QPR owner Tony Fernandes refuses to rule out Ian Holloway departure
Tony Fernandes, the founder of Air Asia and co-chairman of Queens Park Rangers, has graded himself C+ for his work at the club since taking over in August 2011. In a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with the Open All Rs podcast, he also explained why he is so optimistic for the future – though he was non-committal regarding the future of Ian Holloway.
“The manager has had his highs and has had his lows,” Fernandes said. “We’ll have to analyse and say at the end of the season: ‘Are we happy? Is he happy with us as shareholders? Is he happy with the squad? And then you make your decisions from there.”
Fernandes has a mixed record with managers. He was hasty in sacking Neil Warnock, while Mark Hughes, the replacement, was a disaster. “The manager [Hughes] should have done his homework,” Fernandes said on the podcast. “I think there was a lack of care in the selection of players.”
Fernandes said he “was” a West Ham fan, but after failing to buy the club acquired a majority share in QPR, who have always given him a “nice feeling”. Since then, he has spent hundreds of millions of pounds while the club has swapped the Premier League for the Cham-
pionship. But he values his mistakes because “you can’t buy experience”, and it is partly thanks to his learning from them that the club is now on the up.
“Anyone who says: ‘Well, I am going to follow this plan’ is clearly lying,” Fernandes explained. “What I’m trying to do with my other shareholders is build a club that’s sustainable … that will include a stadium.”
QPR had hoped to replace Loftus Road with a new, bigger ground at Old Oak, close to the HS2 railway development, and even bought land to that end. But the Linford Christie Stadium at Wormwood Scrubs now looks a likelier site. “We’re not property developers, we just wanted enough money to build a stadium,” said Fernandes. “Building anything in London is harder than building an airline, which the fans don’t understand and it kind of irritates me when I bust my balls and someone says: ‘Oh God, you just talk big about Warren Farm [the club’s proposed training ground] but you’ve done nothing’. Every day we are pushing on the stadium and Warren Farm, every day. And it’s soul-destroying when the fans think you are doing nothing. We can cry about it and give up or keep fighting and we’re going to keep fighting and I’m pretty sure we’re going to win.”
Should things not work out, Fernandes expects to be challenged – though would prefer it if those close to him were left in peace. “Criticise, that’s why I’m on Twitter,” he said. “But no one in my 16 years [with his airline] of carrying 89 million people a year has been abusive like I’ve had with some QPR fans.”
Nonetheless, seven years after arriving in Shepherds Bush, he hopes to be running things in another seven years’ time. “I didn’t come in to be loved,” he said. “I came in because I am naturally competitive and I love football.”
And though he plans to turn it in if the fans turn on him, in the meantime he is enjoying the best experience of his life. “I love QPR. My hair still stands when I come in and see the empty stadium,” he said. “There’ve been horrific downs, horrific abuse, but there’ve been horrifically great days. There have been many days when you think: ‘Why do you do this?’ But overall, I wouldn’t trade it for a second.”