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Post by Not_Nick_H on Dec 27, 2007 11:23:54 GMT
This piece was in the Telegraph on Monday. At a time when the media, their fans and a few others are licking their lips at the prospect of QPR going spend-crazy in January, it made a balanced point about the price of "buying" success with ultra-rich investment. Clubs can mutate, old fans can be lost in the wake of "progress" and the "dream" can become a vacuous nightmare for many.
It made me think "Mega-rich investors? No Thanks".
QPR faithful fear a sting in the fairytale
By Stewart Jackson
Last Updated: 1:42am GMT 24/12/2007
The nine-year-old boy's face was screwed up in quiet concentration. It was the sort of question that deserved serious attention from any young supporter: if you could buy any player for your club, with money no object, who would it be? Oh to be a Queens Park Rangers fan right now.
Football fans' forumadvertisementA nudge in the back from his brother and out spilled the answer: "Some good, young English players. Hungry players." Pardon? The football genie is here - you can have anyone in the world. The next youngster had similarly restricted ambitions: "It would be great if we could buy Lee Cook back off Fulham."
It was akin to a child being given carte blanche for Christmas and asking for a hoop and stick. When a younger boy finally did let fantasy get the better of him - "Kaka!" - he quickly followed up with the name of Michael Mancienne, his favourite current QPR player, who is on loan from Chelsea. Such is the stunted optimism that has been passed down to the younger generations at Queens Park Rangers, the richest club in the world. Even the children refuse to believe in football heaven. Understandable perhaps when you think that before Saturday's 2-1 win over Colchester, they were in the bottom three of the Championship.
After the arrival of motor racing moguls Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, last week brought the announcement that the world's fifth-richest man, Lakshmi Mittal, had bought a 20 per cent stake in the club. Mittal is worth £26 billion, more than twice as much as Roman Abramovich, so the FA Cup third-round tie at Chelsea ought to produce some amusing chants.
QPR v Chelsea used to be a run-of-the-mill London derby, the sort of game that barely registered outside the capital. But since dropping out of the Premier League in 1996, Rangers have been to League One and back, administration and back, tragically lost striker Ray Jones in a car accident and had a chairman allegedly held up at gunpoint in the boardroom. "A proper soap opera," as midfielder Gareth Ainsworth put it.
At least they climbed out of the bottom three on Saturday, which is a start, and reinforcements will arrive on the pitch once the transfer window opens on Jan 1. Today Colchester, tomorrow the world.
There is a genuine 'we'll believe it when we see it' mentality pervading the pubs of Shepherd's Bush. "We've had a few false dawns here," said one fan. "Nothing ever goes smoothly." Running parallel to that is the fear that having billionaire backers could turn Rangers into 'the new Chelsea' - perceived to be buying success, and losing their soul in the process.
John Reid, the secretary of the QPR Loyal Supporters' Association, said: "If season ticket prices go up to £1,500 it will disenfranchise people, and that will kill the soul of any club. If you look at Chelsea now, there are people going there who really don't know the history of the club. I don't want that to happen to QPR.
"If new money comes into the club and the good times return, we don't want the fans who have supported QPR through the bad years being unable to go."
Being in west London, of course, gives the new owners an affluent clientele right on their doorstep. A QPR side winning games in the Premier League would attract people who can afford to pay £60 a game. But where would that leave the kid wearing last season's shirt who just wants Lee Cook back on the left wing? For QPR's sake, let's hope he's in the Ellerslie Road stand with his dad and not watching at home on TV.
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