At last the new season is upon us after what seemed like an endless summer break. Ok there was women’s “football” but there’s nowt like the real thing and now IT’S BACK!!
Last season’s Championship developed into one of the most nail biting leagues in Europe with no less than 14 clubs fighting for something on the last day of the season. Some would hope for a repeat of that, whilst others may not due to health reasons.
For the Owls the season kicks off at Loftus Road on Saturday when they make the journey down to the Smoke to face newly relegated Queens Park Rangers.
Some may see this as a one sided affair, Premiership big boys against last season’s perennial strugglers. But that is far from the case. The Owls finished last season strongly and had they displayed the form post Christmas in the earlier part of the season then a play-off spot would not have been unrealistic.
QPR, on the other hand, struggled for the entire season and truly earned their relegation. They will of course receive obscene amounts of money in recognition of their failure but, as Wolves proved, it can count for nothing.
So both sides kick off on Saturday with a clean slate but QPR will be under pressure right from the start as they are expected to go straight back up by the media and especially by Tony Fernandes, who needs to recoup the money wisely invested by Harry Redknapp.
OWLS NEWS
There has been a lot of news over the last few weeks, not much of it good. Players not signing, injuries sustained in pre-season games and finally shirt that wouldn’t look out of place in a Sunday League.
One piece of good news though, Kamal Zayatte has told his agent to do one and has signed a two year deal with the club. He should slot straight into the defence alongside his old mucker Anthony Gardner.
Injury doubts remain about Lewis Buxton who is struggling with shin splints and Keiron Lee who is about to undergo surgery.
Apart from that there are no other worries and Dave Jones goes into the game with an almost full squad, including summer signings Adthe Nuhiu and Jaques Maghoma.
Possible Owls Line-up
At this early stage it’s almost impossible to say, but here goes:
Kirkland, Palmer, Gardner, Zayatte, Reda, Coke, McCabe, Antonio, Helan, JJ, Madine.
Queen’s Park Rangers
QPR were founded in 1886 and played in 20 different stadia before settling down at Loftus Road in 1917. The majority of their early history was spent in the bottom two divisions before they were finally promoted to the Second Division in 1948.
They spent four seasons in the Second before being relegated back to the Third in 1952. It was to be 16 years before they managed another promotion, but they did win the distinction of becoming the first Third Division side to win the League Cup when they beat WBA 3-2.
Sadly, this remains QPR’s only major trophy win.
Successive promotions took them to the top flight for the first time in their history in 1968, but they only lasted a year. It was to be another four years in Division Two before they made the breakthrough again.
The time out of the top flight saw them develop and invest in players that were to become household names (well in London households at least), Phil Parkes, Don Givens, Stan Bowles and Gerry Francis.
1974 saw Dave Sexton take over as manager and he transformed QPR’s fortunes. 1976 saw them miss the Title by one point and later years saw them get to the League Cup semis and the UEFA Cup quarter finals.
Sexton left in 1977 and QPR slipped back into decline.
Terry Venables took over in 1980 and famously installed a plastic pitch. This pitch gave them an advantage but it still took them another three years to get back to the First Division.
This time they did better and managed another UEFA Cup campaign bringing Venables to the attention of Barcelona. The inevitable occurred and Venables left to become El Tel but Rangers survived the loss and continued to do well.
They would have managed another UEFA Cup campaign in 1988 had it not been for the ban on English clubs playing in Europe imposed due to the saintly behaviour of Liverpool fans.
Former player Gerry Francis became the manager in 1991 and in the first season of the new Premier League they finished 5th, tonking Man Utd 4-1 on New Years Day 1992 in the process.
Francis left midway through the 94-95 season to take over at Spurs. He was replaced by Ray Wilkins who sold star player Les Ferdinand for £6m and got them relegated the following season.
The following seasons saw Rangers struggle and managers come and go, Ian Holloway being one. They were also struggling financially and the club entered administration in 2001.
The following seasons saw real financial hardship and it was not until they were bought by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore that they could make any kind of attempt to push for promotion.
Ecclestone and Briatore were the kings of Formula 1 but knew next to nothing about running a football club. Managers came and managers went but there was still no success. It wasn’t until April 2011 that they made it back to the big time, but it took further wealthy investors to join the consortium to ensure promotion would happen.
Briatore left the club after race fixing allegations and Ecclestone sold his shares to Tony Fernandes.
Mark Hughes kept the Hoops in the Premier League in their first season back but the powers that be knew that he couldn’t repeat the trick and so they sacked him midway through last season. He was replaced by ‘Arry Redknapp, who completed the job and ensured they were relegated at the end of the season.
The Gaffer
Harry Redknapp is the one on the right with the red lead.
In his recent court case ‘Arry maintained that he “don’t know nuffink except football”.
This appears to be true, born in 1947 he joined Spurs in 1958 aged 11. This meant he got out of school.
He stayed with Spurs for four years and joined West Ham in 1962 at the advanced age of 15. It was at West Ham that he began his senior career in 1965.
He stayed with The Hammers for seven years notching up 149 league appearances and scoring seven goals, which even for a midfielder is hardly prolific.
1972 saw him move to the South coast and a four year spell at Bournemouth, but after a transfer and one game for Brentford he decided to cross the pond and play “soccer” for the Seattle Sounders in 1976.
Redknapp returned to the UK in 1982 where he ended his playing career back at Bournemouth. After that he took over as manager of Bournemouth in 1983 and that’s where leaving school at 11 really started to cause problems.
Unable to read or write, or even tie his own shoelaces, Redknapp was forced to rely on the one thing in his life that he could properly communicate with, his faithful dog Rosie.
Rosie became more and more important, picking the teams, advising on transfers and looking after the brown paper envelopes full of notes that ‘Arry was collecting.
A move to West Ham was suggested and ‘Arry jumped at the chance. He did well, building a side full of youthful talent, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard. He also made some astute signings in the likes of Stuart Pearce and Paolo Di Canio.
Redknapp led West Ham to their best ever League finish in 2000 and he fully expected to be signing a new contract. But the he opened his gob to the writers of a fanzine and by his own admission said a few things he shouldn’t.
Instead of a new contract he got the sack.
His next port of call was Portsmouth, where he became director of football for Milan Mandric. He fell out with Milan and got the sack.
The good ship Redknapp continued to sail round the South coast and docked in Southampton for a while. This really pleased the Portsmouth fans no end and they began to affectionately call him “Scummer”.
Scummer didn’t last long at Southampton after football expert Clive Woodward was appointed as coach and he went back to Portsmouth with his tail between his legs anxious to resume his favourite hobby of collecting brown paper envelopes.
He stayed for three years and won the FA Cup in 2008 before leaving to collect bigger brown paper envelopes at Spurs.
In 2008 he became manager of Spurs and in his four years there he won absolutely nothing.
Possible QPR Line-up
Green, Simpson, Onoula, Hill, Yun, Wright-Phillips, Granero, Mbia, Hoillett, Remy, Zamora.
Prediction
QPR 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday