Rangers Future/Rangers Past: Briatore on QPR....Mark Hateley Joining QPR "A mistake..regret...to this day"

QPR Past/Mark Hateley....QPR Future/Flavio Briatore

QPR Club Fanzine's Clive Whittingham reports on Flavio Briatore appearance on BBC's Inside Sport feature on QPR - Inside Sports Report


Meanwhile former QPR player Mark Hateley talks about joining QPR as a mistake. Something all QPR fans with concurr with over Ray Wilkins biggest signing - and possibly worst transfer signing out of several (beating out Ned "versatlile as an egg" Zelic or Jurgen Summer or Simon Osborne)

! "...The mistake I made was leaving the club when my mind wasn't on what I was doing. I'd had operations on my knee and my ankle at the same time and ...I was feeling depressed when I agreed to go back to England with Queens Park Rangers. I knew almost as soon as I'd done it that I'd made a mistake. I regret that decision to this day.

Mark Hateley Scottish DailY Record - The Love Of My Life
"I've Followed Gers Since I Was Boy In Derbyshire I Needed The Club To Save Me After Divorce Hell I Can't Wait To See The Future Of My Beloved Side
BEING appointed the official ambassador to the Rangers fans in Manchester for the UEFA Cup Final i s an honour for me.
I would like to think the role is in recognition of the kind of service I gave to the club on the park for six years and acknowledges the eight years I've spent working on various projects behind the scenes at Ibrox.
But it's also given me cause to reflect on what the club has meant to me throughout my life and think about the time when Rangers came to my rescue at a very low moment in my personal life.
I was born and brought up in Derbyshire among mining folk and I've always understood the importance of football to a working-class community and the store they set by honest players.
My dad, Tony, played for Chelsea and I grew up supporting them and my adopted team from Scotland, Rangers. I remember getting a Rangers jersey to coincide with the win over Moscow Dynamo in the 1972 Cup-Winners' Cup Final and my hero, although I probably shouldn't tell him this, was big Derek Johnstone.
The captain of that history-making side, John Greig, went on to become Rangers' manager and it was he who wanted to take me to Ibrox when I was just 17 years old.
I was with Coventry at the time and their then manager, Gordon Milne, wouldn't hear of the idea.
But I grew to pride myself on having a decent sense of timing when it came to making the big decisions in my life and when Graeme Souness came for me when I was 28 I knew instinctively it was the right moment to get a Rangers jersey I didn't need to buy.
The settling-in period was rough. I hadn't played for a long while due to a serious injury at Monaco and the fans were frustrated because they felt I was keeping Alistair McCoist out of the side.
The truth is I was always going to get a game up front because I was the target man. It was Mo Johnston who denied Ally a place.
But when I scored the two goals that beat Aberdeen at Ibrox and won Rangers the second of their nine titles in a row my life turned round.
The mistake I made was leaving the club when my mind wasn't on what I was doing. I'd had operations on my knee and my ankle at the same time and I was feeling depressed when I agreed to go back to England with Queens Park Rangers.
I knew almost as soon as I'd done it that I'd made a mistake. I regret that decision to this day.
My good fortune was that I made it back to the club in time for nine in a row. My even better fortune was that Rangers had a second chance to pick me up after I'd stopped playing.
I'd managed Hull City and that hadn't worked out. I'd gone through a divorce and something like that changes the whole structure of your life.
I needed Glasgow and I needed Glasgow Rangers to help me pick up the pieces. The truth was I'd found an adopted homeland and fallen in love with a football club.
My life clicked back into place and now I approach the final phase of my life in the game waiting to see what happens next with my beloved Rangers.
The players who represent the club against Zenit St Petersburg have to realise they have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity tomorrow night.
They must approach this game as if it's the last one they'll play and be consumed by the idea of bringing the UEFA Cup to Ibrox on Thursday morning.
It's time to reach deep into themselves and give something back to the fans.
I never thought of myself as the type to provide thrills and spills. I was a fans' player because everything I achieved came from the sweat of my own brow. The Rangers supporters didn't know what I was all about to begin with but they got it after a while.... As told to Hugh Keevins - Scottish Daily Record