Is it time for a change at the top?

[Gibby]

Have all the head coaches failed though? Yes they've failed to get us promoted but we have maintained our status in one of the most competitive leagues in the world while trying to become sustainable within a very limited budget. I wouldn't call that failure. Only 3 teams can get promoted and every year we are competing with 23 other clubs for those places. That includes teams that were recently relegated from the top tier who still have Premier League players and much bigger budgets.

I don’t believe they have all failed though, this is one of the talking points. Why, whenever we go on a bad run, is the Head Coach the first to be blamed/ to go? Is it not time positions like the DOF are bought into question instead of him just being allowed to point at the head coach? If we are on a bad run due to the lack of depth & quality we have in the squad at times, especially when a handful of starters are out injured, the head coach can only use the tools they’ve been given as such. And if the quality of those tools aren’t good enough to compete consistently at this level, then the person responsible for bringing them in (in our case the DOF) should be questioned, should they not?

Even our supposed plan to introduce players to the first team from our youth set up has failed to work and for the most part this isn’t because of the lack of talent (though some are questionable) but for the way the club have chucked them in at the deep end instead of introducing them or sending them out to get the right experience beforehand.

it’s not a nice watch for anybody with the club in its current state and why can’t questions start to be asked now? Too much going on behind closed doors that fans are not aware of and I believe the club does not treat the fans anywhere near as well as they should. Though we have done extremely well to continue our stay in the championship, at what point do you become unhappy with it? Are people happy to continue as is, play with possible relegation (we’ve only had 1 top 10 finish in however long) or become the next Nottingham Forest with 14 seasons in the championship… as each season goes by more and more championship clubs make visible progression and become stronger on and off the pitch but I don’t believe that QPR have.

[Gibby]

You seem to be assuming that the DOF is forcing his selection of players on the manager? Les has said before that he just goes out and does the deals for players that the manager has identified or agreed to. Not one of our previous managers has complained that they never got the players they wanted to sign so why blame Les? They obviously don't.

I’m not outright assuming that this is what’s happening but there have been signs of it in the past. I just feel it’s right to ask the questions about the DOF and the board and it’s genuinely really interesting to learn of other peoples opinions too!

I believe, with many of them the Head coaches (not manager as the club does not hold that position anymore) have gone to Les with what they wanted and got turned back around by Les with him telling them what they are getting instead. Hence the term ‘Head Coach’, they don’t tend to have a say in what players come in, they are simply there to coach the players that are in front of them. With a few of our Head Coaches now, they’ve been interviewed stating what they would realistically like but it’s all been speculation and optimism, never… ‘I’ve spoken with Les and I am confident he will do the right business.’

As in any corporate organisation, you wouldn’t go gunning for the person above you whilst you still worked there as they’d come down on you like a tone of bricks. Much like, when things don’t go to plan it’s the people at the bottom of the ladder that get the axe first…

This is one of the reasons why I believe it’s a discussion that’s needed as many of our fans (not directed at you by the way) don’t seem to understand the role of a DOF and the difference between a Head Coach & Manager.
when we didn’t have a DOF, we had a Manager & a head coach…. Now we have a DOF, we have no manager and a Head Coach. I believe that the DOF may be the one deciding the ins & outs of our squad, therefore has every right to be in the firing line.

I hope that you respect that these are just opinions/ points for discussion. Over everything I’d like the club to become transparent with their fans.

[daveshads]

Your post (Gibby) although far more detailed, echoes my post of last week. I agree with almost all that you say. The main point I was trying to make was that in all businesses, employees need to be effective. This effectiveness needs to be assessed and if it falls below certain levels, then action needs to be taken. I am not particularly thinking about LF but everybody. For example one post recently described the poor standard of catering.

The club gives me the feeling that it is "comfy" with itself. Currently this is proving detrimental to the hopes and dreams of the most important people.

Football remains perverse. I could be proved horribly wrong but I think we may do OK tonight.

[SheepRanger]

the problem lies with Les and his decision making.

Signing Nico Hamalainen on a four year contract is just one of the catalogue of errors that have been made from him over the past few seasons.

Hes been a DoF for 8 years now and he is on 500k a year, which is around 9500 per week.

Surely it is time to change the DoF, get someone else in who perhaps has much better experience within the recruitment side of football, I would say give Les a job elsewhere within the football club, perhaps working with the B team or the U18s?

The Nico situation depends on how much his wages really are and how much we've got back in loan fees. I would argue the loss is minimal and was worth the punt. I think there are many many more signings that were disasters. Most of those we signed in premership for sure that cost us many many millions. But that's their money and theyve written off those debts/loans.

We're a small club and a lot of fans need to manage their expectations. We'll have our moment in the sun again one day which will no doubt be followed by more years of apparent disaster being a mid-table championship club.

Im just glad we're not following the Charlton model thsn banging my head over Brentford. I'm grateful for what we do have and f**k the rest of them.

[QPROslo]

Ten weeks ago we were top of League and everyone wrote we were a very well run club. We could not be well run in October and badly run now. Ferdinand or the owners have clearly not changed that much in such a short period of time.

We have the fifth lowest budget i the Championships or thereabout and need to be jugded based on that. Given our budget we have mostly over performed the last few years. It is not great, but very decent.

We get some signings right, some wrong, like most other clubs. In the last few years we have got defenders and midfielders more right than wrong, but striker acquisitions very wrong. In my book we have got head coach recruitments more right than wrong. Overall I think Ferdinand does better than average. We might find a better DOF but I think it is more likely on our budget we might end up with a weaker one if we replace him.

In these trying times I rather get behind Ferdinand, Critchley, Hoos and the owners and back them.

[Gibby]

Ten weeks ago we were top of League and everyone wrote we were a very well run club. We could not be well run in October and badly run now. Ferdinand or the owners have clearly not changed that much in such a short period of time.

We have the fifth lowest budget i the Championships or thereabout and need to be jugded based on that. Given our budget we have mostly over performed the last few years. It is not great, but very decent.

We get some signings right, some wrong, like most other clubs. In the last few years we have got defenders and midfielders more right than wrong, but striker acquisitions very wrong. In my book we have got head coach recruitments more right than wrong. Overall I think Ferdinand does better than average. We might find a better DOF but I think it is more likely on our budget we might end up with a weaker one if we replace him.

In these trying times I rather get behind Ferdinand, Critchley, Hoos and the owners and back them.

I guess the main point of starting this thread was to get the views of those who support the board, those who don’t and those who are unsure (like myself).

there have been some interesting comments and points made. My concerns span much further back than 10 weeks ago. I’m all for backing the board but personally feel that they aren’t being as transparent with the fans anymore and I feel like there is a big disconnect between the board and the fans, which never ends well.

[Shania]

I guess the main point of starting this thread was to get the views of those who support the board, those who don’t and those who are unsure (like myself).

there have been some interesting comments and points made. My concerns span much further back than 10 weeks ago. I’m all for backing the board but personally feel that they aren’t being as transparent with the fans anymore and I feel like there is a big disconnect between the board and the fans, which never ends well.

Spot on!! The happy clappers cant see anything wrong though.

[Harrow QPR]

I believe the owners( board ) have completely lost interest in the club , now we are no longer in the promised land of the premier league and we don't look like getting any free or cheap H&F land to build a new ground on. I think they are trying to recoup as much money asa they possibly can by having all these undisclosed fees transfers and signing out of contract or crocked players players hoping that they will overcome their injuries and come good so we can sell them on.
Regarding Les , i think they have him as director of football to act as a buffer for them as they don't seem to know much about the game and they had their fingers burnt with all the money they wasted on inflated players wages in the Prem, so now they want to run us on a shoestring (poundland ) budget.
I personally don't think a crappy little club like ours need a director of football and the same for most teams especially in the championship.
As for the academies , they are just jobs for the boys , all Les's mates run the teams and they help his Rooney rule black agenda. If we do ever get any decent players under 16 years old the bigger clubs will just nick them and any decent over 16 they will nick them but we get a small fee , so they are probabley a waste of time .
Football has been stacked against the smaller teams for years now and it's all about the big clubs and they're closed shop all getting richer.
In an ideal world our owners sell up to a super rich Rangers fanatic , who builds a new state of the art ground and buys loads of good players then win everything .

[ConorQPR2000]

I believe the owners( board ) have completely lost interest in the club , now we are no longer in the promised land of the premier league and we don't look like getting any free or cheap H&F land to build a new ground on. I think they are trying to recoup as much money asa they possibly can by having all these undisclosed fees transfers and signing out of contract or crocked players players hoping that they will overcome their injuries and come good so we can sell them on.
Regarding Les , i think they have him as director of football to act as a buffer for them as they don't seem to know much about the game and they had their fingers burnt with all the money they wasted on inflated players wages in the Prem, so now they want to run us on a shoestring (poundland ) budget.
I personally don't think a crappy little club like ours need a director of football and the same for most teams especially in the championship.
As for the academies , they are just jobs for the boys , all Les's mates run the teams and they help his Rooney rule black agenda. If we do ever get any decent players under 16 years old the bigger clubs will just nick them and any decent over 16 they will nick them but we get a small fee , so they are probabley a waste of time .
Football has been stacked against the smaller teams for years now and it's all about the big clubs and they're closed shop all getting richer.
In an ideal world our owners sell up to a super rich Rangers fanatic , who builds a new state of the art ground and buys loads of good players then win everything .

Its telling that Fernandes isn't even posting about QPR much anymore.

I personally wonder if he is preparing to sell the club on, potentially to the Mittal's, once the training ground is done.

We do need an owner who is more willing to oversee the day to day operations of the club and who is committed to ensuring the club remains competitive at this level, whilst maximising revenue and being financially prudent.

Fernandes to me doesnt even seem that interested anymore, which is quite telling.

[SheepRanger]

Fernandes has done his money and its Ruben Gnanalingam who has been providing the loans to keep the club going. When these loans mature and are converted to shares Ruban's percentage ownership goes up and the others go down due to share dilution. Fernandes and Mittals have been taking a financial back seat for a while now and Ruban is the only one showing any interest in taking over full control.

Due to the "Queen" in Qpr im sure one day we'll get American investment. They love all that royal stuff and could msrket the hell out of that in the US of A.

But, im sure the current owners and future ones would perfer us to have premiership status before any sale happens.....perhaps?????

[FurtiveFox]

Lets face it that following promotion we spent probably around five years in chaos and ended up in a very bad position. It's really been just the last couple of years we have been able to start to stabilise and get on some kind of even track. Stabilise though means a budget, as others have said, at lower end of Championship and a squad assembled for peanuts. We can of course aim to punch above our weight but there are plenty of other clubs looking to do likewise.

Manager recruitment wise have no issue with Sir Les. They all looked potentially good appointments save for Ollie's second coming which was an abomination at Uncle Tony's bequest if we can believe what we hear. Beale I suspect was seen as someone who would stay a couple of years before moving on if successful. Both him disappearing after 5 minutes and the manner of his departure have derailed us badly.

Do we need a DoF? In my view not essential but desirable. Long term this club's success will be largely based on stability. Any managers that are any good will get poached so we would benefit from having stability elsewhere on the footballing side and that is where a DoF comes in. The club has a plan, sticks to it and managers slot in. A manager leaving should not be an armageddon situation. Living down near Brighton have seen them go from being one game from being relegated out of the football league to the Premiership. The main thing behind their success is having a long term plan and stability. Never went crazy on signings or anything. They went through a phase in the Championship of losing managers almost year on year but their plan remained the same and it had little effect on their progress. Probably took them a decade or so to get a new ground with them losing out on a number of sites. Add in the London factor and you can see why it is such a challenge us finding one. Until we have one we will be ducking and diving.

Where I see us now is as a reasonably well run club but with no money. We will need to focus on developing players, loans and freebies in the main. Both Beale and Critchley have good reputations as coaches and seem to have the right profile to work on that basis. Whilst I would love us to do a Brentford realistically we would be doing well if we can maintain ourselves as a mid-table Championship side hopefully playing some nice football along the way.

[Undecided]

Lets face it that following promotion we spent probably around five years in chaos and ended up in a very bad position. It's really been just the last couple of years we have been able to start to stabilise and get on some kind of even track. Stabilise though means a budget, as others have said, at lower end of Championship and a squad assembled for peanuts. We can of course aim to punch above our weight but there are plenty of other clubs looking to do likewise.

Manager recruitment wise have no issue with Sir Les. They all looked potentially good appointments save for Ollie's second coming which was an abomination at Uncle Tony's bequest if we can believe what we hear. Beale I suspect was seen as someone who would stay a couple of years before moving on if successful. Both him disappearing after 5 minutes and the manner of his departure have derailed us badly.

Do we need a DoF? In my view not essential but desirable. Long term this club's success will be largely based on stability. Any managers that are any good will get poached so we would benefit from having stability elsewhere on the footballing side and that is where a DoF comes in. The club has a plan, sticks to it and managers slot in. A manager leaving should not be an armageddon situation. Living down near Brighton have seen them go from being one game from being relegated out of the football league to the Premiership. The main thing behind their success is having a long term plan and stability. Never went crazy on signings or anything. They went through a phase in the Championship of losing managers almost year on year but their plan remained the same and it had little effect on their progress. Probably took them a decade or so to get a new ground with them losing out on a number of sites. Add in the London factor and you can see why it is such a challenge us finding one. Until we have one we will be ducking and diving.

Where I see us now is as a reasonably well run club but with no money. We will need to focus on developing players, loans and freebies in the main. Both Beale and Critchley have good reputations as coaches and seem to have the right profile to work on that basis. Whilst I would love us to do a Brentford realistically we would be doing well if we can maintain ourselves as a mid-table Championship side hopefully playing some nice football along the way.

Always good sensible posts Furtive.

Not surprised you're from "near Brighton". Slightly to the West though, hopefully !

[Abseits]

There has been nothing wrong with the purchases/loans we have made over past few years - bulk of them seem reasonable to me, particularly given they've costed peanuts.

This season's "buys"- Paal, Clarke-Salter and Balogun and the loans - Laird, Roberts, Richards and Iroegbunum seem fair enough.

The previous couple of years' crop included Amos, Dykes, Dickie, Bonne, Adomah, Willock, DeWijs, Field, Austin, Dozzell, Johansson. Again, looks decent enough to me.

Then there's young Armstrong...... bit early to judge but fair to say 99.9% of us are VERY excited to see how he comes on in coming months.

Even with the benefit of hindsight, I'm genuinely struggling to think of any outright lemons we've recruited.

ll in all I genuinely can't see what the DOF has done wrong? My opinion is that Ferdinand and Hoos have done a sterling job in supporting the managers in getting in decent players over a difficult few covid-hit seasons.

[topperharley]

Lets face it that following promotion we spent probably around five years in chaos and ended up in a very bad position. It's really been just the last couple of years we have been able to start to stabilise and get on some kind of even track. Stabilise though means a budget, as others have said, at lower end of Championship and a squad assembled for peanuts. We can of course aim to punch above our weight but there are plenty of other clubs looking to do likewise.

Manager recruitment wise have no issue with Sir Les. They all looked potentially good appointments save for Ollie's second coming which was an abomination at Uncle Tony's bequest if we can believe what we hear. Beale I suspect was seen as someone who would stay a couple of years before moving on if successful. Both him disappearing after 5 minutes and the manner of his departure have derailed us badly.

Do we need a DoF? In my view not essential but desirable. Long term this club's success will be largely based on stability. Any managers that are any good will get poached so we would benefit from having stability elsewhere on the footballing side and that is where a DoF comes in. The club has a plan, sticks to it and managers slot in. A manager leaving should not be an armageddon situation. Living down near Brighton have seen them go from being one game from being relegated out of the football league to the Premiership. The main thing behind their success is having a long term plan and stability. Never went crazy on signings or anything. They went through a phase in the Championship of losing managers almost year on year but their plan remained the same and it had little effect on their progress. Probably took them a decade or so to get a new ground with them losing out on a number of sites. Add in the London factor and you can see why it is such a challenge us finding one. Until we have one we will be ducking and diving.

Where I see us now is as a reasonably well run club but with no money. We will need to focus on developing players, loans and freebies in the main. Both Beale and Critchley have good reputations as coaches and seem to have the right profile to work on that basis. Whilst I would love us to do a Brentford realistically we would be doing well if we can maintain ourselves as a mid-table Championship side hopefully playing some nice football along the way.

Exactly my view.

[topperharley]

There has been nothing wrong with the purchases/loans we have made over past few years - bulk of them seem reasonable to me, particularly given they've costed peanuts.

This season's "buys"- Paal, Clarke-Salter and Balogun and the loans - Laird, Roberts, Richards and Iroegbunum seem fair enough.

The previous couple of years' crop included Amos, Dykes, Dickie, Bonne, Adomah, Willock, DeWijs, Field, Austin, Dozzell, Johansson. Again, looks decent enough to me.

Then there's young Armstrong...... bit early to judge but fair to say 99.9% of us are VERY excited to see how he comes on in coming months.

Even with the benefit of hindsight, I'm genuinely struggling to think of any outright lemons we've recruited.

ll in all I genuinely can't see what the DOF has done wrong? My opinion is that Ferdinand and Hoos have done a sterling job in supporting the managers in getting in decent players over a difficult few covid-hit seasons.

Agree, except for the major lack in communication between Warbs and the DOF over wingbacks, the ultimate reason for his failngs. Either get some, or stop playing as if we have them.