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[Update: Note in response to criticism of his article, Mick Dennis responded to criticism.]
Mick Dennis/Daily Express - This is no Way to Go
FITZ HALL is an unlikely harbinger of revolution. The defender has played for six clubs without getting noticed for much other than his wonderful nickname – One Size.
But Hall has just joined his seventh club, Queens Park Rangers. They have signed seven other players in the first eight days of the transfer window and are starting to restructure the football landscape.
QPR fans gloat that their club is now the richest on the planet. Formula One tycoons Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore bought control in August. Last month, they flogged a fifth of the club to Lakshmi Mittal, the wealthiest person in the UK and the fifth richest in the world.
QPR lost the war of the wads with Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea in the FA Cup, and their January purchases have been of workmanlike players, such as Hall.
Yet everybody assumes that QPR will start to climb, and we are all waiting to see whether the new rulers intend to spend enough to establish the London club near the top of the Premier League. It is a prospect which is utterly alarming and deeply depressing. The QPR deal has reshaped football's landscape.
Rich owners are not a new development. English football was shaped by them. Edwardian factory owners, who wanted their works team to beat rival factory teams, lured better players by paying them. The ground rules were set – a rich man could try to make his team better than the rest.
But the stakes were raised when Abramovich flew over London, looked down at Stamford Bridge and, like Little Britain’s Andy, said: “Want that one.”
Abramovich’s example led the world’s super-rich to the Premier League and now they are moving into the Championship.
Queen’s Park Rangers have been a shabby, shoddy little outfit for decades. You can tell a lot about a club’s ethos by the way they treat away fans, and anyone who has huddled in the dank, decrepit away end at Loftus Road will tell you how much the club has been allowed to decay.
Yet QPR could now cruise out of the Football League because of an accident of geography – Loftus Road just happens to be quite handy for Mittal’s £57million home in Kensington Palace Gardens.
At other clubs folk toil away to pay bills on time, work hard to improve stadiums and strive to get the football right. On that treadmill, you have to run to stand still, and all that drives you is the hope that your manager might piece together a sequence of results which will bring some success.
The arrival of Ecclestone, Briatore and Mittal threatens to crush that hope. Daily Express
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2008
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January
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- Snippets...Briatore Q&A...Mancienne in England U-2...
- QPR's Brilliant England Winger, Dave Thomas - Prof...
- QPR Snippets: Bradford Extremely Unhappy..Injury U...
- Two Years Ago Today: QPR's Home Loss to Leicester ...
- QPR (Supposedly) Bid £1.5m for Preston's Simon Wha...
- Hull's Manager on Walton Loan...Says For Rest of S...
- No Ricketts to QPR
- QPR's "Discarding" of Home Grown Talent: Perspecti...
- Ricketts Signing Problems
- QPR Supposedly Make Increased Offer for Nottingham...
- QPR's League Position Compared to Year Ago....Ex-Q...
- QPR's Cardiff Defeat - Further Reports and Comments
- QPR's 3-1 Loss at Cardiff - Reports and Comments
- QPR Goalkeeper Liam O'Brien Trialing With Arsenal
- Teams for QPR vs Cardiff
- Teams for QPR vs Cardiff
- Simon Walton Joins Hull: QPR Say Till End of Febru...
- Ex-QPR John Hollins Appointed Manager of Weymouth
- The Changing Face of QPR
- Ricketts Reportedly Passes QPR Medical, Will be Si...
- Cardiff Preview "Moneybags Queens Park Rangers" Match
- And Yet Another QPR Departure: Dominic Shimmin
- Bradford and QPR Agree Fee for Jamaican Goalkeeper...
- Yet Another QPR Player Departs: Marc Nygaard
- "On This Day" Flashbacks...Arsenal Crush QPR...QPR...
- QPR Snippets: Parrett in England U-17 Squad...Curt...
- "Rangers Find Star in the Park" - QPR's Angelo Bal...
- Snippets: QPR Reportedly Bid for Kris Commons...Ro...
- No QPR in Football League Awards Shortlists
- Looking at QPR (and Newcastle's) Chances of Succes...
- Ex-QPR's Richard Pacquette Profiled
- Ex-QPR Ugo Ukah Update: Demotion Penalty Imposed o...
- Released QPR Winger Kieron St. Aimie Joins Barnet
- "To Do a QPR:" A New Expression in the Offing?.......
- QPR's Former Defender Ian Gillard Profiled and Int...
- QPR Supposedly Want Aston VIlla Goalkeeper, Thomas...
- Departures and Non-Arrivals including Nardiello to...
- Ainsworth and Bignot Proving Their Character...Ste...
- Two Italy-Experienced Managers: QPR's De Canio and...
- Alleged QPR Transfer Target Happy For Now
- Snippets: Barker Injury Update...Paying to Play at...
- QPR vs Chelsea Land Battle?
- Flashback One Year: QPR Luton Cup Exit...China Fri...
- Di Vaio to QPR This Week?
- Spurs Goalie Radek Cerny Prepared to Join QPR
- Fitz Hall Happy to Have Joined QPR
- Snippet re Di Vaio...Injury Update...Kanyuka on Le...
- QPR's Rowan Vine Makes Championship "Team of The W...
- Agent Claims QPR Want to Sign Two Spurs Players......
- Released QPR Defender Pat Kanyuka Joins Swindon
- QPR's Hall on Manager De Canio: "He's definitely t...
- QPR Interest in Genoa's Marco Di Vaio?
- QPR's "First Tentative Steps Towards World Dominat...
- Where Are They Now? Eddie Kelly, Rachid Harkouk, D...
- De Canio Warmly Profiled...Barnsley Victory: Furth...
- QPR' Win Against Barnsley: 11 Points From Playoffs...
- Teams for Today's QPR vs Barnsley Game...QPR's Ame...
- Good Short Preview For the New QPR
- Sebastian Rusculleda Claims Collapsed QPR Transfer...
- John Spencer's Barnsley Hatrick....Barnsley on QPR...
- Marcus Bignot Speaks About QPR and Millwall....Dag...
- Barnsley Preview QPR
- QPR's Vastly Changed Playing Squad
- QPR Plot to Rule The World
- QPR Release Two "Home Growns"
- QPR Have Another Defender: Hull's Delaney Signing ...
- QPR's New De Facto CEO Ali Russell Profiled and Pr...
- From Hotly-Pursued to Not-Wanted: Shabbaz Baidoo ...
- Snippets: Watch Return?....Ex-QPRs: Richard Pacque...
- Delaney Signing Day? - QPR Supposedly Beating off ...
- "Bid to Play at Loftus Road"
- Briatore's QPR Spending Plans
- Snippets: Mick Harford Luton's Manager, Warren Nei...
- QPR Transfers Continue: Bidding for Hull's Delaney...
- Ainsworth on Briatore's Renault Factory Tour and D...
- QPR Officially Announce Appointment of Ali Russell...
- Remembering Mick Leach
- Guide to QPR Websites - Updated
- Bignot Officially Joins Millwall
- Another QPR Player Linking Up With Yeovil?
- QPR's Briatore:- De Canio Remaining in Charge at QPR
- Goalie Stefan Postma Allowed to Join QPR
- Next: QPR vs Barnsley
- Steve Slade Back in Action
- Gordon Jago: Profiled and Interviewed
- Snippets: Leeds' Jermaine Beckford - QPR Lost out
- Hearts' Ali Russell Officially at QPR
- Nick Ward Revived
- Bignot Leaves QPR...But Has Not Yet Signed for Ano...
- QPR Trying Again for Spurs' Wayne Routledge
- Bignot Reportedly Signing for Millwall
- Ex-QPR: Adam Miller Makes Team of the Week...Mille...
- QPR's Mahon: Promotion Comes From More Than Just M...
- De Canio Explains Process QPR Signs Players
- Ian Holloway's Final QPR Victory
- Additional Reports of QPR's Loss to Sheffield United
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- QPR vs Sheffield United - Further Reports and Comm...
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- QPR Lose to Sheffield United - Reports and Comments
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