Bosingwa, a Champions League winner with Chelsea fewer than 12 months ago, is the current poster boy for all that is wrong at Loftus Road. Pictures of the Portuguese, leaving the Madejski playing field wreathed in smiles after Sunday’s stalemate, have attracted furious condemnation from fans of his club and neutral observers alike. That criticism is borne of frustration at a man whose performances during his season in Shepherd’s Bush have done nothing to justify a reported £65,000 per week wage – something which perhaps explains why Englishmen, current manager Harry Redknapp , and Hill, escaped similar censure for their equally evident post-match joshing.
When Redknapp replaced Hughes, Fernandes was appointing a figure whose standing in the court of public opinion was polar opposite to that of his predecessor’s. The 66 year-old had previous – saving Portsmouth from a similarly perilous plight. Conveniently airbrushed from history was the cockney’s failure to preserve Southampton’s top-flight status in 2005.
With 25 (twenty-five) matches to turn around QPR’s horror start to the campaign, Redknapp failed to achieve the sole objective for which he was hired – to ensure that the R’s began next season preparing to tussle with Chelsea and Manchester United, not Charlton Athletic and Leeds United. A record of won 4, drawn 9, lost 9 has resulted in the inevitable demotion with three fixtures to play. In common with Hughes, Redknapp did not set about his endeavours to improve the R’s fortunes on the cheap.
The eye-watering money spent on transfer fees and wages to attract Loic Remy and Christopher Samba to Loftus Road in January can be added to the reams of cash already pouring out of the club coffers. Despite the personal wealth of Fernandes, a reported £15m loan taken out in March would suggest that those responsible for QPR’s finances will be somewhat ashen-faced when sizing up the prospect of missing out on their share of the Premier League’s mammoth new television deal.
Receipt of £60m worth of parachute payments over the next four years will help – a little. That controversial hand-out is no guarantee of a hasty return to the elite. Blackpool and Burnley are living proof of that fact. More pertinently, a glance at the bottom end of the present Championship table reveals a flailing Blackburn Rovers who have only recently secured their safety and, remarkably, the grand institution of Wolverhampton Wanderers staring the prospect of consecutive demotions full in the face.
There is an eerie comparison to be drawn between Rangers and the Molineux club. 12 months prior to last year’s relegation, Mick McCarthy’s men clawed onto their top-flight status by one point and one place despite a last day 3-2 defeat.
Of the catalogue of big-earners contributing to the weekly haemorrhaging of money from the R’s bank account, only Remy is guaranteed to court widespread interest in his services. There is little re-sale value in any of Hughes’ cosmopolitan collection of captures. Samba has not reached anything approaching the level Redknapp expected – indeed, his performances have been a downgrade on those of free-agent Ryan Nelsen who left the club in January.
Norwich City and Swansea City joined QPR in fighting their way out of the 2011 Championship. Despite finishing four and eight points, respectively, behind the West Londoners – and both being required to change boss after strong first top-tier seasons – those clubs are steadily establishing themselves as fixtures on the most exalted stage.
The Liberty Stadium and Carrow Road are home to sensible financial and on-field management, and groups of players bound by a collective sense of purpose.
At Loftus Road, where not one of those attributes exists, rarely can a football dream have turned sour at such breakneck speed. After the dismal fare at Reading, Clint Hill suggested that many of the men who won promotion for the R’s were dispensed with prematurely. The defender’s argument holds water only to the extent that a still certain relegation would not have been accompanied by the financial millstone which now hangs prominently around the club’s neck.
Redknapp, of course, has already made sure everybody is aware of quite what an exacting task returning QPR to the big-time will be.
With a manager who thrives on an ability to spend – assuming he remains -, a surplus of under-achieving, extravagantly paid, and apparently poorly motivated players, and a promotion winning core whose best days are gone, this small club – with a profile that outstrips their stature – might have many darker days before even a glimmer of light can return.
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