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Like many supporters I have not particularly enjoyed this season apart of course wins against Liverpool and Chelsea. I feel the big names have let us down and the Championship players have stood out, now its time for the big players to play a part in the big games that lay ahead.
The biggest disappointments for me have been Joey Barton and Nedum Onuoha. I'd expected a captain to be rolling up his sleeves showing us on the pitch what he is capable of. Instead he has spent far too much time on Twitter particularly after a bad result and calling some supporters bell-ends for questioning his performances has not endeared him to the fan-base. He really does now have the opportunity to show us what he can do. No more hiding, no more making excuses, it’s time to deliver. If we stay up and he plays a part in that, than most supporters will forgive him for his comments this season.
In the case of Nedum Onuoha he came with a tall reputation and Manchester City players seemed genuinely devastated that he left. At the moment I am devastated with the way he is playing. He seems nervous and some of the clearances he has made, some League 1 players would be proud of. He comes across as a quiet sincere person, but he really needs to up his game otherwise we could be in for a tonking against the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd and Spurs.
I know fans have singled out SWP, but I feel he works hard and I feel criticism of him has been harsh. Often played out of position and often filling in for players that have been sent off in the middle of the field. He has during the season had 2 perfectly good goals cancelled out and personally feel fans look at what he is perceived to be earning as opposed to his performances on the pitch.
The run-in will provide many twists and turns and it’s not over, until the final whistle is blown on the final day of the season. A day after beating Liverpool many fans felt the "Great Escape" was on, only to be disappointed a few days later with an inept performance v Sunderland. Listening to Mark Bowen on the official last night (recording of the show can now be heard) he made it clear players and management teams had open air discussions and frank words were exchanged. What is needed is to wipe the slate clean and look forward, not back. We find ourselves in this position through a mixture of bad fortune, bad discipline and conceding goals at critical times. It can be argued that we have stepped backwards in the organisation stakes since the first games of Mark Hughes reign and now we need to get that back!
I believe many players will be on phones to agents if we are relegated despite assurances that we will keep the "majority" of players. I'm not actually sure the current crop will have the fight for a championship campaign in any case, so our best hope of keeping those players is to avoid relegation. I am really disappointed like many that our main goal-scoring weapon Djerbril Cisse misses 4 games, whilst it’s a good opportunity for someone like DJ Campbell to now step up to the plate. At least growing up being a QPR fan he should know what it means to us and I have no doubt he will give 100% in the remaining games if given the opportunity.
In terms of the remaining games we as fans cannot think we are already relegated, really we can't. Teams around us have difficult run-ins and too much has been made in the media about out last 8 fixtures. For example take a look at Blackburn, Wolves and Wigan, they have really tough matches coming up. The only problem I can see is that we are novices in avoiding relegations and teams around us are experts in fighting the drop. On paper our team should be good enough to avoid being relegated, though if the game was on paper we would not in the bottom 3!
Looking at the fixtures I think 3 wins and a draw will be enough. I still maintain we need to have a better goal average than Blackburn Rovers come the last game of season and be at the very least level on points with them. It’s likely Manchester United would have already been crowned Premiership champions by that date which will deflate many City players and whilst I'd expect we will lose, don't think it will be a crushing defeat. Blackburn travel to Chelsea and the same could argued with that game, bearing in mind Chelsea will not be qualified for Champions League, though I would not expect Blackburn to get a result there also.
Where will our results come from? That’s the hard part. We are just as likely to beat Arsenal or Spurs and lose to Swansea or WBA. We can certainly get the 3 wins, all about the players pulling together and fans need to get right behind the team until May 13th. No-coincidence the team has beaten Chelsea and Liverpool with the crowd fully behind the players and coming close to upsetting Manchester City. I am not daunted by playing the clubs near the top of the Premiership and nor should the players be. In fact, I would expect the players to up for those game and that’s all supporters we can ask for. We need to keep 11 players on the pitch and now totally focus on winning football matches. We will see in the next 4-5 weeks what this clubs means to certain players. Some have the opportunity to become legends at the club and I don’t use that word lightly. If we survive than it will make us stronger, if we survive it will give the club the impetus in the summer to move things forward, if we survive than every player should be given the recognition they deserve.
My final words are for the board. We are lucky and privileged to have such a great board of people who obviously care very much for this club. They have invested heavily (some would say too heavily) and they have certainly deserved better from some of the players. If I performed badly in my profession, I would be sacked. This cannot happen with footballers, they can only be dropped and I think some players on reflection need to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and reflect on whether they have delivered on the promises and assurances they gave when signing those contracts.
I know relegation would be a step back for the owners, but they are strong enough to bring us back up to the Premiership into a short space of time, having learned much from the misfortunes of this season. The fans are totally behind what they are trying to achieve in terms of bigger success on and off the field. No-one thought it would be easy, I just hope for them we can maintain our premiership status.
(The views above are totally my views and not of the club or any other individual)
The biggest disappointments for me have been Joey Barton and Nedum Onuoha. I'd expected a captain to be rolling up his sleeves showing us on the pitch what he is capable of. Instead he has spent far too much time on Twitter particularly after a bad result and calling some supporters bell-ends for questioning his performances has not endeared him to the fan-base. He really does now have the opportunity to show us what he can do. No more hiding, no more making excuses, it’s time to deliver. If we stay up and he plays a part in that, than most supporters will forgive him for his comments this season.
In the case of Nedum Onuoha he came with a tall reputation and Manchester City players seemed genuinely devastated that he left. At the moment I am devastated with the way he is playing. He seems nervous and some of the clearances he has made, some League 1 players would be proud of. He comes across as a quiet sincere person, but he really needs to up his game otherwise we could be in for a tonking against the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd and Spurs.
I know fans have singled out SWP, but I feel he works hard and I feel criticism of him has been harsh. Often played out of position and often filling in for players that have been sent off in the middle of the field. He has during the season had 2 perfectly good goals cancelled out and personally feel fans look at what he is perceived to be earning as opposed to his performances on the pitch.
The run-in will provide many twists and turns and it’s not over, until the final whistle is blown on the final day of the season. A day after beating Liverpool many fans felt the "Great Escape" was on, only to be disappointed a few days later with an inept performance v Sunderland. Listening to Mark Bowen on the official last night (recording of the show can now be heard) he made it clear players and management teams had open air discussions and frank words were exchanged. What is needed is to wipe the slate clean and look forward, not back. We find ourselves in this position through a mixture of bad fortune, bad discipline and conceding goals at critical times. It can be argued that we have stepped backwards in the organisation stakes since the first games of Mark Hughes reign and now we need to get that back!
I believe many players will be on phones to agents if we are relegated despite assurances that we will keep the "majority" of players. I'm not actually sure the current crop will have the fight for a championship campaign in any case, so our best hope of keeping those players is to avoid relegation. I am really disappointed like many that our main goal-scoring weapon Djerbril Cisse misses 4 games, whilst it’s a good opportunity for someone like DJ Campbell to now step up to the plate. At least growing up being a QPR fan he should know what it means to us and I have no doubt he will give 100% in the remaining games if given the opportunity.
In terms of the remaining games we as fans cannot think we are already relegated, really we can't. Teams around us have difficult run-ins and too much has been made in the media about out last 8 fixtures. For example take a look at Blackburn, Wolves and Wigan, they have really tough matches coming up. The only problem I can see is that we are novices in avoiding relegations and teams around us are experts in fighting the drop. On paper our team should be good enough to avoid being relegated, though if the game was on paper we would not in the bottom 3!
Looking at the fixtures I think 3 wins and a draw will be enough. I still maintain we need to have a better goal average than Blackburn Rovers come the last game of season and be at the very least level on points with them. It’s likely Manchester United would have already been crowned Premiership champions by that date which will deflate many City players and whilst I'd expect we will lose, don't think it will be a crushing defeat. Blackburn travel to Chelsea and the same could argued with that game, bearing in mind Chelsea will not be qualified for Champions League, though I would not expect Blackburn to get a result there also.
Where will our results come from? That’s the hard part. We are just as likely to beat Arsenal or Spurs and lose to Swansea or WBA. We can certainly get the 3 wins, all about the players pulling together and fans need to get right behind the team until May 13th. No-coincidence the team has beaten Chelsea and Liverpool with the crowd fully behind the players and coming close to upsetting Manchester City. I am not daunted by playing the clubs near the top of the Premiership and nor should the players be. In fact, I would expect the players to up for those game and that’s all supporters we can ask for. We need to keep 11 players on the pitch and now totally focus on winning football matches. We will see in the next 4-5 weeks what this clubs means to certain players. Some have the opportunity to become legends at the club and I don’t use that word lightly. If we survive than it will make us stronger, if we survive it will give the club the impetus in the summer to move things forward, if we survive than every player should be given the recognition they deserve.
My final words are for the board. We are lucky and privileged to have such a great board of people who obviously care very much for this club. They have invested heavily (some would say too heavily) and they have certainly deserved better from some of the players. If I performed badly in my profession, I would be sacked. This cannot happen with footballers, they can only be dropped and I think some players on reflection need to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and reflect on whether they have delivered on the promises and assurances they gave when signing those contracts.
I know relegation would be a step back for the owners, but they are strong enough to bring us back up to the Premiership into a short space of time, having learned much from the misfortunes of this season. The fans are totally behind what they are trying to achieve in terms of bigger success on and off the field. No-one thought it would be easy, I just hope for them we can maintain our premiership status.
(The views above are totally my views and not of the club or any other individual)
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