On the back of Fabio and Park Ji-Sung’s moves to QPR, it’s fitting really that we got a QPR fan to give his take on both of those players moving to London.
As well as that here are his thoughts on Mark Hughes and the final minutes of Rangers’ final game of the season away to Manchester City which saw Roberto Mancini’s side win the league and the visitors stay up.
On Hughes Getting Appointed Manager:
It was a shock when Neil Warnock was sacked.
The writing was on the wall for a long time, but when the axe fell you couldn’t help but feel sorry for the man who turned us from Championship relegation fodder to Premier League new boys in a year!
With the takeover complete, substantial funds available, Warnock’s signings failed to inspire any consistency in the division. So when Mark Hughes and his back room staff rolled up, the calibre of player being linked to the R’s was not something we were used to.
At times last season under Hughes, the formation was a little baffling. Having the need to win games but playing only one up front at home springs to mind. It must have worked as Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Swansea and Stoke were all put to the sword at Loftus Road. I could swear that Rob Hulse may have even got a run out now and again, but I fear it may have been automatically blanked from my memory!!
Unfortunately for Sparky, the new manager syndrome (like we saw last season at Sunderland with Martin O’Neill – in extraordinary circumstances) never materialised. I do believe we have the right man in the job. Stability is something we haven’t had much of in recent times. Oh how we crave it. I reckon Hughes’ is the man for that.
On Park’s impending arrival at Loftus Road:
This one is a bolt right out of the blue. I can’t think many United fans will be thrilled at this. I get the impression the Reds are short of numbers in midfield, and letting someone of Park’s calibre leave for a reported £2mil (rising to £5mil if relegation is avoided) is not going to sit comfortably.
On the other hand, if this is true, what an amazing signing this would be for the Rangers. The boy runs himself to the ground and chips in with a few goals to boot. One of Sir Alex’s trusted Generals on the field of play. No mean feat. On top of that, it will raise the profile of QPRFC no end in the Far East. I can only imagine, there are underlying injury issues here that are causing Sir Alex some concern.
Perhaps it’s Too good to be true (I understand the bookies have stopped taking bets), but if it does happen, you may just well hear a cheer from West London all the way through to the Trafford Centre. Now if you’ll just give us Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck…
On Fabio’s loan deal:
I am genuinely excited by this. It’s no secret, that the top 4/5 teams in this division have powerful squads. Not all can play.
Season loans suit everybody. A good player who’s just lacking playing time. It’s impossible to play a youngster when you have a player like Patrice Evra and his consistent outstanding contribution.
Fabio just needs game time, and it’s exciting times it’s going to be at Loftus Road. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sure, under the cover of darkness, the powers that be will switch the Da Silva twins round. No one will notice!
On Federico Macheda’s loan deal last season:
I am genuinely disappointed this didn’t work out for either party.
We needed freshening up/ cover for injuries/ stand ins for our weekly red card suspensions. It was a fantastic opportunity for Macheda to get good match time under his belt and push for a starting berth at the Theatre of Dreams. Unfortunately, it just didn’t happen for the boy. It just wasn’t the same player that introduced himself to the premier league in sensational style a couple of years ago.
No sooner had he managed to remove all the Red splinters from his backside from sitting in the subs bench all those times, he started getting the blue and white ones. He finished the season injured. Let’s not beat about the bush here, it’s a different footballing style between challenging for a championship and fighting for your lives in a relegation battle. At the moment, I don’t think he’s suited to either!
On QPR’S 3-2 defeat at City which saw Eden Dzeko and Sergio Aguero score in second-half injury-time to see Mancini’s side win the league title:
Hmmmn. Mixed emotions here. Up until injury time, I would have liked to see us ‘see out the game’. Having led 2-1 going into injury time (a scoreline not lost on Bolton players and staff), it is somewhat confusing why or quite how we didn’t!
I am not going to mince my words here. City were awful! Multi million pound players made to look ordinary against 10 men. They didn’t win this game. QPR lost it in the aftermath of the final whistle going at the Britannia. Bolton didn’t win. When the final whistle sounded at Stoke, it was heard in the heads of a few QPR players too.
Who can blame them? It had been a monumental effort to survive ‘the worst relegation battle run-in’ many people had seen. No one gave us a chance. City took their chance. It provided the weird atmosphere whereby City were happy scoring goals while the R’s fans were happy nothing mattered anymore!
Harsh on the Red Devils, but I don’t believe the title was lost on this one game. United should have it sewn up long before then.
Good luck for the coming season.
By Zack Dajani
Zack summed up the final game of the season at City brilliantly.
At the final whistle in the Bolton game the QPR bench jumped up and QPR fans started celebrating and at that point some QPR players turned their heads towards the bench and the season was over for them. City then got a corner and rest is now history.
One thing puzzled me, and that was why QPR at 2-2 decided to give the ball back to City by kicking the ball out of play for a City throw strait from the restart. If we had played the ball back to the keeper and then he kicked the ball out of play, there would have been next to no time for City to score the winner.
Anyway thanks for (in advance) the transfer and loan business and best of luck for the season.
Ive read that united fans were angry that QPR fans celebrated city winning. Not true. We were only and simply celebrating our survival.
As a United fan who is the away end at sunderland that day i dont begrudge qpr or their fans at all, zac is spot on when he said united had lost it before that game, the injury to vidic in particular, if he was fit united would have won the league easily before the final day.
All the best to qpr fans with three reds at the club in ji, fabio and sparky
Like Chris I couldnt understand QPR's response to the kick-off after City's equalizer. However the Ranger's fan's were only celebrating our survival and not City winning the league. I was proud of Rangers display. We played our hearts out to the final whistle. The final whistle at Stoke.