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The happy clappy brigade who dismiss criticism of Ramsey as 'knee jerk' have driven me to this post...
“He’s such a nice, honest guy”
Chris Ramsey’s a nice bloke. I get it. He comes over well in interviews, answers questions honestly and appears to genuinely care about the club, unlike Harry Redknapp, whose press conferences revolved around talking about Spurs and what a ‘triffic lad’ Niko Kranjcar was.
Unfortunately, good football managers aren’t usually ‘nice guys’. Think of the greats – Clough, Sir Alex, Wenger. You wouldn’t really describe them as ‘nice’, would you?
Was Neil Warnock a ‘nice guy’? As much as we love him, let’s be honest, not really.
Being an effective manager requires steel and the ability to intimidate. How else would you lead a group of overpaid, overhyped, egotistical prima donnas?
The fact that Chris Ramsey is likeable isn’t an argument for keeping him. If anything, in the ruthless world of football, it’s a significant weakness.
“Give him a chance”
How much more of a chance do you want to give him? He’s been in charge since February and other than a couple of freak victories at Sunderland and West Brom the performances have been absolutely appalling.
We’re now ten games into the new season. Not only have the results been disappointing, but the performances have been getting worse. It’s a sign the players are not being trained properly.
What we’re producing at the moment barely resembles football. There is no recognisable pattern to our play, the players struggle to pass and stay in their positions and the defence is practically non-existent.
Look at his record. He’s been in charge for 26 games now and has lost fourteen, many of which have been thrashings. His win percentage stands at around 25%. Sorry, that’s embarrassing for a professional football manager.
He’s had his chance and he’s blown it.
“We need time to rebuild”
There’s no point giving a manager as clueless as Ramsey any ‘time to rebuild’. If you’re happy watching a team full of talented individual players stuck in lower mid-table and getting battered by Fulham and Brentford, then sure, give him time. Personally, I want to see us compete.
The irritating thing about this argument is that it doesn’t actually take very long to ‘rebuild’. How long did it take Warnock to transform a hapless, disjointed team into an organised, aggressive and creative outfit? Not much time at all.
Similarly, look at Norwich last season. They started with an amateur coach, fell back into mid-table and then acted quickly, appointing a quality, experienced manager. The impact was immediate and they went up via the play-offs.
With proper leadership, QPR would do well this season. The players are there – Austin, Phillips, Fer, Green. All are Premiership quality (when they can be bothered to show up, eh, Matty?). With so much skill and goalscoring ability in the side, losing 4-0 to Fulham and struggling at home against teams like Blackburn is inexcusable.
I’m not expecting us to win the league – but come on, this team should be at least contending for the top six.
“He kept Austin and Phillips”
He's lucky he did, since Austin’s goals have masked just how inept the manager is. Sure, Les and Chris did well to keep Charlie, but look at how bad their other signings have been.
Polter and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas struggle to make the substitutes’ bench. Chery gets worse and worse and appears to have an attitude problem. Tozser looks like the most inept midfielder we’ve had since Steve Morrow.
Angella has hardly had the greatest of starts. Perch is reckless and constantly out of position. Konchesky is 34 and looks it. Gladwin has barely featured. The signings have been dreadful.
“We’re in the top half, just a few points off the play-offs”
The games we’ve won have been against very poor opposition – and mainly down to Austin’s goalscoring rather than good performances. We were lucky to beat Rotherham after conceding two goals late on and then winning a very dubious penalty. The Wolves victory was down to dodgy goalkeeping.
Every performance this season has been terrible, with the exception of maybe Hull away and Rotherham at home (although that display was very patchy). We’re lucky to be as high as we are (12th). If he remains in charge, we could find ourselves in a relegation battle.
Ramsey is an amateur in every respect. He's in his fifties and this is his first managerial position - there is a reason. Unfortunately I don't see him going, since we have the most inept Chairman in football.
“He’s such a nice, honest guy”
Chris Ramsey’s a nice bloke. I get it. He comes over well in interviews, answers questions honestly and appears to genuinely care about the club, unlike Harry Redknapp, whose press conferences revolved around talking about Spurs and what a ‘triffic lad’ Niko Kranjcar was.
Unfortunately, good football managers aren’t usually ‘nice guys’. Think of the greats – Clough, Sir Alex, Wenger. You wouldn’t really describe them as ‘nice’, would you?
Was Neil Warnock a ‘nice guy’? As much as we love him, let’s be honest, not really.
Being an effective manager requires steel and the ability to intimidate. How else would you lead a group of overpaid, overhyped, egotistical prima donnas?
The fact that Chris Ramsey is likeable isn’t an argument for keeping him. If anything, in the ruthless world of football, it’s a significant weakness.
“Give him a chance”
How much more of a chance do you want to give him? He’s been in charge since February and other than a couple of freak victories at Sunderland and West Brom the performances have been absolutely appalling.
We’re now ten games into the new season. Not only have the results been disappointing, but the performances have been getting worse. It’s a sign the players are not being trained properly.
What we’re producing at the moment barely resembles football. There is no recognisable pattern to our play, the players struggle to pass and stay in their positions and the defence is practically non-existent.
Look at his record. He’s been in charge for 26 games now and has lost fourteen, many of which have been thrashings. His win percentage stands at around 25%. Sorry, that’s embarrassing for a professional football manager.
He’s had his chance and he’s blown it.
“We need time to rebuild”
There’s no point giving a manager as clueless as Ramsey any ‘time to rebuild’. If you’re happy watching a team full of talented individual players stuck in lower mid-table and getting battered by Fulham and Brentford, then sure, give him time. Personally, I want to see us compete.
The irritating thing about this argument is that it doesn’t actually take very long to ‘rebuild’. How long did it take Warnock to transform a hapless, disjointed team into an organised, aggressive and creative outfit? Not much time at all.
Similarly, look at Norwich last season. They started with an amateur coach, fell back into mid-table and then acted quickly, appointing a quality, experienced manager. The impact was immediate and they went up via the play-offs.
With proper leadership, QPR would do well this season. The players are there – Austin, Phillips, Fer, Green. All are Premiership quality (when they can be bothered to show up, eh, Matty?). With so much skill and goalscoring ability in the side, losing 4-0 to Fulham and struggling at home against teams like Blackburn is inexcusable.
I’m not expecting us to win the league – but come on, this team should be at least contending for the top six.
“He kept Austin and Phillips”
He's lucky he did, since Austin’s goals have masked just how inept the manager is. Sure, Les and Chris did well to keep Charlie, but look at how bad their other signings have been.
Polter and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas struggle to make the substitutes’ bench. Chery gets worse and worse and appears to have an attitude problem. Tozser looks like the most inept midfielder we’ve had since Steve Morrow.
Angella has hardly had the greatest of starts. Perch is reckless and constantly out of position. Konchesky is 34 and looks it. Gladwin has barely featured. The signings have been dreadful.
“We’re in the top half, just a few points off the play-offs”
The games we’ve won have been against very poor opposition – and mainly down to Austin’s goalscoring rather than good performances. We were lucky to beat Rotherham after conceding two goals late on and then winning a very dubious penalty. The Wolves victory was down to dodgy goalkeeping.
Every performance this season has been terrible, with the exception of maybe Hull away and Rotherham at home (although that display was very patchy). We’re lucky to be as high as we are (12th). If he remains in charge, we could find ourselves in a relegation battle.
Ramsey is an amateur in every respect. He's in his fifties and this is his first managerial position - there is a reason. Unfortunately I don't see him going, since we have the most inept Chairman in football.
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