Blog spot QPR fan zone

Friday March 5, 2010

Ron Norris is editor of fans' website www.qprnet.com (opens new window). Here he takes a look at more drama in the Rs' crazy season.

HAVING bemoaned the fact that despite rumours and speculation about comings and goings, nothing ever seemed to change at Loftus Road... it all went off!

News of Flavio Briatore's exit came in a detailed explanation on the official website, a change from the usual two-line affair and hopefully a trend that will continue.

It coincides with the Mittal family increasing their stake. They have chosen our new chairman and appointed Ishan Saksena to head the new-look board. Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone remain shareholders.

Much-maligned sporting director Gianni Paladini becomes club chairman
(hopefully more than a token role) while the rumour mill is in overdrive on our next manager, with Neil Warnock tipped by The Mirror.

On the face of it, this looks like good news, but I'll keep my powder dry for now and see how it plays out. There are plenty of tests to come for our new board and it will be fascinating to see how they respond.

First and foremost, we have a relegation battle to win. The weekend's victory over Doncaster helped, with goals from Antonio German and Jay Simpson ending a sequence of five successive defeats.

But a permanent manager needs to be appointed as soon as possible, and given carte blanche to overhaul the entire footballing set up at Loftus Road.

Then the ticketing situation needs to be addressed to get the feel-good factor back in W12. Jim Magilton had us playing some great football and Rangers finally looked to be promotion contenders.

Since then we've had three different people picking the team, gone on a horrible losing run and found ourselves plummeting towards the drop zone, all in just four months.

I don't think I've ever seen a collapse quite like it. For a club that was taken over with the promise of a four-year plan for promotion we are dangerously close to falling into League One halfway through the project.

Mick Harford isn't the world's best manager, but he isn't this bad. Truth be told, I can't imagine anyone would be able to pick up this group of players right now.

While I'm sure the general chaos around the club has had a bad effect on them, there is no excuse for some of the performances the players have put in of late.

When Briatore bought this club there were fans who said the heart of it would change forever, and dedicated fans would soon feel disenchanted.

All of that has come true, though I expect most people believed it would be our rise up the leagues that would push the faithful away. Surely nobody saw this kind of near-comical mismanagement looming large.

Everything at QPR seems so short term. Every signing in January was a short-term contract or a loan until the end of the season.

It does make you wonder. Have the latest twists arrived in enough time to save our season? Right now we aren't so much treading water as drowning in it.