Whether or not Harry Redknapp needs two new knees or that he felt he needed two new midfielders on deadline day (why was it always midfielders with Harry?), the reason for his departure from Loftus Road is irrelevant. The fact is that he wasn’t getting the job done at QPR.

I am in no way a Harry basher (that sounds rude). I felt he did a tremendous job at Tottenham, was great at West Ham and worked wonders at Portsmouth (although the endless amount of money helped).

You can see why Tony Fernandes might have been reluctant to loosen the purse strings this January, after all he has done it before and seen the team still crash out of the Premier League back in 2013.

When you look at QPR’s summer purchases; Steven Caulker, Rio Ferdinand, Alex McCarthy, Sandro, Jordan Mutch, Jack Robinson and Leroy Fer plus the loan signings of Mauricio Isla, Eduardo Vargas and Niko Kranjcar then you can’t help but think that the owner would expect that he had spent enough already this term.

Quite possibly the club needed a new striker but they have an in-form Charlie Austin, an experienced target man in Bobby Zamora and two loanees Vargas and Mauro Zarate who can help up top too.

I don’t think the problem is necessarily who QPR didn’t buy this window but who they currently have in their squad.

The pool looks average and ageing.

I’ve never been convinced that Robert Green is a solid number one for the EPL.

Time may have caught up on stalwarts like Richard Dunne, Clint Hill, Rio Ferdinand, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton and Karl Henry.

But the experience pros have been let down by some of the younger players. The likes of Matty Phillips, Junior Hoilett, Armand Traore, Kranjcar and Vargas should be doing more when they get their opportunities.

Adel Taarabt is just a waste of space at this moment in time and his attitude just stinks.

No player at QPR has registered more than two assists this season. Only Austin (13) has scored more than three times so far in the league!

The defence isn’t performing any better, they have conceded more than any other team in the Premier League. Redknapp’s insistence on playing three at the back during the campaign wasn’t helpful and gave the club an uphill fight, right from the start.

The squad is a shambles with no balance in the starting line-ups and the team capitulating in every away stadium (They have lost all eleven of their away league fixtures this season).

It’s for those reasons that Redknapp needed to hasten his departure from ‘Rangers’. He just didn’t seem able to turn things around.

Teams like Crystal Palace and West Brom (WBA) decided that they needed to change things up on their benches and have brought in Alan Pardew and Tony Pulis. So far those decisions have been vindicated by recent results as form has improved and both Palace and WBA have climbed the table towards mid-table.

Although things aren’t looking great at Loftus Road they are far from doomed. Only a point separates them from safety.

Perhaps all the club need in the short-term is someone like Tim Sherwood (they are in talks) to come in and turn things around like Pulis and Pardew have done at their clubs.

The new man will need to sort out confidence issues within his squad, try and get Adel Taarabt to actually do what he’s paid to do and maybe eek out some more from the experienced guys like Ferdinand and save QPR from another relegation. If he can do that then that man will have a long summer ahead of him to try and rebuild the club from scratch.

Luckily for QPR for whatever reason Harry Redknapp knew that he wasn’t that man!

His resignation has given them a fighting chance.

Posted on February 4th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article