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This Week - New QPR badge revealed
This Week - New QPR badge revealed
Wednesday, 23rd Apr 2008 09:41

This week the message boards have been alive with debate over the new QPR crest which has appeared on the Government's trademark website.

So, this new badge then
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Well there it is, what do we think? Rumours have long circulated that our badge would soon be going the way of Jude the Cat and with these designs lodged with the trademarkers on January 30 and apparently set to be unveiled, on a new home shirt, at the West Brom game next week the rumours have a little more solidity about them this week.

Whether the club are entirely happy that it's been leaked a fortnight early over the internet is unclear although I can't imagine they're jumping for joy. Lesson one for our new owners - never underestimate the power of the QPR fans on the internet. Boards in the past have tried to slip little bits and pieces in under the radar only for them to be dug out from the deepest vaults at Companies House by our support base. If our current board wanted to keep this new badge under wraps pending an official launch and the official spin then they lost the battle the day they submitted it for patent – if it ends up on a website it ends up on our message boards. That’s the way it is. Like I said a couple of weeks back, we’re only ever two posts away from a diplomatic incident round here. Removing the designs from the Government website, as seemed to happen early on Tuesday, was the definition of closing the stable door behind a bolting horse.

The reaction has been mixed, though slightly in favour I would say. As usual the ones opposing the change are the most vocal, but all in all I’d say slightly more people are happy with these designs than unhappy. Comparisons have been drawn with the generic badges assigned to teams on Pro Evolution Soccer and having served as the whipping boy on that game for the Pro Evo addicts in my flat at uni I can certainly see where that argument is coming from.

There is of course a chance that this could be a hoax, or a misunderstanding. Officials from the club have been quoted in recent weeks saying that there would be no change of badge or hoops for next season and this goes against that. There is a possibility that this badge could be a label for some form of clothing range they have planned for the club and the existing badge will remain as the team’s emblem – the original leak was in the form of a photograph on a scarf which may back that up. It’s hardly likely though. Looking at the list of things they’ve trademarked with this badge – QPR branded oyster openers? I’ll take two – it’s pretty clear that a rebranding is in full swing and this new badge is the first step.

I’ve heard some pretty lame arguments for and against the new badge. For instance, one argument put forward in its favour, do we really have a crown on there to attract foreigners who associate Queens Park Rangers with the Queen? I mean is it really that simple? And if it is, is that really a good thing? I can understand the need to get ‘London’ on there somewhere if we’re going to try and break into foreign markets in years to come but is it really so simple as Queen = royal = crown?

Or how about, in the against pile, the idea that spending money on designing a new badge means we won’t now be spending any money on the disabled section at Loftus Road. Because there’s just that little money around the club at the moment isn’t there? Next you’ll be telling me De Canio has to make do with John Hartson on a free transfer this summer because this badge has proved to be just that expensive.

There have also been some murmurings about heritage, history and all of the usual stuff football fans wheel out when anybody tries to change something at their club. Problem is the badge it’s apparently replacing was designed in much the same way, by a graphic design company, as recently as 1982 and is essentially three letters tied together in a circle. Hardly a lot of history and heritage in that. The old Hammersmith badge with the three horseshoes is our history and heritage and this new one gives more of a nod in that direction than the one we’ve got at the moment.

Some of the reaction has been worthy of the finest terrible twos tantrum with stamping feet and screams into the bargain and that has been met with a “just be grateful these people saved your club” reply from many. That in itself raises an interesting question – just because QPR might not have existed now had Briatore not turned up when he did, does that give him carte blanche to do with it what he likes? Kill off the mascot, change the badge, get rid of the hoops, move the ground, change the name – how far would he have to go before somebody at the back of the room tentatively puts a hand up and says “actually Mr Briatore, thanks and everything, but this sucks?”

I was chuckling to myself during my latest assault on the M1 today thinking what the reaction would have been if this time last year Gianni Paladini had said that he was getting rid of Jude, ditching the badge and replacing it with one that includes a little football with a crown on it, and upping the price of seats in the middle of South Africa Road from £500 to more than £2000 to cater for executive guests as has been muted since the AGM. Pitch forks and flaming torches spring to mind. Clearly Flavio still has plenty of good will to live off with us.

Personally I’d say that redesigning a badge that’s little over 30 years old itself is hardly the crime of the century and some of the reaction towards it, particularly considering what Briatore has done for our club over the past nine months, has been poor. Fortunately they seem to be in the minority. However I still don't agree with the ditching of Jude who I thought was one of the better mascots around, and certainly entertaining on a matchday, and I'll be throwing my own hissy fit with stamping feet if this new badge is placed on a non-hooped kit. QPR have changed badges at the same rate my brother changes his underwear so this latest move isn't unexpected or a massive departure from the club's history, but QPR play in blue and white hoops and that must always remain the case.

In the end there’s no need for high horses, hissy fits, tantrums and lame reasons for or against. You either like the new badge or you don’t and I’m…. errrr….. still not sure.

Big names need not apply?
I still can’t get over how poor Charlton were at the weekend. I was sweating in the members bar before the match as their team scrolled across the screen underneath the Arsenal massacre of Reading, and that wasn’t just because of the virus that had seen me enthusiastically emptying my stomach every hour on the hour for the previous three days and should really have prevented me from going to the match.

That looked a seriously good Charlton team on paper. Seriously good. The matchday squad Pardew brought to Loftus Road cost twice as much as the QPR one they faced and yet you’d never have known it. Rangers played with heart and desire while Charlton fought between themselves and with the referee. It wasn’t all about attitude though - QPR played the better football, created three or four times as many chances and really deserved the win.

Seven of the Charlton players have Premiership experience, three of them with more than 100 appearances in the top division, and three of them were on loan from Premiership clubs now. QPR had just four with top flight history and only Ainsworth and Hall have been up there for any length of time.

I couldn’t believe just how easily we beat them and it got me thinking on the train home from the game. Both Leroy Lita and Lee Cook have been linked with moves to Rangers this summer, the latter is said to be just about a done deal alongside Peter Ramage from Newcastle and Martin Cranie on a 12 month loan from Portsmouth, and QPR fans are very excited about both. Yet on Saturday Cook touched the ball four times, looked disinterested and seemed glad of the chance to hobble off after 23 minutes. Lita was an embarrassment, if I was a manager I’d kick the arse of a striker who turned up in bright red boots and spent the afternoon losing his footing and being annihilated by Damion Stewart so hard he wouldn't be able to sit down for a week. Reading’s decision to recall him seems ill-advised on this evidence – more on them shortly.

I’ve seen message board posts from people who say they’d still love Lita at QPR despite his performance on Saturday. Lita’s not the only one most of us would take from that Charlton team. Nicky Weaver has never been the same since refusing to shake hands with Jude the Cat in his Man City days, three serious career threatening injuries since then should serve as a warning to Flavio and the rest of the consequences of crossing the black cat, and I’d take Lee Camp ahead of him but I’d have been very happy to have signed Halford and Thatcher as our full backs in January.

QPR tried to sign Bougherra from Crewe two summers ago but sadly Dario Gradi had long since got the hump with us and told him to go to Sheff Wed instead – he would have been a good signing for us and Sheff Wed made a £2m profit on him inside eight months selling him to Charlton. Paddy McCarthy was Leicester’s best defender in this league before moving to the Valley. In midfield we’d have been over the moon to sign Matt Holland or Zheng Zhi for the middle of the park when we instead picked up Gavin Mahon from Watford. We know all about Cook and I can’t see us saying no to Darren Ambrose either and while we were signing Patrick Agyemang from Preston reserves Charlton were picking up Andy Gray – 13 goals in half a season for Burnley.

All of these players look better than ours to me – Camp and Rowlands apart. There could be a lesson in this for us. This week on the message board I’ve seen somebody say we signed the wrong Hungarian from Plymouth in regards to Buzsaky, poo pooing the idea of signing Wes Hoolahan from Blackpool despite him being the best midfielder we’ve faced all season and generally saying “we can afford better” to just about every suggested signing. I've been guilty of it once or twice myself.

They may be right but are we in danger of falling into the Charlton trap? Charlton are a group of talented players, but they’re certainly no team. They were pathetic, a disgrace to the shirts they were wearing, in both their performance and behaviour on the pitch. Do we want this? Or would it be better to perhaps add three or four more young players with it all to prove to what we already have?

Clearly I think we need more up front – everybody up at the top of the league has better options in attack than we do and I think we need two quality forwards with Blackstock and Agyemang as back ups next season. I notice with interest the news that Kevin Phillips may be leaving West Brom this summer. Sign him up immediately. Apart from that though I think we’re really close to having a top six side, we’ve only collected two less points than West Brom since the turn of the year.

Lets not go turning our nose up at every player simply because we can, in theory, afford Rooney and Ronaldo. there's no major surgery required on our current team as our performance on Saturday, stretching our unbeaten run to seven matches, showed. Hoolahan would be a tremendous signing and just the kind of high quality Championship player that would help to get us out of this league the right way next season. The news that he's telling everybody he speaks to in Blackpool that he's going to QPR in the summer is certainly welcome. With Cranie also seemingly set to sign on loan for the season, Cook all but done and Peter Ramage due from Newcastle as well I say that puts us a central midfielder and two strikers short of a team seriously capable of going all the way next season.

Undoubtedly we can afford better than the likes of Ramage and Hoolahan, but Charlton tell us that we neither need nor want to very much.

We’ll see you all next year… Part Two
The good news for fans of clubs I’m about to tip for failure is that last week I said Leicester would be the one to drop from the Championship and at the weekend they won at Barnsley and Sheff Wed lost at Blackpool. With the Owls travelling to the Walkers this weekend it now looks like Brian Laws’ men could be the ones to drop. And if it’s not them then Southampton are next in line. After spending the last six months saying that Southampton would be the ones to go I may end up regretting changing my prediction at the 11th hour.

Having said that I am sticking with Leicester. I think they’ll blow it against Wednesday on Saturday and with Sheff Wed and Southampton both having winnable home games on the final day when the Foxes go to Stoke I still think it will be Olly’s men to go. It could of course still be Norwich but with Dublin and Huckerby almost certain to mark their final Carrow Road appearances with goals against us on Saturday I think they may be out of it come Saturday 5pm. Anyway all of that was last week, this week I promised to make poor predictions about what’s about to happen just above and just below us.

We’ll start with the Premiership where Derby have been officially relegated since Billy Davies announced after the play off final that his prime concern over the summer was getting David Kelly secured as his assistant manager, rather than getting some players capable of playing in the Premiership.

Fulham will also be joining them – Lawrie Sanchez spent a lot of money on a lot of Championship players last summer and was rewarded with some excellent Championship performances. Sadly they’re in the Premiership and have consequently looked out of their depth for most of the season. The removal of Sanchez was inevitable, the appointment of Roy Hodgson less so, especially with John Collins available. Hodgson has shown an eye for a player similar to his predecessor. Sanchez thought he could get Premiership performances from Championship players and Hodgson continues to labour under the misapprehension that players that played well for him in Scandinavia could do so again in this country’s top division. He’ll be back staring at Laura Esposto’s chest on Channel Five’s Italian football coverage in no time as a result.

That leaves one spot available to be fought over by three teams and for my money it’s going to be Reading to fill it. The Royals have second season syndrome and although you can't expect a team to go to Arsenal and win the manner of the defeat and the performance at the Emirates on Saturday was frightening. Coppell’s six team changes yielded three centre halves all trying to play right back and a hotch potch mess that they were lucky didn’t result in a double figure defeat at Arsenal. Coppell has never performed too well under pressure, and famously left Man City after a month because of the stress, and he looks like a man fresh out of ideas to me. His team selections are all over the place and he's fallen into the Paul Jewell/Gary Waddock trap of publicly slagging off players that he may well come to rely on in the games to come. Worst of all Reading aren't scoring goals, none in their last four matches, and judging by his performance at Loftus Road on Saturday the recall of Leroy Lita from Charlton won't help matters greatly. Dave Kitson's goal against Man City six matches ago was the last time a Reading striker scored a goal.

Reading do still have a trump card to play, they still have a fixture with Derby, but I can't see them winning at Wigan this weekend, and then it's unpredictable Tottenham at home. I think they're doomed.

Reading have their eyes on Bolton and Birmingham who are by no means safe themselves. Bolton, like Fulham, have suffered all season through two appalling choices as manager, Sammy Lee followed by Gary Megson. Just when you thought you couldn’t detest Megson any more he accuses Liverpool of devaluing the Premier League by fielding a weakened team, barely a month after he took his youth team to Lisbon to throw a match in the UEFA Cup so he had absolutely everybody fit and ready for the 1-0 defeat at Wigan three days later. The words ‘pot’ and ‘kettle’ spring to mind. As do ‘total’ and ‘arsehole’.

They played their way out of the bottom three with a win at Boro at the weekend while Birmingham were hammered at Villa. That may on the face of it make Brum the favourites to drop down and although I’ve been tipping them all season I’m wavering now with three games to go because while Birmingham have home games against Liverpool reserves and Blackburn and an away game at Fulham Bolton have to go to Tottenham and Chelsea and face Sunderland at home while Reading have two away games as well.

I think Reading will take three points from their remaining games giving them 35 with the worst goals difference. Three points for Bolton will put them on 35 and two wins from three games for Birmingham means it’ll be Reading to drop on goal difference. I think.

Looking downstairs we can already look forward to a new ground next season as Swansea have sealed promotion. I saw them play against Bristol Rovers a couple of weeks back and they played very nice football, and scored two great goals, but they looked wide open at the back. I’m expecting a slightly less successful Bristol City when they get up here next season, they’ll adapt the best of the promoted teams and threaten the play offs but fade late.

That leaves two promotion spots left to be fought over by six teams. Carlisle are the men in possession of the second spot at the moment, two points ahead of Doncaster, while Brighton are the only one from outside the six that can still make it in. They won’t.

There are just two games left for everybody involved. Doncaster will beat Luton at home this week and with Carlisle at Millwall that might be enough to get them into second taking things down to the final day when Carlisle face in form, but probably relegated, Bournemouth and Doncaster go to Cheltenham. Doncaster haven’t convinced me all season and I’m going to back Carlisle to hang on. They were magnificent when I saw them at Forest six weeks ago and I think they’ll go to Millwall and win.

In the play offs normally I back the team in form with the momentum, in this case Southend, but clearly Leeds United just won’t take the hint and bloody well piss off so it’s bound to be them. I’ve ignored the issue of their points deduction because I think it’s becoming obvious what will happen there – they’ll give them enough points back to make sure the same two teams go up and the same four teams are in the play offs. A fudge at the end of a process that has made the Football League look like incompetent morons. Again.

So Swansea, Carlisle, Leeds, Derby, Fulham and Reading for me. You can hear the Doncaster fans cheering from here.

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