Ramsey takes the long walk, but the root cause of the problems remains - Column

Thursday, 5th Nov 2015 22:48 by Clive Whittingham Chris Ramsey, predictably, was sacked as head coach of the QPR first team on Wednesday evening. But those rejoicing in his demise are placing too much faith in a board that has shown no ability to turn the club around. The news that Chris Ramsey is being “relieved of the first team duties” at QPR is the least surprising development since Sandro cried off for another few weeks with the sort of ankle bruise infant school pupils pick up on the playground all the time and think nothing of. Since Neil Warnock arrived with “no interest in returning to management” in an advisory capacity a fortnight back it’s been a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’. A good portion of the fan base will have reacted to this news, slipped out last night after most papers' early deadlines and at the same time as the Champions League results were rolling in, simply with “good” or stronger words to that effect. Another section will treat it as the worst news they’ve ever heard, another nail in the coffin of the entire club, another excuse for self-flagellation and exaggerated grief. Football supporting has always been about opinions. Two people go to the same game and come away with entirely different impressions of it, and when one voices their opinion to the other the indignant rage builds up inside and an argument ensues. In a Derby curry house late on Tuesday night a discussion around our table about how Grant Hall had done a good job of keeping Chris Martin quiet was interrupted by a Phil and Grant Mitchell tribute act, who’d overheard/eavesdropped on the conversation from the other side of the dining room and decided they absolutely had to walk over and interrupt the meal of three perfect strangers to tell us how wrong we were, how brilliant Martin had been and “shit” Hall was. These conversations used to be the mainstay of pubs and radio phone ins but they’ve grown into something more now. Everybody has a dozen ways of putting them forward – message boards, Twitter feeds, blogs, websites, message boards, podcasts. You venture your point of view, and somebody disagrees with it, so you argue back for days on end. You become entrenched in your view, it becomes extreme. Soon, in your own mind, you cannot possibly fathom why QPR haven’t sacked Chris Ramsey yet and it makes you angry, or you cannot stand that everybody seems so desperate for him to be sacked and that makes you angry. Before you know it you’re starting a petition to have everybody’s favourite mentally-sound Ostrich enthusiast Nigel Pearson installed or proclaiming in all seriousness that what’s happening at QPR at the moment is the “biggest sporting failure ever witnessed”. You become pro-Ramsey, or anti-Ramsey, with no middle ground - rather than just pro-QPR. It’s nonsense, but it builds momentum. You end up with scenes such as the ones we saw at MK Dons last week, and Brentford on Friday, where fans are leaping out of their seats to abuse their own player and manager, faces contorted with rage. Supporters admit publicly they’d quite like QPR to lose the next game so as to bring the manager closer to the sack. It’s ugly. By the time the manager does get the sack it feels like a mercy killing of a man without a victory in months, when in fact QPR are only thirteenth in the Championship with the league’s third best attack. It won’t get clicks or hits or retweets, but the simple truth is Chris Ramsey wasn’t that good, or that bad. Playing the game One of Ramsey’s big failings, with that in mind, was his failure to ‘play the game’. The incessant selection of Karl Henry was possibly through stubbornness, possibly to try and assert authority or probably because he thought he could do a good job for the team. Whatever the reason, there were times, and games, when he could easily have picked Michael Doughty instead and not damaged the team’s chances at all – even if you do believe Doughty’s inclusion weakens the team, which I don’t as we won away from home in his only start so far. Ramsey could have 'played the game' there, and bought himself some more rope. At the end of last season Ramsey twice called upon Shaun Wright-Phillips. Most unforgivably, he sent him on with seconds remaining at Manchester City when 6-0 down. The City fans, who remember Wright-Phillips fondly, gave him a standing ovation. For the QPR fans, who despise him as a symbol of everything bad QPR have become, it was a very public kick in the bollocks having already been thrashed in a televised fixture. Whether Chris Ramsey wanted to reward Wright-Phillips for his diligence and professionalism in training or not, he should have realised or been told that this was a bad idea and played the game. Failing to do so undermined Ramsey’s position – many QPR fans still bring up that fleeting appearances against him now, six months later. At Crystal Palace, ten minutes before the end, Ramsey asked Eduardo Vargas to prepare to come on and the Chilean refused. Reece Grego-Cox, a teenage boy, was sent on instead. When Jose Bosingwa had done the same thing to Ramsey’s predecessor, Harry Redknapp threw the player under the bus in front of the press the next week. That backfired on Redknapp when he subsequently tried to use Bosingwa again, and basically rendered a club asset that it had spent a good deal of money on absolutely worthless, but it deflected criticism away from Redknapp entirely - “What can he do? Look what he’s got to work with,” people said. Ramsey kept the Vargas incident in-house until after relegation was confirmed, and even then didn’t name any names. In the meantime he was branded an idiot for leaving a Chilean World Cup attacker out of a team struggling to score goals. Ramsey, and Les Ferdinand, also made a rod for their own backs with the early involvement of Grego-Cox, Darnell Furlong and others. The lack of any opportunities whatsoever for the club’s youngsters was a stick Harry Redknapp was beaten with regularly and sensing an opportunity for early popularity points – which is all it could have been given what’s happened this season – the PR line after his departure was all about pathways from youth to first team. Now the QPR youth set up, we well know, isn’t fit for purpose - no more capable of producing a Premier League player than a fucking astronaut. But Grego-Cox and Furlong both did ok last season and could easily have had minutes this year. Doughty, too, hasn’t looked that out of place at Championship level. Ramsey has clearly decided they’re not good enough for his first team and left them out but by not picking them at all, despite the senior players ahead of them playing consistently badly – Henry in the case of Doughty, James Perch in the cases of Furlong and Michael Harriman – he’s also burned off a lot of support. Critics who may have stuck with him longer had they seen some sort of long term focus and plan in action have, quite justifiably, asked what long term goal we’re accomplishing by having a 34-year-old left back on loan from Leicester getting picked every week and playing poorly. Surely even Cole Kpekawa playing badly and making mistakes, but gaining the experience, is better than the Konchesky situation. No doubt if Ramsey had picked them, and the results had been bad, he’d have been widely abused as being on some sort of crusade to pick kids even though they’re not good enough and told in no uncertain terms to get the senior pros back in. But, again, he could have played the game – we’d still have beaten MK Dons with Kpekawa in the team for example and even if we hadn't, wasn't that what Ramsey was brought in for? I’ve been told that several young players feel they were made promises about game time this season that have not been kept. Then there’s the substitutions, which have become a bone of contention. Firstly because Ramsey never made any, and then latterly because, in the eyes of the crowd, he made the wrong ones. There have been occasions – Wolves away, Huddersfield away – when not making changes and sticking to the original plan has worked for him. QPR have recovered seven points from losing positions this season, including two wins from two nil down. There is something to be said for sticking to the plan. Towards the end of his time it felt like whatever he did, he’d be abused for as that momentum I spoke about in the first section built. Seb Polter came on as a sub at Birmingham and was roundly abused, mostly for his nationality in the case of one group at the back of the away end. Three days later Ramsey was then criticised for not having Polter on the bench when he put Leroy Fer on upfront. Even a staunch Ramsey supporter, however, would have to say his changes made during games, and his management of games as they progress, has been odd at best. Against Brentford and Derby in the last two fixture the initial plan worked well, only for the team to concede a goal in the inevitable ten minutes of intense pressure every team has in a game. There was nothing from Rangers thereafter to recover the situation. It felt like Ramsey knew what to do to play against teams from the start, having watched and studied them, but couldn’t deal with changes in the situation or match once it deviated away from that through circumstance. Moving goalposts But whether you’re pro or anti Chris Ramsey, whether you think he should have got the job in the first place or not, whether you lost faith with him because of what happened in the Premier League last season under his watch or not, it is undeniable that his remit was changed midway through his 15 games (and that’s all it is) this season. Keeping hold of Matt Phillips, Charlie Austin, Sandro, Leroy Fer and Rob Green when they were all expected to leave during the summer raised expectations after the club had spent the entire close-season preaching the need to consolidate, trim the wage bill, get some solid foundations in place, avoid going into a Wolves-style free fall and so on. As I think I wrote at the time, if Middlesbrough or Derby signed those five players on deadline day you’d immediately have them down as runaway title contenders. But that ignores a few things. Firstly, some of these players are nowhere near as good as QPR believe them to be. Rob Green has been a good Championship keeper who is regularly found out in the Premier League his whole career and at the start of this season he’s made several basic, fundamental errors that have led to important goals being conceded – the first at Fulham and the penalty against Forest in particular. Under Redknapp in the Championship he was brilliant - Ramsey wasn’t afforded the bonus of an in-form keeper despite persistently showing the utmost faith in Green, to the point where Alex McCarthy looked elsewhere for his football. Sandro hasn’t been fit to play, which is entirely predictable as he hasn’t been fit to play since he got here - more tart than “Beast”. Leroy Fer, also mostly absent, hit and miss on his occasional outings just as he was last season. Matt Phillips has been inconsistent, just as he has for his entire spell here but for a three month purple patch last season. Austin has been excellent, but having prepared to play 4-2-3-1 without him, Rangers have been forced to try and turn him into what Heidar Helguson was for us in 2010/11 – which Austin isn’t. Austin’s the main man, he’s not there to pull the ball down and feed it to somebody else. All of these players were here when QPR finished last in the Premier League last season. Of them, only Charlie Austin can be said to have shown he was worthy of the top division. Why do we suddenly expect them to tear this division apart? Because we’re paying Premier League money for them? That’s our fault for overpaying. Secondly, the challenge of re-integrating big-name players back into a Championship squad they thought they were going to be leaving is tough. Again, it’s the QPR attitude of individuals over team coming to the fore – we’ve got the best individuals, we’re spending the most money, therefore we should have the best team. Teams take time to build and cultivate. The Championship is being won consistently at the moment by teams built over time who come from the pack and overtake the big spenders – Brighton, Bournemouth, Warnock’s QPR. Mentally, these players had probably already gone – Fer failed a medical at Sunderland for instance. Austin and Phillips have given it their best can you say the same of Fer and Sandro? When Kenny Jackett took over at Wolves in League One he stuck the club’s biggest earners and supposed best players – Kevin Doyle, Karl Henry, Roger Johnson – who either wanted to leave, or thought they would, in the reserves and left them there whether they left or not because of the difficulties the uncertainty around their future may cause. That re-integration, an issue in itself, has caused the third problem: a number of players who were brought in to replace these players haven’t played at all. Alex Smithies, in the case of Green, didn’t come that cheap and has moved his very young family away from his home town and his boyhood club to sit on the bench at QPR – how is he feeling now? Ben Gladwin loaned straight back to Swindon without being given a fair shot. Seb Polter made his feelings clear on social media after being left out against Sheffield Wednesday. Tjaronn Chery is being forced to play out of position wide left. So as well as the youth players who thought they’d get game time but aren’t, there’s now another bunch of new signings not getting what they saw in the brochure when they signed here. The big names, and more important the big earners, staying at the club caused as many problems as it solved and it added a whole new one – people looked at the team on paper, looked at how much it was costing and decided it should win promotion. From looking to consolidate and build, Ramsey was told he had to win promotion. Neither he, nor his players, are good enough for that, whatever they’re paid. Root of the problem There’s a scene in The Four Year Plan where Flavio Briatore is sitting with Alejandro Agag lamenting, in Italian, about how every manager they’d employed was an idiot. “One got drunk, one attacked the players, every idiot we found, not an idiot left in turn,” they say. It shows a preposterous lack of self-awareness, that they could possibly believe that managers as diverse in experience and ability as Luigi De Canio, Paolo Sousa, Iain Dowie, Jim Magilton, Paul Hart and Mick Harford could all fail at QPR because of their own faults, and not because of the one megalomaniac constant that oversaw them all. Neil Warnock deserves huge credit for the job he subsequently did, but don’t forget it only happened when Briatore withdrew and left control of the team to the manager with Amit Bhatia and the underrated, much-missed Ishan Saksena overseeing the club. You can make a decent case that the failings at QPR over the past few years have all been down to the managers of the team at the time. Mark Hughes, arrogantly walking away from Fulham because they couldn’t “match his ambition”, gleefully playing fast and loose with the QPR cheque book, signing big-name toads from Kia Joorabchian’s client log so he could prove just what a brilliant manager of big egos and big clubs he was only to fall flat on his face. His subsequent success with Stoke a result of the lessons he learnt at Loftus Road. Harry Redknapp, the chancer’s chancer, taking a job his heart wasn’t really in after missing out on the England post he dreamed of, doing a half-arsed number on an almost part-time basis while tired old Bondy and Joe Jordan milled around deferring to whichever out of work manager Harry had asked to come in to help out – the team peaking and troughing based on whether Steve McClaren was leading the sessions or Steve Cotterill. Chris Ramsey, the inexperienced youth-coach promoted above his ability level because he’s Les Ferdinand’s mate, out of his depth and found out. It is still possible that Tony Fernandes and the Tune Group are the best football club owners fans could ever wish for, and have simply been let down by two experienced managers who did an awful job and one who was too naïve. It’s increasingly unlikely though isn’t it? Mark Hughes is the big clue. Blackburn, Fulham, Stoke – as far as Premier League clubs go they’re as close as you can get to QPR and he’s had them all in the top half of the league and often going deep into cup competitions either side of his time at Loftus Road. He couldn’t win a single bloody game here in 15 attempts at the start of his second season. That’s why it’s hard to get excited about any of the alternatives being mentioned, because does it really matter who the manager is when the manager isn’t the problem? Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has been backed into the favourite position, as he looks set to lead Burton Albion to a second successive promotion from League One. But Hasselbaink took over a solid team from Gary Rowett, with one of the best training grounds in the country at his disposal, zero expectations among the fan base, no debt and an experienced and canny chairman. He’d find none of that here, and he’d bring Chelsea connections which would erode the amount of time he was given by the supporters. Kenny Jackett is exactly the sort of steadying influence the club needs right now. He also builds teams that the QPR fans like to see, with a big, mobile front two serviced by two out and out wingers – James Henry in his current Wolves team, a QPR player in waiting, like a right-footed Lee Cook. But he’s never shown any ability to go beyond the middle of the Championship once it’s stabilised and solidified, and we don’t want stability and solidity, we want promotion right now.

Neil Warnock is obviously in prime position. As I said a fortnight ago, bringing him in as an experienced hand to help isn’t like Tony Pulis does with Gerry Francis or Dougie Freedman does with Lennie Lawrence because he was a Premier League manager less than a year ago and clearly still fancies himself. As a long-serving ex-player at QPR told me a few weeks before Warnock re-appeared, do you think Neil Warnock flew up from Exeter one summer’s evening to appear on a live QPR Podcast from The Ship in Kilburn for want of something better to do with his time? Or because the QPR Podcast pays big appearance fees and he’s short of cash? The inference being he’s been angling after this, and in doing so fits in with how Hughes got the job after Joorabchian got into Fernandes’ ear and undermined Warnock, and how Ramsey got the job after Ferdinand did likewise with Redknapp. This is not only snide and unpleasant – Ramsey’s dead man walking situation for the last fortnight reflects poorly on the club - it’s also no kind of recruitment process and it’s not working. It’s always a quick appointment from a shortlist of one. I suspect it’ll be Warnock in the Ferdinand role with Shaun Derry in the Ramsey role this time – it would at least improve the atmosphere, but those who criticised Ramsey for lacking experience would struggle to make a case for Derry however legendary he is round these parts. Just as those who say Ramsey’s football is boring are presumably sweating that Paul Lambert’s odds are so short. The problem here isn’t the manager, and any temporary improvements made by a new appointment will likely be just that. Tony Fernandes seems to have taken a back seat while the, mercifully, less public facing Ruben Gnanalingam runs the show, but collectively this board remain the issue at QPR. Their remarkably steadfast support among the fans seems to be based around the money they’ve been putting in. But, according to Reuters, that near £200m debt is borrowed against the Air Asia share price which is now dropping below that value. Common practice in the Far East, the report says, but big trouble when it goes like this. With that, and the ongoing FFP negotiations, it feels like we’re heading for a major situation here. No wonder Fernandes’ brief re-appearance at Harlington a fortnight ago brought a “promotion is everything to me” message. Let’s not forget three things. Firstly, the team we have now finished last in the Premier League last season and even if it does go back there this season it’s likely to go without its best player who is out of contract in the summer. Secondly, this huge debt we’re saddled with has been accrued while earning the Premier League television money we’re so keen to get back to in order to keep the wolf from the door. If we were planning to go back and use the £100m to pay down some debt I could see the point, but it’s our previous spells up there that have been so ruinous. And thirdly, that television money the club was paid in three of the last four seasons was the club’s. It was reward for what Neil Warnock, Amit Bhatia and Ishan Saksena achieved before Tony Fernandes got here. It could have secured the club’s future, left us totally debt free, built a training ground, improved infrastructure. Instead it went in the pockets of wanker footballers and their agents, in the name of turning QPR into a promotional vehicle for the Tune Group and an Asian airline. In the end Chris Ramsey’s failings set out above made it difficult to support him too much, but it became a case of better the devil you know for me. There’s absolutely no indication this board will get it right at the fourth attempt and the only reason they’re trying seems to be an attempt to chase losses they’re entirely responsible for by rushing back to the place where they occurred. That’s not even a good strategy for the bloke on the fixed odds terminal in the local Bill Hill’s, never mind international businessmen in charge of a football club. The Twitter @loftforwords Pictures – Action Images Photo: Action Images



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Northolt_Rs added 23:12 - Nov 5

Magnificent write-up 5

NottsQPR added 23:22 - Nov 5

Superb piece Clive. I'm still not convinced on Mark Hughes though!



Despite all the crap, during the Fernandes reign and by hook or crook, most QPR fans of my generation (40 sadly) have had possibly their best day supporting Rangers with a last minute winner scored with just 10 men at Wembley. Many fans go through their whole lives without something like that happening, but now is the time for a recruitment process that, with Warnock deputising for a month or two as manager, can afford to have a thorough interview process to find the right man.



Let's hope Hoos can pick as well as he has previously? 2

sevenhoop added 23:32 - Nov 5

That's brilliant as usual Clive. Everything you say is bang on, but the fact is that Ramsey was always the wrong choice,, proved it last season, the absolutely shocking performance first game of season at Charlton confirmed it (and personally broke me, affecting me in a negative way more than any game I can remember as it confirmed how shite we were going to be under him) and he had to go for his continual nonsensical selection of one of the most limited players I have ever seen at this level, Karl Henry.

The board needed shooting, as I said at the time, for not bombing Ramsey out before the end of last season and getting Warburton in, telling him his only remit was to build some solidity, which a huge percentage of us would have taken (as long as Henry was not part of it) 0

AussieRs added 23:33 - Nov 5

Clive, writing this must have been painful. Terrific insightful work. People like me, supporting QPR for years here in Oz, really appreciate the depth of insight you bring to this soap opera. The last few seasons we have played dreadfully. But the fish rots from the head as they say. Wembley showed how much Rs support exists, ready to get behind a team that plays with skill and commitment. Shame these two elements have been so hard to see over past couple of painful seasons. 2

ozexile added 23:45 - Nov 5

Great article. 1

GetMeRangers added 00:08 - Nov 6

Perhaps the only question not answered in such a excellent article is whether being 'received of Head Coach duties ' means he is remaining at the club. Do his ability to work with youth players as a coach, I hope this might at least be the case. It woulb the mark of immense humility to do so, particularly when I feel h hasn't been treated that by the club in the way I would hoped he might, even if they were planning on removing him.

Whatever happens to him next, I really hope it hasn't damaged what a fine honest individual he is and that he can find success somewhere. Who would wish our board upon any manager? The Tango and Cash years may have been farcical but this is a low point for me. Having been sold on the idea of laying foundations for the future and the about turn after transfer deadline day reeks of everything that is wrong with the board and getting Our Rangers Back seems as distant once again.

Just waiting for whoever is next on charge to announce that in retrospect, consolidation is once again the focus of this season. With the string of games we have coming up, that should be around Jan probably following our enviable cup exit 4

connell10 added 00:22 - Nov 6

Spot on mate! 0

nix added 01:35 - Nov 6

Another brilliant, balanced article Clive. But depressing but can't argue with it. 2

timcocking added 02:03 - Nov 6

Damn.



Don't think he had long enough. Don't think he did much wrong, I think he was let down by our mediocre team of still overpaid and underperforming mercenaries, half of who don't want to be here. Probably would have happened to anybody, as it's happened to our last few managers forced to rely on this shower of scheisters... 2

timcocking added 02:07 - Nov 6

'These conversations used to be the mainstay of pubs and radio phone ins but they’ve grown into something more now. Everybody has a dozen ways of putting them forward – message boards, Twitter feeds, blogs, websites, message boards, podcasts. You venture your point of view, and somebody disagrees with it, so you argue back for days on end. You become entrenched in your view, it becomes extreme. Soon, in your own mind, you cannot possibly fathom why QPR haven’t sacked Chris Ramsey yet and it makes you angry, or you cannot stand that everybody seems so desperate for him to be sacked and that makes you angry. Before you know it you’re starting a petition to have everybody’s favourite mentally-sound Ostrich enthusiast Nigel Pearson installed or proclaiming in all seriousness that what’s happening at QPR at the moment is the “biggest sporting failure ever witnessed”. You become pro-Ramsey, or anti-Ramsey, with no middle ground - rather than just pro-QPR.



It’s nonsense, but it builds momentum. You end up with scenes such as the ones we saw at MK Dons last week, and Brentford on Friday, where fans are leaping out of their seats to abuse their own player and manager, faces contorted with rage. Supporters admit publicly they’d quite like QPR to lose the next game so as to bring the manager closer to the sack. It’s ugly. By the time the manager does get the sack it feels like a mercy killing of a man without a victory in months, when in fact QPR are only thirteenth in the Championship with the league’s third best attack.



It won’t get clicks or hits or retweets, but the simple truth is Chris Ramsey wasn’t that good, or that bad.'



Marvelously articulated, as always, absolutely dead right.

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Red_Ranger added 04:26 - Nov 6

Incredible summary/overview of our club and its predicament.

Thank you Clive.

Your hard work and skill is appreciated by all.

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steveB66 added 07:34 - Nov 6

Brilliant piece Clive.



From the few responses you immediately get a snapshot of how low fans are feeling about Rangers at the moment.



Paul Finney said on Twitter that money has ruined everything he loves about QPR and I have to say I think he is right. 2

TheChef added 08:19 - Nov 6

Those last two paragraphs sum it up perfectly.



The presence of Lee Hoos means we might have a better chance of getting the next manager right - but while the lunatic is still running the asylum, I'm not getting my hopes up. 0

Discodroids added 08:30 - Nov 6

Im sure you wont mind me saying this Northern, and im sure you feel the same sometimes, But i do get a bit uncomfortable when you post I.E,' Karl Henry isnt very good', and its recieved by some on this message board with Acts of devout worship that wouldnt look out of place in 175 bc with Peasants and lepers laying seasonal produce at the feet of their Demi gods for your healing hands .



But fk me, i'll have to join them today.. This piece was magnificent. structured, flowed like water round a rock. Whether i agreed with all of it, which i mostly did, is immaterial.



superb. 1

tsbains64 added 08:35 - Nov 6

sums up perfectly

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ShotKneesHoop added 08:36 - Nov 6

A first rate summary of what is wrong with "our club" I expect Derry to be installed pretty soon under Warnock's tutelage. At least both of them have some idea of what the club is about,



The board has no connection with the supporters or its heritage. Perfectly illustrated by the paragraph on SWP reprinted below, which proves how out of touch the management was. This point was when I realised another false dawn was looming,



"At the end of last season Ramsey twice called upon Shaun Wright-Phillips. Most unforgivably, he sent him on with seconds remaining at Manchester City when 6-0 down. The City fans, who remember Wright-Phillips fondly, gave him a standing ovation. For the QPR fans, who despise him as a symbol of everything bad QPR have become, it was a very public kick in the bollocks having already been thrashed in a televised fixture. Whether Chris Ramsey wanted to reward Wright-Phillips for his diligence and professionalism in training or not, he should have realised or been told that this was a bad idea and played the game. Failing to do so undermined Ramsey’s position – many QPR fans still bring up that fleeting appearances against him now, six months later."



I've have that paragraph etched onto Ramsey's tombstone. with "Too nice a bloke to do the job" as his strapline. 0

GloryHunter added 09:34 - Nov 6

Don't forget the pre-season tour shambles. Who was responsible for that, Les? 1

pedrosqpr added 09:39 - Nov 6

A few points and my pennies worth. Firstly with our youth players the question you have to ask is will you improve playing first team football ? If not then your not good enough, will James Perch improve ? I think the Chris Ramsey was on a hiding to nothing with Tony Fernandes tweet about promotion , this brought on indirectly by Credit Suisse nervousness about Tune group and Air Asia changing the conditions of their loan , it would you taking a mortgage out on a house and then changing jobs to a less secure job. I'm afraid the Sky money is too much for the owners to lose out on even for just one season.

Chris Ramsey seems a nice bloke and now we have just lost a good youth coach and sadly should have stayed in this position.

So now we have Neil Warnock and we know what we get from him , let's not panic because actually this squad is a decent one but not quite top 3 and with time could improve .

I suppose I'm a glass half full type and believe we can improve with less meddling , I personally would like to see Amit Bhatia as chairman I have met him a few times and he is quite an astute guy and enthusiastic . 0

wrinklyhoop added 09:48 - Nov 6

Brilliant piece Clive. Sums up my feelings, although I could never emulate your prose. For me the SWP episodes told against Ramsey more than I think he (and many others) realised. As you and a few others have mentioned, I wonder what Amit and Ishan are doing nowadays - I'll always attribute our (first) promotion season to those guys, as much as to Warnock and the team. 0

ActonOccident added 10:02 - Nov 6

Honest assessment of Ramsey, realistic view of the squad, sobering outlook on potential replacements. Great piece. 0

AgedR added 10:02 - Nov 6

Can't imagine Ferguson or Clough having to "play the game".



Different times I suppose and I agree that there is now a need to adapt to the demands of 24 hour internal and external media.



What SWP incident at City showed me more than anything else was the utter dislocation of empathy between football professionals and football supporters. To Ramsey it was completely natural to allow a fellow pro his lap of honour. It was actually a kind and honourably gesture, but, utterly ignorant of two years plus of supporter opinion and indignation.



Excellent writing Clive. Amongst all the shit being slung about you generally manage to put it in some cogent order. We're lucky to have you.



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dixiedean added 10:46 - Nov 6

Clive, when I saw that you didn't post immediately the news broke, I suspected you were composing a masterpiece and you didn't disappoint. Like you, I've not held CR to account as much as many of our " fans " have and he's had a lot to contend with. That said , he hasn't helped himself , starting with the SWP stuff, and the general " not playing the game " as you put it. So he lived or died by those decisions and many of us, while recognising that maybe he was out of his depth, have sympathy for the position he was put in, particularly with the latest switch in emphasis. I suspect for many it was the perceived " rabbit in the headlights " demeanour which made him unpopular and unconvincing- a bit like Arry's lack of animation on the bench. The less cerebral fan seems to think that the more a manager waves his arms around and rants and raves, the more passionate he is. So those will be happy with NW's return. God help us if we end up with Sherwood's gilet running up & down the touchline with his fists pumping in celebration . A nauseating sight ( albeit rare this season ) if ever there was one. Be careful what you wish for , as the saying goes. Maybe the " We're f***ing shit " merchants will just rejoice at CR's departure regardless of who comes next, such was the bile shown towards the guy so shamefully , as Paul said on Radio London last night. As for which next poor sod joins the asylum, a rational shortlist might include Karl Robinson, Jackett or Brian McDermott. Although not sure why the former 2 would leave fairly secure posts ,and the 3rd has already had a taste of working in the Leeds Asylum so might not want a 2nd dose. Given their track record it is impossible to think the Board , that collective of maniacs, will pull a rabbit out of the hat and find the new Eddie Howe or Sean Dyche lurking in the lower leagues, so it'll be the usual suspects. Is Dave Bassett still around, or Big Ron ? I do hope it's not Olly - that would be bad all round I fear - and why on Earth would Jimmy FH want to leave Burton for us ? We'll probably be in the same Div next season anyway so hardly an upward move. Short term I suspect NW will knock the team into some kind of shape and get a positive reaction , but mid & long term ? And is Derry really the answer , despite his obvious popularity ? It would be interesting to see what the job description / objectives are for the candidates - if it's promotion this season or bust , that will rule out a few worthy candidates as it's not realistic. If it's the C word , consolidation, this year and promotion next, we might have half a chance of getting in someone sensible. We'll know soon when TF & Co spin the roulette wheel again. 3

Marshy added 10:47 - Nov 6

Although I'm one who has been calling for change for sometime, I do feel sorry for Chris Ramsey as he seems a genuinely nice man and sure he is a decent coach. But coach is the relevant word as Chris is not really a manager, and probably never will be. He had a great opportunity, but it has just not worked out. I'm confident that with the squad we have we will improve with the right man, but who that man should be is highly contentious.



For the moment Neil Warnock is by far our best option. He has the experience, the track record and illustrious history with QPR. Also, the only manager to ever "tame" Adel, and have him playing to his full potential. Neil is very good at handling players and will immediately gain the respect of the dressing room. Footballers have huge egos, and part of management in any industry is the psychology of handling people. When Neil made Adel captain that was a brilliant bit of psychology, as everyone knew (apart from Adel) that Shaun Derry was really captain. Handling players, and getting the best out of them is what it's all about. Let's give Neil a chance, and see where he can take us. 1

batmanhoop added 10:54 - Nov 6

depressing reading, the thought of us having to get promoted to stave off potentially ruinous debts. Even in this splendid piece there was much to argue with. For me personally, stability and some decent football to watch over another futile excursion into the horrible Premiership 0

Harbour added 10:56 - Nov 6

Thanks Clive... I have been struggling to fully understand what has and continues to go wrong at Loftus Rd and this article sums it up perfectly... 0

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