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Just the ticket? Maybe not
01 April 2009
Will you be here next season? He won't.
By Ben Kosky
THE message couldn't be clearer: stump up your cash right now if you want to watch QPR's top goalscorer in action next season!
That's him. Dexter Blackstock - Rangers' poster boy, the face of the club's future... and on loan to a club in the Championship relegation zone.
You could have been forgiven for thinking it was an early April Fool's joke. Sadly, it was very much in keeping with the absurd, asinine way QPR conduct their football business these days.
But it will be fascinating to see what effect the astonishing decision to offload Blackstock to Nottingham Forest has on Rangers fans pondering whether or not to renew their season tickets.
The club have offered supporters until April 17 - just over a fortnight away - to purchase season tickets at current prices. How much they will be charged after that date remains classified information.
Some fans will be wondering why this supposedly 'ambitious' club are so keen to part with a player who has hit the net more than twice as often as anyone else this season.
Or why the club - following two good home wins that kept the door to the play-offs fractionally ajar - appear to be slamming it shut by sending out such a negative message.
Or why on earth supporters should part with more hard-earned cash so that the board can squander it on ridiculous signings like Daniel Parejo, Damiano Tommasi and Gary Borrowdale all over again.
But footballing logic was swept out long ago at Loftus Road, along with any semblance of a youth policy, Jude the Cat and a number of loyal club stalwarts.
No doubt some optimists will be clutching at the straw of signing a big-name striker in the summer, someone who will bang in 20-plus goals next season and lead the Rs to the Premier League.
Isn't that what we were all expecting this time last year? But the proven goal poacher never materialised because the club were too busy signing players that - with the exception of Kaspars Gorkss and Lee Cook - they didn't actually need.
The question is whether you trust the people who run QPR sufficiently to give them a second chance, to learn from their mistakes and get it right in future.
It might help if any club official had made some attempt to explain the baffling decision to get rid of Blackstock, as Kevin Keegan did after Newcastle sold Andy Cole to Manchester United many moons ago.
Needless to say, the silence from the club is deafening - and perhaps not surprising, given that their last two managers have also had to pack their bags without any kind of official explanation.
That silence says all you need to know, because it would be difficult for QPR to admit the truth, namely that Blackstock had to go purely because interfering co-owner Flavio Briatore took a dislike to him.
Already, a myth has been spun that Paulo Sousa was the one who didn't rate Blackstock - yet, when fit, the striker was involved in almost every game since the coach arrived.
True, Sousa admits he would prefer to play with a traditional target man, but there is no reason why Blackstock should not have been able to feed off that kind of player as the second forward.
Let's not forget, Blackstock - who is still only 22 - rarely had the chance to fill that kind of role at Rangers, yet managed to score goals at a healthy rate in a side that was often average at best.
Who will fill his place remains to be seen. But there may be many other empty spaces at Loftus Road next season.
01 April 2009
Will you be here next season? He won't.
By Ben Kosky
THE message couldn't be clearer: stump up your cash right now if you want to watch QPR's top goalscorer in action next season!
That's him. Dexter Blackstock - Rangers' poster boy, the face of the club's future... and on loan to a club in the Championship relegation zone.
You could have been forgiven for thinking it was an early April Fool's joke. Sadly, it was very much in keeping with the absurd, asinine way QPR conduct their football business these days.
But it will be fascinating to see what effect the astonishing decision to offload Blackstock to Nottingham Forest has on Rangers fans pondering whether or not to renew their season tickets.
The club have offered supporters until April 17 - just over a fortnight away - to purchase season tickets at current prices. How much they will be charged after that date remains classified information.
Some fans will be wondering why this supposedly 'ambitious' club are so keen to part with a player who has hit the net more than twice as often as anyone else this season.
Or why the club - following two good home wins that kept the door to the play-offs fractionally ajar - appear to be slamming it shut by sending out such a negative message.
Or why on earth supporters should part with more hard-earned cash so that the board can squander it on ridiculous signings like Daniel Parejo, Damiano Tommasi and Gary Borrowdale all over again.
But footballing logic was swept out long ago at Loftus Road, along with any semblance of a youth policy, Jude the Cat and a number of loyal club stalwarts.
No doubt some optimists will be clutching at the straw of signing a big-name striker in the summer, someone who will bang in 20-plus goals next season and lead the Rs to the Premier League.
Isn't that what we were all expecting this time last year? But the proven goal poacher never materialised because the club were too busy signing players that - with the exception of Kaspars Gorkss and Lee Cook - they didn't actually need.
The question is whether you trust the people who run QPR sufficiently to give them a second chance, to learn from their mistakes and get it right in future.
It might help if any club official had made some attempt to explain the baffling decision to get rid of Blackstock, as Kevin Keegan did after Newcastle sold Andy Cole to Manchester United many moons ago.
Needless to say, the silence from the club is deafening - and perhaps not surprising, given that their last two managers have also had to pack their bags without any kind of official explanation.
That silence says all you need to know, because it would be difficult for QPR to admit the truth, namely that Blackstock had to go purely because interfering co-owner Flavio Briatore took a dislike to him.
Already, a myth has been spun that Paulo Sousa was the one who didn't rate Blackstock - yet, when fit, the striker was involved in almost every game since the coach arrived.
True, Sousa admits he would prefer to play with a traditional target man, but there is no reason why Blackstock should not have been able to feed off that kind of player as the second forward.
Let's not forget, Blackstock - who is still only 22 - rarely had the chance to fill that kind of role at Rangers, yet managed to score goals at a healthy rate in a side that was often average at best.
Who will fill his place remains to be seen. But there may be many other empty spaces at Loftus Road next season.
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