All this talk about new players. All this talk about promotion.
There is a certain amount of irony attached to the dream. The Board are not talking about promotion, they’re talking about the Champions League. That means somewhere along the line, they are expecting us to break into the elusive “top four” in the country.
Just say it… Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.
If you compare the squad we have today versus the squad we will need to compete against these teams and then the squad we will need to compete and be competitive in the Champions League, it’s pretty safe to say that nobody’s job is safe at QPR.
I wonder how the players must feel? Surely they know that promotion is likely to be the end of their QPR careers? Not for all of them, but quite a few. Could you bare another Derby episode?
Perhaps it will provide them with a justified and somewhat lucrative pay day but is it enough? Is it fair for them to get us up there and then be cast aside? Is it ethical or morally right for the majority of those players who secured long term deals to sit tight on their contracts whilst we’re at it?
If we do manage to secure promotion next season or sometime soon, just how many of these players will be around?
I kind of feel sorry for them because the inevitable will happen if we don’t want to become a yo-yo club, and the Board have already made a lot of noise about ensuring we do not become one of those.
On one hand I would say it’s their right to sit tight, but on the other hand, that reeks of no desire or ambition. I dread to think what might have happened had we made it up this year and am almost thankful we didn’t (and it’s still mathematically possible, although very unlikely now!)
Lee Camp showed us what ambition means when he left Derby to join us. He could have sat out his contract for another year and been handsomely paid. How his decision has been rewarded, so well played and good on him. Only time will tell how many of our players will do the same.
What bothers me most about all of this is the constant need to rebuild the team. We’ve had it when we were deeply in debt, when Ian Holloway had to constantly rebuild the squad for two or three consecutive seasons. I hated that period. It’s so hard to feel associated with the players and identify with them and their pesonalities when so many come and go all at once.
I prefer a more organic approach and while these changes back then, this season and the future were and are all needed, it does make me feel slightly nervous. I’ve taken quite a liking to the bunch we’ve got right now and I enjoy watching them grow - I just hope a fair few of them can reach the dizzy heights we all want them to!
