The Four Year Plan

Ever wondered what's behind a crisis in a football-club, or why trainers and managers are sacked? Well here you get a unique "behind the scenes- documentary".

Just came to rate this, and saw no one had given a review. Well, the film deserves that, either your a football/soccer fan or an occasionally sports reader. I'm a former soccer-fan, still watching Watford FC's place on the league table, but are now sick and tied of the game due to money taking it all over. (Watford is actually having key local-derbies more than once in this film.)

The plot: The London-team Queen's Park Rangers, a founder of the league back in 1888, are saved in the last minute from bankruptcy by some millionaires from India and Italy, together with Formula One-guru Bernie Eccleston. They have a four year plan of bringing QPR back in the top league.

But things are not going as planned. QPR has trouble scoring goals, and the QPR-leaders are wanting to steer all the managers. QPR are sacking managers as no other English club, and one manager even quits by his own after only four weeks - all called idiots by some of the new owners. The fans are in uproar, and stops coming to the games.

Can QPR with leaders, fans, players and as a proud club turn this thing over? We follow QPR in the four-year period with downs and ups.

This story is a must for all fans of team sports. I've never seen a documentary going so close up to what the leaders are saying. Sometimes wanting more than possible, sometimes almost acting like hooligans. Sometimes they've got a clue, other times they are communicating great with everyone.

See this roller-coaster of feelings, and get to know the play behind the game so many love. Even for non-fans this is masterfully told. A great documentary of not so a unique story. This happens over and over - as money counts more than in most games. Really way too much for me to love the game as I did 25 years ago.

I'm not a football fan at all, but watched based upon a number of reviews that said you didn't need to be a fan to watch this.

And I mostly agree with that, but my problem is that it was just too brief and not detailed enough.

What it did well was convey the contempt fans had for the new owners. They invested millions to save the club from bankruptcy and got nothing but grief.

What's interesting is that they weren't just silent investors. They were involved in the management of the club, celebrated with the fans when they won, and they had a lot on the line personally after their investment. Their joy was very clear when they got promoted to the Premier League.

My main issue is that it was largely fire to bosses, employ a new one, do a montage and they're promoted. There's no detail on how that was achieved. Is it just luck, is it the manager? The fact they end the film saying they are losing again and sacked the manager - the very one they were just indicating was the saviour of the team - adds to the feeling it was just luck.

To that end, there should have been more on the business and behind the scenes.

Also it would have been good to better establish who was who, as it felt it wasn't established very clearly at the beginning.

I found parts of it enjoyable... but it needed more detail and more context.

Have watched this film a few times now and it gets better each time. It is filmed over 4 years (doesn't take a genius to work this out) and the access behind the scenes at QPR is unreal! It is gripping the whole way through and there are so many laugh out loud moments! One of the best documentaries you will ever watch and you definitely don't need to know anything about football to love it! The soundtrack is awesome and the pace of the film is sensational. The characters grow on you as the film progresses and you will genuinely not believe some of the conversations and moments captured on film. It's a fly on the wall documentary of epic proportions...Goodfellas meets escape to victory!!

This film is extremely well made and will appeal to anyone who likes an interesting documentary. You do not have to be a Queen's Park Rangers fan, or even a football fan for that matter, to find the film fascinating. This is due to the characters involved, some of their actions plus the storyline and the way the film has been skillfully created. It's all the better for the fact that there is no narration whatsoever - the film tells it's own story.

The Four Year Plan was shot by the Ad Hoc Films team over the period of 2007 to 2011. It vividly depicts the emotional roller-coaster ride that this period was for QPR fans. Flavio Briatore who, together with his F1 colleague Bernie Ecclestone, became a joint owner of the club in August 2007 comes over as someone who is completely clueless about football and who has to rely on fellow Italian Gianni Paladini, a former players agent who bought a share of QPR in 2003, to provide advice and guidance. Ironically "The Four Year Plan" was what the new owners claimed they had to get the club promoted back to the Premiership for the first time since 1996. Incredibly this goal was achieved in May 2011, but the film gives the distinct impression that this was in spite of the involvement of Briatore and Ecclestone, not because of them or because any real plan as such actually existed. One fan in fact refers to "The Four Minute Plan" at one stage!

The infamous QPR managerial merry go round from 2008 to 2010, where there was seemingly a different incumbent in the managers chair every few weeks, is depicted for all of its infamy. Each manager is usually described at some stage in the film as "that idiot" by Flavio Briatore but with his comments often made in Italian and with the film's sub titles revealing what is being said, often within the earshot of the person. What of course never occurs to the two main club owners is that these "idiots" were in fact their appointments.

The DVD extras consist of 12 interesting deleted scenes (over 900 hours of film was recorded). In a shirt design decision meeting in 2009 Flavio Braitore rejects a shirt design with red piping and goes for silver instead. Needless to say the red looks better, and you can tell the Lotto shirt manufacturer representative thinks so too, but she goes along with what the boss says.....

Another extra is footage of the club's Manchester United Carling Cup away game in October 2008 with Gareth Ainsworth, the QPR assistant manager, pumping the players up saying "you can be playing here in the league". At the time many people would have thought that highly unlikely but, less than 4 years later in April 2012, that is indeed what will happen.

In years to come I think QPR fans will look back and be pleased that the film was made as it really does capture a period in the clubs history that would be tough to describe without an excellent film to depict all of the events. In the meantime fans of other clubs will view the film and inevitably think "what a total mad house", but at the same time enjoy the film for the well made documentary that it is.

Unmissable