Friday, January 11, 2008
Express Columnist Mick Dennis Responds to QPR Reader
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Daily Express columnist, Mick Dennis wrote an article re QPR's new ownership "This is No Way to Go which elicited quite a bit of criticism on a number of QPR messageboards. Mick Dennis responded to one person who emailed him personally. Below is his response. Reprinted with permission of both the writer, Mick Dennis and the recipient.
From Mick Dennis
To:
Subject: RE: 'This is no way to go'
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008
I have been deluged with responses and will point out in next Wednesday's column that the passion of QPR supporters does them proud -- and it's not their fault the club has been allowed to rot.
Mick
From Mick Dennis
To:
Subject: RE: 'This is no way to go'
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008
Hi
I first went to QPR in the 1960s, when I was growing up in Hounslow. I used to go to all the West London clubs -- Brentford, Chelsea, Fulham and the R's as well as Hounslow Town, who were a decent amateur team. I did not support any of them, in the conventional sense, but I certainly wanted QPR to win when I was watching them. I used to stand behind the goal at the School End, and I joined in the chant of "Henry, Henry" in awed admiration of the great Terry Mancini.
In the 70s I began work as a journalist and my first job was on the Eastern Daily Press in Norfolk. I could only watch one club -- Norwich City. I became hooked, and although my route to supporting Norwich was unusual, I have been a fan ever since. When I got my first Fleet Street sports reporting job, in 1978, I moved to Hertfordshire. As well as visiting Loftus Road professionally quite often, I have taken my family there for the odd game when work has allowed and when we couldn't get to Norwich.
I have also managed to watch Norwich at your place several times in the last few years -- and yes, we've lost most of those game, but that is not why I came to view Rangers as a badly run club.
That began when, as deputy sports editor of the (London) Evening Standard, I conducted a survey of all the London clubs for ES Magazine. I took my two sons, who were both very young at the time, to every London ground for a match and looked at things like prices and facilities.
Despite feeling well-disposed to QPR, they came bottom of my survey. The unhelpful attitude of the stewards, the prices and quality of refreshments and the poor condition of the Ellerslie Road Stand were all factors, but the clincher was that the QPR match (against Liverpool) was the only time during the entire survey that my boys were frightened.
There was only one toilet we could access from the Ellerslie Road stand, and it only had one door -- for both in and out. My lads were crushed by the mob and both cried with fear. I wrote a private letter to the club about the issue of poor access to the toilet and received an astonishingly rude reply. I am sorry to say that I cannot remember what year that was, but it would have been about 89.
As I say, I have made several visits to the away end as a Norwich fan, and they have all been awful -- not because of the football (Norwich won some of them!) but because, although I have watched Norwich at more than 80 grounds, the QPR experience is among the worst.
The catering facilities are certainly among the worst. I'd say Port Vale are the only ones I have encountered where the staff care less and have worse equipment than at Loftus Road. On one visit, the kiosks were both shut until one, dispirited girl arrived ten minutes before kick-off and opened one. A huge queue formed. She fiddled about for a while and then announced: "Sorry, there's no hot water". Then she closed the kiosk again.
The School End stand IS dank. The area behind both the upper and lower tiers is completely enclosed by concrete and not properly ventilated. I've been dripped on by condensation (I hope it was condensation!) while queuing for the terribly inadequate refreshments. And, since the club was forced to put extra gangways into the seating to comply with safety requirements, there are odd dead-end arrangements and random bits of metal.
Professionally, I've had lots of dealings with QPR. I interviewed Chris Wright for the Standard when he was your chairman and, in response to my outlining some of the above to him, he said that Jim Gregory had put the stands up on the cheap and that there were all sorts of design faults.
John Gregory told me that, on his first day as manager, he was astonished to find a plank of wood, the sort you put on scaffolding, in the middle of the changing room floor at the training ground. When he asked what it was doing there, everyone just shrugged. It had been there for years, someone said. Gregory was definitely of the opinion that the club had been allowed to decay. That was his phrase.
All those accumulated experiences, plus the shambles of the gun episode, the blackmail allegations etc, led me to the view that, over the last couple of decades, QPR have become a shoddy little club. I don't expect you to agree.
Of course clubs in trouble welcome wealthy benefactors. As a Norwich fan, I am hugely appreciative of Delia Smith's efforts on our behalf. She rescued us from the brink of insolvency, but the super-rich backers (Like Abramovich and Mittal) are of an entirely different order. Abramovich's presence in the Premiership has been hugely inflationary, as other clubs have tried to keep in touch, and I think it is a terrible development if that trend is now going to spread to the Championship.
I picked my words carefully when I talked about those who "toiled to pay bills, worked hard to improve the stadiums and striven to get the football right". QPR did not always pay their bills. They went into administration, as a method of welching on debts. They did not work hard to improve the stadium. And now they are not trying to get the football right. They are just going to buy their way out of the division.
I understand your passion and it does you credit. I genuinely thank you for responding to my column.
Regards, Mick Dennis
Daily Express columnist, Mick Dennis wrote an article re QPR's new ownership "This is No Way to Go which elicited quite a bit of criticism on a number of QPR messageboards. Mick Dennis responded to one person who emailed him personally. Below is his response. Reprinted with permission of both the writer, Mick Dennis and the recipient.
From Mick Dennis
To:
Subject: RE: 'This is no way to go'
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008
I have been deluged with responses and will point out in next Wednesday's column that the passion of QPR supporters does them proud -- and it's not their fault the club has been allowed to rot.
Mick
From Mick Dennis
To:
Subject: RE: 'This is no way to go'
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008
Hi
I first went to QPR in the 1960s, when I was growing up in Hounslow. I used to go to all the West London clubs -- Brentford, Chelsea, Fulham and the R's as well as Hounslow Town, who were a decent amateur team. I did not support any of them, in the conventional sense, but I certainly wanted QPR to win when I was watching them. I used to stand behind the goal at the School End, and I joined in the chant of "Henry, Henry" in awed admiration of the great Terry Mancini.
In the 70s I began work as a journalist and my first job was on the Eastern Daily Press in Norfolk. I could only watch one club -- Norwich City. I became hooked, and although my route to supporting Norwich was unusual, I have been a fan ever since. When I got my first Fleet Street sports reporting job, in 1978, I moved to Hertfordshire. As well as visiting Loftus Road professionally quite often, I have taken my family there for the odd game when work has allowed and when we couldn't get to Norwich.
I have also managed to watch Norwich at your place several times in the last few years -- and yes, we've lost most of those game, but that is not why I came to view Rangers as a badly run club.
That began when, as deputy sports editor of the (London) Evening Standard, I conducted a survey of all the London clubs for ES Magazine. I took my two sons, who were both very young at the time, to every London ground for a match and looked at things like prices and facilities.
Despite feeling well-disposed to QPR, they came bottom of my survey. The unhelpful attitude of the stewards, the prices and quality of refreshments and the poor condition of the Ellerslie Road Stand were all factors, but the clincher was that the QPR match (against Liverpool) was the only time during the entire survey that my boys were frightened.
There was only one toilet we could access from the Ellerslie Road stand, and it only had one door -- for both in and out. My lads were crushed by the mob and both cried with fear. I wrote a private letter to the club about the issue of poor access to the toilet and received an astonishingly rude reply. I am sorry to say that I cannot remember what year that was, but it would have been about 89.
As I say, I have made several visits to the away end as a Norwich fan, and they have all been awful -- not because of the football (Norwich won some of them!) but because, although I have watched Norwich at more than 80 grounds, the QPR experience is among the worst.
The catering facilities are certainly among the worst. I'd say Port Vale are the only ones I have encountered where the staff care less and have worse equipment than at Loftus Road. On one visit, the kiosks were both shut until one, dispirited girl arrived ten minutes before kick-off and opened one. A huge queue formed. She fiddled about for a while and then announced: "Sorry, there's no hot water". Then she closed the kiosk again.
The School End stand IS dank. The area behind both the upper and lower tiers is completely enclosed by concrete and not properly ventilated. I've been dripped on by condensation (I hope it was condensation!) while queuing for the terribly inadequate refreshments. And, since the club was forced to put extra gangways into the seating to comply with safety requirements, there are odd dead-end arrangements and random bits of metal.
Professionally, I've had lots of dealings with QPR. I interviewed Chris Wright for the Standard when he was your chairman and, in response to my outlining some of the above to him, he said that Jim Gregory had put the stands up on the cheap and that there were all sorts of design faults.
John Gregory told me that, on his first day as manager, he was astonished to find a plank of wood, the sort you put on scaffolding, in the middle of the changing room floor at the training ground. When he asked what it was doing there, everyone just shrugged. It had been there for years, someone said. Gregory was definitely of the opinion that the club had been allowed to decay. That was his phrase.
All those accumulated experiences, plus the shambles of the gun episode, the blackmail allegations etc, led me to the view that, over the last couple of decades, QPR have become a shoddy little club. I don't expect you to agree.
Of course clubs in trouble welcome wealthy benefactors. As a Norwich fan, I am hugely appreciative of Delia Smith's efforts on our behalf. She rescued us from the brink of insolvency, but the super-rich backers (Like Abramovich and Mittal) are of an entirely different order. Abramovich's presence in the Premiership has been hugely inflationary, as other clubs have tried to keep in touch, and I think it is a terrible development if that trend is now going to spread to the Championship.
I picked my words carefully when I talked about those who "toiled to pay bills, worked hard to improve the stadiums and striven to get the football right". QPR did not always pay their bills. They went into administration, as a method of welching on debts. They did not work hard to improve the stadium. And now they are not trying to get the football right. They are just going to buy their way out of the division.
I understand your passion and it does you credit. I genuinely thank you for responding to my column.
Regards, Mick Dennis
Comments:
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Yet more tosh from Mick Jones, don't know why I respond if only to show that newspaper writers never get their facts right, it questions the rest of their story and intentions. I stood at the school end also 1965 onwards. TM a great player and chants of Henry, I think not. TM did not arive I recall until 1971 season and was at first a figure of abuse; by then Mr. Dennis was at Norwich or so he claims. Still never let the facts get in the way of a good story and making the news as opposed to reporting upon it like many of his ilk.
Well of course he was deluged with messages. What did he he expect writing such nonsense. Maybe next Wednesday's column will fill in the gaps but I won't hold my breath
# posted by 
: 9:04 AM
: 9:04 AM
I'm glad that this chap has responded. And as im sure journalists are an extremely honourable bunch who never twist the minimal information they have, i'm sure we will soon be hearing how much he hates Wigan for coming from a tiny club to the premiership because of a rich owner, and reading and Fulham and Porstmouth not to mention the influx of sky money which has resulted in the only chance for clubs who were relegated just before the big money to be so far behind the premiership that a rich owner is simply the only way.
Mr Dennis is a journalist. and therefore will write inflammatory stories because it sell papers. Truth has nothing to do with journalism anymore. Using the excuse that he had a bad experience with stewards etc is just rubbish. i have seen some shocking facilities and met some horrible stewards at lots of grounds. But i dont hate the clubs for it, i hate the stewards. And saying that JG said the club has been left to decay is also no reason to say our takeover is a bad thing. Surely he should be writing an article congratulating us in receiving the investment that will turn us into a club that could provide him and his children with fantastic facilities if he slipped through the net and was allowed in.
What this comes down to is a childish jealousy, or simple pre-existing hatred.
This hatred is not a new thing. When we were in serious financial trouble, I was reading the articles saying how we were going under in the next week. Now the thing that really got me was that this was actually making it more likely. Since all our creditors were reading that we were going under in the next week (a story probably based on pure speculation) their obvious reaction would be to demand their money back ASAP. This in turn sends us one step closer to bankruptcy and makes the job of the people trying to save the club, all the more difficult. And I think Mr Dennis may have been one of those journalists assisting in the destruction of a family football club, one just like Norwich really.
Even if we were going to suddenly become the richest club in the world, which we all know really is rubbish(but good banter), as the wealth of your shareholders does automatically put all their wealth at your disposal, then for Christ sake who deserves it more than us at the moment?
QPR has been like a bloody soap opera for the last 10 years, and to be honest it has been exhausting. Everyone used to like us when we were in the s**t. but now suddenly we are resented. We have been on the brink of completely losing our club on a monthly basis for a number of years, and we have stuck through it. Why doesn’t mr Dennis write about the fairytale of QPR? The once big club who was thrashed until near destruction only to come out the otherside with every struggling football clubs dream, a rich owner who can bring back the good times.
I’m rangers till I die, and I hope that this does not end in tears, but as usual I’m optimistic.
I would like to think that Mick could read this. but i doubt he will as he must be busy with his story about how QPR was partly to blame for the violence in Kenya
Mr Dennis, I pity you. you are not a very good journalist, but then again, I would be struggling if I wanted to find one nowdays.
Mr Dennis is a journalist. and therefore will write inflammatory stories because it sell papers. Truth has nothing to do with journalism anymore. Using the excuse that he had a bad experience with stewards etc is just rubbish. i have seen some shocking facilities and met some horrible stewards at lots of grounds. But i dont hate the clubs for it, i hate the stewards. And saying that JG said the club has been left to decay is also no reason to say our takeover is a bad thing. Surely he should be writing an article congratulating us in receiving the investment that will turn us into a club that could provide him and his children with fantastic facilities if he slipped through the net and was allowed in.
What this comes down to is a childish jealousy, or simple pre-existing hatred.
This hatred is not a new thing. When we were in serious financial trouble, I was reading the articles saying how we were going under in the next week. Now the thing that really got me was that this was actually making it more likely. Since all our creditors were reading that we were going under in the next week (a story probably based on pure speculation) their obvious reaction would be to demand their money back ASAP. This in turn sends us one step closer to bankruptcy and makes the job of the people trying to save the club, all the more difficult. And I think Mr Dennis may have been one of those journalists assisting in the destruction of a family football club, one just like Norwich really.
Even if we were going to suddenly become the richest club in the world, which we all know really is rubbish(but good banter), as the wealth of your shareholders does automatically put all their wealth at your disposal, then for Christ sake who deserves it more than us at the moment?
QPR has been like a bloody soap opera for the last 10 years, and to be honest it has been exhausting. Everyone used to like us when we were in the s**t. but now suddenly we are resented. We have been on the brink of completely losing our club on a monthly basis for a number of years, and we have stuck through it. Why doesn’t mr Dennis write about the fairytale of QPR? The once big club who was thrashed until near destruction only to come out the otherside with every struggling football clubs dream, a rich owner who can bring back the good times.
I’m rangers till I die, and I hope that this does not end in tears, but as usual I’m optimistic.
I would like to think that Mick could read this. but i doubt he will as he must be busy with his story about how QPR was partly to blame for the violence in Kenya
Mr Dennis, I pity you. you are not a very good journalist, but then again, I would be struggling if I wanted to find one nowdays.
# posted by : 9:57 AM
: 9:57 AM
I still feel the need to respond to a couple of points here.
Firstly, I'm still sorry that he had the experience he did with his kids at the Liverpool game. However, that was back in 1989 by his own admission: I'd have hoped he was able to provide us with some more up to date fan experience as a balance to the story.
Secondly, there is a big difference between the fact (yes, FACT) that QPR have been shoddily run for a long time, and the assertion that this makes QPR a "shoddy little club". QPR has been badly run, by people interested in the investment side of things to the detriment of the footballing side of the club. There has NEVER been a time when QPR has let those off-pitch dealings interfere with the real business, the fan-centric business of being a well supported and popular football team. This difference needs to be stated.
Thirdly, I'm not sure why Delia Smith's intervention to save Norwich from the brink of insolvency is any different to Flavio Briatore's intervention at QPR. Is it because he's foreign? Is it because he is more successful, or that he's richer? Is it because he was also able to attract more, additional investment? Whatever the answer to this, I still can't see the distinction you are trying to make.
Fourthly, your assertion: "QPR went into administration, as a method of welching on debts. They did not work hard to improve the stadium. And now they are not trying to get the football right. They are just going to buy their way out of the division"
NOBODY goes into Administration lightly. Remember, we went into administration before any of the league safeguards were in place, so we had to work hard to get to the point we are now. I take great offence at your suggestion that we are simply buying our way out of the division. If you look at the transfers we have made, and the amount of money spent, it's a minute fraction of that spent at Chelsea. It's being spent in the right places, to strengthen the team for the challenge that faces us TODAY - that of securing Championship survival. We're not bringing in any big names at the moment, because realistically that's not where we are. Briatore is on record as well as stating all of the ground improvements that are planned, and that will be fixed during the close season. Go talk to him - I'm sure he would welcome the opportunity to share his plans with you.
Finally, Whilst I thank you for recognising the passion, I do not think that you actually understand it. Because if you did, you'd have understood exactly why your original biased and misleading article carnered the response it did.
Firstly, I'm still sorry that he had the experience he did with his kids at the Liverpool game. However, that was back in 1989 by his own admission: I'd have hoped he was able to provide us with some more up to date fan experience as a balance to the story.
Secondly, there is a big difference between the fact (yes, FACT) that QPR have been shoddily run for a long time, and the assertion that this makes QPR a "shoddy little club". QPR has been badly run, by people interested in the investment side of things to the detriment of the footballing side of the club. There has NEVER been a time when QPR has let those off-pitch dealings interfere with the real business, the fan-centric business of being a well supported and popular football team. This difference needs to be stated.
Thirdly, I'm not sure why Delia Smith's intervention to save Norwich from the brink of insolvency is any different to Flavio Briatore's intervention at QPR. Is it because he's foreign? Is it because he is more successful, or that he's richer? Is it because he was also able to attract more, additional investment? Whatever the answer to this, I still can't see the distinction you are trying to make.
Fourthly, your assertion: "QPR went into administration, as a method of welching on debts. They did not work hard to improve the stadium. And now they are not trying to get the football right. They are just going to buy their way out of the division"
NOBODY goes into Administration lightly. Remember, we went into administration before any of the league safeguards were in place, so we had to work hard to get to the point we are now. I take great offence at your suggestion that we are simply buying our way out of the division. If you look at the transfers we have made, and the amount of money spent, it's a minute fraction of that spent at Chelsea. It's being spent in the right places, to strengthen the team for the challenge that faces us TODAY - that of securing Championship survival. We're not bringing in any big names at the moment, because realistically that's not where we are. Briatore is on record as well as stating all of the ground improvements that are planned, and that will be fixed during the close season. Go talk to him - I'm sure he would welcome the opportunity to share his plans with you.
Finally, Whilst I thank you for recognising the passion, I do not think that you actually understand it. Because if you did, you'd have understood exactly why your original biased and misleading article carnered the response it did.
Mr.Dennis grew up not supporting one team ( tells you a lot about him )So please take him back to his shoddy, adopted Norwich where he can sit back in his little yellow seat and whatch Rangers succeed......
Re John Gregory finding a plank of wood in the chnaging room . Was it Zesh Rehman?
# posted by : 10:14 AM
: 10:14 AM
So this must mean that sunderland Watford Reading WBA all bought thier way out. No is the answer as there are no garrentees in football, just hope as fans do and to be able to buy a better class of player is just good sense.So Mr Dennis should wander back to Norfollk, "COME ON LETS BE AVING YOU " as the lady said.
# posted by : 12:06 PM
: 12:06 PM
pmsl at the rehman comment that was f%$*ing funny oooooooooohhhhhh hhhhhhhhooooooooo hoooooo hhhhhhoooooooooo
# posted by : 5:46 PM
: 5:46 PM
pmsl at the rehman comment that was funny oooohhhhhhhhooooo hoooooooh hhhhhhhoooooooooo hhhaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhaaaaaaa
# posted by : 5:47 PM
: 5:47 PM
MICK DENNIS writes: Just let me answer what the first bloke wrote. I did stand at School End in the 60s and I did start work in Norfolk in 1971, but I continued to travel home to Hounslow fairly frequently and often returned to Loftus Road. Terry Mancini's nickname was Henry, after the composer, and that is what the fans chanted. If Brian Healy can't remember that, he should ask other Rangers' fans of that era.
just seen an old article from mr dennis, in which he starts on qpr fans for their ungreatful attitude towards one, chris wright how we greedily demanded he put all his money into the club and booed him ungraciously when he failed to do so.
no explanation is needed here as to just how laughable this version of events is.
He then compares our treatment of wright with fulhams treatment of al fayed when he suggested possibly not moving back to craven cottage.
It seems that mr dennis has somthing of a long term chip on his shoulder (More of a felled oak about his neck by the sounds of it)His uncles he claim were fulham fans so maybe this is an explanation. certainly barracking chairmen who bring clubs to their knees (or threaten to move them without consultation from their traditional home) is not unreasnoble to my mind.
perhaps Dennis should think a little bit harder on his articles and opinions. perhaps he is a party animal and these shoddy and shabby peices of ill informed and partisan bullshit are the resault of ill concieved and hungover attempts to make his deadline, when time dosnt allow him to think things through. maybe hes just a tit. we just dont know.
Certainly the issue of cold cash coming into clubs from vastly wealthy owners is contentious and could bring many problems, but as pointed out in r's responses the situation is the result of many factors and has been building for some time. an intelligent peice of journalism on this issuie would be welcome. a balanced and considered attempt to investigate the phenomena and its possible repurcussions perhaps. one could cite the examples of heart of middlothian, chelski, the purchases of man city, man utd and liverpool. The tragic and shamefully forgotten tale of the club formerlly known as wimbledon springs to mind.
By contrast q.p.r's take over has been relatively low key, with a concientious effort to improve the facilities and build the club from the ground.
Think about it maaaannnn.
no explanation is needed here as to just how laughable this version of events is.
He then compares our treatment of wright with fulhams treatment of al fayed when he suggested possibly not moving back to craven cottage.
It seems that mr dennis has somthing of a long term chip on his shoulder (More of a felled oak about his neck by the sounds of it)His uncles he claim were fulham fans so maybe this is an explanation. certainly barracking chairmen who bring clubs to their knees (or threaten to move them without consultation from their traditional home) is not unreasnoble to my mind.
perhaps Dennis should think a little bit harder on his articles and opinions. perhaps he is a party animal and these shoddy and shabby peices of ill informed and partisan bullshit are the resault of ill concieved and hungover attempts to make his deadline, when time dosnt allow him to think things through. maybe hes just a tit. we just dont know.
Certainly the issue of cold cash coming into clubs from vastly wealthy owners is contentious and could bring many problems, but as pointed out in r's responses the situation is the result of many factors and has been building for some time. an intelligent peice of journalism on this issuie would be welcome. a balanced and considered attempt to investigate the phenomena and its possible repurcussions perhaps. one could cite the examples of heart of middlothian, chelski, the purchases of man city, man utd and liverpool. The tragic and shamefully forgotten tale of the club formerlly known as wimbledon springs to mind.
By contrast q.p.r's take over has been relatively low key, with a concientious effort to improve the facilities and build the club from the ground.
Think about it maaaannnn.
# posted by : 3:49 PM
: 3:49 PM
i m from brasiol i dont have declaratione my prison mr carlos ancelotti italy milan i need this men lost your career
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: 6:39 PM << Home
