Redknapp on thin ice at QPR

The end of the road – the Loftus Road – must surely be coming soon for Harry Redknapp.

Queens Park Rangers’ disastrous start to the season took a new, depressing twist this week when the Premier League club outfit was knocked out of the Capital One Cup by fourth-tier Burton Albion, losing 1-0 in a second round tie.

That followed defeats to Hull City and Tottenham Hotspur to leave the Malaysian-owned club in last place on the table with a minus-5 goal difference, having failed to score in three games in different competitions to start the season.

Owner Tony Fernandes made the mistake of taking too long to act after QPR’s winless start to the 2012-13 campaign, only sacking Mark Hughes at the end of November. He had garnered just four points from a possible 48, with eight league defeats, to sit at the foot of the table.

Ironically, it was Redknapp who took over from Hughes, with an air of optimism around West London, given his relative success at Tottenham Hotspur over the previous four seasons.

He initially improved things with some encouraging results into the New Year, but was ultimately unable to keep the Super Hoops in the top flight.

Now it is Redknapp who needs to stand aside to let a new man – ideally a manager familiar with rescue missions like Tony Pulis – to turn a flailing side around.

And that could mean retirement for the 67-year-old, who admitted that he would have wandered off into the footballing sunset if QPR hadn’t earned promotion in May by winning the Championship Play-off final against Derby County.

Redknapp has had an excellent managerial career and did well to bring the R’s back into the promised land of the Premier League at the first attempt.

But, clearly, he is now struggling to get the best out of his squad. And, given the number of fading veterans who are still earning generous wages, he is making some of the same mistakes as his predecessor.

QPR were woeful against his former club, Spurs, last Sunday, playing, as Redknapp so succinctly put it, “like a bunch of strangers”. The 4-0 defeat at White Hart Lane might have been 7-0 or 8-0, given the number of chances that the Lilywhites enjoyed.

The 3-5-2 system that QPR adopted, with 35-year-old Rio Ferdinand and 34-year-old Richard Dunne as two of the back three, was repeatedly exposed. Redknapp blamed a lack of energy from his players, rather than any tactical mistake, on the formation’s failure.

It is too early to make any definitive call on the addition of Ferdinand to the club’s defensive stocks, but the early omens are certainly not good for the former Manchester United stalwart.

Joey Barton is another man capped by his country who used to ply his trade in Manchester. Barton turns 33 next week and now looks horribly out of his depth at this level.

As outstanding as he was last season in the Championship, Barton clearly has seen better days in the heart of QPR’s engine room.

Redknapp made nine changes for the Cup tie at Burton Albion and yet the performance was arguably worse, given that they were facing a League Two side with a fraction of the budget.

Adel Taarabt huffed and puffed as he made his first appearance in 16 months after loan spells at Fulham and AC Milan. It seems a long time ago when the Moroccan first played for the club after failing to crack a first-team spot at Tottenham in 2009.

While Taarabt was one of QPR’s better players on a depressing night in Staffordshire, Shaun Wright-Phillips may have been disappointed with his contribution after he was given a rare start.

How far a one-time Chelsea and Manchester City starlet has fallen. Remember this is a man who was part of England’s 2010 World Cup squad, earning 36 caps for his country and lighting up stadiums around the world with his pace and dribbling skills. Yet since signing with QPR three years ago, he has scored a solitary league goal in 63 matches.

The reality is that the likes of Wright-Phillips, Ferdinand, Barton and Dunne aren’t going to keep Rangers in the Premier League, just as Park Ji-Sung, Jose Bosingwa and Christopher Samba couldn’t prevent relegation two years ago.

No doubt that Redknapp will be looking to bring in more seasoned campaigners before the transfer window closes on Monday. But how much of a difference will they make to the newly promoted side?

Happy ‘Arry went so close to landing the England coaching job in 2012, and has had more successes than failures in his rollercoaster 30-year coaching career. But it does seem now that he’s run out of ideas and enthusiasm.

Tony Fernandes needs to make a big decision sooner rather than later to replace Redknapp. A tough-love approach from a manager in the mould of Pulis, with a younger, workmanlike team is what’s needed now in Shepherd’s Bush, not a bunch of well-known former internationals clearly past their prime.

BY JASON DASEY

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