Playing Devils Advocate..For a Moment

[qblockpete]

Now I like Amit Bhattia and feel he is truly a peoples person. He is the kind of personality you want running our football club. He says the right things, has total respect from all the fanbase and when you speak to him, its quite clear that despite his late introduction in life to supporting QPR you can tell he truly loves the club/

With Bernie Ecclestone a self proclaimed Chelsea fan and Flavio Briatore you have two ruthless business people, who from the outside seem to be totally against the everday fan and would not think twice about pricing out the fan base and especially with Flavio, his dream of a boutique club could well become reality. Its apparant thats his dream. With Bernie its merely another business venture.

Casting those two assertions aside, why exactly are we in the Premiership, why were we congratulating the team being champions and looking forward to life in the premiership?

The unfortuanate reality its because of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone who alone have give the club near on million pound a month in wages for players. In the context of so called bigger clubs, we have small crowds and vastly inferior income to other big London clubs.

When Warnock first came to QPR, it came soon after protests against the current board. At first it looked as if, Amit, Ishan and others would take the club in a new direction. They had some opportunity to do so.

The last game of the season it was clear that the admiration for our success had definitely been directed towards the Mittal family, the reality is completely different. Even in a recent interview Warnock gave a strong indication that he was working daily with Bernie and Flavio and things had changed since he first came to the club.

For example for our January buys/loans it was Bernie and Flavio that gave the okay, not Amit.

It is such a shame we cannot have the people who seem more fan friendly, but we lose sight sometimes that QPR is a business. We are part of that business and the Premier League has changed so much in 15 years.

The story that w12ranger put up earlier about European agencies taking tickets for games next season, does not surprise me. This is the way football has become. Ask any cabbie for example what team they support, often they will say Arsenal or Spurs, followed by they cannot afford to go games. Yet Arsenal still fill 60,000 and Spurs 40,000.

What I am saying is that the family side of this club is dying away and that is the price we pay for success. The hierachy know that if I or another fan who goes up and down the country won't pay £60 a game or pay £700 for a season ticket, someone else will.

Unfortunately thats modern day football at the highest level.

[bushcelt1]

if thats the case.......queens park rangers football club will no longer be the kind of team/club we all fell in love with and will be unreconiseable to what we know.....only in name.

[The Fishcake]

Now I like Amit Bhattia and feel he is truly a peoples person. He is the kind of personality you want running our football club. He says the right things, has total respect from all the fanbase and when you speak to him, its quite clear that despite his late introduction in life to supporting QPR you can tell he truly loves the club/

With Bernie Ecclestone a self proclaimed Chelsea fan and Flavio Briatore you have two ruthless business people, who from the outside seem to be totally against the everday fan and would not think twice about pricing out the fan base and especially with Flavio, his dream of a boutique club could well become reality. Its apparant thats his dream. With Bernie its merely another business venture.

Casting those two assertions aside, why exactly are we in the Premiership, why were we congratulating the team being champions and looking forward to life in the premiership?

The unfortuanate reality its because of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone who alone have give the club near on million pound a month in wages for players. In the context of so called bigger clubs, we have small crowds and vastly inferior income to other big London clubs.

When Warnock first came to QPR, it came soon after protests against the current board. At first it looked as if, Amit, Ishan and others would take the club in a new direction. They had some opportunity to do so.

The last game of the season it was clear that the admiration for our success had definitely been directed towards the Mittal family, the reality is completely different. Even in a recent interview Warnock gave a strong indication that he was working daily with Bernie and Flavio and things had changed since he first came to the club.

For example for our January buys/loans it was Bernie and Flavio that gave the okay, not Amit.

It is such a shame we cannot have the people who seem more fan friendly, but we lose sight sometimes that QPR is a business. We are part of that business and the Premier League has changed so much in 15 years.

The story that w12ranger put up earlier about European agencies taking tickets for games next season, does not surprise me. This is the way football has become. Ask any cabbie for example what team they support, often they will say Arsenal or Spurs, followed by they cannot afford to go games. Yet Arsenal still fill 60,000 and Spurs 40,000.

What I am saying is that the family side of this club is dying away and that is the price we pay for success. The hierachy know that if I or another fan who goes up and down the country won't pay £60 a game or pay £700 for a season ticket, someone else will.

Unfortunately thats modern day football at the highest level.

Sorry, but that is a dangerously ill informed post. Financially there is no question that all parties have put their hands in their pockets. But consider the wider picture. The nitty gritty, the hard work.. the stream lining of the club (check the finances now compared to a year ago) were whole heartedly down to Bhatia and Saksena. They slashed costs left, right and centre as the boutique module was unsustainable. They are the business men, dont be fooled by profile.

As for January transfers... All board acquiesced. The real hard work though...? Bhatia and Warnock. Saksena and Paladini also did their fair share during this period.

Look at the history of the last 4 years, look at who has been steering the ship during those moments and ally that to the success on the pitch... you get the idea...

[Bernie's Barnet]

Now I like Amit Bhattia and feel he is truly a peoples person. He is the kind of personality you want running our football club. He says the right things, has total respect from all the fanbase and when you speak to him, its quite clear that despite his late introduction in life to supporting QPR you can tell he truly loves the club/

With Bernie Ecclestone a self proclaimed Chelsea fan and Flavio Briatore you have two ruthless business people, who from the outside seem to be totally against the everday fan and would not think twice about pricing out the fan base and especially with Flavio, his dream of a boutique club could well become reality. Its apparant thats his dream. With Bernie its merely another business venture.

Casting those two assertions aside, why exactly are we in the Premiership, why were we congratulating the team being champions and looking forward to life in the premiership?

The unfortuanate reality its because of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone who alone have give the club near on million pound a month in wages for players. In the context of so called bigger clubs, we have small crowds and vastly inferior income to other big London clubs.

When Warnock first came to QPR, it came soon after protests against the current board. At first it looked as if, Amit, Ishan and others would take the club in a new direction. They had some opportunity to do so.

The last game of the season it was clear that the admiration for our success had definitely been directed towards the Mittal family, the reality is completely different. Even in a recent interview Warnock gave a strong indication that he was working daily with Bernie and Flavio and things had changed since he first came to the club.

For example for our January buys/loans it was Bernie and Flavio that gave the okay, not Amit.

It is such a shame we cannot have the people who seem more fan friendly, but we lose sight sometimes that QPR is a business. We are part of that business and the Premier League has changed so much in 15 years.

The story that w12ranger put up earlier about European agencies taking tickets for games next season, does not surprise me. This is the way football has become. Ask any cabbie for example what team they support, often they will say Arsenal or Spurs, followed by they cannot afford to go games. Yet Arsenal still fill 60,000 and Spurs 40,000.

What I am saying is that the family side of this club is dying away and that is the price we pay for success. The hierachy know that if I or another fan who goes up and down the country won't pay £60 a game or pay £700 for a season ticket, someone else will.

Unfortunately thats modern day football at the highest level.

So that's okay then is it?

Why don't you stop playing devil's advocate and actually give your own opinion. Should we all just clear off without a whimper and leave the club to be toyed with by Flavio and Bernie and any passing tourist? Or should we protest and kick and scream and fight for a part in the club's future? At the moment it feels to me almost as though someone has kidnapped my daughter and forced her into prostitution. And in those circumstances, I sure as hell wouldn't sit here and say "oh well".

I think it's also perfectly reasonable to point out that there is more than enough money available to a Prem club to run it well and profitably as a business without dissing existing fans. Sure you can make more by being greedy, but if that's the case let's take it to an extreme and say there's probably far more money to be made by closing down the club and developing the land as part of a larger package. What do we say then? "Unfortunately, that's modern day business"?

[Mr M]

Why is that way. Looking from the outside it seem the more money the club makes the more they **** it up aganst the wall. We will get near on 40m before we have kicked a ball next season. Will we bring in top prem players...........exactly! If you s.h.i.t. on your own door step it will come back and bite you in the bum.

[qblockpete]

I've given my opinion..

What exactly did Lakeshmi Mittal do for the club last season?

I think its a perception of seeing the worlds richest man at our club, that if he wanted could be buy the club, it will be like small change to him

I don't think he wanted it enough, despite the smiling face and the enormous great reaction he got from the fanbase.

We see Mittal as our mate, when in reality he miles away from our kind of world. He has great success we can only dream of, but the reality is Flavio and Bernie have all the sporting background.

[Mr M]

I've given my opinion..

What exactly did Lakeshmi Mittal do for the club last season?

I think its a perception of seeing the worlds richest man at our club, that if he wanted could be buy the club, it will be like small change to him

I don't think he wanted it enough, despite the smiling face and the enormous great reaction he got from the fanbase.

We see Mittal as our mate, when in reality he miles away from our kind of world. He has great success we can only dream of, but the reality is Flavio and Bernie have all the sporting background.

Yes but in F1. Apples and Pears

[Chopper]

pete, i take your point regarding bernie and flav getting us up. But the fans want the Mittals because they care, they respect and have even more cash to take us forward. More importantly we want rid of the corruption. The Mittals are who we want.

[The Fishcake]

I've given my opinion..

What exactly did Lakeshmi Mittal do for the club last season?

I think its a perception of seeing the worlds richest man at our club, that if he wanted could be buy the club, it will be like small change to him

I don't think he wanted it enough, despite the smiling face and the enormous great reaction he got from the fanbase.

We see Mittal as our mate, when in reality he miles away from our kind of world. He has great success we can only dream of, but the reality is Flavio and Bernie have all the sporting background.

Mittal installed Bhatia to do the job. That's what he did for QPR. He isnt an ego maniac that thought he could do the job just because he is rich.

It was a masterstroke and it worked... True business men know how to delegate, others chose to dictate - and a (different) sporting background is certainly no qualification to do so.

[qblockpete]

Mittal did not install Amit last season to do the job, he's been there since the start. Always the one who would steady the ship and be the peacemaker.



I agree with your assessment of Flavio and Bernie, not my cup of tea and don't have the fanbase or the club to heart

[Bernie's Barnet]

I've given my opinion..

What exactly did Lakeshmi Mittal do for the club last season?

I think its a perception of seeing the worlds richest man at our club, that if he wanted could be buy the club, it will be like small change to him

I don't think he wanted it enough, despite the smiling face and the enormous great reaction he got from the fanbase.

We see Mittal as our mate, when in reality he miles away from our kind of world. He has great success we can only dream of, but the reality is Flavio and Bernie have all the sporting background.

Yes, you've given an opinion. "Football has changed in the last 15 years". Fabulous.

What would be useful to hear from you on is, should we as fans accept that our club is being pimped like some kind of high class #####, rented out for 90 minutes at a time to the nearest passing group of tourists? Should we just accept whatever any of the owners of the club choose to do with it?

Simple questions, yes or no answers would do at worst, if you wanted to expand on your answers you could.

[jonno]

I've given my opinion..

What exactly did Lakeshmi Mittal do for the club last season?

I think its a perception of seeing the worlds richest man at our club, that if he wanted could be buy the club, it will be like small change to him

I don't think he wanted it enough, despite the smiling face and the enormous great reaction he got from the fanbase.

We see Mittal as our mate, when in reality he miles away from our kind of world. He has great success we can only dream of, but the reality is Flavio and Bernie have all the sporting background.

Total rubbish. Amit and Saskena brought in Warnock after Briatore and Paladini ran the club shambolically for years. Within 14 months we are promoted after almost being relegated under those other clowns. Now having seen us promoted, Briatore wants to get involved again. Bernie wants to make a real killing on selling the Club to the Mittals at a ridiculous price - understandably they won't pay over the odds. Consequently we are now left with the clowns Briatore and Paladini running the show again, with Paladini no doubt bringing in the usual cheap cast offs and has beens into the squad, because Bernie won't invest any money in players, and Warnock will be gone. A disaster awaits next season I'm afraid.

[Bernie's Barnet]

Total rubbish. Amit and Saskena brought in Warnock after Briatore and Paladini ran the club shambolically for years. Within 14 months we are promoted after almost being relegated under those other clowns. Now having seen us promoted, Briatore wants to get involved again. Bernie wants to make a real killing on selling the Club to the Mittals at a ridiculous price - understandably they won't pay over the odds. Consequently we are now left with the clowns Briatore and Paladini running the show again, with Paladini no doubt bringing in the usual cheap cast offs and has beens into the squad, because Bernie won't invest any money in players, and Warnock will be gone. A disaster awaits next season I'm afraid.

Yep. Only a matter of time until we're listening to the usual suspects telling us how much the Pelican's improved and that we should give Vine a chance to prove himself.

[qblockpete]

As I said given my opinion.

Believe things would have been different if Mittal had been in charge and prices much lower, though why did they not buy the club?

As for season ticket prices they are well over the top, but they know supporters will find the money after the hyseria dies down. Last season many did not renew for the same reason only to come back after Christmas.

I'm not saying its right, but reality is prices have been set and no kind of protests will get them changed.

I'd guess many have already re-newed today for example

[qblockpete]

jonno

Totally wrong.

if you get a chance, ask Warnock who he has been working with over last few months.

Number 1 answer would be Flavio Briatore

Number 2 would be Bernie Ecclestone

That is a fact..........

The Paladini factor doesn't really come into the current situation, because he and Warnock are the two that brought the players in this season. Unless you are sAYING Amit has an eye for a player