Spendthrift Queens Park Rangers picked ‘bad eggs’ and paid with relegation

QPR’s Joey Barton, centre, and his teammates leave the pitch after a 6-0 crushing defeat from Manchester City to rub salt into their relegation wounds. Jason Cairnduff / Reuters

A mere 20 minutes had elapsed since Queens Park Rangers’ second relegation in three years was confirmed when the latest missive from their ever vocal chairman Tony Fernandes appeared on their website.

“We’re all very disappointed that our fate has been sealed, but I don’t want to dwell on it,” he said, painting his usual picture of a brighter future.

Actually, it is precisely the time to dwell on it.

If QPR don’t learn the lessons from an increasingly tawdry recent past, they will be condemned to make the same mistakes. And as 2015’s demotion bore distinct similarities with 2013’s dismal descent to the Championship, history has already repeated itself at Loftus Road.

“I can reassure all Rangers supporters that the building blocks are in place to move things in the right direction for the future,” Fernandes added.

Really? Because they need a clear out and a new culture.

The captain, Joey Barton, spoke of “bad eggs” in a dressing room that has rarely exhibited unity during the last few years. The only good news is that around half of their squad are out of contract. At other clubs that would be a worry; at QPR, it is an opportunity.

Because theirs is a poorly assembled group, just as it was two years ago. They have too many players in some positions, too few in others.

The team was too old and too slow. Some of their signings made it older and slower.

They failed in an attempt to send one recruit, loaned West Ham United forward Mauro Zarate, back within a month to get Matt Jarvis instead.

Another addition, the £10 million (Dh56.6m) midfielder Sandro, was ruled out of Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City because of problems with his UK residency visa.

It rather gives the impression that this is a club that either does not know or doesn’t observe the rules.

Rangers had a wage bill of £75m in the Championship last season (higher than that of Everton, who finished fifth in the Premier League).

They face a fine of £60m if they are found guilty of breaching Financial Fair Play in spectacular style.

Rangers claim they wrote off £60m of loans in their accounts. Many are sceptical.

Fernandes said QPR “are aware of the financial implications of relegation”. Money, arguably, has been at the root of their problems.

QPR have had too much of it and spent too much of it, invariably badly and normally with naive optimism.

They have displaced an addiction to recruiting big names, a propensity to sign players over the hill and a capacity to give one final payday to those who were a shadow of their former selves. Tellingly, the one anomaly, the improving, former non-league striker Charlie Austin, is by far their outstanding individual.

They sign players for the wrong reasons. Players join them for the wrong reasons. Junior Hoilett came off the bench in their 6-0 hammering at Manchester City.

Three years ago, he was among the Premier League’s most promising young wingers.

Liverpool and Everton were interested. QPR offered most money. He went there, and has been a grave disappointment.

Shaun Wright-Phillips was another replacement, cheered on by City supporters, who remembered his service to them, and booed on by Rangers fans after four years when an estimated £14m in wages brought a return of a solitary league goal.

It is little wonder QPR have become a byword for much that is wrong with the game. It is entirely understandable they struggle to shift failed signings.

They had 18 footballers with at least one previous Premier League relegation to their name. Going down seemed a self-fulfilling prophecy, not a surprise.

Even when they display the sort of loyalty that earns other clubs admiration, it tends to be misplaced.

Former manager Harry Redknapp should have been sacked long before he resigned.

Dreadful decision-making has been a constant, both in the dugout and the boardroom.

Judging from his tenure at Loftus Road, it is hard to see how Air Asia entrepreneur Fernandes made his millions.

Despite considerable competition, QPR are arguably the worst-run club in English football.

His reign has been one of well-meaning ineptitude. It made relegation inevitable.

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