, Waddock, Gregory, Dowie, Ainsworth and even the Sousa and De Caneo. All guys either with R history or at least guys you could get on board with and get behind. And then we had Warnock....
As I mentioned at the start I'm not saying it's the be all and end all but I definitely think that the last 4 managers and the fans inability to have any feeling or even apathy with them and quite often the opposite with open hatred in Redknapps and Hughes cases has played a part, in a drip drip (pun intended!) effect on the atmosphere. It's been well stated by many that they feel no link to the players and feel very removed from the club and I think that could be applied to the last four managers that we've had over the near last 5 years which have coincided with a disconect between fans and the club.
Just my pesos worth. |  |
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