Queens Park Rangers

Once a R, always a R !

Queens Park Rangers.

An English club that I've supported since 1990. Almost 18 years ago, I was captivated by the playing style of a team playing in white and blues hoops jerseys. It was Queens Park Rangers. In the end of the 89-90 season, they finished 11th in the old English Division 1. From that point onwards, I decided to pledge my allegiance to a mid-table club instead of championship winning clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal or Man Utd. What's the joy of supporting a club when it's always up there challenging for titles?

A short history of the club.

QPR was formed in 1882, when a team known as St Jude's merged with Christchurch Rangers. The resulting team was called Queens Park Rangers, because most of the players came from the Queens Park area of North-West London. QPR became a professional team in 1889 and played their home games in nearly 20 different stadia (a league record), before permanently settling in Loftus Road in 1917 (although the team briefly played at White City between 1931-3 and 1962-63 in the hope of attracting larger crowds).


The QPR jersey in 1886.


They first changed to their famous blue and white hoops in 1927.


The jersey when I first supported QPR


The jersey now

Queens Park Rangers played on two grounds within Park Royal. The first was the Horse Ring, the site of the now-demolished Guinness Brewery, on the Royal Agricultural Society's show grounds from 1904 to 1907 which had a capacity of 40,000. When the Society sold the grounds in 1907, QPR moved to the Park Royal Ground, 400 yards south, an almost exact replica of Ayresome Park, with a capacity of 60,000. The club were forced to move out in February 1915 as the ground was taken over by the Army.
QPR were promoted as champions of Division 3 South in the 1947/48 season. Dave Mangnall was the manager as Rangers enjoyed 4 seasons in the Second division, being relegated in 1951-52. Tony Ingham was signed from Leeds United and went on to make most ever league appearances for QPR (519).
Prior to the start of the 1959-60 season saw the arrival of arguably the club's greatest ever manager, Alec Stock. The 1960-61 season saw QPR achieve their biggest win to date - 9-2 vs Tranmere Rovers in a Division 3 match. In time, Stock, with the advent as Chairman in the mid-60s of Jim Gregory helped to achieve a total transformation of the club and its surroundings.

In 1966-67, QPR won the Division Three championship and became the first Third Division club to win the League Cup on Saturday, March 4, 1967, beating West Bromwich Albion 3-2, (coming back from a two goal deficit). 40 years on, it is still the only major trophy that QPR have won. The final was also the first League Cup Final to be held at Wembley Stadium. The undoubted star of the team was Rodney Marsh who scored 44 goals, but also included Les Allen, Roger Morgan and captain Mike Keen.They won promotion again the following year, reaching the top flight for the first time in their history, but were relegated after just one season.In 1975-76 Dave Sexton led them to the runners-up spot in the First Division, missing out on the Championship by a single point. After completing their 42-game season, QPR sat at the top of the league 1 point ahead of Liverpool. Liverpool had to win their final game of the season, at Wolverhampton Wanderers to clinch the title. Because of Liverpool appearing in the then two-legged UEFA Cup Final, the game was held over for ten days. Despite Wolves taking the lead and holding it until the 77th minute, Liverpool scored 3 times to win 3-1 and win the League Championship Must be kelong!!!). The squad contained 5 England internationals and internationals from the home nations and Morocco. QPR were unable to recreate their wonderful league form in 1976-77 but the cup competitions saw some success. The side reached the semi-finals of the League Cup but lost in a replay to Aston Villa and in their first entry into European football reached the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup losing to AEK Athens FC on penalties. In 1977 Sexton moved to Manchester United to be succeeded by Frank Sibley and Steve Burtenshaw and two years later QPR slipped into the Second Division. In 1981, QPR reached the FA Cup Final for the only time in the club's history, facing holders and London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. The first game ended 1-1 after extra time and so for the second year running the Final was to be decided by a replay. Tottenham won the replay 1-0 with the only goal coming from a Glenn Hoddle penalty in the 6th minute.

The club's nicknames are Rangers, Rs, Superhoops.

So much for the history of the club. I can see many of you skipping that large chunk of information. Shame on you.

I remember I always used to watch QPR play on TV every Sunday when it was showing the Div 1 highlights and it's always a joy to see your favourite club scores, not matter how many times. Just ask any football supporter. In the 1992-93 season, the old English Division 1 was replaced by the English Premier League and QPR was one of the founding members of the EPL. I'm sure that not many of you realised it right? We finished 11th in the last season of the old English Division 1.

On New Year's Day 1992, QPR recorded the most memorable victory. A 4-1 win over Man Utd at Old Trafford. That really made my day. You should see Alex Ferguson's face at the final whistle. It's just as if he's eaten his own shit. I have the highlights of that match in my ipod. Another 4-1 win over Leeds United was the highlight of the season. We finished 5th in the first season of the EPL. It was also the highest placing ever by QPR in the EPL ever, finishing the season as London's top club.

However, in 1996, QPR was relegated to Div 1. The real taste of disbelief, disappointment, anger and sadness when your favourite club is relegated to a lower tier of English football is unbearable. We competed in the Division until 2001 and was relegated again to Div 2. You can imagine my disbelief ! From the founding member of the EPL to playing in the 3rd tier of English football. What a fall. The then-manager, Ian Holloway, a former player, brought promotion back to Div 1 in 2004 and we stayed there until now.

QPR was involved in scandals and financial problems and entered administration in 2001 and left administration with a 10m debt. 2 promising players died within a year of each other. It was really a sad time for the club and its supporters.

Then in 1st Sep 2007, the 125th anniversary of the club, F1 motor racing tycoons Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone purchased the club for 1m pounds and wiped off the club's 13m pounds debt. Immediately, they went to work and appointed Luigi De Canio as manager of the club and brought in 7 players during the January transfer window. Ecclestone later revealed the new owners' intention to return QPR to the Premiership within 4 years. On 20 December 2007, it was announced that the Mittal family, headed by the world's 5th richest person, Lakshmi Mittal, had taken a 20% stake in the club. Mittal's son in law Amit Bhatia, was appointed a club director.
Now, QPR could boast that they are now richer than their rivals, Chelsea. On 25 March 2008 Q.P.R. confirmed that, from the 2008-09 season and for five seasons, their kits will be supplied by Lotto Sport Italia as part of a number of new partnerships formed by Flavio Briatore.


The 125th anniversary badge.






Loftus Road !!!

I'm certain that QPR will be considered among the promotion favourites next season and if they do get promoted, you can never get me out on a Saturday night. I'll be at home watching QPR play in the EPL.

There have been talks of QPR buying certain players that will propel the club into the EPL and even the Champions League and I'm excited to see what players they will buy come July when the trasfer window opens.

For me, supporting a football club means staying with the club no matter how they perform. Whether they win titles or championships or relegated or even declared bankrupt, they must still be able to tell people that they are supporters of the club. I'm sure that if Man Utd or Chelsea is relegated now, they'll lose more than 30% of their fans. These are the people that follow winning teams. Shame on you.

Come On You Rsssssssssss!!!!!!

I know not many people will read this post, but who cares. I'm proud to be a QPR fan.

Will always be a R till the day I die.