Tony Fernandes felt only reverence when he met Harry Redknapp. “When we played Newcastle in my first game as chairman, Harry came to watch,” says the Queens Park Rangers owner. “I was in awe of meeting the Harry Redknapp. I thought: ‘It’d be great if one day … ’ Life has a funny way of twisting and turning and he’s ended up with us.”

The anecdote is supposedly about Redknapp but really goes straight to the heart of who Fernandes is. For a multi-millionaire proprietor of an airline, Air Asia, and former F1 team magnate to volunteer fan-like admiration for Redknapp shows an innocence that stands out among the standoffish, slippery and PR-conscious characters who populate English football. It is why fans sing Fernandes’s name, why he was “ripped off” when QPR were previously in the Premier League and why he remains firmly the same man. “I can’t change my spirit,” says the 50-year-old.

Fernandes is sitting in a box at Loftus Road freshly showered from an ice-bucket challenge that featured a quadruple dousing, the legacy of a promise that the number of fans who could empty water over him should match QPR’s next result, which would be a 4-0 trouncing by Tottenham Hotspur. He says: “Nothing’s going to change me, I’m still a kid at Wembley jumping up and down like a lunatic,” recalling QPR’s play-off final victory in May. “I’m not cynical or bitter in any way. Life’s too short, you get ripped off, but if you hold a grudge it’s going to affect you. You take it on the chin, you learn, you try not to make the same mistakes.”

Those errors became the story of QPR’s two Premier League campaigns before they were relegated at the close of the 2012-13 season. After gaining promotion under Neil Warnock, a scattergun transfer policy acquired some questionable players at a cost that made the club the highest spenders in agent fees – £6.81m. A year later QPR “dropped” to third position, yet paid out £6.82m. In the relegation year of 2013, the bill was £5.66m.

Since Fernandes bought a 66% stake in QPR in the summer of 2011, 46 players have been bought or loaned. While one of these recruits, Joey Barton, is club captain, many of the those under Warnock, his successor, Mark Hughes, and Redknapp drew inflated salaries, proved divisive to team spirit and appeared mercenary. Chris Samba’s January 2013 arrival for a club-record £12.5m was flagged up as “just what we need” by Redknapp. Yet, despite the central defender receiving a scarcely credible £100,000 a week, he returned to Anzhi Makhachkala that summer.

On replacing Hughes in November 2012 Redknapp described himself as “disturbed” by the attitude of some players. The next month, José Bosingwa refused to be a substitute against Fulham, as the team sat second from bottom. Of this whole experience, Fernandes previously said: “I allowed myself to be exploited but that’s my choice.” Now he says: “I was trying to say: ‘You can’t sit there and blame everyone else, so you’ve got to take it on the chin.’”

As a successful businessman, how did Fernandes allow it to occur? “When I started my airline business I didn’t know everything, right? If I start up a newspaper tomorrow I might get ripped off by journalists,” he says. “You’d be naive to think you know everything from day one.”

Fernandes admits the sacking of Warnock, in January 2012, and Hughes the following winter may have been other mistakes. “It’s history now but could Neil Warnock have still been here? I liked him, I got on well with him and maybe we were swayed at the time. Mark Hughes is doing a good job at Stoke, he did a good job before, but we went a lot of times without winning, so maybe something had to be done,” he says of a winless run in the opening 12 matches of the 2012-13 season that left QPR bottom by late November.

Redknapp has just been awarded a new deal. “What happens if we don’t win for 12 or 13 games?” says Fernandes, with trademark honesty. “But I think we’ve made our mind up to stick – we’ll just stick with Harry come what may. We want stability, we want players to know he’s the manager. A different approach, I think. My whole life’s been stability. People who have worked with me have for a long time. Air Asia is the same people who started it.

“I don’t believe football clubs can be any different. You only have to look at the most successful football clubs – Matt Busby, Bob Paisley, Alex Ferguson, they were all at their clubs for a long time. Martínez at Wigan and I’m sure at Everton, if he’s not nicked by someone. That’s a business principle that works.

“Many fans might resent me saying it but I was a West Ham fan. We had about three managers in 25 years, Greenwood, Lyall, and then it went pear-shaped. I believe fundamentally managers can do so much – it’s players at the end of the day. Harry said something like the system is the system but the players have to play to the system.”

Being involved at the sharp end remains a joy. “It’s still fun. I love it,” Fernandes says. “People say: ‘Why the hell do you own a football club?’ But Wembley was an amazing feeling, not many people in the world have that. Winning is an amazing feeling. You don’t get that in business, you don’t get that in many things. Listen, there’ll be more downs than ups but the ups balance out the downs.”

Malaysian-born and English-educated, Fernandes took an accountancy degree at the London School of Economics – he is uniquely positioned to comment on overseas owners. Does he think they are unfairly viewed? Vincent Tan’s experience at Cardiff City suggests foreigners can be negatively stereotyped.

“I think the major press goes to the manager and players, the owner is subsidiary to this unless there’s a lot of noise about it,” says Fernandes. “Communication is maybe where some owners are poor. I’ve made tons of mistakes but the fans out there still seem to like me, they still sing my name – we’re one of the few clubs where a chairman’s name is actually sung. That’s not because there’s anything fantastic about me but fans can relate to me, I communicate with them. So the difference – and I don’t think it’s overseas owners – is how you communicate. There’s English owners who are poor communicators as well.”

Fernandes has a strong presence on social media, often answering supporters on Twitter. “I believe in transparency, I believe fans of the club are the shareholders of the club. They may not be putting in as much money as a shareholder but they’re paying in a large part of their wage to watch QPR. That should be respected. We can’t make all 40,000, 50,000 happy or there’d be anarchy but we try and get their views. Our new stadium, training ground, a lot of things we did have come out of fans’ input.”

A consultation has begun over the plans for a new ground, at Old Oak in nearby Acton. What is the long-term vision for QPR? “It’s a tough old league,” Fernandes chuckles. “But the best thing I ever saw at a football club – and if I can emulate that I would’ve done something good – was at Everton. A plaque from the Premier League saying: ‘Twenty consecutive seasons.’ That’d be fantastic, so that’s my goal to start off with. It’s tough for us small boys but there are many small boys like us.”

Next for QPR is a visit to the new galáctico-style Manchester United of Radamel Falcao and Ángel di María. “I’m looking forward to it,” says Fernandes. “Quality is quality – they just need a few things to go their way – but I honestly believe Harry’s got good enough players, so I believe we have enough. I believe the manager will say we never have enough – but he’s no different from any other manager. Unfortunately for Harry, I don’t have £56m to go and buy Di María.”

In the relentless 24/7 Premier League whirlwind, what Redknapp does have is priceless: a chairman and owner who wants to give him every chance.