Inside The Boardroom

i agree with most of what you say but did we really 'buy' the championship title?

we had a team largely made up of cheap championship journeymen and experienced players. kenny, hill, connolly, gorkss, derry, mackie and helguson all came pretty cheap over the years and even adel only cost us a million from spurs. the only irreguality was faurlin as his signing was a bit of a dodgey one as payments were made to various third parties but even then he was only 3.5m or so.

from what i remember of the 09/10 and 10/11 seasons bernie and flavio had largely given up with their 4 year plan dream and had turned over the reigns to amit as they wanted out. amit was frugal and made a smart appointment in warnock and good signings but without adel we were probably no more than a top half championship side.

lots of clubs have outright 'bought' the title. fulham and wolves spring to mind as mediocre teams who were bankrolled to success and who signed players who'd normally be well out of their reach. even the adel signing was one within reason for us given his then small reputation on the pitch.

now the years preceeding our title win we certainly did try and buy the title numerous times by signing up big championship names and erratic appointments.

for me though that 10/11 season will always be a what if. if the mittals were able to buy up the club at the end of the season like they wanted then i think we'd have been in a much better position that we are now. warnock would have probably never been sacked, we'd never have had that ageurooooo moment and we'd probably have been relegated but financially we'd have been a lot better off.

i think the only real time we tried to buy the title was under redknapp tbh.

Sadly that's the myth about 2010/11.

The reality is very different and we bought 'success'.


www.thescratchingshed.com/2012/04/championship-clubs-financial-results-2010-11/

Each to their own - and all that - and if some were comfortable with that approach then that's  up to them but I must admit I find it frustrating that we can't put our hands up and admit it was a hollow 'success' and not one achieved the QPR way.

The source admits in the same paragraph that the budget allowed us to walk away with the league...

We can sugar-coat this as much as we want and although Warnock still had to galvanise the team he was given more money than any QPR manager to date and effectively a blank cheque book.

We bought success and cheated.

Tbf, football changed a lot in that time. Fulham were spending bigger than Premier League teams and owners throwing money at it wasn't all that common. Since then, pretty much every club in the top 2 tiers have had rich owners trying to uy success.

Boro same season bigger budget not even playoffs.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this.

For me it was a slap in the face against all our traditions and very un-QPR.

I would have rather been relegated and/or formed AFC QPR than do what we did but each to their own 👍

I can see where you're coming from there, but happy to agree to disagree on it. 

Plenty of teams have spent and failed, including us.

What about the season we went up under Warnock, did you celebrate promotion or indeed any of our victories that season?

I’ve been coming since ‘63, Bill since ‘62 and a mate who sits next to me dates back to the 50s - can you explain what a QPR purist is please? Is it from when Jim Gregory used to have his petty cash tin handy? Hardly the way things should have been done even in those days. Did the great team of the 70s not cost money? All relative of course, but same principle. Did we not buy success then? Isn’t that how it works?

ironically i was a chelsea fan until roman bought them out and stopped supporting them due to the cheque book football lol. only chose QPR as i liked the name, they were a local small club and holloway was funny. my dad's a big fulham fan and i have said many times his biggest failing as a parent is not getting his only son to support his team.

i think people liked the big names because of what it represents, glitz, glamour and fame. whenever we had a big name in the past it was always someone in the twilight of their career ala ray wilkins and it was rare that we ever signed a household name in their prime. i'm sure there's been a couple but we either signed players on the way up, or the way down even in our heyday.

so you see these big names on TV, the rio's, the champions league regulars, the international icons etc and you think "man, what a player. we'll never see any of that ilk with us!" only for them to then rock up at LR it does bring an element of excitement to it. but i'll agree too that i did feel a bit disilusioned with the club during those moneybag years too, some great moments and starstruck excitement for sure but it was a rather shallow time.

at the same time though you can't blame fans for getting excited after 20+ years of shit being served up.

Some of the most entertaining football by a Rangers side ever.

We deserved that title no question,poetic justice if you like when an offside goal at Norwich robbed us of our biggest prize ever


We didnt cheat and we did not buy the title.
Think you need to lay off the sherberts.

Apparently, according to KingAustin(is he springbok)? On Watrb club is going to be hit with a 10 point deduction very soon. Can't see it myself,but then again you never know with those clowns that run the club.

Oh yeah, didn't buy the title?

So how did we acquire 'success' Bill?