I watched the game and I disagree. QPR had good chances but Watford controlled the game far better. A draw might have been fair, but calling QPR ‘by far the better side’ is nonsense. Regardless, they’re without a win in something like eight games. The new manager isn’t getting anything out of them.
I think I was a bit off with the GA v Marti points, as I thought GA only lasted 12 games rather than 14, so Marti has been clearly better from that perspective after all.
That being said, their fans are still saying it is GA's fault if they go down, despite GA having 14 games versus the 32 games Marti will (probably) have to save them.
The mood on the Stoke forum can be summed up with this one post
if that vale tosser Ainsworth turns up in his oxfam leather coat, floppy hair and his maori chums in tow too do a haka for the team i really am done for good
Perhaps I’m utterly deluded, but I think it would be a great move for Ainsworth. He knows how tough it is to compete at the top end of League 1 with a middling budget, but the top League 1 sides won’t be eyeing up Ainsworth, so a middling budget mid-table side is all he would get in League 1.
He’s got more chance of exceeding expectations in the Championship, where clubs are similarly hamstrung by FFP and SCMP (excluding those with parachutes). Their attendances aren’t too dissimilar.
I used to film an annual awards ceromony and Bruce was there one year. In those situations where the free wine has been flowing it's quite a good barrier breaker in that everyone feels stupid together.
Watching the Wycombe and QPR hakas back to back is an interesting insight into a unified lower league club versus a squad who think they are above it all.
I know we all love Gaz, and rightly so, but I think it's an unfair comparison.
Gaz had been at the club years when he did that at Wycombe. He'd absolutely established himself as the man who runs everything from top to bottom, he'd assembled a squad of players he knew bought into everything he said, and he was at the very peak of his powers having put together a group of players who were about to go on a history-making journey to take Wycombe Wanderers in to the Championship.
At QPR he had just taken over a group of players who'd been put together by a different manager/managers, who were having a desperate time in the league and whose slide down the table he had been unable to arrest, and was right off the back of a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of Blackpool.
In that context I'm not surprised the players looked bewildered, and he gave the country an opportunity to ridicule them.
I love Gaz, and nothing will ever change that. But he's not infallible, and that was a mistake.
@eric_plant - that is fair enough, and very well put. I do agree about it being a mistake...it looked a little desperate from GA, as if he had just realized how bad the situation was there, and grabbed something that worked at Wycombe far too early. So I am probably being harsh on the QPR players from that perspective.
The whole QPR thing was just awful to watch. He was desperate to do well, we were desperate for him to do well. It just never worked out from day one and the whole thing was a disaster
The saddest thing about it is that he has become a bit of a punchline with many fans of other teams, when he should be famous for taking Wycombe from the basement of L2 to the Championship. It does not help that people think we got in the playoffs by an obscure rule that created a wormhole directly from 17th in L1 into the division above.
Comments
I watched the game and I disagree. QPR had good chances but Watford controlled the game far better. A draw might have been fair, but calling QPR ‘by far the better side’ is nonsense. Regardless, they’re without a win in something like eight games. The new manager isn’t getting anything out of them.
Performances are more important than points at this stage of the season. Probably.
16 shots (7 on target) against 9 (2 on target) belies your argument. However we all see games differently.
Ownership issues and issues paying wages. Definitely feels like one to avoid
"The new manager isn't getting anything out of them". I wonder if there might be lesson in that? And I don't necessarily mean just for QPR fans.
I think I was a bit off with the GA v Marti points, as I thought GA only lasted 12 games rather than 14, so Marti has been clearly better from that perspective after all.
That being said, their fans are still saying it is GA's fault if they go down, despite GA having 14 games versus the 32 games Marti will (probably) have to save them.
Cifuentes has 13 points from 13 league games (he also lost his one cup game).
Cheers - still borderline relegation form (46 points pace), but noticeably better than GA's 8 points from 14.
Ainsworth's next move?
What do we reckon?
'Under pressure'
Didn't he only get the job last week?! 😂
This is a made up story, but even if it were to be true, I don't think GA would want this:
2022-23: Gareth takes over at floundering Championship club after they sacked their second manager of the season with barely any tenure.
2023-24: Gareth rumoured to take over at floundering Championship club after they sacked their second manager of the season with barely any tenure.
Either way, much as I love GA, I don't think he will ever work in the Champo again unless he takes a club there via promotion.
Not to mention being an ex Port Vale player!
The mood on the Stoke forum can be summed up with this one post
if that vale tosser Ainsworth turns up in his oxfam leather coat, floppy hair and his maori chums in tow too do a haka for the team i really am done for good
Quick, straight down to Oxfam to grab an absolute bargain!
I've never seen Gaz in a leather coat. A leather jacket, yes, but not a coat.
He’s well off out of it.
Perhaps I’m utterly deluded, but I think it would be a great move for Ainsworth. He knows how tough it is to compete at the top end of League 1 with a middling budget, but the top League 1 sides won’t be eyeing up Ainsworth, so a middling budget mid-table side is all he would get in League 1.
He’s got more chance of exceeding expectations in the Championship, where clubs are similarly hamstrung by FFP and SCMP (excluding those with parachutes). Their attendances aren’t too dissimilar.
Really hope he gets the job.
If he gets the job and buys back Sammy Vokes the Stoke trevorbluenotes would explode! 😉
I would love it just to complete the trilogy:
'Haka 3: Orcs Go Maori'
Excuse higorance. What is the Māori chums reference all about?
Forget Oxfam.
The Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity Shop at Cosy Corner has plenty of classy gear on display.
Other Charity Shops are widely available.
I think you could well be utterly deluded.
But don’t take my word for it.
When GA arrived at QPR, he had all the players sat in a room, and brought in a NZ Maori to do a Haka, supposedly to inspire them.
It was the tamest and least good Haka I have ever seen, and the expression on most players' faces was 'WTF is this'.
GA brought Bruce the Maori in at Marlow Road too.
I used to film an annual awards ceromony and Bruce was there one year. In those situations where the free wine has been flowing it's quite a good barrier breaker in that everyone feels stupid together.
Thanks, @bargepole. I should’ve remembered that connection.
Watching the Wycombe and QPR hakas back to back is an interesting insight into a unified lower league club versus a squad who think they are above it all.
I know we all love Gaz, and rightly so, but I think it's an unfair comparison.
Gaz had been at the club years when he did that at Wycombe. He'd absolutely established himself as the man who runs everything from top to bottom, he'd assembled a squad of players he knew bought into everything he said, and he was at the very peak of his powers having put together a group of players who were about to go on a history-making journey to take Wycombe Wanderers in to the Championship.
At QPR he had just taken over a group of players who'd been put together by a different manager/managers, who were having a desperate time in the league and whose slide down the table he had been unable to arrest, and was right off the back of a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of Blackpool.
In that context I'm not surprised the players looked bewildered, and he gave the country an opportunity to ridicule them.
I love Gaz, and nothing will ever change that. But he's not infallible, and that was a mistake.
@eric_plant - that is fair enough, and very well put. I do agree about it being a mistake...it looked a little desperate from GA, as if he had just realized how bad the situation was there, and grabbed something that worked at Wycombe far too early. So I am probably being harsh on the QPR players from that perspective.
The whole QPR thing was just awful to watch. He was desperate to do well, we were desperate for him to do well. It just never worked out from day one and the whole thing was a disaster
The saddest thing about it is that he has become a bit of a punchline with many fans of other teams, when he should be famous for taking Wycombe from the basement of L2 to the Championship. It does not help that people think we got in the playoffs by an obscure rule that created a wormhole directly from 17th in L1 into the division above.