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Status Anxiety

Toby Young

Wednesday, 6th February 2008

When Arsenal got too posh, I switched to QPR. Now look what's happened

Then calamity struck. Last August, QPR was bought by the Formula 1 tycoons Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Briatore then sold a 20 per cent shareholding in the club to the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. There was a surreal moment last year when I switched on Sky Sports to see a close-up of Naomi Campbell sitting in the South Africa Road Stand at Loftus Road. It was precisely in order to avoid having to watch games alongside the super-rich that I transferred my loyalties to the Rs in the first place. I went and saw them play Bristol City last Saturday and my worst fears were confirmed. The new owners have brought in a new manager, Luigi de Canio, and he had been busy in the January transfer window. Instead of the usual pub team hoofing the ball up the field, they looked like a proper side. City are currently one of the two or three best teams in the Championship and yet QPR managed to beat them 3-0. Only nine points separate QPR from Ipswich, the sixth-placed club in the league, so it is not inconceivable that QPR will qualify for the play-offs at the end of the season. In the worst-case scenario, they could actually get promoted to the Premier League -— and if it doesn’t happen this season, it will surely happen next time. After that, the sky’s the limit. With considerably more money than Roman Abramovich, the new owners might easily decide to mount a challenge for a Champions League place. Who knows, they could even finish above Arsenal.

Ah well. If the worst comes to the worst there’s always Leeds United.

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matthew rees

February 7th, 2008 1:17pm

The disloyality shown by your writer sums up the changing face of English Football. Arsenal have been on a roller coaster of a Journey as one of the aristocrats of the English Game. The shrewd and far sighted vision of the Clubs directors have funded and introduced modern training and life style techniques that will become the standard for successful club management in the U.K. They have also remained one of the very true purveyors of entertainment through the medium of competitive football. I'm a QPR fan of Forty Five years and i'm one of many that remain loyal to the Club. I shall remain loyal even if the prices go up and the value of the directors watch's match my annual income. So what! Somebodies got to pay the cost both financal and emotional for being a Club supporter. I'll take the agony these visionaries who have bought the franchise can pay the bill. Thats how its always going to be. I think your option is a type of moral cowardice pushed along by almost childish naivity. Get back to North London and read Nick Hornby. Hope i don't get a seat next to you at Loftus Road whichever league we are in.