"QPR Facing New Crisis" - Relegation & Holloway's Departure

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BBC - QPR facing new crisis
By Chris Bevan

QPR's long-suffering fans have been here before

For a club that finished fifth - and were the best-placed London side - in the inaugural Premiership season in 1992/93, precious little has gone right since.

Their 13-year stint in the top flight, which yielded two other top-five finishes, ended in 1996 and five years later they dropped down to the third tier of English football.

It took them until 2004 to clamber back up into the Championship but this season they are fighting for their lives to stay there.

With 10 games left, the club are only above the drop zone on goal difference - and still have to play several of the division's leading sides.

During the ups and downs of the last decade, possibly the only constant at Loftus Road has been boardroom upheaval and unrest.

There has been a high turnover of managers recently too, with Ian Holloway being replaced by Gary Waddock in February 2006 and John Gregory arriving seven months later.

It remains to be seen what the future will hold for chairman Gianni Paladini or Gregory if QPR do not stay up but, whoever is in charge, it would be a case of rebuilding the club all over again.

It is hard to put your finger on what has gone wrong there but financially the club seemed to be out of the mire and have stabilised but it looks like it has gone backwards again

Former QPR defender Matthew Rose

That would be a difficult task and former QPR defender Matthew Rose, who spent 10 years at Loftus Road before leaving in January, feels going down this season could spell disaster.

Rose, who was part of the relegation side in 2001 but helped Rangers back up in 2004, told BBC Sport: "To go down now would be a travesty for the club after all the work that was done to get back into the Championship last time.

"We did well to get up after three seasons but if they were relegated again I find it hard to believe they would get back up for a long time. It is such a hard division.

"It would spell a lot of trouble for the club financially. You have to pay less in wages and you are going to lose your better players because of that. If you start slipping down the leagues it can be a long way down.

"It is hard to put your finger on what has gone wrong there but financially the club seemed to be out of the mire and have stabilised but it looks like it has gone backwards again.

"They needed to keep a tight budget but I don't think lessons have been learned with things like wages and agent fees."

And Rose, who played under eight managers in his time at QPR, believes Holloway's departure played a big part in the London outfit losing their way.

"Under Ollie, as a squad of players we were not the best in the Championship but as a team he managed to get far more out of collectively," explained Rose.
"Whatever went on with him and the chairman was the turning point when the club started to go downhill."

Nick Blackburn, who was QPR vice-chairman from 1997 to 2001 and chairman from 2001 until 2004, knows how painful relegation can be - but believes the club will survive.

"In 2001 it was a difficult time. Not only did we get relegated but we were in administration," he stated.

"We had to get rid of a lot of players because we had to cut costs, either the ones that lacked ability or because they cost too much.

"The effects are you don't get the same income from sponsors or TV. And your gates go down.

We had a team of people who were determined to sort things out. Some fans may disagree but that board did a pretty good job and the thing I liked about Ian is that his head never dropped

Former QPR chairman Nick Blackburn

"But otherwise the money from being in the Championship is not huge. There is a difference between the Championship and League One - and it is bigger than it was six years ago - but it is not as big as the gap between the Premier League and the Championship."

Blackburn worked closely with Holloway during his time at the club and feels his departure was a mistake.

"The heartbeat of a club is the dressing room. That is where everything else comes from and we were lucky in what we had," he added.

"Ian had joined us in February before we went into administration and he was the catalyst for moving things along.

"The fans rallied around. I think Ian helped in that. They thought it was the time to support the club. We spent the whole year in administration but the crowd grew and we finished eighth that year, which was a good start.

"We managed to survive it and get a buzz back at the club."

Can QPR do the same this time around - whether they stay up or not? Blackburn is not sure.

"If you are winning you can get the gates. QPR has a strong fan base for that division and in our promotion season we averaged over 15,000 a game, which was bigger than some Premiership teams that year," said Blackburn.

"We had a team of people who were determined to sort out things. Some fans may disagree but that board did a pretty good job and the thing I liked about Ian is that his head never dropped.

"It was all part of being a unit and everyone was pulling in the same direction - the fans, the team and us. That is very different to what you have there now."

Saturday's game against Sheffield Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of QPR's League Cup final victory over West Brom.

QPR were part of the old Third Division in 1967 and how they fare against the Owls will go a long way to deciding whether they return to that level next season. BBC