We’ve all got one or two of those moments in our lives that we look back on and think ‘if only’.
Maybe your mate told you about this new internet money thing called Bitcoin back in 2011 and you just shrugged and told them it’d never amount to anything. Or perhaps your email account diverted that dream job offer into the spam folder and by the time you saw it, they’d offered it to someone else.
For the most part, those possibilities won’t be quite as frustrating as QPR and Gerry Francis’ ‘if only’ moment – when they managed to let one of the finest footballers of the modern era slip through their careless digits.
In 1998-99, QPR were in the midst of their late-90s and early-00s doom-and-gloom era. As any hardcore Rangers fan will tell you, it was one among a few doom-and-gloom eras, but it was notable nonetheless.
The 90s had started wonderfully at Loftus Road. QPR were a comfortable top-flight team. They had Ray Wilkins pulling the strings and Les Ferdinand banging in the goals.
And, after the arrival of the majestically bemulleted Gerry Francis and the ushering in of English football’s new golden age, they’d become London’s foremost football team, finishing fifth in the Premier League’s inaugural 1992-93 season. It was new, it was exciting. The club was on the up.
By 1998, though, things had taken a disastrous turn. Two more top-10 finishes had followed that brilliant season in 1992-93, but Francis took his hairspray across London to Tottenham in November 1994 and Ferdinand was sold to Newcastle in July 1995. The Loftus Road project had had the rug ripped out from under it.
A predictably terrible season followed and by 1996 the Rs were preparing for their first second-tier campaign since 1982-83. In the next two campaigns, they got through five managers (including caretakers) as they scrapped around at the arse end of the First Division.
#ManagerMonday Gerry Francis
Managed Exeter City, Bristol Rovers, QPR and Spurs.
Finished 5th in the inaugural Premier League season with QPR and were the highest placed London team in 92-93. Left QPR for Spurs in 1994 before rejoining QPR in 1998. Famous for his mullet pic.twitter.com/ewEJmLMwhZ— 80s&90sfootball ⚽ 🇺🇦 (@80s90sfootball) November 8, 2021
By late 1998, they’d gone back to Francis, hoping a little of the old magic would return. And in a potentially very intelligent attempt to recruit from the continent to supplement their attacking force of Iain Dowie, Chris…
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