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Here’s me chipping in with some Hashtag Relatable COVID-19 content like every other ten-a-penny blogger around. It does feel like we’ve fallen into a dystopia where town centres are a bit emptier than usual and everyone eats a bit more pasta in lieu of their packed-lunch bagel creations, but the cancellation of Premier League and EFL fixtures has really thrown me for a loop. It’s the right call, no doubt – as the almost unrealistically likeable Jurgen Klopp put it, “If it’s a choice between football and the good of the wider society, it’s no contest. Really, it isn’t.”

Nonetheless, in the relatively short time I’ve been into football, 3pm on a Saturday has been an immovable, inevitable fixture in the calendar and it’s suddenly disappeared . Yes, it’s “just a game,” yes, it’s about as first world problems as it gets, but the feeling is less one of devastation, more the unnverving sensation of yet another disruption to daily life. Whether I’m in my living room or the South Africa Road stand, whether it’s a QPR game or any other, there’s football to be following more or less every day of the week. To see it all disappear from the fixture list, struck off with a simple grey line, is oddly ominous. And I’m just a newbie – for those who’ve been making the trip to W12 since the 70s or before, this truly is a strange one.

There’s nothing I can do about it, obviously. There’s nothing you can do either. There’s not even anything @QPRFANTARAABTANDEZEARETHEBEST on Twitter can do. Well, we can all wash our hands a bit more, look out for our elderly friends and relatives, and be sensible about big gatherings and self-isolating. We can’t make the football come back though. It’s also unfair to get annoyed at the club or the EFL – as above, this is way bigger than football.

That being said, we’re left with a bunch of professional football clubs, QPR included, with a full squad of players, staff left at a loose end without a matchday, and fans left with a 90-minute-plus-stoppage-time-and-time-spent-waiting-for-Ilias-Chair-or-someone-to-upload-a-vlog-on-the-QPR-Instagram-shaped hole in our Saturday afternoon.

The club’s already made some positive moves with the resources it has – admirably joining Aston Villa (and presumably more clubs to follow) in donating matchday food to local foodbanks and charities. Good job, well done – another item on the growing list of awesome stuff Andy Evans’ QPR in the Community Trust has been doing to give back to local people. I think there’s more to be done too – and not just in terms of charity work.

QPR’s main assets at the moment are players like Eze, Osayi-Samuel, Chair and Manning – the list is a long one. Not only are they supremely talented, entertaining young footballers, they’re also supremely likeable people. Osayi-Samuel banters with fans on Twitter and dances with Eze when one of them scores, Dom Ball and Conor Masterson run straight to the crowd to celebrate after a win, and most of the club’s young players have bantered with Academy driver Steve in the weirdest Carpool Karaoke spinoff ever conceived. I think there’s an opportunity here.

How does a club keep fans engaged during the Coronavirus drought? Put the players to work. Get them openly engaging with the community through the Trust – yeah, maybe fan meetups aren’t advisable in the current situation, but who’s to say the players couldn’t put in a shift at a local foodbank or phone around some of the older fans who might be bearing the brunt of self-isolating and Corona paranoia? I’m sure it would put some smiles on faces.

Not to get ahead of myself, but why stop there? I’m picturing the Ryan Manning Late Night Talkshow on Instagram, recipe vlogs from the Foodie himself – the possibilities are endless. I’m being facetious, but my point here is that QPR have a chance to demonstrate that this club is as much a community outside of Loftus Road as it is on matchdays. For some of us, this will be any other month save for the conspicuous absence of football. For others, though, this could be a lonely, isolating time. The club might as well put its fantastic assets to use and give the fans something to smile about.

Stay safe out there Rangers fans, and look out for those around you. Even if you’re not particularly at risk of the virus, it’s very easy to get bogged down in the fear of it all. Heads up, and let’s all hope we’re back in W12 soon!

Twitter: @bm_summer