Star Wars, too many cooks and Les Ferdinand. By Chris Hyde

10/02/2015 11:09

                                                           

 

I’m sure the first thought going through your mind after reading the title is; what does Star Wars and Les Ferdinand have in common? Well let me begin, the first three movies in the Star Wars story show us a republic in turmoil, an ambitious senator and his rise to power, and the downward spiral of the galaxy as it is plunged into the dark times. Sounding familiar? To me it reminds me of my beloved football club Queens Park Rangers.
                May 24^th 2014, the best day of my life being a Queens Park Rangers supporter. The moment when Bobby Zamora scored in the last minute to take us back to the Premier League. It was going to be different this time, this time we had learnt from our mistakes the last time we were in England’s top division. We were positive, we’d done good business in the transfer market, we had what we believed at the time the right man in charge and yet for some reason, we find ourselves in an all too familiar position. How could it go so wrong again? We had one of the best backroom staff setups you could ask for. Kevin Bond, Joe Jordon, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Ramsey all led by Harry Redknapp, later to be joined by club legend Les Ferdinand as Director of Football Operations, yes I know what does a Director of Football operations do exactly? Answers on a postcard! What did Glenn Hoddle do? A so called tactical genius? Top coaches all putting their input into the club, Was it a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth? No one single voice to guide the team and the players, too many ideas floating around, players getting confused with no clear direction???

                Well a few of those names are gone now, Redknapp, Jordon, Hoddle all gone. Hooray I hear rangers fans cry. Up step Chris Ramsey and Kevin Bond to run the first team, but wait, what about that ambitious senator? Wait that’s Star Wars... Or is it Les Ferdinand? Now before people start shouting at me, you can’t say anything bad about Les, he loves QPR he’s a legend. I’m not disputing what Les did for QPR on the pitch, he was a fantastic player, goal scorer and the reason we did so well in the early- mid 90s, but if anyone has used his status as a legend at a club to fall on his feet, it’s the great player we call Sir Les.

                                                                   

                Harry goes. Good we needed fresh ideas. The first thing that happens after a few of his backroom staff leave is Ferdinand now becomes Director of Football. Maybe the club are saving a few quid on the office door label by taking off operations. It turns out that Sir Les is in charge of player recruitment. He has been given a guideline by Tony, who now insists we have made the same mistakes and Les’s job is to find young hungry players. Great that is a very important role, Sir Les has never had this role at a club but we will give him a shot, after all he loves QPR. Wait though; Sir Les also helps out with the training of the team. In the words of Chris Ramsey he helped with the training and worked with a few players. So he has input on the training field, and further more helped picked the team against Southampton. So that’s training, helping pick the side, player recruitment and Director of Football.     

                Who has the final say at what goes on at QPR, is it the Director of Football who has a small control in everything to do with the club now? This is unhealthy for any football club. A man who was not involved in football working for a club a few months ago, now finds himself with immense power and decision making abilities. I think the manager, whoever it may be, should be running day to day business of the club; pick his players, run training etc. I fear Sir Les will be taking us into the dark times. I read furthermore today that Tony is excited about the return of Rio. The fans are saying Tony are you crazy? But let’s not worry it’s not like Rio has someone at the club with any influence on the team or anything, oh no his name’s Ferdinand too.  I fear the worse for us; I think Tony Fernandes needs strong manager who will run the team. Like when Warnock took over and basically took no crap from anyone and did it his way, wining us the league with his players and his way of playing. So Sir Les or as I now call him the Emperor  of Rangers I feel is very unhealthy for us, I hope I’m proven wrong I really do, otherwise we might have to wait until we sign someone called Skywalker to bring us back to the light.