QPR DREAMING OF BIG TIME
The story has a familiar ring to it: entertaining west London club riding high on the table after some impressive wins in an unbeaten campaign, lifted up by foreign investment and with an array of imported talent aiming for silverware.
But this is not just the tale of Chelsea: it’s also the season so far of neighbouring Queens Park Rangers in England’s second tier.
QPR haven’t been in the Premier League since 1996 but have produced their best start to a campaign in over 60 years to raise hopes of joining five other clubs from the capital in the big time.
Their first three games provided three resounding victories in the Npower Championship with nine unanswered goals echoing of Chelsea’s early season form. Last weekend, they fell 2-0 behind at Derby County before rescuing an unlikely draw with two injury time goals to stay top of the table after four matches.
Before we go any further, here’s a disclaimer: I’ve been a QPR fan since the 1980’s when I was living in the suburb of Shepherds Bush, close enough to the club’s Loftus Road Stadium that I could hear the roar of the crowd every time the home side scored.
Those cheers were often very loud in the early 90’s when QPR were a solid, mid-table side in the top flight and one of the founder members of the inaugural 1992-1993 Premier League season. But soon after legendary striker Les Ferdinand was sold to Newcastle United for a club record fee of £6m in July 1995, the R’s fell on hard times, dropping out of the premiership the following year.
They reached perhaps their lowest ebb after the 2000-2001 season when they were relegated to League One - the third division – for the first time in more than three decades and went into financial administration.
By 2004, they were back in the second tier yet seemed no closer to returning to the Premier League as they continued to be burdened by debt, boardroom scandals and mediocre performances. But in 2007 when Formula One tycoons Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone bought the club and the family of Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal purchased a 20-per-cent shareholding, QPR were dubbed the richest soccer team in the world, worth £22 billion. The new owners vowed to take them back to the promised land within five years.
Yet the good times still didn’t come as the club’s on-field results were reflected in more turmoil behind the scenes. No fewer than 10 different managerial appointments were made and 47 players bought in just over two years.
Soon after home fans wearing clown wigs and red noses protested during a run of five consecutive defeats, Briatore stepped down as chairman in February with QPR 19th on the edges of the relegation zone. Indian businessman Ishan Saksena took over, with Briatore and Ecclestone remaining as shareholders.
QPR had flirted with foreign coaches, including Italian Luigi De Canio and Portugal’s Paulo Souza, but in March opted for the tried and trusted skills of fiery Yorkshireman Neil Warnock, who took Sheffield United to the Premier League in 2006.
Warnock guided his new team to a solid 13th place finish before overseeing a sparkling start to the 2010-2011 season with unlikely stars like Moroccan midfielder Adel Taarabt, Icelandic striker Heidar Helguson and Hungarian playmaker Akos Buzsaky.
Of course, there have been many false dawns for QPR in recent times. Last October I was at Loftus Road when they had the chance to move second on the table behind Newcastle when they hosted Leicester. Instead, they suffered a 2-1 defeat and began a downward spiral that would see then manager Jim Magilton suspended and then leave the club in December after allegedly head-butting star import Buzsaky following yet another loss.
London’s Rangers have shot themselves in the foot more times than fans would care to remember. On the opening day of the 2005-2006 season, then chairman Gianni Palladini was led into a room within Loftus Road and told at gunpoint by a group of thugs to resign. Another incident that brought notoriety was hosting a 2007 ‘friendly’ game against the Chinese Under-23 side – dubbed the Great Brawl of China – that saw one of the visiting players suffer a broken jaw and assistant QPR boss Richard Hill suspended indefinitely.
Loftus Road and Stamford Bridge are in adjoining London postcodes, barely four kilometres apart. In the first season of the English Premier League 18 years ago, QPR finished fifth, seven points better than 11th placed Chelsea (and also above Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City). And yet as double winners Chelsea start as one of the favourites for this season’s Champions League, QPR will brace themselves for visits to the likes of Scunthorpe, Doncaster and Swansea.
Already, QPR are looking at padding their squad in a bid to help their chances of moving up to the Premier League, picking up Derby striker Rob Hulse this week in a £1m deal. Hulse won promotion with two of his former clubs, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United.
But less than a month into the season, Warnock is cooling speculation that QPR are as good as up, pessimistically predicting a finish between sixth and 10th which would keep them in the second tier.
“How can we be amongst the favourites to win the division with eight new players in the squad is beyond me,” he said.
A vastly different Premier League to the one that QPR left 14 years ago awaits. With their home stadium having a capacity of under 20,000, it’s uncertain how they might cope in the brave, new world of premiership football.
But for now, the club that’s seen the likes of Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles and Ray Wilkins