"In buying Queens Park Rangers, Fernandes said he had bought a raw diamond that he hopes to turn into a polished gem. But he knows that marketing and branding and leveraging his other businesses via football and QPR will only be made easy with a winning team. It cannot be done with a mediocre team that is fighting for survival.”

That was how I concluded my article, “Where will Fernandes take QPR?” (Issue 872, Aug 22, 2011).

While that is the case — a mediocre team cannot bring success — I expected QPR chairman Tan Sri Tony Fernandes to give Neil Warnock enough time to build a better team and not sack him as manager within five months of acquiring the team.

After all, Warnock, during his short stint, had done wonders at Loftus Road. When he arrived in March 2010, the club was fighting relegation to League One (the third division in the English football league).

By May the following year, the Hoops were celebrating promotion to the Premier League after winning The Championship (equivalent to the second division). That was QPR’s biggest success in 15 years and it is now back among the 20 teams in the top flight.

QPR’s only other “successes” in its 130-year history has been winning the League Cup (now the Carling Cup) in 1967, runner-up in the old First Division in 1975/76, and reaching the FA Cup Final in 1982.

So, would you fire a CEO whose performance was the best ever in 15 years on the back of just two quarterly results? In this case, the first quarter from August to October was not a bad one — a top half position, including a 1-0 victory over high-flying Chelsea, but that was followed by a miserable November, December and January. That would be very unlikely in the corporate world, especially if the chairman and owner is a successful entrepreneur (such as Fernandes) who knows what is needed — time, especially — to build a successful business and brand.

When hiring Warnock, QPR’s other major investor Lakshmi Mittal — the UK’s richest man — was quoted by former BBC head sports editor Mihir Bose in an interview as saying:  “He has brought stability to the club, motivated the team. He is a great guy, a team player who I can see has fire in his belly. I hope he can continue to lead QPR after promotion.”

Mittal had maintained his stake when  Fernandes acquired a 66% interest in the club from F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and flamboyant Italian businessman and F1 team owner Flavio Briatore.

When Fernandes bought into the club in August last year, he also sang Warnock’s praises.

In his column in The Independent newspaper, Warnock had this to say: “When the new owners arrived in the third week of August, they told me my remit was to get some players signed in a rush before the [transfer] deadline, then get to the new year with QPR outside the bottom three [the relegation zone]. We could then bring in three or four players in the January window. I feel I have kept to that. We have not been in the bottom three all season. When I look at how managers at other clubs in the Premier League have been given unequivocal support by their boards, it is an understatement to say I am very disappointed.”

But that is football. Football today is a business proposition that sometimes defies logic, even for a reasonable man like Fernandes. Unlike the corporate world, quarterly results do not matter in sports — it is a business where the results are judged on a weekly basis.

Forget about the various tools of financial measurement. In football, the returns every week are measured by win, draw or loss. And for Warnock and QPR, it has been no win, three draws and nine losses in the last 12 games! But despite this, unlike what is happening at many other clubs at the bottom, the majority of QPR fans have shown patience and are standing behind Warnock.

There has been a backlash from the fans but Fernandes — before the sacking — had tweeted that “it’s important to note no one’s job is safe. Results are key. If we don’t deliver, I would be the first to step down as chairman. We owe it to the fans. Good money is paid and results are key. I will leave no stone unturned to make QPR a success”.

Attacked and called an idiot by some fans after the sacking, Fernandes defended the move again through Twitter: “Easy to call me an idiot. But it’s harder to make decisions. It may be the wrong one and I’ll be the idiot and I’ll go but at least I’ll stand and be counted.”

Fernandes said he had never had to make such a tough decision in his 47 years but decisions have to be made for the club which he has grown to “love ever so much” in such a short time. He further tweeted: “You live or die by your decisions. Neil Warnock is a legend for what he’s done at QPR. I thank him. We move on.”

On Jan 10, enter Mark Hughes. As a high-profile player, Hughes has the credentials and has won a lot of trophies — two Premier League championships, four FA cups, three League Cups and two European Cup Winners Cup — notably with Manchester United and Chelsea. He also had stints with top European clubs Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

As a manager — a job that has taken him to Wales, Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City and Fulham —  results have been mixed. Hughes turned Blackburn into a competitive team but was sacked by free-spending Manchester City for failing to deliver a trophy. He is however acknowledged by many of his peers as a tough taskmaster on the training ground and a calm but authoritative manager.

Fernandes hailed Hughes as a coup for QPR and heaped praises on him. He promised Hughes money to buy new players, but it will take time for new managers and players to blend into a formidable team. What if Hughes fails to avoid relegation? That would mean less revenue, broadcasting rights and brand exposure — it won’t be nice to see the logos of our top national brands like Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia in the lower leagues. Will Hughes be sacked too or given time to build “his” own team?

There are many routes to success in the modern world of football. Spending huge sums on players and chopping and changing managers is one way, but that often results in unsustainable success.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has spent a lot on players and repeatedly replaced successful managers but has still not got what he wants — to be football champion of Europe. Manchester City’s Arab sheiks have spent about ₤500 million in four years on players, yet the club failed to qualify for the second round of the European Cup this season.

The more sustainable route to success is the one that is taken by sensible businessmen, entrepreneurs and responsible boards. Two of Britain’s most successful clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool, have enjoyed prolonged periods of successes — United in the late 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1990s until today, and Liverpool in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — by investing prudently on players, building a solid youth team system and maintaining continuity.

Sir Matt Busby won five First Division titles, two FA Cups and one European Cup from 1948 to 1970. During this period, he built three great teams, the first of which was led by Johnny Carey in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Busby then invested in the youth team in the mid-1950s — The Busby Babes — led by Roger Byrne and Duncan Edwards.

The third winning team was the 1960s side that included such names as George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law. Busby would have won more silverware if the Busby Babes had not perished in the Munich air disaster in  1958.

Sir Alex Ferguson won 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, two European Cups and one European Cup Winners Cup from 1990 to 2011. From 1986 to 1989, he won nothing but the board did not sack him and gave him time to build his “own” team and invest in the youth system.

His youth team of the early 1990s provided him with international-class players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes — who are still playing for United today — and David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Gary and Phil Nevilles. All of them cost nothing in transfer fees and they formed the core of a successful team for many years.

Liverpool’s 30-year-old formula for success was continuity and stability, combined with prudent investment in players and the youth system from the days of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Ronnie Moran and Kenny Daglish during his first stint there.

Sadly, today, there seems to be no place or time for such team builders in the football industry. So, which route will Fernandes take? The short one?

Azam Aris is an executive editor at The Edge. This article appeared in the Forum page of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 893, Jan 16-23, 2012