By dixon9
January 5 2008

So the new “nouveau-riche” from west London meet the old “nouveau-riche” from south west London in the worlds oldest cup competition, the FA Cup. QPR have significantly strengthened (most of it being carried out only last week) since the takeover of Mittal, Briatorre and Ecclestone and the Shepherds Bush club now represents potentially the richest club on the planet.

Yes! That’s what I said! QPR now represent the potentially richest club on the planet!

Incredibly enough, QPR fans even plan to produce and wave fake bank notes in their thousands AT US as a demonstration of their new found wealth and to inform us (and the rest of the footballing world) that they have arrived! 

Steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal is numero uno, the big cheese, the main man, the big fish, the (OK! We get your drift! Ed) in the Sunday Times rich list whilst our Roman weighs in behind in second place. 

Mittal is ably partnered by F1 magnates Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatorre and they form the richest board ever to oversee a football club - we’ll have to see just how much they are interested in the football project and how much they are interested in the real estate of Loftus Road.

Ecclestone at least is a football fan (Chelsea ironically!):

"We were going to buy Chelsea, then Roman came along.  But there's no point buying Ferrari. The only way is down. At QPR we're in Formula Renault. Next we want to move up to GP2 and then GP1."

So our neighbours from just 3 odd miles away look set to follow a similar path to Shankly´s Liverpool in the 60´s when one of the richest families in Britain, Moores, stepped in (despite already being at the helm of their arch rivals, Everton), and hauled the Merseyside club out of the old second division and onto domestic and European glory.

New manager De Canio, has lifted QPR up to 18^th from the relegation zone after an impressive run of results including a 4-2 victory over league leaders Watford.

"I took a step back to join this club and, hopefully, realise the dream.  The owners told me it was about laying foundations that can be built on in the future. There is a very long road ahead. They are excellent entrepreneurs and they know how to invest their money and take this team to the level they are aiming for. It is nice to be starting out on this journey with everyone here but I'm not equipped to perform miracles."

And this is the best time for them to face us I imagine – we are probably at our weakest in years in terms of the strength of the line-up we can put out since the advent of the Abramovich/Mourinho revolution. 

Despite frantic recent re-strengthening, De Canio remains cautious:

“Chelsea may be suffering in terms of numbers at the moment but they are still a team of champions and we are a Championship team."

Despite being looked upon by many as a low key derby, there is a strong undercurrent of…er,…shall we say “resentment” from QPR fans to our lot and to be honest, we don’t exactly warm to them, although as one Chelsea supporter once said:

“It’s difficult to hate QPR though. It’s a bit like a having a Yorkshire terrier yapping and snapping away at your heels – you’re just too busy laughing at it to give it a good shoeing!”

QPR fans have been giving it large during the build up to this match. Warnings of 12,000 of them infesting Stamford Bridge and “taking the Shed” etc seem to be too ridiculous to comprehend (this is why we call them QPR ha ha ha!). 

They sold 6500 odd (their allocation) and the game didn’t go on general sale so they possibly borrowed Essen’s calculator!

This must be the first time they’ve sold out for a visit to the Bridge.  They used to have one or two sections of the old away end but I can’t remember them filling up the whole end. 

No doubt a lot these comments are borne out of years of frustration at watching us take over most of their ground on an embarrassingly regular basis. 

As another Chelsea supporter pointed out yesterday: 

“Have a look at page 4 of their programme for our visit to 'Rangers Stadium' in April 1987. The Bush Telegraph there tells us.... "Rangers normal programme price is 60p but we have to face the fact today that Chelsea fans will be in the majority here and they are accustomed to a 70p price. In these circumstances we prefer to put out a programme aimed at the majority purchasers (for one thing they will have the right money ready which speeds up programme sales queues!).   Where were we? Yep, taking over your farking ground again, ya small time penny pinching twats !!!” 

I think that puts that one to bed! 

Another supporter summed up what will probably be the order of the day for QPR: 

“They'll have a few gobby lads, without a f'king clue that have never been to the Bridge before, but the vast majority will be face painted, replica kit wearing and balloon carrying families and kids on their big day out.”

”It will be no different to when Wycombe or Colchester came here. They will make a lot of noise and we'll get all the usual generic lower league chants along with the 'where were you when you were...” 

The vitriol and bitter envy that has been welling up in Shepherd’s Bush over the years (make that decades) took on a surprising and even more distasteful turn from a certain ginger barneted Robert Elms of the BBC and GLR.

Mr Elms sees himself as a working class lad made good, cosmopolitan (he married a foreign lady you see!), cool and fashion guru (He was the first to wear red-tag jeans Levis you know!), a leading light in the dinner parties of Holland Park who still retains faithful roots with the very same working class lads of the Bush and White City that he probably looks down on. 

I won’t print the complete article (which by the way was soon taken off-line), but the main points and the reason for his intense hate towards us are as follows:

(1)  Chelsea are so wealthy and inflated and so far removed from real life that the sheep who file into Stamford Bridge probably don’t even know who we are.

(2)  Despite our new found wealth, we will stand for community and continuity, loyalty, inclusiveness, fairness and flair. We were the little side, representing the run-down neighbourhood, punching above its weight.

(3)  Chelsea are arrogant, elitist, violent and fickle. It’s precisely the difference between the Uxbridge Road and the Kings Road, between Stanley Bowles and Chopper Harris, between us and them.

(4)  They have always been a repellent mix of Hooray Henrys from the chic bits of West London (at least when they’re doing well), luvvie fops and a hard core of racists from deepest Surrey or somewhere.  

(5)  Has there ever been a more sickening experience at a football ground than watching their morons shout racist abuse at their own black players. 

(6)  Of course these days the yobs and the knobs have been joined by legions of Japanese tourists. 

(7)  We, by comparison, are real fans with a real fervour for the local team we love. No Glory Hunters or brainless goons here and long may it stay that way. 

(8)  Stamford Bridge wasn’t a glamorous place full of arrogant prawn sandwich eaters, but a rotting hulk of a ground, where just six or seven thousand knuckle draggers turned out.

(9)  Through ten long years of suffering, we’ve proved to be remarkably staunch, maintaining a strong, dedicated following, which on its day, can still make away ends ring with our joyous love for the Rs. While Chelsea showed that they have almost no real support as their crowds drifted away the moment they got relegated.  

(10)  They are owned by a morally bankrupt Russian oligarch, (is he any more obnoxious than the charming Mr Bates?). 

Now it’s quite true that do have new found wealth (as have many, many other clubs found throughout football history) but I don’t see us as particularly removed from reality, We still have the same core working class following and yes they do in general come from the southern postal codes of London and Surrey – where are they supposed to come I wonder?!!! 

As for the hooray Henry, theatre set, we’ve always had them (but they have always been a very small minority) due to the proximate location of our club to the West End.  How many QPR fans come from Middlesex and Berkshire anyway! 

As one Chelsea supporter put it: 

“The sad reality about Queens Park Rangers is they don't even have supporters in Queens Park any more (let alone Kensal Rise or Brondesbury or Park Royal). There is a narrow sliver of West Lond extending West from Shepherds Bush where you can find a few pubs with mementoes of past glory and miserable old gits choking on their light and bitter as they envy our success. Makes them even more bitter that much of their limited success has been down to ex-Chelsea men - the Doc, Ray Wilkins, Gavin Peacock, Terry Venables, Dave Sexton, Stewart Houston, even Paul Furlong. And as for their chairman Gianni Paladini...!”  (Not too mention very recently Jimmy Smith, Mancienne and Sahar). 

He does have a point on the racism issue – the treatment of Paul Cannonville was disgraceful to say the least but I’m pleased to say those Neanderthal antics have long since ceased at Stamford Bridge. 

However, racism in football was around until much more recently, even at the temple of righteousness which is Loftus Road – ask Ian Wright how his son got on when he played there. 

Chelsea supporters are brainless goons according to our carrot-topped scribe – and QPR are a flock of angels – which is why 50 of their so called top hoolies are going to be giving it large by Fulham Broadway at around 1:30 today and we had “Just better watch out!” 

Stan Bowles and Ron Harris? Compare the lifestyles and loyalty of those two and I don’t think I need to say who would come out cleaner. 

But a lot of the content of Mr Elm’s article is petty to say the least - the main thrust of his piece is that we have no soul and a fickle following which is totally contrary to the good, honest, loyal and generally morally righteous droves that are QPR fans.   

Well, Mr Elms, if that is so could you explain why if that is so we have a 100 year odd history which puts our average attendance at 5^th in the ALL-TIME list of English league football?  Despite many trophy less decades we were behind the even older nouveau-riche of Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal who were winning and putting a lot more pots in their trophy cabinets than we could ever hope to. 

Where are the stalwarts of west London in this list?  The faithful droves of QPR fans that put us Chelsea supporters to shame with their exemplary loyalty?  I can’t even be bothered to look such is the delusion of Mr Elms comments.  

Queens Park Rangers originally played in Queens Park and the word “Rangers” denotes a clue to the “soul and tradition” of the club - although Id suggest changing it to “Gypsies” – they’ve moved around London more than Arsenal! (And that is an achievement!).  Around 20 different grounds since they were founded! 20!   Compare this to the soulless devil’s spawn which is Chelsea – erm, how many times have we uprooted and moved around during our history Mr Elms?  Answers on a postcard please – I’ll look out for the France “Provinces” post mark or wherever it is you write your deluded articles from whilst you profess to maintain your finger on the pulse of Shepherds Bush! 

Other Chelsea fans give us clues to the background of Mr Elms: 

“Always viciously anti Chelsea.  Working class boy made bad. Snide comments or records (Spanish Stroll for Mallorca) after bad results for us. Pretentious mud flat of the highest order. Trendier than thou incarnate. Once claimed that Joe Strummer was not the only "White Man in the Hammersmith Palais" because he too was there that night; only to forget himself and claim two weeks later, that he was at reggae gig at The Lyceum on the same night” 

“GLR, as was, London Live as now, have never been pro Chelsea. As a London station, they played Cantona songs after they had beaten us at The Bridge. My mate phoned in on the way home and politely asked if he was through to radio Piccadilly. No, replied the surprised producer, "well stop playing that cattle trucking manc tomtit he screamed.”  

“He's a dick, always has been. Remember when he thought he was London's style guru. Was on radio bragging that he was the first in London to have red tag Levis!  We all had red tags sitting in the bottom of tour wardrobes he was so late! C*ck. Total c*ck!” 

More recent history at QPR has seen troubled times; A rape accusation on one player, car crashes, stabbings, drunken driving, an accident at an underground station resulting in the death of a Vietnamese student.  Sad stuff indeed.

There have been almost fantastically unreal events at morally pure QPR, including an alleged boardroom gun battle where the chairman, Gianni Paladini, alleges he was held at gunpoint by fellow director David Morris - ordered to sign documents that would see him relinquish the club!

Then there was the 30 man brawl between Rangers' reserves and the Chinese Olympic team at Harlington where the west London club were fined £40,000.

Still, I think that’s enough! Onto the football: 

I’ve many memories of Chelsea QPR matches – some good, some bad!  The worst has to be that 6-0 drubbing they gave us although I witnessed enough victories to heal that deep wound (although the scar still remains!).   

Other moments include an Andy Townsend exorcet from way out at a diagonal angle of the QPR box (it hit the net seemingly instantaneously after he picked the ball up), a Tony Dorigo free-kick whilst Seaman was still lining his wall up, a Tommy Langley goal in the Shed End just after he transferred there from us, a Kerry Dixon penalty when the following week, the Chelsea Independent front cover featured a map of Shepherds Bush asking us to put an “X” on the spot where we thought the ball had landed!.... 

As I mentioned earlier, QPR have strengthened considerably very recently; West Ham's Hogan Ephraim, Matthew Connolly from Arsenal, Watford's Gavin Mahon, Fitz Hall from Wigan and Patrick Agyemang from Preston.

There are more, also signed this week - Patrick Agyemang, Rowan Vine, and Kieran Lee.

Their more glamorous signing has been perhaps Akos Buzsacky, who completed a £500,000 move from Plymouth.  The Hungarian has played with Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira, and under Jose Mourinho, at Porto.

Mikele Leigertwood is suspended and Michael Mancienne (our boy) is Cup-tied.

Ben Sahar was recently on loan there:

'They are in quite good form, winning now, when we (Sahar and Scott Sinclair) played the team was struggling a bit but now they are winning and they are playing well. 

'De Canio is a good coach, he doesn't speak English much, but has a translator. They understand him more now he has been there a while and he concentrates on tactics a lot,'

'Being Italian he likes to concentrate on defence, so they should be tight, but if we play like we know, we will win." 

'There is more money now, so they can buy a lot of players because they want to go up as soon as possible from what the manager said. I don't know much about the new signings but I heard they are good players, they brought a few in so I guess they will change the team a little.'

We will obviously be still missing Terry, Lampard, Cech (very doubtful), Cuducini, Shevchenko (doubtful), Makelele and Malouda.

Carvalho serves the third game of his three-match ban and Essien is suspended.Drogba (knee) may make the bench at most.

Grant:  “Maybe one or two might be back. Drogba trained last week and trained well."

So, we can probably look at our line-up as the following: (4-3-3)Hilario, Ferreira, Ben-Haim, Alex, A Cole, Mikel, Ballack, J Cole, Wright-Phillips, Pizarro and Kalou.

I reckon a very hard fought 2-1 win – they may even score first!I’ll finish with this from De Canio:

"At the moment the chance of QPR being bigger than Chelsea out on the pitch is still a dream - But there is no law against having dreams."

Chelsea (from): Cech, Hilario, Ferreira, Bridge, A Cole, Ben-Haim, Mikel, Alex, Sidwell, Pizarro, Kalou, Wright-Phillips, J Cole, Ballack, Sinclair, Belletti.