Profiling and Previewing Briatore and Dowie's QPR

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The Times/Tom Dart - August 4, 2008 - Dowie unfazed by prospect of sack for success

It was one of the biggest shocks of the summer when Queens Park Rangers appointed Zinédine Zidane as manager. Oh, wait, that was just a rumour. They gave Iain Dowie the job. This was almost as surprising as the idea that Zidane, reclusive since retirement, would surface in Shepherds Bush and try to guide QPR to a top-six finish in the Coca-Cola Championship, perhaps head-butting his players if they dared to lose to Doncaster Rovers.

On another level, it made perfect sense. Dowie is a former QPR striker who took Crystal Palace into the top flight in 2004. Yet the 43-year-old was passed over for the QPR post in 2001, when assistant manager, in favour of Ian Holloway. Now, when the club are owned by three of the richest men in the world, he is in charge.

It has been a swift ride from League One to Formula One for QPR. Flavio Briatore, who runs the Renault team, Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder, and Lakshmi Mittal, the fourth-richest person in the world, bought the club last year.

Their combined wealth of about £30 billion is hard to reconcile with the mid-table, second-tier status, the tired training ground and stadium, the unglamorous British manager, the talk of tight budgets. Life at QPR probably will not make sense until the team are challenging for the Champions League places in a shiny new stadium with José Mourinho as manager and Cristiano Ronaldo on the wing.

But QPR are only the richest club in the world in theory. The new Chelsea? They train at their neighbours’ former base in Harlington, but there has not been a Roman Abramovich-style splurge in the first months under the trio’s control. They treat QPR more as a business than an executive toy, so it feels like a club in transition, being sexed-up in stages like a dowdy housewife on a television makeover show.

This produces oddities. Signings so far this summer? A couple of low-profile transfers. “We’re not kids in a sweet shop,” Dowie said. “They run things on sensible budgets.”

Yet Briatore has a relationship with Real Madrid’s president, Ramón Calderón, which is expected to facilitate Dani Parejo, a 19-year-old starlet, heading to Loftus Road on loan. Then there was a report that Dowie would be dismissed, with a £1 million payoff, should QPR be promoted — the theory being that the top flight would require a bigger name.

“It’s a bizarre scenario,” Dowie said. “I’ve never had that discussion and it’s certainly not in my contract. I don’t need to dignify it with a response.” He did anyway, saying: “If we get promoted and that happens — que sera. Move on. It’s not the worst thing to happen on your CV, is it? I’m not worried.”

Dowie likes to learn, likes to work, is relentlessly, restlessly, positive. He arrived at the training ground at 6.50am on Friday, three hours before the first team. He fidgeted as he spoke, sliding around as if his seat was oiled with the sort of product you would find in Briatore’s cars. Recent times have required him to show resilience.

Simon Jordan, the Palace chairman, took legal action against his former manager and last summer the High Court ruled that Dowie had lied when he negotiated his way out of his contract with Palace in 2006 only to join Charlton Athletic days later. Dowie appealed and the case was settled out of court in April this year.

“It’s finished, it’s out of the way,” he said. “It was an experience, one I’d rather not have had, but it wasn’t at my behest. We’ve moved on. You learn from it, absolutely. Barristers, lawyers, their knowledge, the forensic way they prepared a case, both for me and against me, it was an eye-opener. It was very interesting.”

Replacing Alan Curbishley, manager for 15 years at The Valley, Dowie was given 15 matches. “They made a decision, fair enough,” he said. “You live with it. That’s business. I’m not bitter. Of course it hurts, but you either go in the corner and cower or you come out and be strong. Character’s about how you cope with adversity. I lost my mum recently. Other things pale into insignificance. It’s a learning experience and I’m a better manager for them.”

After Charlton came Coventry City, but he left last February after less than a year. “Coventry were in a massive situation of flux, they were on the brink of administration, which I wasn’t told about,” he said. “I did the job under restraints.” Not a situation that Luiz Felipe Scolari is likely to find himself in, but Dowie has sent a good-luck card to his counterpart at Stamford Bridge. “I send one to everyone,” he said. “Every manager, even in the Conference. This is a difficult, precarious job, so I wish them good luck, sincerely, because you need a bit of luck.” Any response from Scolari? “Not yet.” The Brazilian might thank him in person next season if Dowie can do the business. The Times