The landscape of football has changed dramatically since Les Ferdinand left non-league Hayes for the highest tier of the English game in 1987.
That massive jump from relative obscurity to First Division fame with QPR is something increasingly unlikely to ever be repeated. Ferdinand’s career also straddled two very different eras, with him playing through a time where a deluge of TV cash arrived to revolutionise England’s national game.
Nearly 30 years on he is back at Loftus Road as Director of Football and is still regarded as a hero by the QPR fans. Indeed, it is testament to Ferdinand’s easy-going, honest and thoughtful demeanour that he is held in such high regard at all of his former clubs.
In a profession where loyalty is often determined by the size of a pay cheque, Ferdinand is of the old school. His principles were forged during a time when your ability to put in a shift and score goals were a source of personal pride.
The lucrative sponsorship deals, the big-spending foreign owners and social media were yet to make their mark, and the sport was played, broadcasted and structured in a manner which is now rose tinted.
But don’t be fooled. Ferdinand is a man embracing the new world.
“The finances that have come into the game have totally changed [football],” Ferdinand told Sport360°, ahead of today’s clash between QPR and another of his former clubs, Tottenham.
“What we’re seeing around the world, with the Premier League as a global product, is absolutely fantastic. You’re seeing more and more foreign owners come into the Premier League because of what it means around the world and more people are getting to see our football.
"Years ago, I didn’t know who the chairman was when I was there. Now, every club you know who the chairman is and [football] is a lot more in your face.
“With the growth of the Premier League, you’ve seen foreign managers come in who have done well elsewhere, bring their tactics in and it’s helped to improve our coaching. We haven’t seen as much of our coaching as we should have and not enough English managers are coming through – in recent years we’ve looked abroad.
“There are trends in football, and in life, full stop, and I think what’s happened is that a couple of foreign managers came in early doors and did well. You then got foreign owners who brought in foreign coaches and foreign coaches who brought in foreign players.
“We’ve had some fantastic managers and players come into the Premier League but we’ve had some bang average ones as well.”
In his new role at QPR, Ferdinand is hoping to shape the future of the club’s next generation of players. The 48-year-old is key to owner Tony Fernandes’ plans to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations, with a new focus on cultivating the talent in the Rangers’ academy.
“I think it’s vitally important [to produce academy players] for a club like QPR, especially in London and the catchment area that we’re in,” added Ferdinand, affectionately known as ‘Sir Les’ in his playing days.
“We’ve gone 16 years without a kid coming through the system. When you look back to my playing time, I look at Kevin Gallen, Bradley Allen, Trevor Sinclair, Danny Dichio… loads of names that came through the system and played for Queen’s Park Rangers.”
It’s something Ferdinand knows all about. In his old youth coach role at Tottenham he and current QPR manager Chris Ramsey groomed the likes of Harry Kane, Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb – all of whom are now regularly featuring in the Spurs first-team.
“It’s all about creating a pathway for kids to be able to come through and in recent years I understand that managers have either been trying to gain promotion or stave off relegation so most managers will go for experience in those situations. But unless you give the kids the opportunity they won’t gain that experience.”
Ferdinand was just 20 years old when he made the move to QPR and went on to represent the club as founding members of the Premier League, making just shy of 200 appearances and scoring 91 goals in all competitions for the Rs.
Stints at Newcastle and Spurs followed, as did 17 England caps and five goals in the Three Lions shirt.
For a centre-forward of his quality, 17 caps seems too little. But factor in the likes of Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham, , Stan Collymore, Ian Wright, Robbie Fowler and Matt Le Tissier and you start to understand why chances were limited.
This fierce competition for places up front at international level is something Roy Hodgson can only dream of and Ferdinand believes the rise of No10s trying to emulate Lionel Messi have prompted the demise of the old-fashioned English centre-forward.
“If you look at the clubs those England strikers played for: Sheringham was at Tottenham, Shearer was at Blackburn and then Newcastle, Wright was at Arsenal, they were all at the top clubs. You look at the top clubs now and there aren’t many English centre-forwards playing there.
“There’s a dearth of good No10s but nowhere near the same amount of No9s that we had in those days. It’s difficult, when your players aren’t playing at the top level – then you’re going to struggle to create the strikers that we have done in the past and that’s what’s happening right now.
“You look round the world at most of the top clubs and they don’t play with an out and out No9. I think it’s just the way it’s gone.
“I think it’s the way players are now, they like that No10 role. They want to be the playmaker. I always use Teddy [Sheringham] as an example. Teddy was seen as No10 but he scored goals like a No9. He was in the six-yard box, he was in and around the 18-yard box where you score goals.”
