5. Money Problems
£89 million in debt - thats the latest figure on how bad QPRs finances currently are, which is far from healthy. Even Chelsea are starting to move away from the red, while QPR seem to be sinking under a mountain of debt. In short, relegation from the Premier League will be disastrous, especially given the numbers coming for next year's bumper TV rights pay-out. Its like teams and owners dont heed the warnings of teams like Leeds and Portsmouth or even see the current plight of Rangers as a large neon signed warning not to overspend. Teams like West Brom, Stoke and Swansea have proven how smart money and not paying massive wages or huge transfer fees can help keep the club alive even if they were to be relegated. It's hard to see the same for QPR. In other circumstances, I would invariably rant at the owner, calling him out as a destructive, ignorant force with a play thing, but Tony Fernandes doesnt appear to be that kind of owner. He owned the Caterham Formula One team so has experience in not over spending and being a little fish in a big pond up against massive teams. He seems however to have forgotten those lessons since he has been at QPR as the team has already brought in a massive 24 player in transfers since Fernandes took over in 2011. Its also worth noting that short of a few loan deals all 24 of those players are still contracted to QPR. He gave Neil Warnock funds to bring in the likes of Joey Barton and Shawn Wright-Phillips and then gave Mark Hughes a sizable budget in January and at the start of the season to go out and buy players with Premier League experience and Hughes did just that. He signed the likes of Park Ji-Sung, Esteban Granero and Junior Hoilett to boost his already well filled squad looking for the quality that would hold QPR in mid-table with even the chance of a push for Europe. Of course we know that didnt happen and Harry Redknapp was brought in with all his wheeler dealer skills to try and keep QPR afloat. He brought in loans like Andros Townsend and cheap signings like Jermaine Jenas then broke the bank for Remy and Chris Samba and even with all that Premier League experience they are still deep in relegation trouble. Its a sad thing to think that relegation for QPR wont just rob the fans of top flight football but with the debt trouble they are in could force them to spend even longer out of the Premier League or even out of football all together.