LEARNING CURVE
Teenager Sam Perry on making his breakthrough at Walsall
MARK Warburton believes Queens Park Rangers will have a chance to shoot for the Premier League next season.
He gives a number of reasons:
1) The pandemic has hit clubs hard, debts are high and many are going to have to go the tough financial route QPR have travelled, cutting costs and living frugally.
2) The Hoops have a good young squad now, bolstered by experienced players, that can be kept together and mature.
3) Just have a look at Barnsley. If they can do it, so can others.
QPR have previously been the very epitome of a boom and bust football club, ambition not allied with common sense, money spent like a Lottery winner, millions gone on a dream that was not sustainable.
They managed two seasons in the Premier League from 2011 to 2013, went down, then came back again via the play-off final to spend a last, traumatic, season with the elite in 2015.
Boris Johnson’s hair has more style than QPR had in those years with ownership rows and boardroom leaderships that had more to do with a roulette wheel than it did with spread sheets and budgeting.
Neil Warnock, Mark Hughes, Harry Redknapp, Chris Ramsey, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Ian Holloway and Steve McClaren - they all came and went in the continuing chaos that has seen QPR finish halfway and below in the Championship for the last five seasons.
Les Ferdinand, a Rangers playing hero and now director of football has, along with chief executive Lee Hoos, cut a £68m wage bill by 70 per cent.
It’s back to finding your own, selling them if the offer is too good to refuse, and focusing on the buzz word of today: sustainability.
Attacking midfielder Ebere Eze, 22, left for Crystal Palace for £20m last summer and the talented Ilias Chair, 23, is big money in QPR’s bank on a contract until 2025.
Winger Bright
Osayi-Samuel, 23, was plucked from Blackpool, had his raw edges smoothed and was sold to Fenerbahce in January when it became clear he wouldn’t sign a fresh deal.
Warburton is used to high rollers from his days working as a City currency trader. He put in the hours then, a 6am start and 7pm finish, just in time to be home for the New York to wake up and take calls through the night.
Privilege
He decided on becoming a football coach in his 40s. Now he’s 58 and he’s managed QPR since May 2019. That’s two years coming up and only Holloway, Redknapp and Warnock have matched that or done better in the last 15 unstable years.
“I enjoy the job,” says Warburton. “You are very privileged. I am only saying that because you look at the number of British managers, British coaches, that are not working.
“You are privileged to be managing or coaching at a senior club now so you have to make sure you commit yourself fully to it, give everything you’ve got, and then whatever happens, happens.
“I enjoy the competitive element to it, it’s almost a ‘fix’ that competitive element. I like to see the way young players progress, I like to see the unity of a team, the self-belief being developed and seeing how it impacts on performances.”
Rangers’ form this season has come in blocks of good and bad. There was a run of no wins from ten games in the Championship and FA Cup from November to January that tested Ferdinand’s belief in the man he recommended be appointed.
Since then QPR have lost only six out of 20, taking them from 19th to just above halfway. They will likely finish the season around there, giving them a solid platform to build on.
One of the defeats came at Nottingham Forest, 3-1, a couple of weeks ago. It was a little extra disappointment for Warbuton against a club he used to manage, but it may prove beneficial in the long run.
“There was no shouting and screaming at them,” he said. “The standards dropped and we got hurt. We can’t be laid back and be off it.
Learn
“It is important for us to learn from that defeat that we must maintain our standards.”
At Forest they play a big video montage before games of the club in their glory years. It’s Brian Clough, Peter Taylor, the European Cup, League champions, League Cup winners, silver trophies everywhere on the screen and almost a tear to go with it.
QPR fans, despite not having as much history to support their case, regard their club as a Premier League one.
Warburton said: “I was at
Nottingham For ager for nine m everyone I spok ‘We should be to mier League’. Th not been in the League for 20 yea
“Then you l Derby, Sheffield W day, Birmingha – big, big clubs supporters all th should be in the League.
“Every QPR wants us to be pu all do. We want t for the play-offs mier League. If side together, re we have a chance
“Parachute pa a difference. N Watford are at t reason. They cam season and they mier League mo a big advantage.
“This club ha with the financ they deserve cre much firmer fina
“But look at landscape for al look at the figure - £87m lost, £35 lost, £10m lost b
Barnsley have shown that if you keep your players and add one or two wise recruits, you can be in a good position
Mark Warburton
is no revenue from the supporters coming in because of coronavirus.
“Everyone is facing a financial problem and we have to do it wisely. If we can keep our players we will be in an OK position. I think we can keep these players.
Surprise
“Yes, we lost 55-odd goals from last season, the likes of Nahki Wells, Jordan Hugill and Ebere Eze, but I think Barnsley have shown everyone that if you keep your players and add one or two wise recruits, you can be in a good position. They survived relegation by a point last season and now they have surprised everyone. “You can’t keep on changing ten, 12, 15 players every summer. My first year we changed 15, second year we changed 12. But we had to do it to start again.
“Now you see there is a good core of young players with senior professionals like Lee Wallace, Geoff Cameron, Albert Adomah, Stefan Johansen and Charlie Austin (the latter two on loan from Fulham and West Brom respectively). They help and mentor the younger ones. “Any player in the world has got a price. I am not speaking for the board, but I’m sure they will say if it’s right for QPR, the right price, they will sell and we will have funds to reinvest.
“But, as I say, I am confident we will keep this group together and we can continue to progress in what will be a very interesting next season.”