Fernandes defends QPR spending

Queens Park Rangers chairman Tony Fernandes has defended his side’s January transfer deals.

The London club are six points adrift of English Premier League safety with 17 points from 23 games but signed Jermaine Jenas, Andros Townsend, Yoon Suk-Young and Christopher Samba on deadline day to bolster their ranks.

The Malaysian owner does not feel he has been reckless in the market and insists he is building a side for the long term as well as seeking to secure their immediate top-flight status.

“If you analyse it, we haven’t spent that much money on transfers and as for our wage bill, when I look at other clubs when they put their results out, then ours is not too bad and there is now value in the squad,” Fernandes told the Daily Telegraph.

“I don’t think there is any recklessness there. No-one can guarantee anything in football but you try to minimise the risk as much as possible and that’s where the expertise of the management comes in and they say ‘This is what we need to survive’ and you look at it and, if it makes sense, then the board and myself support it.

“Anyone who says we are gambling then, of course, we are. There are no debts like at other clubs. We’ve put in a lot of money and it’s no different from setting up a car business or an airline.

“But it takes time. QPR were an under-invested club – simple as that. I’m not in it for one year, I’m investing for the future. I’m investing to build a stadium, to build a training academy, to build a proper business.

“Of course when you buy a small club you are going to incur some losses at the beginning.

“We, QPR, have to move out of the small-club syndrome and for constant security have to build a bigger stadium, a better infrastructure.

“We inherited a squad where every single player who has left is no longer playing in the Premier League, doesn’t that say something? We have replaced and replenished the squad at a very low cost because most of them were free transfers. This is the first window that we have spent big money.

“It’s not always about money. QPR are the bottom club and you don’t come to the bottom club for the dollar sign. And I’m not going to get players for the dollar signs.”