Queens Park Rangers currently lie 19th in the Barclays Premier League table. They are now 10 points adrift of safety, and with five games to go, relegation looms for the club. However should this relegation come as such a shock?
The West London club entered the summer of 2012 having narrowly escaped relegation by a point, with Welshman Mark Hughes at the helm, who had replaced Warnock on the 10th of January and steered the club to retaining their Premier League status. However Mark Hughes’ summer transfer activity has left many bemused about the nature of QPR’s transfer policy. The ex-Blackburn manager brought in no less than 12 new players, who he believed would take QPR to the next level and push them comfortably up the table this season. However, the large amount of money Hughes spent on these players, has failed to produce this outcome.
Whilst the players he purchased looked good enough on paper, most of them simply haven’t made the grade this year, and have looked nothing like the players that QPR thought they were purchasing. Some of the new signings have shown a lack of appetite and looked mediocre to say the least. The likes of; Esteban Granero, who was signed for nine million from Real Madrid, Junior Hoilett who arrived from relegated Blackburn, Chelsea reject Jose Boswinga, and Stephane Mbia from Marseille, have all failed to live up to the expectations at Loftus Road.
However this cannot just be said about the new signings. Throughout the season there has been a distinct lack of passion and pride within the playing staff at the club, and for many of their star players it seems as if relegation is of no odds to them, because they will just leave at the end of the season. The QPR side that Harry Redknapp inherited when he took over in November 2012, was one which lacked a real team ethic, passion, and a fighting spirit needed to excel in a league as tough as the Premier League.