Rowlands Injury Confirmed...Briatore on Kaka and for Salary Cap...Nick Ward More Disciplined...Watson....Flashbacks: Witney & Holloway on Bungs

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QPR Official Site - ROWLANDS RULED OUT FOR SEASON
Martin Rowlands has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2008/09 campaign, after scans revealed he suffered an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury during Saturday's 2-0 victory against Derby County.
The Rangers skipper was forced from the fray in the 11th minute at Pride Park after falling awkwardly following an innocuous-looking challenge by Miles Addison.
Rowlands left the field on a stretcher and underwent scans on his right knee on Monday morning.
Head Physio, Paul Hunter, confirmed the news to www.qpr.co.uk on Monday evening, commenting: "Unfortunately, our worst fears have been confirmed.
"Martin has seen a specialist today (Monday) and he will be back in hospital for surgery on Wednesday afternoon.
"Obviously, we are all desperately disappointed, but being the positive character and strong man that he is, we are confident Martin will bounce back from this setback and approach his rehabilitation in a positive manner."
R's boss Paulo Sousa added: "Martin is our captain and our leader - he epitomises everything we are about.
"We have lost him as a player, but we will not lose him as a personality, because he is a huge character around the Club and I will continue to involve him as much as possible.
"He is a player we all hold in extremely high regard and we will be doing everything we can to get him back to full fitness as soon as possible."


Reuters/Alan Baldwin - Briatore says Man City will go nowhere even with Kaka
- PORTIMAO, Portugal (Reuters) - Manchester City's reported offer of more than 100 million euros (£90.8 million) for AC Milan's Kaka is 'mad' and shows soccer needs a salary cap, Queens Park Rangers co-owner Flavio Briatore said on Monday.
- The Italian, whose associates at Championship (second division) club QPR include billionaires Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, slammed the transfer bid at the launch of his Renault Formula One team's new car.
- "If you had put (Ferrari's retired seven times world champion Michael) Schumacher in a Minardi, it would have gone nowhere," he said. "If you put Kaka in this club, it is going nowhere anyway.
"I think it is completely mad," he added of the attempt to lure the Brazilian playmaker.
"You saw when (Brazilian striker) Robinho arrived (at City) it looked like they had solved every problem. And now it looks like the team is very close to going down. It's like QPR last year," said Briatore.
"I think this is completely mad, for respect as well. You have the people in the grandstand who make 14,000 pounds a year. Seeing all this money go to one player for me is not moral at all.
"I believe again that in football we need to have a salary cap," said Briatore, a multi-millionaire whose business interests include a billionaire fashion range and exclusive nightclubs.
"Without this, we are going nowhere. I mean, when I arrive in my (club) parking lot it looks like the best (car) dealership in London. You see only Porsche, Ferrari and you have people finding it hard to pay the mortgage.
"The sport sometimes needs to give a good example to everybody," said Briatore.
"I hope that we arrive at the point where we have a salary cap for players, it is fundamental for the good of the sport...." Editing by Miles Evans) Reuters


QPR Official Site - ARTHUR RECALLED
- R's youngster Chris Arthur has been recalled from his loan spell at Kettering Town with immediate effect.
- Arthur, 19, was originally due to return to Loftus Road on Wednesday 28th January, but R's boss Paulo Sousa has opted to recall the player earlier than previously scheduled. QPR


This is London/Andrew Fifield - Southgate is told to raise funds in bid to sign Watson
- Crystal Palace midfielder Ben Watson will join Middlesbrough in a £1.5million deal - provided the Premier League strugglers off-load striker flop Mido.
- Boro have already held informal talks with Palace officials about a proposed deal but are not believed to have tabled an official bid.
- Gareth Southgate has been told he has to raise his own funds and the manager has circulated Mido's name to a host of clubs in a bid to raise £4m.
- Just under half of that sum has been ear-marked for Watson, 23, while Southgate is also keen on signing Aston Villa's Marlon Harewood in a £2.5m move.
- Palace are resigned to losing Watson in the transfer window after he refused to sign a new contract and would accept a £1.5m offer rather than risk losing him for less in the summer.
- The midfielder, who has also attracted interest from Queens Park Rangers, Reading and Birmingham, is a free agent in June but Palace would be entitled to compensation as he graduated from the club's academy. This is London


FourFourTwo-Austrlia - Australia News
- EXCLUSIVE: Melbourne Victory midfielder Nick Ward will aim to keep a cool head in the Telstra Dome cauldron on Friday night and believes he has become a more disciplined performer under Ernie Merrick.
Ward and his colleagues are neck and neck with Adelaide United at the top of the A-League ladder with just one round of the regular season remaining.
- His Victory teammate Rody Vargas believes it will be an attacking affair against finals-chasing Phoenix but Ward knows it cannot be a case of charging forward recklessly.
- The former Perth Glory and Queens Park Rangers midfielder admits he loves to get forward and assist the strikers.
- It was Ward who headed what could yet be a crucial goal in the race for the Premiership when Melbourne edged past Adelaide 1-0 at Telstra Dome recently.
- But a midfielder's job is not all about the final third of the pitch and Ward is grateful for the job Merrick has done in making sure he makes the right decisions in the right areas.
- He told au.fourfourtwo.com: "I think I have matured as a player under him (Merrick).
- "I think I have become a more disciplined player since coming to the club. By that I mean it's knowing when to make those runs forward and when not to.
- "It's working on the defensive side of your game as well as the attacking part.
- "That's where the work with the coach has helped me I think." FourFourTwo


Flashback Two Years Ago Today: QPR lost 0-2 at home to promotion-chasing Southampton (QPR's Team: Royce, Rehman, Mancienne, Stewart, Timoska, Baidoo, Lomas, Bircham, Smith, Jones, Blackstock. Subs: Cole, Bailey, Kanyuka, Furlong, Nygaard.) And the QPR vs Witney United hame was announced by Witney - and posted on this site with a rescheduled date

"January 20, 2007: "QPR Vs Witney United - Rescheduled for April
-[Not actually on the QPR Official site, yet - which actually hasn't yet announced that the original Witney United date, next week, is off.]
WITNEY UNITED Witney United Vs QPR - New Date 30-04-07 "Mid Season Friendly"
19-01-07 full strength hoops coming to witney!!
The website can today reveal that the postponed friendly against Championship side Queens Park Rangers has been re-arranged and will now be played on Monday 30th April.
The original game was postponed due to QPR’s FA Cup replay at Luton Town being postponed but the game was swiftly re-arranged with a new date for nearer the end of the season.
- QPR Assistant Manager and ex Witney Town man Richard Hill offered his apologies to any Witney fans over the change of date.
- “It was totally out of our hands, we had actually got to Luton before the game was postponed so we also had a frustrating evening. However I made a promise to bring the First Team to Witney and I won’t go back on that, although the date is some way off it will be a very strong side that I will bring to Witney on the night. It would have been really easy to send a Youth or a Reserve side down and just fulfil the fixture but the deal was I would bring the First Team down so in April that’s what we will do. On behalf of Queens Park Rangers I would like to apologise for any inconveniences caused but we look forward to seeing you on the new date”
The club have announced that all tickets purchased for the original date will be valid for the re-arranged game and that tickets are now back on sale for the new date and are available from the following places.
Printinco Corn Street Witney 0845 652 6552 Ady Bircher 07747 123411
Mark Reid 07771 805823 Witney United Football Club 01993 848558 - Witney
- Earlier Announcements of the Game (and postponement) Witney/QPR QPR Report


And three years ago, today: The FA announced it would investigate Ian Holloway's talk of "bungs."
Daily Mirror- "Mirror Reveals....Holloway says offered 'Bung' for Gino Padula"
- FA to Investigate Bungs Allegation
- Holloway's Bungs Allegation