Ray Wilkins Concern for QPR and Previews Chelsea Game...De Canio's Translator Needs

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Telegraph/Jeemy Wilson -Ray Wilkins fears billionaires will cost QPR
It is doubtful that Roman Abramovich has ever felt inadequate financially when entering the Chelsea boardroom. That could change tomorrow when Queens Park Rangers arrive at Stamford Bridge for an FA Cup third-round tie between what are, arguably, the two richest clubs in world football.
Abramovich's personal wealth is put at £9.35 billion, yet even his fortune falls well short of estimates for Lakshmi Mittal, the fifth-richest man in the world with £16 billion. The Mittal family have just purchased a 20 per cent stake in QPR and Mittal's son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, is now a director. Also on board is Bernie Ecclestone, whose wealth is said to be £2.5 billion, while Flavio Briatore (worth around £70 million) has been pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Six players have already arrived since the January transfer window opened on Tuesday and more are certain to follow. The supporters, not surprisingly, are buoyant at the possibility of replicating the sort of success Abramovich has helped bring to Chelsea.
Yesterday, though, there were words of caution from Ray Wilkins, a former England captain with the rare distinction of having played for, coached and been sacked by both QPR and Chelsea.
"QPR is very much a family club and it would be lovely to think you could always keep that identity," said Wilkins. "But if Bernie Ecclestone and Briatore are serious in what they are doing you could lose that little bit of the heart and family atmosphere that belongs to Loftus Road.
"A lot of these guys - not so much Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore - have a lot of money but are not known in the world. The one way they can be known is to buy a football club because they will be straight on the back page of every newspaper in the country.
"But they are extremely successful businessmen and I wouldn't have thought they are going into this too lightly. They have bought Luigi de Canio from Italy as manager; he's obviously a man who knows his stuff, and the results in the last couple of weeks would bear that out."
QPR's recent run of form has included four wins and two draws in their last seven matches.
But Wilkins sees little chance of them defeating their fiercest rivals tomorrow. "You have to be a realist and go for Chelsea," he said.
"Unfortunately, the romance of the giant-killing in the Cup may have disappeared. The playing surfaces are so good that the big teams can play against you.
"You play on top of the surface now instead of running underneath it, and I think that used to give the underdog the chance because teams on the mud couldn't play."
While the financial advantages enjoyed by Premier League clubs has helped make FA Cup upsets rarer, the competition's relevance came under fresh scrutiny this week when Reading forward Dave Kitson admitted that he did not care about the FA Cup this season.
Wilkins, who scored in the 1983 final for Manchester United, understands the sentiment but disagrees.
"The FA Cup is still massively important - the final is watched by billions of people," he said. "It's a fabulous occasion to play in an FA Cup final and a lot of wonderful players have never had the opportunity to do so.
"I think Dave is probably a one-off. The FA Cup is very special and I'm sure if he were to be in the final he would realise that.,,,"
. Telegraph

Mail - Butch's words of warning to QPR boss
Ray Wilkins has warned Luigi De Canio he must learn to speak English fluently if he is to succeed as Queens Park Rangers manager.
More than two months after taking the job, De Canio still relies heavily on translator Ruben Reggiani.
Former QPR player and manager Wilkins learned Italian when he was playing for AC Milan in the Eighties and he knows De Canio cannot remain tongue-tied for much longer.
"As a coach in this country, you have to speak to the players and get your message across in English - as soon as possible," said Wilkins, who also played for Chelsea. "It is paramount that Luigi learns the language. When his English improves, he will succeed more."
Wilkins acted as an occasional translator when Claudio Ranieri was in charge of Chelsea but he admitted the situation was far from ideal.
"It is very hard to translate football chat," he said.
John Hollins, who played for both clubs, managed Chelsea and had a spell as QPR caretaker-boss, said: "It is vital Luigi learns English, even in terms of simple banter." Mail


Mail - Meet the man who gets De Canio's point across at QPR
If Queens Park Rangers achieve their dream of playing top-flight football again, it will surely be down to the millions injected by Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal - but a 22-year-old Anglo-Italian whose ambition is to row for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics is also playing an important role.
The Formula One power brokers Ecclestone and co-owner Flavio Briatore, as well as Indian steel magnate Mittal, have effectively made Rangers the world's richest club - but without translator Ruben Reggiani, their players would not be able to carry out the instructions of Italian manager Luigi De Canio.
Reggiani, who has an English mother and an Italian father, did not move from the country of his birth to England until he was 15.
With De Canio's grasp of the language still very limited, it will fall to Reggiani to relate the 50-year-old's thoughts to his players during Saturday's FA Cup third-round tie at Chelsea - even if it means giving them the hairdryer treatment.
Reggiani revealed: "De Canio is adamant that I have the same spirit as him when he is giving a team talk.
"So if he is ranting and raving, then I have to do the same. It was tough at first, because you wonder if the players will just think: 'Who the hell is this?' But it has helped me that I understand what it means to do sport at a high level."
Reggiani represented British rowing teams at the World Junior and European Championships.
Although a back problem has put the brakes on his ambitions, he hopes to be part of the British team in London in 2012. After graduating from Oxford Brookes University in exercise and health, he is studying for a Masters degree in sports science at Brunel University.
Only a gold medal would surpass the intense - albeit brief - level of fame he gained when he acted as Fabio Capello's translator for the new England manager's first press conference last month.
Reggiani was questioned in some quarters for the way he rendered the words of Capello in English and he admitted that his short time in the spotlight had been daunting.
"Doing the Capello press conference was mind-blowing," he said. "I have had to take a certain degree of criticism since but I don't think I got anything wrong.
"Capello said well done to me afterwards." Mail