"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference between football success and football failure."
A Football Manager Career by ChrissBurns1993
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ChrissBurns1993
Starting from 30 April 2011, QPR hopped on to one hell of a roller coaster journey. After secured promotion to the Premier League by winning the Championship with a 2–0 win over Watford. A subsequent FA investigation involving QPR's acquisition of Alejandro Faurlín threatened to deduct points from the side and put their promotion into jeopardy. The investigation concluded on 7 May 2011, with QPR found to be at fault in two of the seven charges, and received a £875,000 fine. However, there were no points deducted by the FA, and QPR's promotion to the Premier League was secured. Several months afterwards Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes bought the club from Bernie Ecclestone after his attempts to buy West Ham earlier in the summer fell flat as neither David Sullivan or David Gold wished to sell their club.
While Neil Warnock remained as the club's manager for their return to the top-flight, a run of eight Premier League games without a win eventually led to his sacking. Mark Hughes was named as his replacement, just 36 hours after Warnock had been dismissed, signing a two-and-a-half-year deal in the process. Despite their new manager, QPR's poor run of form continued, which left them fighting for Premier League survival on the final day of the 2011-2012 season. Relegation rivals Bolton Wanderers needed a win to have any chance of survival, but could only muster a draw with Stoke City, meaning QPR were safe, despite losing 3-2 to Manchester City after Sergio Agüero's injury-time winner - a goal which stole the Premier League title from arch-rivals Manchester United on goal difference.
Queens Park Rangers endured another miserable season in the 2012-13 season and on 23 November 2012, Mark Hughes was sacked as a result, having amassed only 4 points in 12 games and with the club languishing at the bottom of the Premier League despite significant financial investment in new players in the 11 months of Hughes' tenure. Expensive signings such as Park Ji-Sung, Samba Diakite, Jose Bosingwa, Esteban Granero and Stephane Mbia among others were not justifying their wage or selection and something had to give. A day later, the highly regarded Harry Redknapp was confirmed as the new manager and was entrusted with a hefty transfer budget which he used to splash £12.5m on Chris Samba, £8m on Loic Remy and £2m on Jermaine Jenas while Tal Ben Haim and Yun Suk-Young also joined. Redknapp couldn't stop the rot though and after only winning 2 league games the rest of the season QPR were relegated with 3 games of the season to play.
Despite their relegation the club decided to stick with Harry Redknapp for the 2013–14 season and he went on to make some more of his own signings. Signings which included the likes of Danny Simpson, Richard Dunne, Charlie Austin, Oguchi Onyewu and Yossi Benayoun. While Chris Samba returned to Anzhi Makhachkala for £12m after a poor spell, 10 others were released and Jose Bosingwa was one of them, a great relief to many R's fans. It was a big summer clearout for Harry Redknapp as he also allowed 9 senior players to leave the club on loan as the club tried to cut costs by saving in their astronomical wages. It was to be a mildly successful season for QPR as they finished 4th in the Championship, and qualified for the play-offs where they defeated Wigan Athletic in the semi-finals and then Derby County in the final to return to the Premier League in dramatic fashion as they won 1–0 with a goal by Bobby Zamora in the 90th minute. It wasn't exactly the way the club or their fans wanted to go back up but they did go back up and that was all that mattered.
It's looking like it's going to again be a summer of upheaval for the newly promoted side as 18 players have left the club permanently and 14 left on loan so far, although it was only Samba Diakite who was a first team player out of the players leaving on loan. Both Luke Young and Park Ji-Sung retired while Loic Remy and Jordan Mutch left for £10m and £5m respectively. Andy Johnson, Stephane Mbia and Yossi Benayoun are amongst those who have left on free transfers. The recruitment for the summer is looking to be much better though as the legendary Rio Ferdinand was brought in on a free transfer and will be joined by Steven Caulker in defence. Lerey Fer and Sandro look to be excellent additions too and both players have joined for £6m fees. Italian based Chilean duo Eduardo Vargas and Mauricio Isla have joined on loan as have Niko Krancjar and Mauro Zarate. The season ahead is looking very promising for QPR and Harry Redknapp.
ChrissBurns1993
Harry Redknapp resigns as QPR manager
Harry Redknapp has quit as QPR manager, blaming imminent knee replacement surgery for his decision. The 67-year-old informed chairman Tony Fernandes of his decision to leave the club just yesterday. "I need immediate surgery," said Redknapp. "If I can't give 100%, it's better for someone else to take over." Head of football operations Les Ferdinand and academy coach Chris Ramsey will take temporary charge but it's thought that Fernandes will be looking to bring in a permanent replacement as soon as possible. Redknapp led QPR to promotion to the Premier League last season via the Championship play-offs which was the least that was expected of him. He's admitted recently though that if he hadn't lead the club back to the Premiership he'd have retired from the game. Despite that perhaps being a hint that he was going to stay on for this season he has instead decided to step down. "I have had such a fantastic time at QPR and it's a real shame that it has to come to an end this way. That being said, my health and my family are more important to me than putting myself into an early grave with another relegation battle," said Harry Redknapp. "I would like to thank the board, the players and all my staff, and especially the supporters who have been absolutely fantastic to me. "My relationship with chairman Tony Fernandes has been one of the highlights of my footballing career and I wish the club every success. "I am confident they will survive in the Premier League this year although it won't be easy." Fernandes thanked Redknapp for "everything he has done for QPR", adding: "We part on good terms and I would personally like to wish him all the best for the future."
Early speculation on The R's next manager is rife and it's the usual suspects who have been linked to the post such as Tim Sherwood, Martin Jol, and Martin O'Neill. An outsider for the role though is rookie boss Christopher Burns who has also been tipped for his first senior managerial post after serving his apprenticeship under Roberto Martinez as Everton's under 18's manager for the past 2 seasons, it would be big jump though and we're not quite sure where this link has come from. Sherwood has also been linked with the Aston Villa post as well which gives QPR competition for his services. O'Neill seems happy with the Republic of Ireland too so it's doubtful whether he'll move which makes Jol and Burns the most likely candidates out of the names being mentioned, with the former currently unemployed and the latter looking for his first senior management role it's perfect timing for both men. A job such as this one is likely to garner a lot of interest though and there will be many candidates for Tony Fernandes to consider.
Harry Redknapp leaves Loftus Road for the last time.
ChrissBurns1993
After the shock resignation of Harry Redknapp in July QPR chairman Tony Fernandes had to seek out a new manager and the club were linked with several names including Martin O'Neill and Tim Sherwood. Both O'Neill and Sherwood turned the club down though as Aston Villa nicked Sherwood while O'Neill remained loyal to the Republic of Ireland. The Martin Jol link was dismissed by the club chairman as he elected to give the job to Christopher Burns. Everton were paid £200k for his services after he left his post as under 18's manager. Burns forged a respectable career for himself as a right back for several teams in the English Championship and League One as well as the Scottish Premiership and Championship. Rotherham, Ipswich and Doncaster were the teams Burns played for for most of his career but his first professional club were Hamilton Academical whom he played for for 2 years before a year long spell with Motherwell led to a move to England. By the time he retired at 33 Burns had already gained his coaching badges, after starting them early on in his career, and was offered a job with Roberto Martinez when he was appointed Everton manager, it was during their spell at Motherwell together that Martinez and Burns got friendly which led to the Spaniard offering his old pal a job as a youth team coach. After a couple of months in the job the Scot took over as the youth team manager following the departure of the previous one who had a disagreement with the top team boss.
After a chance encounter with Roberto Martinez Tony Fernandes was sent in Burns direction in his quest for a new manager after the Everton boss referenced Burns as "the next big thing in management". Curious about Martinez suggestion the Rangers manager sought out and interviewed Christopher. He obviously made a big impression on Tony as just a week after Harry Redknapp resigned 35-year-old Christopher Burns was named as the new QPR manager. There aren't many optimistic R's fans after hearing this news as they believe a more experienced manager should have been placed in charge for what will be a very hard season for their club. With the team already significantly strengthened by Harry Redknapp it remains to be seen whether Burns will be handed a transfer budget to play with.
It helps to have friends in high places.
Fola
Good luck at QPR, lets see if you can do better than real life.
bmg033
Thats not too difficult
ChrissBurns1993
ChrissBurns1993
A great opportunity and a great club.
Isn't football just the funniest old game? How I find myself in this position so early into my coaching career is remarkable but before I go into any of that though I'd first of all like to thank Roberto Martinez for giving me my first coaching job and having that faith in me. So much faith that he actually forwarded my name to Tony Fernandes for this job. What an amazing opportunity I've had thrown my way and I'm looking forward to getting out onto that training ground and seeing what I've got to work with this season. I'm under no illusions that this will be an easy job, particularly as it's my first senior one, but it's a job that I will put my life and soul into to make it work. Harry Redknapp is a man I've long admired and he has done a great job in his recruitment drive this summer with the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Steven Caulker likely to be stand out players for us this season. I've been handed a good sized transfer budget to make some signings of my own however and after a re-evaluating my squad my next step will be to bring in my own backroom and playing staff for whichever positions I feel need strengthened. I've definitely got some tactical ideas that I'll be looking to integrate early and it'll be a tough old pre-season for the lads as they'll be intensely training to get them upto speed with my ideas. Now the fun begins.
Rio Ferdinand is a great acquisition by the club.
ChrissBurns1993
It's a busy summer as QPR boss does some wheeling and dealing
Despite the fact that Harry Redknapp had made some vital signings over the first few months of the summer Christopher Burns obviously felt the need to change things up on his arrival. First out the door were loanees Mauricio Isla, Niko Krancjar, Eduardo Vargas and Mauro Zarate, it's not reallly known why their deals were terminated so far. A further 6 senior players were given the boot, previous No1 goalkeeper Robert Green was sold to Liverpool for £750k and Yun Suk-Young was sold to Leicester for £2.9m. Alejandro Faurlin, Bobby Zamora, Clint Hill and Richard Dunne had their contracts terminated as with Faurlin injured for over a year and Zamora, Hill and Dunne way past their best Burns deemed them redundant to his plans for the season ahead. It is perhaps a bit harsh on Faurlin that he has been released but having made a fair bit of money through football he'll have no trouble paying for the treatment he requires, a bit of no nonsense managerial strategy there. There were two players leaving on loan and those were Michael Petrasso and Coll Donaldson who will join Port Vale and Kilmarnock respectively for the duration of the 2014-15 season. Over a dozen, 16 to be exact, reserve and/or youth players were released by the club too. Despite some huge efforts to offload Shaun Wright-Phillips no one was interested in signing the 36-times capped English winger and he too wasn't interested in leaving as he turned down numerous mutual contract termination attempts, it's a bit silly as he's obviously not going to feature this term but it shows a determination to see out his contract with the club. Another player who will stay after attempts to sell him is Adel Taarabt as despite several clubs showing an interest in him none of them were willing to meet QPR's demands and a few loan deals were rejected by the club too.
With the departure of 26 players it was obvious that Christopher Burns wanted to bring in a few of his own men and that is exactly what he set about doing. First in were domestic loanees Rolando Aarons and Jordan Ibe who will cost £170k each month for the duration of their loans and they will provide Matt Phillips and Junior Hoilett with some competition on the wings. With the departures of a few defenders the side was obviously lacking in numbers and so 4 defenders were brought in. Ciaran Clark, Paul Dummett, Tyler Blackett and Chris Gunter were brought in for a combined £9.3m, a little over the odds you could say but each player has some great potential and it may prove to be money well spent. Having shipped quite a few experienced players out there were 2 additions that brought some back in as Kevin Nolan and Peter Crouch were added to the squad, it's likely that both players will be back-up/rotation options but they are 2 good additions it has to be said. The last player in the door was Ben Amos who will play understudy to Alex McCarthy which relegates Brian Murphy back to third choice 'keeper.
As well as the many changes to the playing staff there were loads of movements within the backroom staff too as 16 members of the previous regime were shown the door soon after Christopher's arrival. Those include the likes of director of football Les Ferdinand, assistant manager Kevin Bond, coach Steve Black and under 21's manager Steve Gallen. Each member of staff was replaced man to man and the 16 men brought in include people such as new assistant manger Bruno Demichelis, new director of football Nicky Hammond, new goalkeeping coach David Coles and new under 18's manager Peter Farrell. With each position now filled by Burns' men and 'higher quality' candidates QPR should have great stability over the upcoming season.
ChrissBurns1993
Creating a structure.
It's sure as hell been a busy couple of months in the job but I'm now very happy with the players and backroom staff we've managed to bring in. I haven't been disappointed with any of our incomings or outgoings as I've felt every deal has been necessary and for the good of the club. I got a bit of stick for terminating the loan deals of Niko Krancjar, Mauricio Isla, Mauro Zarate and Eduardo Vargas but I just didn't think they were the right players for the club this season. I don't see any of them being the kind of battlers that we need and that's my reasons for terminating their deals really. A bit of stick came my way regarding Alejandro Faurlin too but with him injured for over a year and he'd be out of contract by the time he's fit what's the point delaying the inevitable? He wouldn't be earning a new contract and he has the means to fund his own rehabilitation. Sacking Les Ferdinand didn't go down to well either with him being a club 'icon' and all but I didn't feel that he was right for the director of football role. I now feel confident in every department as we've got a proper scouting structure in place now which bodes well for the future, we're covered with coaches, goalkeeping coaches and fitness coaches now too. With and under 18's manager and assistant manager in place with the youth squads I do feel we could add a little more there but we'll do that over the season once we've got an idea of what works and what doesn't and such. My base formation for the season will be a 4-1-3-1-1 with wingers while our tactical strategy will be one where we'll be looking to control the match with possession and play to a high tempo. I don't want to be the type of manager who plays with a defensive outlook to try and frustrate your opponents and come away with a 1-0 win, I'd much rather lose 4-3 and know that we've given the fans a performance. Now that all the preparation has been dealt with it's time for the hard work to begin starting with our opening fixture of the season against our fierce London rivals Chelsea.
QPR fans will be relishing their opening day fixture against prospective title challengers Chelsea
ChrissBurns1993
With the start of our season beginning at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea we were never going to expect the 3 points but what wasn't expected of us was the performance that we put in against them. After going in at half time still level there was a bit of hope for us that maybe we could pull something off but just 2 minutes into the second half a Chelsea substitute scored.. Who was that substitute? Loic Remy of course! That proved to be the only goal of the game but we fought right to the very end and the match, in terms of stats, ended evenly with 50/50 possesion but it isn't stats that count is it? Our next match against another London rival; West Ham started off brightly as Charlie Austin put us ahead just 4 minutes into the game. The hammers were the ones infront up until the 43rd minute though as an Enner Valencia double put them ahead. In that 43rd minute though the match was drawn back level as the on loan Rolando Aarons netted. Being the dominant team throughout the match it would've been a travesty had we not won this match. Thankfully we did though as Austin grabbed his 2nd goal to secure a 3-2 win. It's funny how our opening month was scheduled as our next couple of matches against Charlton and Crystal Palace were also London based clubs which saved a lot of travelling for us. Our capital One Cup 2nd round match against Charlton couldn't have got off to a worse start as Simon Church had the home team in the lead just a minute into the game. A wake up call for our rotated side it would seem as went on to win the match 3-1 courtesy of goals from big Peter Crouch and our defender Ciaran Clark. Our game against Crystal Palace which concluded the month of August was perhaps our best to look at as we scored 2 goals and kept a clean sheet. A fantastic start to the season for us I'd say, even more so when you consider the bad run of injuries that we've had. Jordan Ibe, Leroy Fer, Sandro and Hoilett were all ruled out for upto a month each throughout the month while Steven Caulker was ruled out for 3/4 months with Rolando Aarons longer term than him with an expected 4/5 month abscence.
The football capital of the world.
ChrissBurns1993
September was an absolutely fantastic month for us as we went through the month unbeaten and progressed through to the next round of the Capital One Cup where Manchester City will be our opponents. A narrow 1-0 victory over Southampton was more than deserved for us as we were in control throughout the match and Charlie Austin got the goal to see them off. The following result was a rather boring goalless draw with Burnley as neither them nor us were up to scratch with out finishing on the day and outcome suited both teams really. Austin got his 4th of the season in our Capital One Cup match against Norwich, a game in which both ourselves and our opponents ended with 10 men as Bradley Johnson and Sandro got sent off. We were expected to be overwhelmingly beated by Man City in our last game of September but that wasn't how the game played out at all. Belgian stopper Vincent Kompany hauled Charlie Austin down in the box and Adel Taarabt stepped up and comfortably converted the resulting spot kick. We were lucky to get the win as, as expected, Man City dominated but the win will do for us. I'm mightily impressed by the 5 clean sheets in a row we've managed to keep and you may remember me earlier saying that we wouldn't be looking to play defensively and we haven't it's just the way things have went but I'll be hoping for a few more goals from the lads as we progress. That being said we have a solid 4 games in October as after facing West Brom we will have Everton, Tottenham and then Man City again.
ChrissBurns1993
When we looked ahead to our fixtures for October we expected to have a tough old time of it as we faced some tricky opponents. What proceeded though was another fine set of results, with 8 goals scored, 3 conceded with a further 2 clean sheets. We convincingly beat Tony Pulis' West Brom which is no mean feat as Pulis is a manager renowned for setting his team up to be tough to frustrate and be difficult to beat. That wasn't the case when we showed up at The Hawthorns though and goals from Adel Taarabt, Tyler Blackett and Junior Hoilett secured the comfortable victory for us. Our match against Everton was devastating as we took the lead on 31 minutes and held that lead until the 89th minute. We had made a few defensive tactical changes and brought Ferdinand on for Adel Taarabt in the final few minutes only for Steven Naismith's volley from a corner to take a deflection off Chris Gunter and into the net as The Toffees grabbed a late point from the match. Against Tottenham we conceded far too early and it was Nadir Chadli who opened the scoring on 5 minutes. It was over 50 minutes before another goal was to be scored though and that came for us as Tyler Blackett scored for the 3rd match in a row to pull us level. Just minutes later though and the in form Harry Kane, with 11 goals so far this season, put Spurs back in front. Our never say die attitude ensured that we wouldn't go home pointless however as man of the match Hoilett rescued the draw for us with his goal on the 80th minute being the last of the game. Our final game of the month came against Manchester City in the Capital One Cup and the league champions did us a big favour as they played a fringe side which was really poor defensively. Peter Crouch took the chance that he was after in the first team as he put us into the lead before Joey Barton sealed it with a free kick from the edge of the box. Cardiff will be our opponents as we progress though to the quarter finals of the competition. I'm really proud of my boys and their performances so far this season and long may that continue. Junior Hoilett and Tyler Blackett were rewarded with their efforts this month as they were rewarded with the player of the month and young player of the month awards respectively. Hoilett's goal against Tottenham was also named 2nd in the goal of the month category with Jonny Williams gaining 1st pick and Ramires with the 3rd. November should be a month where our good form continues as we'll face Newcastle, Leicester, Swansea and Stoke.
ChrissBurns1993
The month of November contained a mixed bag of results for us and although our last result on paper was our worst one it was the first game of the month which really got to me. Matt Phillips and Tyler Blackett had us in cruise control with their goals putting us 2-0 up with just 23 minutes on the clock. Just minutes before our 2nd goal was scored Cheick Tiote was sent off after receiving his 2nd booking and that should have made the game easier for us. A lack of concentration seemed to set in though and we crumbled on the 87th minute as Ayoze Perez and Papiss Cisse both scored inside that minute to salvage a draw for their side. An absolutely gutting performance and the result was devastating for us. Despite that setback we pulled ourselves together for our match against Leicester and an Adel Taarabt inspired performance saw us run away with a 3-0 win. We could only muster up a 0-0 draw against Swansea before our 11-game unbeaten run came to an end against Stoke. We fell behind early into the match, 2 minutes in to be exact but we were awarded a penalty just minutes later and Taarabt, as usual, stepped up and scored. Stoke were awarded a penalty of their own just after half time though and Marc Wilson's spot kick and goal was the last of the match as we couldn't find a way back into the game. I'm disappointed that our run has came to an end but it had to happen at some point if we're being realistic. I'm just hoping that it doesn't lead to a bad run for us and we can keep up our fine form since the start of the season. December will be by far our busiest month so far as we are scheduled to play 7 matches which includes a Capital One Cup quarter final tie against Cardiff as well as 3 games against "top 4 sides" Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. Hull, Aston Villa and Sunderland are the other teams we'll face as we round off our calender year. There was more good news on the awards front again as Tyler Blackett was again awarded the young player of the month accolade with Jordan Ibe taking 2nd place. Adel Taarabt was runner up to Stoke's Marc Wilson in the player of the month award too.
ChrissBurns1993
New contract awarded to high flying QPR manager Christopher Burns
When Harry Redknapp quit as QPR manager it left chairman Tony Fernandes with the huge decision on who to replace him with. There several of the same old faces linked with the job but the name recommended to him by Roberto Martinez was the one which stood out for Fernandes and that name was Christopher Burns. After interviewing and subsequently being impressed by the former Everton under 18's manager he handed him the managerial reins of Loftus Road on a 1-year contract. Nobody could have predicted the start to the season that the club have made though and with the festive season almost upon us Queens Park Rangers sit 5th in the league table and are through to the Capital One Cup quarter finals where they will face Cardiff. A stellar effort by Burns' side and as a result of that Tony Fernandes has handed the rookie manager a 2-year contract extension which will see him earn a bit more money too. I don't think any more could have been asked of the Scottish manager as he's got the team playing way above expectations and what a find he is turning out to be. As well as getting the team performing on the park the players seem to be gelling really well and one really surprising player on top form this season is the usually controversial Adel Taarabt, a player who was deemed overweight and unfit by Harry Redknapp previously. He doesn't seem to have that problem this season though as he finally appears to have a manager with full faith in him who is willing to make him the focal point of the team. He has the second highest average rating in the Premiership, behind only Harry Kane who is having an excellent season and added to that he also has 6 goals, 7 assists and 2 player of the match awards to his name so far this term. With their new manager under wraps for the next couple of seasons at least, their star players playing at their best and the return from injury of Steven Caulker things will hopefully stay positive at QPR.
The alleged details of Christopher Burns' new 2-year contract with QPR.
ChrissBurns1993
Our busy December started off with a shaky 3-2 victory against Hull and it really shouldn't have been so hard as we were up 3-0 in 33 minutes but Hull got their 2 goals a minute before half time and a minute before full time to make the match seem closer than it was. After a close game with Manchester United we pulled off a big upset as Adel Taarabt's first half penalty got us the 3 points, it wasn't all good news from that match though as the Moroccan magician went off with sprained knee ligaments and will miss upto 2 months of football. A woeful second half performance against Aston Villa culminated in a 3-0 defeat, our biggest yet in my time with the club. We bounced back immediately though as we sailed through to the semi finals of the Capital One Cup with a 3-1 victory courtesy of a Peter Crouch double and Junior Hoilett's 3rd goal of the season, in that game we picked up 3 injuries but only Jordan Ibe's injury ruled him our for a while as a hernia sidelines him for 6/7 weeks. A player returning from injury against Sunderland was Rolando Aarons and the on loan Newcastle winger fired in a double over his parent team's arch enemies. The winger turned in a man of the match performance and he ran the Black Cats ragged. We were expectedly beaten by Arsenal before we snatched a 0-0 draw with Liverpool in the last game of the month. The impressive Adel Taarabt was named the BBC's African player of the year and the Confederation of African Football player of the year ahead of John Obi Mikel and Seydou Doumbia while he was also named in the African team of the year. He fully deserves both awards as the attacking midfielder has knuckled down and improved his game this season. Ahead of the transfer window we let 4 players go, after failing many times over the course of the season to persuade Shaun Wright-Phillips to terminate his contract he point blank refused every time and so we released him from his contract at full expense. Joey Barton has been a decent player for us this season but when he was ruled out by injury for 6 months we released him from his contract too as he wouldn't be getting a new one at the end of the season and we could use the wage elsewhere. Michael Doughty and Frankie Sutherland were released too as neither player is good enough for us. We've added Rico Henry to our squad ahead of the transfer window and the 17-year old left back joins from Walsall for £750k. We have another busy month in January and will play at least 7 games including our first match in the FA Cup and both legs of the Capital One Cup semi final.
ChrissBurns1993
Our month of January was a pretty hectic one and it was that way from the off too as we played on the 1st and 4th day of the month. There was one departure and one arrival before our first game and it was Michael Doughty who left us on a free transfer while Rico Henry joined from Walsall for £750k. We couldn't have possibly asked for a better start to the month as we pulled off a 'giant killing' act in the league as a Peter Crouch double helped to sink a full strength but ultimately lacklustre Chelsea side. A 2-0 win over Reading in the FA Cup third round set up a tough tie away to Liverpool in the next round. It was Crouch and Rolando Aarons, making his first start in 4 months through injury, that led us to victory in that match. After going into the break 0-0 against West Ham we were positive of getting the required 3 points but the Hammers ultimately had other ideas as they were 2-0 up after 64 minutes through Enner Valencia and Halil Altintop as we chased the game not even a goal from ex Hammer Kevin Nolan provided us with the spark that we needed and the result finished 2-1 disappointingly. After that game our transfer window activity sprung to life as we brought in two players in as many days. First in was Italian midfielder Andrea Lazzari who joined on loan from Fiorentina to provide us with some extra options in the midfield after the departures of Joey Barton and Shaun Wright-Phillips. The next one was a big money deal as we acquired the services of Blackburn's prolific poacher Jordan Rhodes for £6 million pounds, the deal may yet rise to £10 million+ through add ons however. Despite having Charlie Austin and Peter Crouch in our ranks I felt we needed some proper, permanent competition for Austin as Crouch was brought in as a temporary measure. Rhodes made a goalscoring debut in our match against Crystal Palace as his penalty put us 1-0 up, that lead wasn't to last though and goals from Yannick Bolasie and Jonny Williams handed us our second defeat on the spin. Despite taking the lead once again in our next match against Nottingham Forest we still couldn't get the result that we were after as Austin's goal was cancelled out in the final 15 minutes by Dexter Blackstock as we failed to take the initiative from our first leg of the Capital One Cup. An injury to Rio Ferdinand in that match left us with 3 long term injury candidates as Ferdinand joined Chris Gunter in being out for 2 months whilst Leroy Fer is out for another 4 months which basically means his season is over. Ahead of our fourth round tie of the FA Cup against Liverpool we finalised a deal worth £450k for Barcelona full back Patric who joins us on a 3-year contract and will provide competition for Nedum Onuoah and Chris Gunter. The Merseysiders were favourites to win the FA Cup tie especially with our recent poor run of form apparently 'denting our confidence'. With that in mind Liverpool must have thought it'd be a good time to rest their top players as they played a second string side complete with our former goalkeeper Robert Green in goals. We couldn't get the ball past Green in the match, surprisingly though Liverpool couldn't net past Ben Amos either, despite their domination. We ended the month on a high note as we narrowly defeated Nottingham Forest 1-0 courtesy of a Tyler Blackett goal which sets us up for a cup final clash with Chelsea! Our bad run of injuries continued at the end of the month as Armand Traore was ruled out for 3 weeks and Junior Hoilett was ruled out for 3 months, we're covered in both positions though so hopefully it won't cause too much hassle for us.
ChrissBurns1993
With a couple of 'big guns' to face in February it was absolutely vital that we got off to a good start with in our opening game of the month against Burnley, being that they are a 'lesser team' it was imperative to get those points on board. A thrilling hat-trick by new signing Jordan Rhodes ensured that we did exactly that as his treble and a goal by Sandro provided the fire power which saw us beat the bottom of the table side. Not much was expected from us in our FA Cup game against Liverpool or our league game against Manchester City and from a distance you would think that it was a routine win for both sides but our lads gave it their all but it wasn't to be for us, the City result was particularly hard to take as the iconic moment where Sergio Aguero nets a late winner for Manchester City was rewritten. We bounced back superbly in our next match though as a magnificent first half performance put us 4-0 up against West Brom, that was to be the last goals of the match however as we played out a goalless second half. Solitary goals from Charlie Austin, Matt Phillips and a double from man of the match Tyler Blackett earned us the victory. Southampton came next for us and we again pulled off a comfortable result as goals from Sandro, Jordan Rhodes and a Ryan Bertrand own goal saw off the Saints. It was a second battle of the season with my friend and mentor Roberto Martinez which rounded off our month and I really wished that we could get one over on them after drawing 1-1 last time out, it wasn't to be though as ourselves and Everton played out a boring 0-0 stalemate. Having won 3 league games, drawn 1 and lost just 1 we managed to climb up to 7th in the table to occupy the 'best of the rest' slot. Looking ahead to next month it would be an absolutely fantastic early birthday present if we could seal a Capital One Cup victory over Chelsea in our next and first match of March, with the game being played 9 days ahead of my birthday I'll be drilling my wish into the players heads every day in training until then! In all seriousness though, if we could win the Capital One Cup and finish 7th in the league in my first season here I think I could retire a very happy man(not that I plan to anytime soon!).
ChrissBurns1993
March was going to be a big month for us as we had the Capital One Cup final against Chelsea at the very start of the month which was going to potentially make our season before it had finished! We'll get back to that later on though, our other 3 results of the month were against Newcastle, Leicester and Swansea. Newcastle was an absolute breeze for us as we dominated the game from start to finish and although the scoresheet doesn't suggest that, we really were. Patric and Jordan Rhodes had us 2-0 after just 20 odd minutes into the match and we never looked back from there. That win was followed up by a very close fought encounter with Leicester and both teams seemed to go for it from the start as the final scoreline of 3-2 would suggest. Despite going behind to a Danny Drinkwater goal just minutes into the match the heads didn't go down and Charlie Austin nodded in the equaliser 10 minutes later as Rolando Aarons corner found the forward who scored his 10th goal of the season. The second half was more dramatic and after just 5 minutes of play Jordan Rhodes converted a penalty which was awarded after Yun Suk-Young swiped the legs of Austin inside the box. Shortly after scoring his 7th goal in 8 games Rhodes went off with a dislocated shoulder which we've now learned will rule him out for 2 months and the end of the season back to the match though and with the game nearing the final stages Andrej Kramaric threw a spanner in the works with his goal coming on the 88th minute to pull the match back level. Not to be disheartened or out done though we got a winning goal on the 95th minute as Adel Taarabt volleyed in past Mark Schwarzer from an Aarons cross as we sealed the win with the last kick of the ball. Exciting stuff! Also.. Nerve shredding.. We without almost an entire starting 11 for our final match of the month against Swansea as Rhodes was joined on the crock list by Kevin Nolan and Alex McCarthy who joined Leroy Fer, Sandro, Matt Phillips, Junior Hoilett, Jordan Ibe and Andrea Lazzari in the stands. Regardless of who was available to play I knew my lads would be giving their all and that showed straight away as makeshift winger Patric crossed for Charlie Austin to head in the opening goal. Just ahead of half time Peter Crouch doubled the lead after some comical defensive errors left him free to score his 8th goal of the season. It was 2-1 going into the break as Gylfi Sigurdsson converted from the penalty spot after a foul inside the box by Steven Caulker resulted in the spot kick. The scoreline was unchanged at the full time whistle which means we won 3 games in a row in the league which will go a long way in securing European football for us next season. There was more injury problems ahead for us though as Austin was ruled out for 2-3 weeks with a twisted knee. I got a little buzz about myself when I was told that I was runner up to Arsene Wenger in the manager of the month award, not the winner obviously but it's good to get a mention. Patric was 3rd in the young player of the month awards too. Hopefully I'll be getting No1 spot soon enough.
ChrissBurns1993
With our league campaign 30 matches down the line things were really heating up for us as our European chase continued into the second last month of the season. It was vital that we got some points from our matches against Stoke, Tottenham, Hull and Manchester United this month and that we did! Stoke were first up for us in April and it was a typical match where Stoke were involved, BORING, they were set up quite defensively and a 0-0 result will have bored both sets of fans who turned up but I'm not going to complain with the point away from home. Tottenham and Hull were our next to visitors to Loftus Road and neither side will have been too happy with their respective results as we overcame both sides 1-0 with Charlie Austin getting a goal in both matches too. Tottenham wouldn't have been happy with Younes Kaboul's 80th minute red card and we weren't happy with Paul Dummett's 90th minute red card in our match against Hull either as a rare bit of ill-discipline was shown in our matches. We completed the month unbeaten and without conceding as we again played out a dull 0-0 draw, this time with Manchester United and the big guns will be devastated with the result as they battered us from start to finish. I'm delighted with our results as our squad has been blighten by injuries time and again throughout this whole season and it continued in April for us too, fortunately though my lads pulled together and ground out the results we needed. Our 10 match unbeaten run in the league has put us in a fantastic position which means mathematically the lowest we can finish in the league is 8th place but there's no chance that'll happen. I'd say 7th place is pretty much sealed whilst we can mathematically finish 2nd but we're too far behind for that, not too far behind 3rd though as just 3 points separate ourselves and Liverpool. Here's hoping for a record breaking finale to the season!
ChrissBurns1993
It's strange how you can set a target at the start of the season, which for us would have been mid table at the most, yet not be completely happy with achieving that target. The reasoning behind that though is simple, picture this.. You're 7th in the league table with four games to go and you can realistically finish 3rd in the league and make Champions league football next season. You're going to be a little bit gutted if you miss out on that in the final game of the season, unfortunately for us that's exactly what happened to us. We got into that position after our annihilation of Aston Villa from minute 1 until minute 90 and although the final scoreline of 1-0 doesn't suggest any form of 'annihilation' it truly was, Jordan Ibe got the goal for us on the day. With Liverpool and Arsenal in our next two matches our faint Champions league hopes should've been crushed after those games. They weren't though as despite being beaten 2-0 by Liverpool we valiantly saw of The Gunners with a 2-1 win thanks to a Jordan Rhodes brace, Sanchez scored late on to give us a scare but we ground out the result, just. Getting that win over Arsenal gave us an absolutely incredible chance to finish 4th in the league if we could see off Sunderland in our last game.
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ChrissBurns1993
QPR: My first season in football management
When I was handed to managerial reins here at Queens Park Rangers it's fair to say it was a bit of a bolt from the blue and I was expecting to have a massive challenge on my hands. In the past couple of seasons they've had their fair share of misfits, misfiring strikers, lacklustre defenders, troublemakers and general expensive flops. To name but a few examples I can mention Chris Samba for £12million a couple of years ago and high earning duds such as Esteban Granero, Samba Diakite, Julio Cesar, Stephane Mbia and the ever hapless Jose Bosingwa. There's an old quote that I like, I can't remember who said it but it goes like this; "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference between football success and football failure" It's such a true saying and one that I firmly believe to be true. Footballers can have such a bad attitude and as this club found out, throwing money at reputable players doesn't guarantee success as their big time attitude doesn't go hand in hand with the hard working type of player that a lower table Premiership team needs. Player's like James McArthur, Graeme Dorrans, Curtis Davies and Julien Speroni, Kevin Nolan and Jermain Defoe, players that'll give their all week in week out. In fairness to Harry Redknapp he had started to sift through some of the dead wood before my arrival but I still let quite a few players leave. Yun Suk-Young was never going to be a starter for us, neither were Shaun Wright-Phillips, Bobby Zamora or Robert Green and they were on such a high wage it was ridiculous. It was a shame Alejandro Faurlin was injured for a year and then would be out of contract by the time he was back as I'd liked to have seen what he was capable of but I willing to wait about on him. When you think of players with a bad attitude Joey Barton will always spring to mind as he's had quite a controversial career but for me, working with him was a pleasure, his professionalism in training and in the dressing room was spot on and that's what's needed from senior pro's, I'd liked to have kept him but when he got injured there was just no point in delaying his release from the club. One player who has been lamented in the past few years is Adel Taarabt and with that in mind I initially tried desperately to flog him but no one was bidding anything worthwhile and I didn't want to accept a loan for him so I played him. We haven't looked back since then, overweight my eye! The lad's had an excellent season for us and perhaps been our standout player. To say that we overachieved in my first full season would be a massive under statement, we've shown such a great consistency over the year and I'm ecstatic to have been able to finish 6th in the league and also go so close to winning the Capital One Cup. It's been a squad effort though as everyone in the first team, loanee Andrea Lazzari apart, featured in at least 17 games. Armand Traore started the least amount of games as he made just 9 starts. The contribution from Jordan Rhodes and Peter Crouch was impressive as Rhodes started 10 games and made 1 substitute appearance and scored 10 goals while Crouch started 11 games came on as a sub in 5 and scored 8 goals. Patric became a vital signing when he joined as Chris Gunter's injury gave him the starting berth which he made his own by the end of the season as the £450k signing from Barcelona proved his worth with some great defensive performances whilst he also chipped in with a goal and an assist. It was imperative that we did put that squad effort in as our squad was blighted with injuries time and again throughout the season and it's a credit to the team that they fought so hard together not to let it affect us.
ChrissBurns1993
Premiership surprise package QPR ship 17 players out and bring 13 in during busy summer
You know that you've got a tough taskmaster in charge of your team when 17 players get released, loaned out or sold after your best league finish in 22 years.That's what happened to Queens Park Rangers this summer though as some of the deadwood were cut from the side. Brian Murphy, Kevin Nolan, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Harriman, Bruno Andrade, Karl Henry, Reece Grego-Cos, Max Ehmer and Armand Traore were never starting players when there was a fully fit team at manager Christopher Burns' disposal and almost all of them were released or allowed to join another club for free, a fee of £500k was paid for Kevin Nolan though as he linked up with new boys Bournemouth. When it was reported that Southampton were in for Sandro Burns' immediately shot the rumours down in flames as he didn't want the Brazilian to leave. Something must have changed though as just a couple of weeks later a fee was accepted for the midfielder and he was on his way. Undoubtedly it's got to be the price that Southampton were willing to pay that caused the change of heart as £12million is a great return on a player bought for just half of that a year previous. It's also speculated that the fee could rise to £14million through add ons. Upon their return from their respective loan deals Samba Diakite and Michael Petrasso were both shown the door once again with the former agreeing to mutually terminate his deal whilst the latter signed for Napoli for £1million + 50% of his next transfer, a great move for the winger it must be said. Fringe men Nedum Onuoha, Ciaran Clark and Junior Hoilett were also sold and the club raised just over £12million for the trio. Rico Henry and Ben Amos were allowed to leave on loan with Crawley and Bournemouth snapping the players up. The first player out the door at the beginning of the summer was Peter Crouch who hung his boots up after a solid season with one of his favourite clubs. The now former striker is looking for his first coaching job after deciding to go down that path.
Offsetting the departure of 17 players were the additions of 13 others who'll replace them. The club splashed out just under £20million on players although they brought in £26million too. Jesse Lingard was first in the door and he was swiftly followed by Ashley Beesley and Tomas Kalas. It is thought that Burns' will be looking to develop the 3 players over the next couple of seasons but there were some additions that will undoubtedly make a great contribution straight away. Lucas Silva was sought after by many European clubs yet chose to sign for QPR after their spectacular 2014/15 season. What a signing he should be as the defensive midfielder had all the attributes to become a world class midfielder. There were 3 free transfers added to the squad too and John Guidetti, Winston Reid and Fernando Pacheco will bring about a great strength in depth to the team as neither player is likely to be a first choice pick from the start of the season. With Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United all having bid for Marco Asensio and in talks with him Christopher Burns made a bold and cheeky bid for the player and was granted permission to speak to the Spaniard too. Despite being put off by the clubs apparent lack of standing in the game Asensio couldn't turn down £80k per week after telling Burns' to make an offer worth making him interested in the club. A couple of days later and the deal was done, you've got to give it to the lad regardless of the wage offered as he turned down the other 3 English giants who most probably would've offered him around the same wage. He'll get far more game time at QPR though and that may have proved to be the selling point. Sergi Roberto, Zakkaria Bakkali, and Edgar Ie were all brought in on loan and again it's likely that they'll be the players adding depth to the team. Munir was a player Burns had been chasing for a while and after initially rejecting a move first time out the winger eventually agreed to link up with the club for the season. No doubt about it he'll be pitched into the team from the off I'd think. Hermann Kayembe is a 17-year old goalkeeper who signs from French outfit Bastia although he's expected to be added to the under 18's side.
After making so many changes to the backroom team when he came in last year Christopher Burns resisted doing the same again as there was only 1 departure as head of youth Nick Marshall was let go at the end of his 1-year contract. The reputable Dave Parnaby has been cherry picked from Middlesbrough to fill the void left by Marshall. Having had his contract cut short by us when he got injured Joey Barton made the decision to retire from playing football and when he decided he wanted to get into coaching he was approached to become a new first team coach for his old side alongside 2 other new arrivals Steve Cooper and the legendary Paul Scholes. There looks to be a far greater structure being ingrained in the club as a further 2 scouts were brought in whilst 7 under 18 coaches were added as the club went without any last year. There are some decent ex-players in amongst them such as Paulo Ferreira, Rory Delap and Stephen Carr which means the youngsters are in good hands.
The two iconic Peter Crouch moments that'll forever be remembered by everyone
ChrissBurns1993
Our new campaign kicked off against last seasons league runners up Manchester United while Aston Villa and West Brom completed our schedule in August. We started off the season with 5 players out injured Winston Reid, Matt Phillips, Sergi Roberto, Adel Taarabt and Jordan Rhodes all missed out on the opening couple of games through various injuries. Young Nick Powell gave Man United the lead on the 79th minute as the Red Devils looked as though they were going to secure the win, Marco Asensio had other ideas thankfully as his 85th minute strike got us a point from our first game of the season. Our match against Aston Villa was an incredibly boring one as it was a stalemate all the way through till the 92nd minute. It was that man again; Asensio who got the goal and his 25 yard free kick was a great hit and an excellent game winning goal. We had a bit of a tough time of it against West Brom as The Hawthorns unsettled our players time and again before they eventually took the lead courtesy of a Steven Caulker own goal. Barcelona loanee Munir rescued the match and the point late on for us as we picked up 5 points from a possible 9 in August. Marco Asensio was named young player of the month for August while Munir was 3rd in the same category. We were handed a fairly decent Europa League group stage draw and will face trips to Romania, France and Kuban to face Steaua, Lille and Kuban respectively. There were 2, or 3 depending on how you look at it, further transfers for us as we sold Coll Donaldson to Inverness Caley Thistle for £75k + 50% of his next transfer and bought Thorgan Hazard from Chelsea for £3.9million. Hazard isn't a player that I felt that we needed at the moment but when he became available at that price I had to snap him up. He definitely has some potential and we've loaned him to Hamburg for the season for him to develop a little bit more before rejoining us at the start of next season. Upon completing our squad registration for the Europa League I realised I'd made a monumental f**k up as we had NO players home grown through the club which meant we had to leave 8 spaces free in our Europa League squad. Giving us a squad of just 17 for the competition, not including youth players. The players to miss out are Alex McCarthy, Tomas Kalas, Leroy Fer, Zakkaria Bakkali, Edgar Ie and Paul Dummett and boy did they let me know how much that hurt them! But what can I do? Rookie mistake I guess and one I'm going to have to learn from!
ChrissBurns1993
After a decent opening month of the season where we played just 3 games September was always going to be a much sterner test as we faced 5 teams including a Europa League game and the Capital One cup 3rd round. Our new signing Marco Asensio picked up an ankle ligament injury whilst on international duty which forced him to miss all of our games in September which was a shame as he had started brightly in his opening couple of games. We got off to the worst possible start as we fell to a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle with a great big special thanks to Patric who got sent off after just 11 minutes. Newcastle scored 4 minutes later but Jordan Rhodes equalised just before half time only for Ayoze Perez to score the winning goal with 20 minutes to go despite a good spell of play from us. Patric cost us that game for sure, he just lunged at the opposition player and got a further 2 game ban added to his original 1 game ban as a result. We didn't really get going against Kuban in the Europa League and we went behind to a Hugo Almeida penalty 15 minutes into the game but Adel Taarabt equalised soon after. A point from our first Europa league game isn't too shabby considering we had to travel to Russia. Our game against Sunderland was a pretty hectic one as we came from behind twice before eventually grabbing the winning goal with just minutes to go until the final whistle was blown. Jordan Rhodes was superb for us and it was his hat-trick that ensured we got the victory against a stubborn Sunderland side. We endured a frantic encounter against Arsenal where they tormented us time and again until well into extra time. After bombarding Alex McCarthy's goal though The Gunners couldn't find a way through. Unlike Jordan Rhodes who broke the deadlock on the 113th minute which effectively won us the tie. Our final game in September came against Tottenham who took a leaf out of Arsenal's book by deciding to batter us from start to finish once again! They had better firepower than their fierce rivals though and Nacer Chadli scored goal number 2 after Harry Kane opened the scoring. We got a late consolation goal through Adel Taarabt but it was a disappointing scoreline. It was a bit of a mixed month but Jordan Rhodes form has got me buzzing again and hopefully we can start to score more goals as a team as well.
ChrissBurns1993
ChrissBurns1993
ChrissBurns1993
Compared to last month we had almost less than half of the 7 games that we had to play in October which enabled us to get some players fit again after such a big fixture congestion. The Europa League is where our action started and our 2-1 win over Lille meant that we qualified for the knockout stages with 2 games to spare. An own goal and a John Guidetti strike secured the win for us and deservedly so as we controlled procedings througout. A late, late goal by the hosts took the shine of our win as they scored in the 92nd minute but you can't have it all can you? Our next outing came against another 'big 4' side in the shape of Liverpool. I bet no one would have predicted us scoring first in the match but that's exactly what we did do but just half an hour into the we found ourselves 2-1 down thanks to a Mario Balotelli double. What do you expect when you have Mario Balotelli in your team though? You don't quite know what he's going to do next and he was as controversial as ever barely minutes into the second half as he stupidly got himself red carded. Typical Balotelli undoing his own good work with nonsense. Like with the Chelsea game and Kurt Zouma's red card we acted straight away and changed our shape to a 4-2-2-2 as Liverpool were playing with a 3-3-1-2 formation, this, theoretically, allowed us to exploit the flanks and whip the ball in to our strikers. A couple of minutes later though and the game looked dead and buried as Philippe Coutinho put Liverpool 3-1 ahead. Less than a minute later Charlie Austin breathed life back into the match when he scored after receiving the ball via the right wing from Adel Taarabt. Munir to Lucas Silva, Silva to Taarabt, Taarabt to shoot, Mignolet saves and Taarant with the follow up..... GOAL 3-3, QPR have rescued this match. Things got even better from there as after just 2 more minutes Austin was volleying in his 2nd goal of the match after receiving the ball from Munir on the wing. The game was ours, we thought we'd done it but oh no, Coutinho wasn't having that and he scored a wonder striker from 25 yards out with minutes to go as the match finished level on 4 goals each. We picked up 2 injuries, 1 before the match against Liverpool and one during. Tomas Kalas was ruled out for 6/7 weeks with fractured ribs while Charlie Austin broke his ankle during the match with Liverpool and is out for 3 months. A lacklustre performance followed as newly promoted Bournemouth visited us and should have walked away with victory. John Guidetti's through ball to Taarabt provided the Moroccan magician with the perfect opportunity to score and he did so spectacularly as he chipped the on rushing Sam Johnstone to put is 1-0 up. From there on out though we were bombarded by Bournemouth and they eventually found solace in a 72nd minute equaliser through Callum Wilson. Our final match of the month was a bit of a drab affair too as another 15th minute goal by Taarabt proved to be just enough to see off our Europa League opponents Kuban.
ChrissBurns1993
QPR tie up Blackett on new 5-year deal
ChrissBurns1993
December was a month that was going to either make or break our season as we had to play 9 matches in what was going to be a hectic festive period, 7 of our matches were in the Premiership and our other 2 were in both the Europa League and the Capital One Cup. We kicked things off with a routine 3-0 win over Crystal Palace which extended our unbeaten run to 6 matches. There was a goalfest between ourselves and West Ham next as 8 goals were scored between us in our match. Adel Taarabt, Jordan Rhodes and John Guidetti's goalscoring form continued in that match too. Our final Europa League group stage match against Steaua was a pretty tedious affair but one in which we emerged victorious from thanks to a solitary Rhodes strike. We were absolutely annihilated by Huddersfield when the Premiership new boys came to town and proceeded to obliterate us thanks to the goalscoring prowess of Nahki Wells who scored a hat-trick and brought our unbeaten streak to a halt. That poor form continued into our Capital One Cup match against Tottenham as we were knocked out by our rivals after failing to put up any sort of a fight against them.
We had a bit of a turnaround of form in our next couple of matches as we won 3 games in a row in the Premiership. A 24 minute hat-trick by Guidetti sent us on our way to victory but it was a nervy 3-2 encounter until the 73rd minute when Marco Asensio's strike put us 2 goals ahead once again and that's how the match finished up. Quite remarkably our next match was eerily similar as we again won 4-3 and Guidetti once again netted a hat-trick, Rhodes was the other scorer this time out however. The match was fairly eventful as it started off with us going behind before we leveled, then went ahead only for Southampton to again level the match up before Guidetti and Rhodes sealed the victory after putting us 2 goals ahead. With Manchester City up next you'd be very surprised to find out that it was us who were the favourites to win! John Guidetti scored his 9th goal in 8 games when he dispatched our 33rd minute penalty which gave us a very narrow 1-0 victory over his former employers despite a red card from Lucas Silva with 15 minutes left to play. The month ended on a rather sour not in terms of matches as we fell to a 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa as in spite of being the better side we just couldn't get the goals we needed this time out.
We brought the end of the year to a close with the news that Marco Asensio was named the European Golden Boy ahead of other strong candidates such as Inter Milan's Mateo Kovacevic. A tremendous achievement by the lad and it shows the doubters who were sniping about us signing him for so much money and giving him such a high wage that they were well off the mark! You've got to be prepared to pay the fees and wages for these types of players or your going to stay still as a club, something which we won't do! Adel Taarabt was again named in the African World XI too. Also for the first time ever I was named manager of the month after guiding my team to 5 wins out of 7 in the Premiership. Getting that award ahead of Chelsea's Jose Mourinho and Arsenal's Claudio Ranieri is something I'll treasure for a long, long time.