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It would be a fairly spectacular understatement to say that the Sky Bet Championship is an unpredictable division.
Watford narrowly missed out on promotion twice last season (once automatically, once through the play-offs), but have spent much of this term nervously looking down rather than hopefully looking up. Leicester spent years throwing money at every conceivable problem, but after spending virtually nothing last summer, they're now by a distance the best team in the league. Burnley sold their best player, didn't sign anyone to replace him and are second.
This chaos is most neatly summed up by QPR, who began the season with a squad that looked stronger on paper than half a dozen teams in the Premier League, and with a manager who narrowly missed out on the England job, having taken Tottenham to fourth, fifth then fourth in his last three seasons there. They should, in theory, be the team 13 points clear of second place, rather than Leicester.
As it is, they are in fourth and, if their current form doesn't turn round pretty dramatically and pretty quickly, they are more likely to slip out of the top six than jump back into the top two. It was therefore not a massive surprise that stories emerged in the press (most notably The Times, not a paper prone to hyperbole in these things) that the QPR board were at least considering making a change.
Redknapp was, of course, bullish in his rebuttal of such talk. "There is always somebody who people talk to and they don't like you and want to stick the boot in," he told TalkSPORT, whose presenter admirably managed to stop themselves bursting into fits of laughter at the idea of Redknapp complaining that the press might harm his career.
"This is the first blip we've had all season, it can happen. We have put a new team together and if you said at the start of the season that we'd make the play-offs, we'd have been quite happy."
Redknapp cannot possibly think that, given the investment made and the experience in his squad, anything other than a rapid return to the Premier League was acceptable to the Rangers hierarchy. Obviously his words were an attempt at self-preservation, but his assertion that the naysaying only stems from QPR's recent run (they have collected just two points from the last five games) is misleading.
Championship
1 Leicester 74
2 Burnley 66
3 Derby 61
4 QPR 57
5 N Forest 55
6 Wigan 52
7 Reading 51
8 Brighton 49
9 Ipswich 48
10 Blackburn 46
11 Watford 45
12 Leeds 44
13 Huddersfld 43
14 Middlesbro' 40
15 Sheff Wed 39
16 Bournemth 39
17 Birmingham 36
18 Bolton 36
19 Blackpool 35
20 Doncaster 30
21 Millwall 28
22 Charlton 27
23 Yeovil 26
24 Barnsley 26
last updated 03/03 16:18
QPR have in fact been living off their outstanding start to the season for a couple of months now. Since the start of December, they have won six from 15, collecting 22 points from a possible 45, a points-per-game ratio that if applied to a full season would give 67 points, a total only enough for eighth place last season and one that Leicester reached after 29 games this term. They have scored just 38 goals, fewer than any team bar one in the top half, and fewer than Bolton, who are in 18th place.
Redknapp also points to injuries, especially to top-scorer Charlie Austin, and squad turnover (18 players left in the summer while 19 came in) for their sluggish performance, which are both understandable excuses, but again both are misleading.
The change in personnel is of course a problem, but logically one would think that would only be an issue at the start of the campaign, when the high turnover would make it difficult to knit a team together. However, QPR won nine and drew two of their opening 11 games, which would seem to suggest this was not the case, and Redknapp actually dealt with the churn pretty well, so to blame it for their latter struggles does not make much sense.
The injury situation is another that Redknapp seems to have exaggerated the impact of. Niko Kranjcar, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Gary O'Neil, Bobby Zamora, Charlie Austin, Matt Phillips and Danny Simpson all missed the draw against Leeds at the weekend, and Joey Barton was suspended, but Redknapp was still able to field a team that, including the three substitutes, had 354 international caps between them. Every team suffers with injuries, but few in the Championship are so well-equipped to deal with them as QPR.
Austin's shoulder injury, which Redknapp is now more optimistic about after initially predicting he would miss the rest of the season, is of course a blow, but his absence merely serves to highlight how over-reliant QPR were on him for goals. Austin has 14 league goals to his name, and their next highest scorer is Matt Phillips, who has three, then six other players have two apiece.
A neat summary of QPR's situation came when they recruited Ravel Morrison from West Ham on an 'emergency' loan. All but one or two other clubs in the division would mend and make do when faced with injury problems - QPR spent who knows how much on the wages of a player touted for the England World Cup squad not too long ago.
The play-offs would not be a disaster. After all, West Ham used that route to go up in 2012 when in a similar position and they're doing well now, but QPR really should not be in this situation. Given their resources, if QPR do not win promotion this season, Redknapp will have failed, no matter how many excuses he gives.
It would be a fairly spectacular understatement to say that the Sky Bet Championship is an unpredictable division.
Watford narrowly missed out on promotion twice last season (once automatically, once through the play-offs), but have spent much of this term nervously looking down rather than hopefully looking up. Leicester spent years throwing money at every conceivable problem, but after spending virtually nothing last summer, they're now by a distance the best team in the league. Burnley sold their best player, didn't sign anyone to replace him and are second.
This chaos is most neatly summed up by QPR, who began the season with a squad that looked stronger on paper than half a dozen teams in the Premier League, and with a manager who narrowly missed out on the England job, having taken Tottenham to fourth, fifth then fourth in his last three seasons there. They should, in theory, be the team 13 points clear of second place, rather than Leicester.
As it is, they are in fourth and, if their current form doesn't turn round pretty dramatically and pretty quickly, they are more likely to slip out of the top six than jump back into the top two. It was therefore not a massive surprise that stories emerged in the press (most notably The Times, not a paper prone to hyperbole in these things) that the QPR board were at least considering making a change.
Redknapp was, of course, bullish in his rebuttal of such talk. "There is always somebody who people talk to and they don't like you and want to stick the boot in," he told TalkSPORT, whose presenter admirably managed to stop themselves bursting into fits of laughter at the idea of Redknapp complaining that the press might harm his career.
"This is the first blip we've had all season, it can happen. We have put a new team together and if you said at the start of the season that we'd make the play-offs, we'd have been quite happy."
Redknapp cannot possibly think that, given the investment made and the experience in his squad, anything other than a rapid return to the Premier League was acceptable to the Rangers hierarchy. Obviously his words were an attempt at self-preservation, but his assertion that the naysaying only stems from QPR's recent run (they have collected just two points from the last five games) is misleading.
Championship
1 Leicester 74
2 Burnley 66
3 Derby 61
4 QPR 57
5 N Forest 55
6 Wigan 52
7 Reading 51
8 Brighton 49
9 Ipswich 48
10 Blackburn 46
11 Watford 45
12 Leeds 44
13 Huddersfld 43
14 Middlesbro' 40
15 Sheff Wed 39
16 Bournemth 39
17 Birmingham 36
18 Bolton 36
19 Blackpool 35
20 Doncaster 30
21 Millwall 28
22 Charlton 27
23 Yeovil 26
24 Barnsley 26
last updated 03/03 16:18
QPR have in fact been living off their outstanding start to the season for a couple of months now. Since the start of December, they have won six from 15, collecting 22 points from a possible 45, a points-per-game ratio that if applied to a full season would give 67 points, a total only enough for eighth place last season and one that Leicester reached after 29 games this term. They have scored just 38 goals, fewer than any team bar one in the top half, and fewer than Bolton, who are in 18th place.
Redknapp also points to injuries, especially to top-scorer Charlie Austin, and squad turnover (18 players left in the summer while 19 came in) for their sluggish performance, which are both understandable excuses, but again both are misleading.
The change in personnel is of course a problem, but logically one would think that would only be an issue at the start of the campaign, when the high turnover would make it difficult to knit a team together. However, QPR won nine and drew two of their opening 11 games, which would seem to suggest this was not the case, and Redknapp actually dealt with the churn pretty well, so to blame it for their latter struggles does not make much sense.
The injury situation is another that Redknapp seems to have exaggerated the impact of. Niko Kranjcar, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Gary O'Neil, Bobby Zamora, Charlie Austin, Matt Phillips and Danny Simpson all missed the draw against Leeds at the weekend, and Joey Barton was suspended, but Redknapp was still able to field a team that, including the three substitutes, had 354 international caps between them. Every team suffers with injuries, but few in the Championship are so well-equipped to deal with them as QPR.
Austin's shoulder injury, which Redknapp is now more optimistic about after initially predicting he would miss the rest of the season, is of course a blow, but his absence merely serves to highlight how over-reliant QPR were on him for goals. Austin has 14 league goals to his name, and their next highest scorer is Matt Phillips, who has three, then six other players have two apiece.
A neat summary of QPR's situation came when they recruited Ravel Morrison from West Ham on an 'emergency' loan. All but one or two other clubs in the division would mend and make do when faced with injury problems - QPR spent who knows how much on the wages of a player touted for the England World Cup squad not too long ago.
The play-offs would not be a disaster. After all, West Ham used that route to go up in 2012 when in a similar position and they're doing well now, but QPR really should not be in this situation. Given their resources, if QPR do not win promotion this season, Redknapp will have failed, no matter how many excuses he gives.
SIR LESLIE FERDINAND!!
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