And what do positions 1-11 really mean to the faithful at QPR...
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Tony and the board need to think about what long-term stability really means for the team and their bigger plans moving forward.
Can Harry give us long-term stability? At 67, fit, buzzed up, happy, enjoying the job, full of ideas, passionate about the Premiership, perhaps but apart from being 67 there is little evidence of any of the other traits. The mojo has gone, the smile has gone, the gleam in the eye has gone, the humour has gone, and most importantly, the joy in doing the job has gone. Even if he regains his spark, given his age, health, we are looking at another season at the most, and that doesn't equal long-term stability. It's just short-term. In a year, even if Harry suddenly gets it right we have to start all over again.
Firstly, Harry has to sit down in a quiet room and really think if he does have the appetite to do this anymore and if so, how does he do it so that a long term replacement is trained up to take the team on. If he can’t find his mojo the right thing would be for Harry to go and see Tony and hold his hands up. Similarly, Tony has to seek honesty from Harry but whatever that decision is, it is short term.
The biggest problem for me is that long-term stability starts at a very obvious place. It's not ground improvements, not new stadiums and cities, in fact it has almost nothing to do with a grand plan. The first and foremost part of developing a long-term plan is getting 'the product' right on the pitch. Tony and co have spent a lot of money buying players that managers want but one thing that has been overlooked and under thought about is what the QPR way is. What is our playing style?
I remember a time in the 70s and 80s where the ethos of the team was, at Loftus Road, to really go for the throat of an opposition in the first half, push them back, terrify them and then put a game to bed in the 2nd half with a bombardment of the opponent’s area. The general ethos at QPR used to be attack attack attack. Away from home we have always been a bit harder to pin down as having a style, part from being solid at the back and difficult to beat, but with that ethic of getting forward to scare a team on their own turf. We have always been known as a smaller team that could turn on the style and surprise bigger teams.
At the moment we seem to buy players that have a track record, are known to a manager or are just good players in their own right, without thinking how those players really first into a style of play. Yes, we have 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-3-3 at home and 10-0-0 or 0-0-0 away but that is a formation, not a style of play.
As fans we can accept that we may not win every week, we may never be top 4 or even top 10 in the Premiership, but the product is essential. A team of committed, hard working players with a balance of experience, youth, hard tackling, good passing and natural flair. We have always had entertainers, Marsh, Bowles, Stainrod, Wegerle, Curry, Taarabt etc. That is part of our genetic makeup as a club, and yet we seem to have forgotten what it is that attracts fans to watch the team, ‘the product’. That means looking at what every number, traditionally from 1-11 means to the team. That fabled number 10 position, the bullish number 9, that floating, poaching 11, the creative 7 and 8, the leading numbers 6 and 5, the bulldozing number 4, the fast and furious 3 and 2, and the big big character in the number 1 shirt. It has to be taken back to basics, traditions.
We have also always had, traditionally, a culture of bringing young players through from within. Something we seem to find almost impossible now. Many can say well, the game has changed so much, but it is still 11 v 11, still 90 minutes. For me the 4 words that some up the ideal QPR product as a team are solid, entertaining, attacking and relentless. Tony needs to peel back the onion skin and ask what the QPR way is, what the fans love what is good to watch and what will get bums on seats. That has to be the immediate product, a system of youth from within that makes it through and a policy of bringing in players that conform to the style of the way the team needs to play. Some may read this and think it is idealistic but it’s actually very simple. Win, lose or draw, you have to get the product on the pitch right before you can go anywhere else. That’s the club’s main asset. It is an entertainment industry and to be successful, even if you are never going to be the biggest, you have to have the historical and cultural USPs that are the DNA of the playing style and attitude.
Get this one, very difficult area right and forget about the bigger picture and that bigger picture actually starts to take shape organically, because you are creating a product that people want to go to see and follow. That includes an atmosphere that is positive from a good style of play, a proper connection with the players at all levels and more ways of connecting fans with the ethos, style and history of the club. All this, for now, can be done from Loftus Road, because effectively if you get the playing product right then you do get to a point whereby you can look to make the arena bigger to accommodate more fans who buy into it all, who love the atmosphere, the style, the excitement, even if they don’t get the result every time. The performance style will keep them coming back to get what they and the team deserves.
Before the club builds new grounds, cities, empires it needs to go back to the basics. What does QPR mean as a playing team, what do the positions 1-11 mean to the DNA of this club, how to bring through the young players and how to create the big players in the legendary hoops. That means looking at younger, hungry management, more coordination between the academy and the first team, more bonding between the players, more bonding between the players, management and fans, more connection, more positive football on the pitch and more availability of history at the club itself, a museum, attraction that everyone can enjoy and be proud of.
And this last sentiment is a key driver in getting the product right. Long-term stability relies on looking back at what has worked on the pitch, getting back to those basics, regrowing our DNA from the playing style upwards, and win, lose or draw, having something that the players, management, owners and fans can really identify with and be proud of.
It would be interesting to learn what all my fellow stand and armchair QPR managers/owners think positions 1-11 traditionally mean to this club and perhaps, just perhaps Tony and the board will be shown our thoughts and really sit down and rethink where a long-term plan and stability really means moving forward.
So what do positions 1-11 at QPR mean to you?
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