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A few thoughts on John Harbin
By thegodfather

Think back to the 2007/08 season. Luigi De Canio replaced John Gregory as the manager of Queens Park Rangers and brought entertaining, attacking football back to Shepherds Bush. It had been a long time since Rangers supporters had seen such impressive passing movements grace the hallowed turf of Loftus Road and many felt that the feel-good factor was back at the club after ten years of, on the most part, misery.

Whilst De Canio had made great strides in improving the performance of the team, it was obvious that problems still existed. All too often the team would tire during the second half, allowing the opposition to put pressure on the QPR defence. This contributed to the Hoops’ failure to defend their score-line leads during the 2007/08 campaign. Despite this, De Canio achieved a 14th place finish – respectable, given the dreadful start to the season that the Rs had suffered under John Gregory.

It was clear that team fitness was an issue that needed to be addressed and when Iain Dowie was appointed as the new QPR boss during the summer of 2008, he moved swiftly to secure the services of Performance Manager, John Harbin. Harbin had worked with Dowie in his previous job at Coventry City and the two had really focused on improving the squad’s fitness during the training sessions. Together they had managed to build a very strong and physical Sky Blues team.

The improvements in the QPR side were there for all to see when the new season kicked off in August 2008. Thanks to the influence of Harbin, the majority of the players were now able to sustain their level of performance throughout the match. No longer did the Rangers fans have to suffer the agony of seeing their fatigued players form a blue-and-white wall on the edge of their area during the second half, desperately clinging on to a one-goal lead. Yes, there were some dire Dowie-esque performances, but at least team fitness was not an issue.

When Dowie was sacked after a string of disappointing results in October 2008, the new “first-team coach” (as the club announced on the official website), Paulo Sousa, clearly recognised Harbin as an asset to Queens Park Rangers. Some supporters argued that the Portuguese’s tactics were too negative, but even so, the pure stamina and physical strength of the Rangers side carried them through some matches, particularly away from home, securing important points. To the disappointment of many fans, Sousa was sacked by QPR a few weeks before the end of the season for “divulging highly sensitive information”, but the Performance Manager kept his job for the remainder of the campaign.

This week Rangers fans learnt of the departure of John Harbin, after speculation that he will be joining Sousa at Swansea City. The news comes as a real blow to the QPR squad as they begin their pre-season training programme. Let us hope that without the guidance of Harbin, the team still manages to maintain a high level of fitness for the forthcoming campaign.

Rs fans will also miss Harbin’s superb column in the match-day programme. It gave supporters a real insight into the mentality of the players, the way in which the training sessions were ran and how the coaching staff analysed the performance of the team through statistics. Through reading the articles it was clear that Harbin was a very knowledgeable and experienced sports coach and on behalf of WATRB I would like to wish him all the success in the future.