The ‘resignation’ of Harry Redknapp is undoubtedly the best thing to happen to QPR thus far this season. Indeed the best thing to happen to the club since we, somewhat accidentally, managed to land Charlie Austin as a player. However, it far from hides the undoubted facts that we are an utter fruitloop of a professional football team.
The relatively PR savvy chairman Tony Fernandes has earned himself a temporary stay of execution from the building anger from the fanbase. The support for him amongst the fans was undoubtedly waning due to horrendous decision after horrendous decision. The cold facts are that he purchased a Premier League football team with a debt which solely consisted of a £10 million loan (mortgaged against the ground) and has turned us into a team facing FFP charges, nearly £200 million in debt with an additional £42 million of debt mortgaged against Loftus Road. Obviously adding in that we are still odds on to become a Championship team again soon.
However, he has at last done the right thing and allowed Harry to ‘resign’ or much more than likely fired him. Thank f##k.
To sum up Redknapp’s tenure is quite simple – played awful football, purchased awful players, demonstrated zero tactical awareness and has been spouting lies since the day he walked into the club. Oh, QPR got promoted despite ‘Arry, that’s for certain, not as of him.
But it is the lies that irk the most. Not that any non fans would be aware of them due to his relationship with the press. Indeed the only media outlets, other than fans’ sites and twitter, that have highlighted again and again his porkies have been non-press affiliated podcasts.
One of the funniest has been his assertion again and again that he only had twelve players for our pre-season. Something he has highlighted over and over in press conferences and interviews. The clichéd old “down the bare bones” tactic and similar have been something he has rattled out to everyone that will listen. This is one of the funniest as the official marketing from the club for pre-season, added in with the official youtube videos of pre-season, added in with official tweets, team line ups, vines, instagrams, heck fans that attended the pre-season games…erm, show twenty. How many of the media picked him up on this by saying “Arry, you had 20 and all but one of those are still actually here..I can see them out of the window, now, training?” Answer? Zero.
I could list more porkies (and trust me I can think of about 9 massive whoppers) but I’ve spent way too much time being irritated by the charlatan to worry about it anymore. Other than the lies (or is it a sign of old age?), the truth is that he has been useless as a manager. From a tactical sense and from a purchasing of players sense. Watching QPR, one or two games aside, has been hellish for what seems like forever now. Heck, even Mark blooming Hughes gave us more highs than this bloke (Wembley aside). I’ve never seen so many players positioned in the wrong roles, players dropped for no reason and players continuing to keep their places unfathomably.
On and off the pitch Harry Redknapp is a dinosaur. It is only as of the so called journalists and friends in the media that he hasn’t been hung out to dry and exposed earlier.
So this announcement, albeit way too late for 99% of QPR fans’ liking, is excellent news. We can get behind Ferdinand and Ramsey and hope to stay up. The bigger picture, future and boardroom idiocy can wait for now. We know we will have to deal with it, we know it will be painful but at least with one idiot gone from our club we have some positivity. No doubt it won’t last long and the next drama is around the corner, however, “Then, Now and Always” and this week at least, we have a little bit of our pride back.
By Scott Jones – QPR fan – @ScottJonesy