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QPR: the bigger picture now
at 11:06 2 Jan 2024

I’ve been doing some New Year thinking. Given what is going on at the club, and has been over the last, say, 10 years, it’s time for the whole enterprise (board, club, fanbase) to get its collective head up and start really horizon-scanning (sorry…) as to the medium and long-term future.

The narrow issue (will we stay up or be relegated to League One this season?) is now a given – it just insults anyone’s intelligence to think that this is even a live issue anymore. There’s no point endlessly slagging off players, managers, coaches or each other from now on in. As this excellent website (author(s) and contributors) has commentated , it’s time to address the deeper issues which surround not just Rangers but football in general - and our place in it.

I think we are going to have to carefully reposition ourselves through at least the next 5 years as a well-run developmental L1/L2 club. Now you could laugh at this and say, “that project is going just fine and ultra efficiently on its own.” But I think the key here is more about intent, organisation, and real control. Getting a grip on what the club is doing rather than drifting through seasons, rolling the dice, and hoping something will somehow just click and happen.

I hate to say it, but perhaps we do have to really commit and get on with the Brentford-style journey. It is the only way in 21st century football for clubs like us. It took the Bees years/decades but the key to their success (imho) was the amount of time they spent at L1 level building a foundation, as opposed to us flailing at it from the Championship level with the pull of the Premier League always there to distort/disrupt our plans (see the Mark Warburton era).

I don’t think now we have any room or choice but to do the same as our Hounslow friends over a considerable period. A said, L1/L2 is fine (it will help us develop) as long as we avoid a spiral into the National League– which should be v.unlikely if we are controlling events with a careful plan and committed ownership.

And the Brentford example is important because it brings in another massive factor for Rangers which, simply, is London. Or the West London footballing goldfish bowl to be specific. In many ways, its easier for clubs like Luton, Watford, Norwich or even Reading; they are all the single clubs of their town with a fixed fanbase and catchment area. In our small pond there are three Premier League clubs a bus stop (!) away. Until those clubs (or a good few of them in the Capital – Fulham, Palace, Brentford) fail there is no room for us, anymore than there is for Charlton or Leyton Orient. In the meantime, we can spend this time re-building to be in a position to challenge in the future when some of our rivals, inevitably, do fall back.

I won’t go on – but what I saw yesterday was a watershed for me. It is not being negative or ultra-defeatist to take honest and realistic stock. It really is time to plan and do the hard yards for the future of our great club. Ironically, once we commit to those yards, they probably won’t be as hard or unenjoyable as the torture we are going through at present.

Happy New Year anyway.
[Post edited 2 Jan 11:08]
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This is what we (still) need.....
at 18:47 11 Dec 2023

....for a few of our rivals. Even I might then relax....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67687142
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20 years ago today….
at 10:47 25 May 2023

At odds with the far happier 'wakey, wakey' thread - but we should mark it really.

I was gutted, but we gave it everything that day and it was one hell of an atmosphere at the Millennium Stadium. An exciting time for the club, despite the result.

We could do with an iota of that spirit today….
[Post edited 25 May 2023 10:50]
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Ollie to Motherwell FC?
at 12:08 19 Feb 2023

Being reported (BBC) that Ian Holloway's in the final three for the Fir Park job vacancy.
Intriguing if it happens - the passion of Scottish football could be too much even for him. Would not be dull.
[Post edited 19 Feb 2023 12:14]
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Crumb...of comfort
at 16:18 8 Jan 2023

FA Cup 4th Round, Fleetwood off to Hillsborough - where we would have been promptly despatched with utter impunity, with precious little financial gain (?) (Sky money/gate receipts) etc.

Good luck to 'em.
[Post edited 8 Jan 2023 16:21]
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Oldham....
at 18:09 23 Apr 2022

Just sad really.....we all , no doubt, remember THAT night. Not that long ago....

You think we've got problems...

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Really...?
at 09:17 17 Mar 2022

From BBC website:

'After thumping Reading 4-0 in their previous match, in-form Forest had only lost twice in their previous 32 home league fixtures against QPR.'

What (when) did I miss this 'Second Coming'....
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55 years today....
at 12:55 4 Mar 2022

A lot (lot) older than me but someone should do it each year.

Wish I had been there.


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Eze's goal at Stoke...
at 15:09 3 Aug 2020

..exactly one year ago today. That's really weird. Time is all messed up.
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Back-to-back hammerings?
at 20:58 5 Jan 2020

Unless I'm forgetting something obvious, I can't think of a time we dished out 2 tonkings in a row like this?

Off the top of my head, I recall us following a 4-0 at home to Rotherham with a 5-1 hammering of Charlton at LR in the promotion season 1982-83.
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