Chris Ramsey keeps faith in youth as QPR fight for Premier League survival

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/mar/06/chris-ramsey-qpr-tottenham-hotspur

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Chris Ramsey’s Premier League managerial career extends to only four games, his life still a blur of new challenges, though there is little relief to be had in knowing, for once, precisely what awaits. Queens Park Rangers host Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, the visitors propelled by the talent he helped nurture over almost a decade with the academy and first team. Whether Nabil Bentaleb or Harry Kane, Ryan Mason or even Danny Rose, Spurs will feel familiar. “But it’s not like I’m Kryptonite to them,” Ramsey said. “I haven’t got any special formula to stop them, other than focusing my players on combatting their strengths.”

Those qualities have been all too evident this season, though QPR’s manager may point out they should have been acknowledged sooner. Ramsey’s focus is fixed on beating his former employers to hoist Rangers from the relegation zone but he can reflect with some satisfaction on his time within the development set-up at Tottenham. There he had worked alongside Tim Sherwood and Les Ferdinand with the juniors before, last season, coaching the seniors even if the fruits of his labour are only really becoming evident now. Spurs, a club who spent the money raised through Gareth Bale’s record sale on what they considered established pedigree, appear intent upon building the spine of a side from their own.

Mauricio Pochettino has placed admirable faith in the academy graduates, but the policy of granting opportunities to younger players was kick-started by Sherwood over his five‑month tenure last season. Back then, the manager and Ramsey were berated by supporters for blooding Kane instead of persevering with Roberto Soldado, a £26m signing who apparently needed time to settle. “The fans weren’t having Harry,” Ramsey said. “They were trying to get the galácticos on the pitch but we stuck to our guns and got a lot of flak for it. I have a lot of friends who are Tottenham fans and I used to tell them about the players coming through. I’d say: ‘Ryan Mason is probably the best footballer at the whole club’, and they were like, ‘Nah, we need this person from this country, or that person from that country’.

“One of the problems we have is there are a lot of run-of-the-mill players who stop English players playing. But their new manager’s come in and, to his credit and without any prompting really, been very brave. Pochettino’s played those he sees are doing the business. It’s surprised me he’s done it at a club that’s so big. What normally happens is a manager has to hit the ground running but what has been a pleasant surprise is his reputation for dealing with young players has been enhanced. Pochettino has done a fantastic job for English football. He is putting people on the bench from the academy and it’s not just tokenism. He thinks they can do a job. We want people to have a chance and be compared favourably with the players who cost a lot of money.

“It’s not frustrating for me to see it all happening now [rather than when he was at Spurs’ academy]. What it means is it’s taken time for the development department to get the club to see the way, and now the club has decided to go that way. Sometimes players just need a platform. What normally happens is a player will go in, not do very well in their first game and then you will never see him again. And then they’ll go and buy someone who is similar, who can play 10 bad games and people will say: ‘He’s got to get used to the Premier League’. Well, why should a player who cost £20m be given more favour than a player that comes from down the road and cost less money?”

Those same principles have accompanied Ramsey into senior management at Loftus Road, where he has already flung Darnell Furlong and Michael Doughty into first-team action and had Brandon Comley training with the senior set-up. The pressure, of course, is very different at the foot of the table where QPR have lost eight of their past 11 games in all competitions and boast three points – that exceptional win at Sunderland – from Ramsey’s spell in charge. Even the side’s home form, which had been keeping them afloat, has deserted them. They have not won at Loftus Road in six matches, stretching back to before Christmas. That trend must be reversed, starting against Spurs, if top-flight status is to be retained.

Yet the manager’s philosophy, which helped smooth passage for Bentaleb and Kane into the Tottenham first team, will be retained regardless. “I am not saying we ‘go suicide’,” Ramsey said. “And it’s not about being sentimental. I’m not going to say I want to develop the players so let’s put them all in against Tottenham and see if they can learn, and we lose 5-0. But there is a desire to find opportunities to play these talented youngsters and give them a chance to develop. Let’s be honest: you get the sack anyway. Sometimes you have to stick your neck out and take a chance. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Playing expensive players is no guarantee that you are not going to get the sack.”

He new club’s hierarchy will rejoice in evidence of the emergence of youthful talent. Furlong has impressed to date, a bold managerial selection which has effectively paid off, with QPR’s squad still talking up the impact of the man placed in charge initially until the end of term. Ramsey’s initial target is to reel in Sherwood’s Aston Villa. “We know time is running out for us and we need to start winning soon,” he added. “But whatever happens against Tottenham, the fight goes on.”