-
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!.....QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- QPR Drew 1-1 at Newcastle tonight. - QPR took the lead through Watson after seven minutes...Substitute Harewood equalizing for Newcastle..Tonight's Newcastle-QPR Thread ----- Updated Table
The Times/Kevin Eason - October 1, 2009 - Flavio Briatore eyes QPR exit after ‘Crashgate’
- Flavio Briatore could be ready to sell his way out of football to avoid a confrontation with the authorities if he is put through another fit and proper persons test.
- The Football League’s eight-man board sits next week for what could be a defining meeting as it tries to sift through an increasing pile of evidence surrounding three famous names.
- There are question marks over the ownership of Leeds United and Notts County, while Briatore’s reputation is liable to be put through another examination as the board tries to determine whether a man thrown out of Formula One for cheating is fit and proper to run Queens Park Rangers, of the Coca-Cola Championship, as the club’s co-owner.
- Speculation is growing that Briatore will head for the exit rather than be put through the wringer again by another sporting body. Amit Bhatia, the QPR vice-chairman, is said to be letting it known to friends and business acquaintances that he would be willing to buy out Briatore if the Italian wants to go.
- Briatore has not decided what to do yet as he ponders his options after “Crashgate”, including contesting the judgment by the FIA, the governing body of motor sport, that he, as managing director of the Renault Formula One team, led the plot for Nelson Piquet Jr to crash his car so that Fernando Alonso, his team-mate, could win last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
- Bhatia is the son-in-law of Lakshmi Mittal, the billionaire steel magnate and the eighth-richest man in the world. But Mittal is not thought to be interested in QPR, even though he bought 20 per cent of the club from Briatore. The numbers are tiny compared with Mittal’s £12 billion fortune, but Briatore will want to make his departure financially worthwhile.- Briatore is thought to have paid £540,000 for his original 54 per cent shareholding, with club debts covered by loans. Briatore’s money was paid through Sarita Capital, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven in the Caribbean and an increasingly popular repository for investors in the League.
- Munto Finance, the company that bought County, is also registered there, too far away for the Football League, with its slender resources, to be able to look into the details of its investors. But revelations in The Times about some of the people involved in the takeover at Meadow Lane have caused concern and the Football League’s board will want to examine the County case in some detail before rubber-stamping the takeover.
- As a result, the fit and proper persons test and how it is applied will come under severe scrutiny, with the League’s board bound to tighten the rules to try to prevent new cases creeping under the wire.
- The board is examining County three months after Munto Finance acquired the club, while there are increasing concerns about who owns Leeds two years after Ken Bates, the club’s chairman, controversially bought the club out of administration.
- Bates is said to have admitted in a Jersey court that he was not the owner of the club, but declared he could not reveal the identities of the investors behind the true owners of Leeds, a company called Forward Sports Fund, registered in the Cayman Islands, another Caribbean tax haven.
Next week’s meeting of the board promises to be one of the trickiest faced by Lord Mawhinney, the League chairman, with three high-profile clubs to scrutinise without damaging the credibility of the League, particularly at a time when he is searching for a new title sponsor for all three divisions. Coca-Cola, which has spent £6 million over each of the past three years, is parting company with the League, although Mawhinney believes that he can find a replacement with recession fears easing. The Times
POSTED PREVIOUSLY
-London Informer/Paul Warburton - Banker ready to replace Briatore as chairman
Sep 30 2009
- AMIT BHATIA has told friends he's willing to become QPR chairman if Flavio Briatore is forced to quit.
- But the club is also worried a bidding war could erupt over the 30 per cent shareholding the Italian might be forced to sell if the Football League bans him under its 'fit and proper person' code.
- Briatore was banned for life by the FIA last week in his other role as Renault team boss following the events of 'Crashgate'.
- The League is awaiting reports from the FIA and is due to thrash over the findings next Thursday - but Rangers are already clearing the decks for an upheaval at the top.
- What could turn out to be his last live match for the man who brought millions to the club two years ago is ironically the 2-1 win over cash-strapped Accrington Stanley in front of just 5,000 fans on August 25.
- Briatore is unwilling to face the wrath of supporters at games until his fate is known - and Bhatia is standing by to take over.
- The 30-year-old son-in-law of billionaire Lakshmi Mittal was brought in as vice-chairman as part of a 20 per cent investment by the family and is understood to be willing to take over Briatore's 30 per cent, should it be needed.
- An insider said: "Under company rules, the shares have to be offered publicly - and that might allow someone else to show an interest.
- "But for once in the club's recent history, it won't be left financially high and dry if Briatore decides to leave. It appears Amit Bhatia is more than willing to take over...."
." Ealing Gazette
- Goodbye to Coca Cola
- England Youth Getting Crushed
- Note: WBA vs QPR on Live TV. Game Date Changed from December 12 to December 14.
- Tonight: Newcastle vs QPR
- Who's the Real Owner of Leeds United?
- On-This-Day Flashback: Koejoe scores..Harper saves two penalties and Gerry Francis' QPR draw at Sheffield United and Stewart Houston Wins Manager of The Month (and shortly later is axed)
- Happy at QPR: Gianluca Di Marzio Will Not Be Napoli's New Sporting Director - Report -----More about Gianni Di Marzio & QPR
Gulf Weekly - STAN SZECOWKA - FLYING IN A CLOUD OF CONTROVERSY
- Flavio Briatore, banned from Formula One over the 'crashgate' affair, now faces questions over his role as co-owner of England's Queens Park Rangers Football Club, sponsored by Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air.
- The Football League has requested details of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), motorsport's governing body, decision to ban the former team boss of Renault over his part in conspiring to fix the result of last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
- Spokesman Nick Jones told GulfWeekly: "The Football League is aware of the situation and is currently investigating further."
- The league requires every club owner to pass a 'fit and proper person' test and one of its rules says nobody can own a football club if they are banned from a sport's governing body.
- The Football League chairman, Lord Mawhinney, has written to the FIA to request further details of its decision, another Football League spokesman added. "Thereafter, the League will consider its position on the matter."
- Briatore is part-owner at Loftus Road with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
- The sponsorship deal was controversially struck with Gulf Air's former CEO Bjorn Naf after a brief encounter with Briatore at the 2008 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix sparked off talks which led to the new sporting alliance between the kingdom, Gulf Air and Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
- Gulf Air has kept quiet about the current controversy in the same manner it would not reveal specific financial aspects of the sponsorship deal although details were banded about the London press.
- One newspaper's headline screamed: Rangers in £7m sponsorship deal. It reported that the contract was believed to be worth £1 million a season (BD598,700) and the overall value could rise to £7 million (BD4.2 million) depending on the club gaining promotion and staying in the Premier League.
- The club has visited the kingdom once to stage coaching sessions with local children. A proposed match against the national side was cancelled.
- It wasn't long before members of Bahrain's Parliament, critical of the way Mr Naf was running the loss-making national carrier, questioned the sponsorship deal suggesting that most people in Bahrain had never heard of the Championship side.
- And, Mr Naf's fate took the same turn as many who attempted to manager QPR under Briatore. Jim Magilton is currently the seventh manager since he took over and Royal Jordanian Airline's former boss Samer Majali is now in the Gulf Air hot seat.
- The flamboyant Italian is also chairman of the holding company that owns the club and a director on the board. He missed his side's 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday which took QPR up to eighth place in the second tier of English football.
- Briatore quit Renault ahead of last Monday's FIA hearing into Renault's ordering of Nelson Piquet junior to crash in Singapore to orchestrate a win for his teammate Fernando Alonso.
- The FIA also handed a ban - suspended until the end of the 2011 season - to Renault.
- Briatore has denied all the accusations against him over the affair, saying they were 'outrageous lies'.
- A senior source at QPR said: "We haven't released any sort of statement and won't be at this stage. We are making no comment at all and have nothing to say."- Briatore was indefinitely banned from Formula One which was desperate to put the damaging Renault race-fixing scandal behind it at the weekend, but it was not easy with the sport returning to the scene of the incident in Singapore.
- By a quirk of fate, the 14th race of the season took place in the city-state just days after Renault was slapped with a suspended two-year ban by the International Automobile Federation.
- It was here at Formula One's inaugural night race last year that team principal Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds allegedly ordered Nelson Piquet junior to deliberately crash to help Alonso win.
- Both Briatore and Symonds have been thrown out of the sport and Piquet's reputation is in ruins, but Alonso was cleared of any wrongdoing. Last year, Alonso began in 15th position, but after the Spaniard made an early pit stop to refuel, Piquet crashed into a wall, prompting the deployment of the safety car.
- As Alonso's rivals then gradually disappeared into the pits to refuel, he catapulted himself into the lead and went on to win his first race in a year. Gulf Weekly
- Peter Ramage Looks Forward to Newcastle
- re Jay Simpson - Yann Tear/Ealing Gazette - QPR: On-loan jay relishing promotion battleEaling Gazette
- Brief QPR Loanee, Jason Jarrett to Port Vale
- "Hiring and Retaining a Good Front Office Team"
- Four Year Flashback: Paladini Profiled in The Times....Paladini/QPR begins Legal Action Against the Evening Standard
- Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [Four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters are speculating about a supposed prominent Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- Three Year Flashback: "QPR vs AKUTRS"
- QPR Fan/Mirror Blogger Jesse Whitock on QPR vs Barnsley
Helguson Injury UpdateHelguson Injury Update....
Flashback: A QPR Vietnam-Era Soldier/Supporter letter to QPR - [Note: If anyone should happen to know whatever happened to PFC Nils Guy, please post here or contact]
- QPR Supporter and Former Chairman, Bill Power (BP) Birthday yesterday
- The Return of Football Aid - QPR
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- Using The Term "Yid" to Apply to Spurs/Spurs Supporters
Welcome to QPR REPORT - A completely unofficial and unaffiliated fan site focusing on G-d's Chosen Team, Queen's Park Rangers (QPR) FC. (Visit also QPR Report Messageboard and Follow on Twitter.) QPR Report accepts no sponsorship, advertising or financial contributions. In 2008, QPR Report was named as one of the top two blogs in the Football League
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Mittal's Amit Bhatia Prepared to Replace Briatore at QPR
-
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!.....QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Goodbye to Coca Cola
- England Youth Getting Crushed
- Note: WBA vs QPR on Live TV. Game Date Changed from December 12 to December 14.
- Tonight: Newcastle vs QPR
-London Informer/Paul Warburton - Banker ready to replace Briatore as chairman
Sep 30 2009
- AMIT BHATIA has told friends he's willing to become QPR chairman if Flavio Briatore is forced to quit.
- But the club is also worried a bidding war could erupt over the 30 per cent shareholding the Italian might be forced to sell if the Football League bans him under its 'fit and proper person' code.
- Briatore was banned for life by the FIA last week in his other role as Renault team boss following the events of 'Crashgate'.
- The League is awaiting reports from the FIA and is due to thrash over the findings next Thursday - but Rangers are already clearing the decks for an upheaval at the top.
- What could turn out to be his last live match for the man who brought millions to the club two years ago is ironically the 2-1 win over cash-strapped Accrington Stanley in front of just 5,000 fans on August 25.
- Briatore is unwilling to face the wrath of supporters at games until his fate is known - and Bhatia is standing by to take over.
- The 30-year-old son-in-law of billionaire Lakshmi Mittal was brought in as vice-chairman as part of a 20 per cent investment by the family and is understood to be willing to take over Briatore's 30 per cent, should it be needed.
- An insider said: "Under company rules, the shares have to be offered publicly - and that might allow someone else to show an interest.
- "But for once in the club's recent history, it won't be left financially high and dry if Briatore decides to leave. It appears Amit Bhatia is more than willing to take over."
- Meanwhile, Gareth Ainsworth reckons he will be 'amazed' if former boss Paulo Sousa doesn't see Saturday's clash with Swansea as something special.
- Sousa moved to the Liberty Stadium in the summer after being relieved of his job in April that saw the QPR stalwart take the reins for the second time in the season.
- Sousa has refused to admit the match is anything but 'just another fixture'.
- However, the man he left behind wonders if the Portuguese has his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
- Ainsworth said: "I don't want to speak for Paulo, but I know when I've been back to the likes of Preston, where I had history, it's special.
- "At Deepdale, in our last game of last season, I was out to prove I had come of age as a manager.
- "It would be someone really odd who didn't see these sort of games the same way - and Paulo never came across as odd to me." Ealing Gazette
London Informer - Buzsaky out to impress former boss
-AKOS BUZSAKY admits he's relishing the opportunity to show former QPR coach Paulo Sousa what he's missing when Rangers travel to Swansea on Saturday, writes Liam Osborne.
- Buzsaky never got to play during the Portuguese coach's four-and-a-half month spell at Loftus Road due to a season-ending injury suffered just before he arrived.
- And he's on a mission this weekend to show what he can do.
- He said: "Unfortunately, I didn't play under him, but I could see he was a very good manager.
- "I played in Portugal and obviously he is very famous over there. He was a great player and what he learnt during his career, he tried to give to the players."
Buzsaky, who scored his first goals in nearly a year during Rangers' 5-2 win over Barnsley last Saturday, hopes he can continue his recent good form.
- He said: "I am enjoying myself at the moment because I have won my place back in the team.
- "However, we have a very strong squad, so I cannot afford to relax otherwise I will be out of the team. I want to stay in the team and keep doing well because this club should be in the play-offs - that's what we're aiming for. It's going to be a special game, but it's also going to be hard." Ealing Gazette
NICE SWANSEA-QPR PRE-MATCH INTERVIEW
London Informer -Sousa says he did well at QPR
- GARETH VINCENT from the South Wales Evening Post gives his lowdown on this weekend's game- What's the score going to be and why?
- I would go for a low-scoring draw.
- Rangers look to be going well, but Swansea have home advantage.
- Swansea under Paulo Sousa have not scored many goals, but, in fairness they have not conceded that many either. My money is on 1-1.
- Who's the danger man to QPR?
- Swansea have struggled to replace two of last season's big stars, Jason Scotland and Jordi Gomez, who both followed Roberto Martinez to Wigan.
- They also have a string of injury problems at the moment. Of those definitely available for the weekend, winger Nathan Dyer has been their most consistent attacking player so far this season.
- Are recent results reflective of Swansea's form?
- Swansea's players, and Sousa, would argue they have not collected as many points as they have deserved so far.
- They have played well in a number of games, passing the ball around well, but chances have been wasted too often.
- Are there any players with scores to settle?
- Just a manager, I think, although he insists it's "just another game".
- Sousa says he did a good job at QPR and that he is proud of what he achieved there.
- Apart from that, he has been reluctant to talk about his time at Loftus Road.
- Who is Swansea's hard man?
- Ferrie Bodde is the closest thing Swansea have to a midfield enforcer, but the gifted Dutchman has just been ruled out for the season having only just returned from 10 months out.
- That is huge blow to the club.
- Where are the best pubs/chip shops near the game that will serve Rangers fans? There is a big chippy called Rossi's just across the road from the ground that you can't miss. There are also a couple of pubs nearby.
- Missing injured/suspended?
As things stand, defenders Fede Bessone and Albert Serran are out.
Midfielders Ferrie Bodde, Joe Allen, Darren Pratley, Kris O'Leary, Andrea Orlandi and Cedric van der Gun are striker Guillem Bauza are also all out injured.
Probable line-up?
De Vries; Rangel, Monk (capt), Williams, Tate; Dyer, Lopez, Britton, Gower, Butler; Pintado. Ealing Gazette
- The Decline of Freddy Adu
- Who's the Real Owner of Leeds United?
- On-This-Day Flashback: Koejoe scores..Harper saves two penalties and Gerry Francis' QPR draw at Sheffield United and Stewart Houston Wins Manager of The Month (and shortly later is axed)
- Happy at QPR: Gianluca Di Marzio Will Not Be Napoli's New Sporting Director - Report -----More about Gianni Di Marzio & QPR
Gulf Weekly - STAN SZECOWKA - FLYING IN A CLOUD OF CONTROVERSY
- Flavio Briatore, banned from Formula One over the 'crashgate' affair, now faces questions over his role as co-owner of England's Queens Park Rangers Football Club, sponsored by Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air.
- The Football League has requested details of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), motorsport's governing body, decision to ban the former team boss of Renault over his part in conspiring to fix the result of last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
- Spokesman Nick Jones told GulfWeekly: "The Football League is aware of the situation and is currently investigating further."
- The league requires every club owner to pass a 'fit and proper person' test and one of its rules says nobody can own a football club if they are banned from a sport's governing body.
- The Football League chairman, Lord Mawhinney, has written to the FIA to request further details of its decision, another Football League spokesman added. "Thereafter, the League will consider its position on the matter."
- Briatore is part-owner at Loftus Road with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
- The sponsorship deal was controversially struck with Gulf Air's former CEO Bjorn Naf after a brief encounter with Briatore at the 2008 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix sparked off talks which led to the new sporting alliance between the kingdom, Gulf Air and Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
- Gulf Air has kept quiet about the current controversy in the same manner it would not reveal specific financial aspects of the sponsorship deal although details were banded about the London press.
- One newspaper's headline screamed: Rangers in £7m sponsorship deal. It reported that the contract was believed to be worth £1 million a season (BD598,700) and the overall value could rise to £7 million (BD4.2 million) depending on the club gaining promotion and staying in the Premier League.
- The club has visited the kingdom once to stage coaching sessions with local children. A proposed match against the national side was cancelled.
- It wasn't long before members of Bahrain's Parliament, critical of the way Mr Naf was running the loss-making national carrier, questioned the sponsorship deal suggesting that most people in Bahrain had never heard of the Championship side.
- And, Mr Naf's fate took the same turn as many who attempted to manager QPR under Briatore. Jim Magilton is currently the seventh manager since he took over and Royal Jordanian Airline's former boss Samer Majali is now in the Gulf Air hot seat.
- The flamboyant Italian is also chairman of the holding company that owns the club and a director on the board. He missed his side's 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday which took QPR up to eighth place in the second tier of English football.
- Briatore quit Renault ahead of last Monday's FIA hearing into Renault's ordering of Nelson Piquet junior to crash in Singapore to orchestrate a win for his teammate Fernando Alonso.
- The FIA also handed a ban - suspended until the end of the 2011 season - to Renault.
- Briatore has denied all the accusations against him over the affair, saying they were 'outrageous lies'.
- A senior source at QPR said: "We haven't released any sort of statement and won't be at this stage. We are making no comment at all and have nothing to say."- Briatore was indefinitely banned from Formula One which was desperate to put the damaging Renault race-fixing scandal behind it at the weekend, but it was not easy with the sport returning to the scene of the incident in Singapore.
- By a quirk of fate, the 14th race of the season took place in the city-state just days after Renault was slapped with a suspended two-year ban by the International Automobile Federation.
- It was here at Formula One's inaugural night race last year that team principal Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds allegedly ordered Nelson Piquet junior to deliberately crash to help Alonso win.
- Both Briatore and Symonds have been thrown out of the sport and Piquet's reputation is in ruins, but Alonso was cleared of any wrongdoing. Last year, Alonso began in 15th position, but after the Spaniard made an early pit stop to refuel, Piquet crashed into a wall, prompting the deployment of the safety car.
- As Alonso's rivals then gradually disappeared into the pits to refuel, he catapulted himself into the lead and went on to win his first race in a year. Gulf Weekly
- Peter Ramage Looks Forward to Newcastle
- re Jay Simpson - Yann Tear/Ealing Gazette - QPR: On-loan jay relishing promotion battleEaling Gazette
- Brief QPR Loanee, Jason Jarrett to Port Vale
- "Hiring and Retaining a Good Front Office Team"
- Four Year Flashback: Paladini Profiled in The Times....Paladini/QPR begins Legal Action Against the Evening Standard
- Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [Four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters are speculating about a supposed prominent Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- Three Year Flashback: "QPR vs AKUTRS"
- QPR Fan/Mirror Blogger Jesse Whitock on QPR vs Barnsley
Helguson Injury UpdateHelguson Injury Update....
Flashback: A QPR Vietnam-Era Soldier/Supporter letter to QPR - [Note: If anyone should happen to know whatever happened to PFC Nils Guy, please post here or contact]
- QPR Supporter and Former Chairman, Bill Power (BP) Birthday yesterday
- The Return of Football Aid - QPR
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- Using The Term "Yid" to Apply to Spurs/Spurs Supporters
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!.....QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Goodbye to Coca Cola
- England Youth Getting Crushed
- Note: WBA vs QPR on Live TV. Game Date Changed from December 12 to December 14.
- Tonight: Newcastle vs QPR
-London Informer/Paul Warburton - Banker ready to replace Briatore as chairman
Sep 30 2009
- AMIT BHATIA has told friends he's willing to become QPR chairman if Flavio Briatore is forced to quit.
- But the club is also worried a bidding war could erupt over the 30 per cent shareholding the Italian might be forced to sell if the Football League bans him under its 'fit and proper person' code.
- Briatore was banned for life by the FIA last week in his other role as Renault team boss following the events of 'Crashgate'.
- The League is awaiting reports from the FIA and is due to thrash over the findings next Thursday - but Rangers are already clearing the decks for an upheaval at the top.
- What could turn out to be his last live match for the man who brought millions to the club two years ago is ironically the 2-1 win over cash-strapped Accrington Stanley in front of just 5,000 fans on August 25.
- Briatore is unwilling to face the wrath of supporters at games until his fate is known - and Bhatia is standing by to take over.
- The 30-year-old son-in-law of billionaire Lakshmi Mittal was brought in as vice-chairman as part of a 20 per cent investment by the family and is understood to be willing to take over Briatore's 30 per cent, should it be needed.
- An insider said: "Under company rules, the shares have to be offered publicly - and that might allow someone else to show an interest.
- "But for once in the club's recent history, it won't be left financially high and dry if Briatore decides to leave. It appears Amit Bhatia is more than willing to take over."
- Meanwhile, Gareth Ainsworth reckons he will be 'amazed' if former boss Paulo Sousa doesn't see Saturday's clash with Swansea as something special.
- Sousa moved to the Liberty Stadium in the summer after being relieved of his job in April that saw the QPR stalwart take the reins for the second time in the season.
- Sousa has refused to admit the match is anything but 'just another fixture'.
- However, the man he left behind wonders if the Portuguese has his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
- Ainsworth said: "I don't want to speak for Paulo, but I know when I've been back to the likes of Preston, where I had history, it's special.
- "At Deepdale, in our last game of last season, I was out to prove I had come of age as a manager.
- "It would be someone really odd who didn't see these sort of games the same way - and Paulo never came across as odd to me." Ealing Gazette
London Informer - Buzsaky out to impress former boss
-AKOS BUZSAKY admits he's relishing the opportunity to show former QPR coach Paulo Sousa what he's missing when Rangers travel to Swansea on Saturday, writes Liam Osborne.
- Buzsaky never got to play during the Portuguese coach's four-and-a-half month spell at Loftus Road due to a season-ending injury suffered just before he arrived.
- And he's on a mission this weekend to show what he can do.
- He said: "Unfortunately, I didn't play under him, but I could see he was a very good manager.
- "I played in Portugal and obviously he is very famous over there. He was a great player and what he learnt during his career, he tried to give to the players."
Buzsaky, who scored his first goals in nearly a year during Rangers' 5-2 win over Barnsley last Saturday, hopes he can continue his recent good form.
- He said: "I am enjoying myself at the moment because I have won my place back in the team.
- "However, we have a very strong squad, so I cannot afford to relax otherwise I will be out of the team. I want to stay in the team and keep doing well because this club should be in the play-offs - that's what we're aiming for. It's going to be a special game, but it's also going to be hard." Ealing Gazette
NICE SWANSEA-QPR PRE-MATCH INTERVIEW
London Informer -Sousa says he did well at QPR
- GARETH VINCENT from the South Wales Evening Post gives his lowdown on this weekend's game- What's the score going to be and why?
- I would go for a low-scoring draw.
- Rangers look to be going well, but Swansea have home advantage.
- Swansea under Paulo Sousa have not scored many goals, but, in fairness they have not conceded that many either. My money is on 1-1.
- Who's the danger man to QPR?
- Swansea have struggled to replace two of last season's big stars, Jason Scotland and Jordi Gomez, who both followed Roberto Martinez to Wigan.
- They also have a string of injury problems at the moment. Of those definitely available for the weekend, winger Nathan Dyer has been their most consistent attacking player so far this season.
- Are recent results reflective of Swansea's form?
- Swansea's players, and Sousa, would argue they have not collected as many points as they have deserved so far.
- They have played well in a number of games, passing the ball around well, but chances have been wasted too often.
- Are there any players with scores to settle?
- Just a manager, I think, although he insists it's "just another game".
- Sousa says he did a good job at QPR and that he is proud of what he achieved there.
- Apart from that, he has been reluctant to talk about his time at Loftus Road.
- Who is Swansea's hard man?
- Ferrie Bodde is the closest thing Swansea have to a midfield enforcer, but the gifted Dutchman has just been ruled out for the season having only just returned from 10 months out.
- That is huge blow to the club.
- Where are the best pubs/chip shops near the game that will serve Rangers fans? There is a big chippy called Rossi's just across the road from the ground that you can't miss. There are also a couple of pubs nearby.
- Missing injured/suspended?
As things stand, defenders Fede Bessone and Albert Serran are out.
Midfielders Ferrie Bodde, Joe Allen, Darren Pratley, Kris O'Leary, Andrea Orlandi and Cedric van der Gun are striker Guillem Bauza are also all out injured.
Probable line-up?
De Vries; Rangel, Monk (capt), Williams, Tate; Dyer, Lopez, Britton, Gower, Butler; Pintado. Ealing Gazette
- The Decline of Freddy Adu
- Who's the Real Owner of Leeds United?
- On-This-Day Flashback: Koejoe scores..Harper saves two penalties and Gerry Francis' QPR draw at Sheffield United and Stewart Houston Wins Manager of The Month (and shortly later is axed)
- Happy at QPR: Gianluca Di Marzio Will Not Be Napoli's New Sporting Director - Report -----More about Gianni Di Marzio & QPR
Gulf Weekly - STAN SZECOWKA - FLYING IN A CLOUD OF CONTROVERSY
- Flavio Briatore, banned from Formula One over the 'crashgate' affair, now faces questions over his role as co-owner of England's Queens Park Rangers Football Club, sponsored by Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air.
- The Football League has requested details of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), motorsport's governing body, decision to ban the former team boss of Renault over his part in conspiring to fix the result of last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
- Spokesman Nick Jones told GulfWeekly: "The Football League is aware of the situation and is currently investigating further."
- The league requires every club owner to pass a 'fit and proper person' test and one of its rules says nobody can own a football club if they are banned from a sport's governing body.
- The Football League chairman, Lord Mawhinney, has written to the FIA to request further details of its decision, another Football League spokesman added. "Thereafter, the League will consider its position on the matter."
- Briatore is part-owner at Loftus Road with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
- The sponsorship deal was controversially struck with Gulf Air's former CEO Bjorn Naf after a brief encounter with Briatore at the 2008 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix sparked off talks which led to the new sporting alliance between the kingdom, Gulf Air and Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
- Gulf Air has kept quiet about the current controversy in the same manner it would not reveal specific financial aspects of the sponsorship deal although details were banded about the London press.
- One newspaper's headline screamed: Rangers in £7m sponsorship deal. It reported that the contract was believed to be worth £1 million a season (BD598,700) and the overall value could rise to £7 million (BD4.2 million) depending on the club gaining promotion and staying in the Premier League.
- The club has visited the kingdom once to stage coaching sessions with local children. A proposed match against the national side was cancelled.
- It wasn't long before members of Bahrain's Parliament, critical of the way Mr Naf was running the loss-making national carrier, questioned the sponsorship deal suggesting that most people in Bahrain had never heard of the Championship side.
- And, Mr Naf's fate took the same turn as many who attempted to manager QPR under Briatore. Jim Magilton is currently the seventh manager since he took over and Royal Jordanian Airline's former boss Samer Majali is now in the Gulf Air hot seat.
- The flamboyant Italian is also chairman of the holding company that owns the club and a director on the board. He missed his side's 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday which took QPR up to eighth place in the second tier of English football.
- Briatore quit Renault ahead of last Monday's FIA hearing into Renault's ordering of Nelson Piquet junior to crash in Singapore to orchestrate a win for his teammate Fernando Alonso.
- The FIA also handed a ban - suspended until the end of the 2011 season - to Renault.
- Briatore has denied all the accusations against him over the affair, saying they were 'outrageous lies'.
- A senior source at QPR said: "We haven't released any sort of statement and won't be at this stage. We are making no comment at all and have nothing to say."- Briatore was indefinitely banned from Formula One which was desperate to put the damaging Renault race-fixing scandal behind it at the weekend, but it was not easy with the sport returning to the scene of the incident in Singapore.
- By a quirk of fate, the 14th race of the season took place in the city-state just days after Renault was slapped with a suspended two-year ban by the International Automobile Federation.
- It was here at Formula One's inaugural night race last year that team principal Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds allegedly ordered Nelson Piquet junior to deliberately crash to help Alonso win.
- Both Briatore and Symonds have been thrown out of the sport and Piquet's reputation is in ruins, but Alonso was cleared of any wrongdoing. Last year, Alonso began in 15th position, but after the Spaniard made an early pit stop to refuel, Piquet crashed into a wall, prompting the deployment of the safety car.
- As Alonso's rivals then gradually disappeared into the pits to refuel, he catapulted himself into the lead and went on to win his first race in a year. Gulf Weekly
- Peter Ramage Looks Forward to Newcastle
- re Jay Simpson - Yann Tear/Ealing Gazette - QPR: On-loan jay relishing promotion battleEaling Gazette
- Brief QPR Loanee, Jason Jarrett to Port Vale
- "Hiring and Retaining a Good Front Office Team"
- Four Year Flashback: Paladini Profiled in The Times....Paladini/QPR begins Legal Action Against the Evening Standard
- Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [Four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters are speculating about a supposed prominent Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- Three Year Flashback: "QPR vs AKUTRS"
- QPR Fan/Mirror Blogger Jesse Whitock on QPR vs Barnsley
Helguson Injury UpdateHelguson Injury Update....
Flashback: A QPR Vietnam-Era Soldier/Supporter letter to QPR - [Note: If anyone should happen to know whatever happened to PFC Nils Guy, please post here or contact]
- QPR Supporter and Former Chairman, Bill Power (BP) Birthday yesterday
- The Return of Football Aid - QPR
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- Using The Term "Yid" to Apply to Spurs/Spurs Supporters
Briatore, QPR & Gulf Air Sponsorship and a QPR Non-Comment...Ramage on Newcastle..Simpson at QPR...Some "Flashbacks"
-
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. All views genuinely welcome. Links to QPR information posted on other QPR board, encouraged! .....QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Tonight: Newcastle vs QPR
- On-This-Day Flashback: Koejoe scores..Harper saves two penalties and Gerry Francis' QPR draw at Sheffield United and Stewart Houston Wins Manager of The Month (and shortly later is axed)
- Who's the Real Owner of Leeds United?
- The Decline of Freddy Adu
- Happy at QPR: Gianluca Di Marzio Will Not Be Napoli's New Sporting Director - Report -----More about Gianni Di Marzio & QPR
This is London/David Yuill - Leigertwood's plea for QPR
- Mikele Leigertwood insists QPR must go into every game demanding a win if they are to be in the promotion reckoning in May.
- The west London side will face their toughest test of the season so far tonight, when they face Newcastle at St James' Park. Leigertwood said: "We can't be looking at a point here and there. We are going to every ground, every game, whether it's Newcastle away or Blackpool at home, expecting to win." Jim Magilton's men got their promotion hunt back on track with convincing wins over Cardiff and Barnsley and Leigertwood believes automatic promotion is far from out of sight. He added: "At the start of the season we were looking to get promoted. That goal hasn't changed but we are going to need to be consistent." This is London
Gulf Weekly - STAN SZECOWKA - FLYING IN A CLOUD OF CONTROVERSY
- Flavio Briatore, banned from Formula One over the 'crashgate' affair, now faces questions over his role as co-owner of England's Queens Park Rangers Football Club, sponsored by Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air.
- The Football League has requested details of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), motorsport's governing body, decision to ban the former team boss of Renault over his part in conspiring to fix the result of last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
- Spokesman Nick Jones told GulfWeekly: "The Football League is aware of the situation and is currently investigating further."
- The league requires every club owner to pass a 'fit and proper person' test and one of its rules says nobody can own a football club if they are banned from a sport's governing body.
- The Football League chairman, Lord Mawhinney, has written to the FIA to request further details of its decision, another Football League spokesman added. "Thereafter, the League will consider its position on the matter."
- Briatore is part-owner at Loftus Road with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
- The sponsorship deal was controversially struck with Gulf Air's former CEO Bjorn Naf after a brief encounter with Briatore at the 2008 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix sparked off talks which led to the new sporting alliance between the kingdom, Gulf Air and Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
- Gulf Air has kept quiet about the current controversy in the same manner it would not reveal specific financial aspects of the sponsorship deal although details were banded about the London press.
- One newspaper's headline screamed: Rangers in £7m sponsorship deal. It reported that the contract was believed to be worth £1 million a season (BD598,700) and the overall value could rise to £7 million (BD4.2 million) depending on the club gaining promotion and staying in the Premier League.
- The club has visited the kingdom once to stage coaching sessions with local children. A proposed match against the national side was cancelled.
- It wasn't long before members of Bahrain's Parliament, critical of the way Mr Naf was running the loss-making national carrier, questioned the sponsorship deal suggesting that most people in Bahrain had never heard of the Championship side.
- And, Mr Naf's fate took the same turn as many who attempted to manager QPR under Briatore. Jim Magilton is currently the seventh manager since he took over and Royal Jordanian Airline's former boss Samer Majali is now in the Gulf Air hot seat.
- The flamboyant Italian is also chairman of the holding company that owns the club and a director on the board. He missed his side's 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday which took QPR up to eighth place in the second tier of English football.
- Briatore quit Renault ahead of last Monday's FIA hearing into Renault's ordering of Nelson Piquet junior to crash in Singapore to orchestrate a win for his teammate Fernando Alonso.
- The FIA also handed a ban - suspended until the end of the 2011 season - to Renault.
- Briatore has denied all the accusations against him over the affair, saying they were 'outrageous lies'.
- A senior source at QPR said: "We haven't released any sort of statement and won't be at this stage. We are making no comment at all and have nothing to say."- Briatore was indefinitely banned from Formula One which was desperate to put the damaging Renault race-fixing scandal behind it at the weekend, but it was not easy with the sport returning to the scene of the incident in Singapore.
- By a quirk of fate, the 14th race of the season took place in the city-state just days after Renault was slapped with a suspended two-year ban by the International Automobile Federation.
- It was here at Formula One's inaugural night race last year that team principal Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds allegedly ordered Nelson Piquet junior to deliberately crash to help Alonso win.
- Both Briatore and Symonds have been thrown out of the sport and Piquet's reputation is in ruins, but Alonso was cleared of any wrongdoing. Last year, Alonso began in 15th position, but after the Spaniard made an early pit stop to refuel, Piquet crashed into a wall, prompting the deployment of the safety car.
- As Alonso's rivals then gradually disappeared into the pits to refuel, he catapulted himself into the lead and went on to win his first race in a year. Gulf Weekly
Peter Ramage Looks Forward to Newcastle
Ben Kosky/Kilburn Times Ramage limitation required- PETER Ramage's parents were thrilled to witness his first career goal - but they might have mixed feelings if their son adds a second this week.
The QPR right-back had clocked up more than 100 career appearances without finding the target before his late equaliser on the opening day against Blackpool.
But the former Newcastle defender can expect stony silence rather than gleeful celebrations from his family should he do the unthinkable and score on his return to St James' Park.
"I don't think I'd make it out alive!" Ramage admitted. "I've got so many family and friends going to the game that I'd probably be disowned.
"To be honest, I didn't have any idea when my first goal was going to come - I thought I was going to be one of those players like Rob Jones who go through their entire career without scoring!
"At least now I can say I scored one and it was especially nice that my mum and dad were there because they don't get to many games. I did try to claim the goal at first, but I can't deny it was a cross that went in.
"For obvious reasons, though, this is the one I've been looking forward to most of all. I make no secret of being a Newcastle fan and, if we have a day off, I still go to as many of their games as I can.
"I tried to get tickets for a couple of friends for the Blackpool game last week and they were sold out, so that shows what a big draw Newcastle still are. It'll be a great occasion for our fans."
Rangers will be making their first visit to St James' Park since April 1996, when Les Ferdinand featured in Newcastle's 2-1 win and helped push his old club closer to relegation.
The Magpies' own membership of the Premier League went unbroken until last season, when they went down in chaos and turmoil - yet their bid for an immediate return has begun much better than most expected.
And Ramage, who left his native north-east to sign for Rangers in 2008, declared: "With the quality Newcastle have got, it hasn't surprised me how they've started - those are mainly Premier League players out there.
"The acid test will be when they pick up a few injuries, which is bound to happen in a physical league like the Championship. But there are some good youngsters on the bench and I think they'll come through.
"Newcastle's expectations are similar to ours - to go up - but we've done quite well against the majority of the top teams since I've been here and we'll certainly be looking for three points at St James' Park" Kilburn Times
Peter Ramage - The Shields Gazette - Old boy Peter has no regrets about leaving Toon
- LEAVING Newcastle United is a hard decision for any footballer, not least one who has supported the club all his life.
One player who faced such a heart-wrenching decision was Peter Ramage, who reluctantly left St James's Park last year in search of first-team football.
While the Queens Park Rangers defender, back at his old stomping ground for the first time tomorrow night, candidly admits he will never know whether he'd have had a more significant role had he stayed on Tyneside, he insists he has no regrets about heading south.
- Ramage found himself down the pecking order at the club after returning from a serious knee injury, and signed for Iain Dowie, Alan Shearer's assistant during his brief spell as manager at United, at Loftus Road.
"I feel I'm a better player, and I've grown up as a person," Ashington-born Ramage told the Gazette.
"I don't regret moving on. Maybe if I'd stayed I might have played a few games last season, and that's at the back of your mind, but I'm enjoying it down here.
"It's a fantastic bunch of lads – everyone sticks together and looks after each other."
However, the 25-year-old – who went to QPR as a specialist right-back, having been a centre-half at Newcastle – has found himself on the bench ahead of the one fixture, above all others, he wanted to play in at the start of the season.
Ramage said: "This is the fixture I looked for – I didn't care about the others!
"It's not only myself, but the other lads as well. Newcastle's a Premier League team, and it's like drawing them in the cup.
"It's been frustrating, and I've been itching to get on. If I start, I'll be looking forward to it more than any of the others.
"Everyone knows what the club means to me.
"If I'm not playing, I'll be supporting the lads and trying to gee them up. It's an old cliché, but it's not about me. It's about the team getting a result, but if I play, then great."
Ramage has closely followed United's fortunes since he left the club, and while their start to the Championship season might have raised many eyebrows many given the turmoil off the field at St James's Park, Ramage isn't surprised, having shared a dressing room with many of Chris Hughton's side.
He added: "They've got experienced pros there who know how to do their jobs. They know how to put other things to the back of their minds and get on with the job.
"It's no surprise to me. I predicted they'd do well in the division.
"They've kept the nucleus from last season, which has been the key.
They've got players who know how to grind out results, and they've won games comfortably.
"And from a fan's point of view, I hope they keep going, apart from tomorrow night."
Ramage raced home after his team's 5-2 home win over Barnsley to watch the second half of Newcastle's 4-0 win at Ipswich.
"I watched the second half – I rushed home for it – and I was impressed with them," said Ramage. "Ipswich are a good team, no matter what their league position is.
"They weathered the storm, and scored goals at the right time. It was a great hat-trick from Kevin Nolan. They're scoring goals through the team."
Tributes were made to the late Sir Bobby Robson before, during and after the game on an emotional evening at Portman Road, and the former England manager was a huge influence on Ramage as he came up through the ranks at St James's Park.
He said: "I travelled a few times under him, and was also on the bench. He was a massive influence – I had my education under him.
"It was good to see the game played in the right spirit, and from a Newcastle point of view, they did a professional job and came away with the points."
- Leaders United, two points clear at the top of the Championship, are favourites to collect another three points in midweek, but Ramage insists Jim Magilton's side, lying eighth, fancy their chances of an upset, having been beaten just once so far this season.
"The gaffer's philosophy is pass and move, and to get the ball down," said Ramage. "We've done that, and played some really good stuff.
"We outplayed Cardiff for 90 minutes, who are a really good Championship side. We did the same on Saturday, and we're going there full of confidence.
"Some of the players haven't played at St James's Park before, and they've been asking what it's like. They're looking forward to it as much as me." Shields Gazette
re Jay Simpson - Yann Tear/Ealing Gazette - QPR: On-loan jay relishing promotion battle
- JAY SIMPSON is convinced he will benefit from playing in a team gunning for promotion rather than one fighting to beat the drop.
The 20-year-old Arsenal striker has spent the past two seasons on loan to sides battling relegation - Millwall in League One two years ago and West Brom in the Premier League last term.
But even though he is taking a step down, he believes his time at QPR will be more fruitful.
"My last two loan spells were with teams fighting relegation, so I think it will help me a lot being here, where the team is pushing for success," Simpson said.
"It is difficult at times when you're down there, because sometimes there's not such a great atmosphere around the changing room and maybe even some players have given up hope.
"The fact that it was a team looking up rather than down helped me make the decision to come here, really, and now I'm looking forward to the new challenge.
"Mind you, being in a team that was relegated didn't affect my confidence. I still enjoyed it and my first spell out on loan two seasons ago helped me grow up into a man."
Simpson, who scored just once in 13 appearances for Albion last season, has already gone one better for Rangers, vindicating his decision to choose them as his next loan move.
He grabbed both goals in last week's 2-0 win at Cardiff and could be the answer to the team's goalscoring problems.
He is being used as an outright striker rather than a winger, as he was at the Hawthorns.
"Before I signed, the boss said he wanted to play me up top if I came here and that's where I want to play,"
Simpson said. "I spoke to Matthew Connolly before coming here and he spoke highly of the place. He gave me good insight into the club and that's been important in helping me settle in. I was also impressed with what the manager had to offer about his plans for the season."
Could Simpson stay with Rangers after his year is up? The lad from Enfield will not rule it out.
"I'm taking things one step at a time and not thinking about Arsenal right now," he said. "I'm just determined to prove myself. If I do well here, then it will generate interest from all over.
"The end of the season's a long way off but as far as I know, I will be going back at the end of the season and Arsenal are watching me in the home games, but I will leave that up to them." Ealing Gazette
- Brief QPR Loanee, Jason Jarrett to Port Vale
- "Hiring and Retaining a Good Front Office Team"
- Four Year Flashback: Paladini Profiled in The Times....Paladini/QPR begins Legal Action Against the Evening Standard
- Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [Four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters are speculating about a supposed prominent Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- Three Year Flashback: "QPR vs AKUTRS"
- QPR Fan/Mirror Blogger Jesse Whitock on QPR vs Barnsley
Helguson Injury UpdateHelguson Injury Update....
Flashback: A QPR Vietnam-Era Soldier/Supporter letter to QPR - [Note: If anyone should happen to know whatever happened to PFC Nils Guy, please post here or contact]
- QPR Supporter and Former Chairman, Bill Power (BP) Birthday yesterday
- The Return of Football Aid - QPR
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- Using The Term "Yid" to Apply to Spurs/Spurs Supporters
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. All views genuinely welcome. Links to QPR information posted on other QPR board, encouraged! .....QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Tonight: Newcastle vs QPR
- On-This-Day Flashback: Koejoe scores..Harper saves two penalties and Gerry Francis' QPR draw at Sheffield United and Stewart Houston Wins Manager of The Month (and shortly later is axed)
- Who's the Real Owner of Leeds United?
- The Decline of Freddy Adu
- Happy at QPR: Gianluca Di Marzio Will Not Be Napoli's New Sporting Director - Report -----More about Gianni Di Marzio & QPR
This is London/David Yuill - Leigertwood's plea for QPR
- Mikele Leigertwood insists QPR must go into every game demanding a win if they are to be in the promotion reckoning in May.
- The west London side will face their toughest test of the season so far tonight, when they face Newcastle at St James' Park. Leigertwood said: "We can't be looking at a point here and there. We are going to every ground, every game, whether it's Newcastle away or Blackpool at home, expecting to win." Jim Magilton's men got their promotion hunt back on track with convincing wins over Cardiff and Barnsley and Leigertwood believes automatic promotion is far from out of sight. He added: "At the start of the season we were looking to get promoted. That goal hasn't changed but we are going to need to be consistent." This is London
Gulf Weekly - STAN SZECOWKA - FLYING IN A CLOUD OF CONTROVERSY
- Flavio Briatore, banned from Formula One over the 'crashgate' affair, now faces questions over his role as co-owner of England's Queens Park Rangers Football Club, sponsored by Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air.
- The Football League has requested details of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), motorsport's governing body, decision to ban the former team boss of Renault over his part in conspiring to fix the result of last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
- Spokesman Nick Jones told GulfWeekly: "The Football League is aware of the situation and is currently investigating further."
- The league requires every club owner to pass a 'fit and proper person' test and one of its rules says nobody can own a football club if they are banned from a sport's governing body.
- The Football League chairman, Lord Mawhinney, has written to the FIA to request further details of its decision, another Football League spokesman added. "Thereafter, the League will consider its position on the matter."
- Briatore is part-owner at Loftus Road with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
- The sponsorship deal was controversially struck with Gulf Air's former CEO Bjorn Naf after a brief encounter with Briatore at the 2008 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix sparked off talks which led to the new sporting alliance between the kingdom, Gulf Air and Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
- Gulf Air has kept quiet about the current controversy in the same manner it would not reveal specific financial aspects of the sponsorship deal although details were banded about the London press.
- One newspaper's headline screamed: Rangers in £7m sponsorship deal. It reported that the contract was believed to be worth £1 million a season (BD598,700) and the overall value could rise to £7 million (BD4.2 million) depending on the club gaining promotion and staying in the Premier League.
- The club has visited the kingdom once to stage coaching sessions with local children. A proposed match against the national side was cancelled.
- It wasn't long before members of Bahrain's Parliament, critical of the way Mr Naf was running the loss-making national carrier, questioned the sponsorship deal suggesting that most people in Bahrain had never heard of the Championship side.
- And, Mr Naf's fate took the same turn as many who attempted to manager QPR under Briatore. Jim Magilton is currently the seventh manager since he took over and Royal Jordanian Airline's former boss Samer Majali is now in the Gulf Air hot seat.
- The flamboyant Italian is also chairman of the holding company that owns the club and a director on the board. He missed his side's 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday which took QPR up to eighth place in the second tier of English football.
- Briatore quit Renault ahead of last Monday's FIA hearing into Renault's ordering of Nelson Piquet junior to crash in Singapore to orchestrate a win for his teammate Fernando Alonso.
- The FIA also handed a ban - suspended until the end of the 2011 season - to Renault.
- Briatore has denied all the accusations against him over the affair, saying they were 'outrageous lies'.
- A senior source at QPR said: "We haven't released any sort of statement and won't be at this stage. We are making no comment at all and have nothing to say."- Briatore was indefinitely banned from Formula One which was desperate to put the damaging Renault race-fixing scandal behind it at the weekend, but it was not easy with the sport returning to the scene of the incident in Singapore.
- By a quirk of fate, the 14th race of the season took place in the city-state just days after Renault was slapped with a suspended two-year ban by the International Automobile Federation.
- It was here at Formula One's inaugural night race last year that team principal Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds allegedly ordered Nelson Piquet junior to deliberately crash to help Alonso win.
- Both Briatore and Symonds have been thrown out of the sport and Piquet's reputation is in ruins, but Alonso was cleared of any wrongdoing. Last year, Alonso began in 15th position, but after the Spaniard made an early pit stop to refuel, Piquet crashed into a wall, prompting the deployment of the safety car.
- As Alonso's rivals then gradually disappeared into the pits to refuel, he catapulted himself into the lead and went on to win his first race in a year. Gulf Weekly
Peter Ramage Looks Forward to Newcastle
Ben Kosky/Kilburn Times Ramage limitation required- PETER Ramage's parents were thrilled to witness his first career goal - but they might have mixed feelings if their son adds a second this week.
The QPR right-back had clocked up more than 100 career appearances without finding the target before his late equaliser on the opening day against Blackpool.
But the former Newcastle defender can expect stony silence rather than gleeful celebrations from his family should he do the unthinkable and score on his return to St James' Park.
"I don't think I'd make it out alive!" Ramage admitted. "I've got so many family and friends going to the game that I'd probably be disowned.
"To be honest, I didn't have any idea when my first goal was going to come - I thought I was going to be one of those players like Rob Jones who go through their entire career without scoring!
"At least now I can say I scored one and it was especially nice that my mum and dad were there because they don't get to many games. I did try to claim the goal at first, but I can't deny it was a cross that went in.
"For obvious reasons, though, this is the one I've been looking forward to most of all. I make no secret of being a Newcastle fan and, if we have a day off, I still go to as many of their games as I can.
"I tried to get tickets for a couple of friends for the Blackpool game last week and they were sold out, so that shows what a big draw Newcastle still are. It'll be a great occasion for our fans."
Rangers will be making their first visit to St James' Park since April 1996, when Les Ferdinand featured in Newcastle's 2-1 win and helped push his old club closer to relegation.
The Magpies' own membership of the Premier League went unbroken until last season, when they went down in chaos and turmoil - yet their bid for an immediate return has begun much better than most expected.
And Ramage, who left his native north-east to sign for Rangers in 2008, declared: "With the quality Newcastle have got, it hasn't surprised me how they've started - those are mainly Premier League players out there.
"The acid test will be when they pick up a few injuries, which is bound to happen in a physical league like the Championship. But there are some good youngsters on the bench and I think they'll come through.
"Newcastle's expectations are similar to ours - to go up - but we've done quite well against the majority of the top teams since I've been here and we'll certainly be looking for three points at St James' Park" Kilburn Times
Peter Ramage - The Shields Gazette - Old boy Peter has no regrets about leaving Toon
- LEAVING Newcastle United is a hard decision for any footballer, not least one who has supported the club all his life.
One player who faced such a heart-wrenching decision was Peter Ramage, who reluctantly left St James's Park last year in search of first-team football.
While the Queens Park Rangers defender, back at his old stomping ground for the first time tomorrow night, candidly admits he will never know whether he'd have had a more significant role had he stayed on Tyneside, he insists he has no regrets about heading south.
- Ramage found himself down the pecking order at the club after returning from a serious knee injury, and signed for Iain Dowie, Alan Shearer's assistant during his brief spell as manager at United, at Loftus Road.
"I feel I'm a better player, and I've grown up as a person," Ashington-born Ramage told the Gazette.
"I don't regret moving on. Maybe if I'd stayed I might have played a few games last season, and that's at the back of your mind, but I'm enjoying it down here.
"It's a fantastic bunch of lads – everyone sticks together and looks after each other."
However, the 25-year-old – who went to QPR as a specialist right-back, having been a centre-half at Newcastle – has found himself on the bench ahead of the one fixture, above all others, he wanted to play in at the start of the season.
Ramage said: "This is the fixture I looked for – I didn't care about the others!
"It's not only myself, but the other lads as well. Newcastle's a Premier League team, and it's like drawing them in the cup.
"It's been frustrating, and I've been itching to get on. If I start, I'll be looking forward to it more than any of the others.
"Everyone knows what the club means to me.
"If I'm not playing, I'll be supporting the lads and trying to gee them up. It's an old cliché, but it's not about me. It's about the team getting a result, but if I play, then great."
Ramage has closely followed United's fortunes since he left the club, and while their start to the Championship season might have raised many eyebrows many given the turmoil off the field at St James's Park, Ramage isn't surprised, having shared a dressing room with many of Chris Hughton's side.
He added: "They've got experienced pros there who know how to do their jobs. They know how to put other things to the back of their minds and get on with the job.
"It's no surprise to me. I predicted they'd do well in the division.
"They've kept the nucleus from last season, which has been the key.
They've got players who know how to grind out results, and they've won games comfortably.
"And from a fan's point of view, I hope they keep going, apart from tomorrow night."
Ramage raced home after his team's 5-2 home win over Barnsley to watch the second half of Newcastle's 4-0 win at Ipswich.
"I watched the second half – I rushed home for it – and I was impressed with them," said Ramage. "Ipswich are a good team, no matter what their league position is.
"They weathered the storm, and scored goals at the right time. It was a great hat-trick from Kevin Nolan. They're scoring goals through the team."
Tributes were made to the late Sir Bobby Robson before, during and after the game on an emotional evening at Portman Road, and the former England manager was a huge influence on Ramage as he came up through the ranks at St James's Park.
He said: "I travelled a few times under him, and was also on the bench. He was a massive influence – I had my education under him.
"It was good to see the game played in the right spirit, and from a Newcastle point of view, they did a professional job and came away with the points."
- Leaders United, two points clear at the top of the Championship, are favourites to collect another three points in midweek, but Ramage insists Jim Magilton's side, lying eighth, fancy their chances of an upset, having been beaten just once so far this season.
"The gaffer's philosophy is pass and move, and to get the ball down," said Ramage. "We've done that, and played some really good stuff.
"We outplayed Cardiff for 90 minutes, who are a really good Championship side. We did the same on Saturday, and we're going there full of confidence.
"Some of the players haven't played at St James's Park before, and they've been asking what it's like. They're looking forward to it as much as me." Shields Gazette
re Jay Simpson - Yann Tear/Ealing Gazette - QPR: On-loan jay relishing promotion battle
- JAY SIMPSON is convinced he will benefit from playing in a team gunning for promotion rather than one fighting to beat the drop.
The 20-year-old Arsenal striker has spent the past two seasons on loan to sides battling relegation - Millwall in League One two years ago and West Brom in the Premier League last term.
But even though he is taking a step down, he believes his time at QPR will be more fruitful.
"My last two loan spells were with teams fighting relegation, so I think it will help me a lot being here, where the team is pushing for success," Simpson said.
"It is difficult at times when you're down there, because sometimes there's not such a great atmosphere around the changing room and maybe even some players have given up hope.
"The fact that it was a team looking up rather than down helped me make the decision to come here, really, and now I'm looking forward to the new challenge.
"Mind you, being in a team that was relegated didn't affect my confidence. I still enjoyed it and my first spell out on loan two seasons ago helped me grow up into a man."
Simpson, who scored just once in 13 appearances for Albion last season, has already gone one better for Rangers, vindicating his decision to choose them as his next loan move.
He grabbed both goals in last week's 2-0 win at Cardiff and could be the answer to the team's goalscoring problems.
He is being used as an outright striker rather than a winger, as he was at the Hawthorns.
"Before I signed, the boss said he wanted to play me up top if I came here and that's where I want to play,"
Simpson said. "I spoke to Matthew Connolly before coming here and he spoke highly of the place. He gave me good insight into the club and that's been important in helping me settle in. I was also impressed with what the manager had to offer about his plans for the season."
Could Simpson stay with Rangers after his year is up? The lad from Enfield will not rule it out.
"I'm taking things one step at a time and not thinking about Arsenal right now," he said. "I'm just determined to prove myself. If I do well here, then it will generate interest from all over.
"The end of the season's a long way off but as far as I know, I will be going back at the end of the season and Arsenal are watching me in the home games, but I will leave that up to them." Ealing Gazette
- Brief QPR Loanee, Jason Jarrett to Port Vale
- "Hiring and Retaining a Good Front Office Team"
- Four Year Flashback: Paladini Profiled in The Times....Paladini/QPR begins Legal Action Against the Evening Standard
- Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [Four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters are speculating about a supposed prominent Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- Three Year Flashback: "QPR vs AKUTRS"
- QPR Fan/Mirror Blogger Jesse Whitock on QPR vs Barnsley
Helguson Injury UpdateHelguson Injury Update....
Flashback: A QPR Vietnam-Era Soldier/Supporter letter to QPR - [Note: If anyone should happen to know whatever happened to PFC Nils Guy, please post here or contact]
- QPR Supporter and Former Chairman, Bill Power (BP) Birthday yesterday
- The Return of Football Aid - QPR
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- Using The Term "Yid" to Apply to Spurs/Spurs Supporters
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Gianluca Di Marzio Happy at QPR...Helguson Injury Update...Birthday for QPR Supporter and Former Chairman Bill Power ...A QPR Fan From The Vietnam War
-
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Very Happy Birhday to QPR Supporter and Former Chairman, Bill Power (BP)
- From Yesterday: Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [Four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters are speculating about a supposed prominent Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- Three Year Flashback: "QPR vs AKUTRS"
- Also Birthdys today: Pat Agyemang (29) and - QPR Cup Final Replay Sub
Goal.com - Sep 29, 2009 - Gianluca Di Marzio Will Not Be Napoli's New Sporting Director - Report
- According to rumours circulating around Napoli, Di Marzio was expected to be announced as the new sporting director, but it is not true...
- Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis & director Pierpaolo Marino discuss the club's recent poor form
- The sudden resignation of Pierpaolo Marino as Napoli's sporting director, has caused in his now former club to go in search of an immediate replacement for him.
- With rumours circulating that Queens Park Rangers director Gianluca Di Marzio could be in line for the newly-opened vacancy, the man himself has quashed any suggestion to the veracity of these whispers.
- "I have never been contacted by [Napoli owner Aurelio] De Laurentiis," Di Marzio said to Novantesimo.it.
- "I am comfortable at Queens Park Rangers in England, and I don't believe that I will immerse myself in the chaotic happenings like those going on at Napoli at the moment."
- The QPR director believed that Marino may have made some errors - whether financial - in paying too much for certain individuals - or technical - for not buying a player to do a certain role.
- He added, "There may have been too many errors in the acquisition of players, either paying too much, or more importantly, not getting someone to play a role not already covered." -
Rick D'Andrea, Goal.com
- More about Gianni Di Marzio & QPR
Helguson Injury Update- After having a second scan today....
"Watford Official Site - TRIO SET TO MISS OUT
- "...Speaking this afternoon, the gaffer updated www.watfordfc.com on the latest situation from the treatment room at London Colney.
- Loanee Heidar Helguson will not be involved in either of Watford's games this week and with an international break looming, that provides the Icelandic striker with further time to prove his fitness before the Hornets' trip north to face Middlesbrough on Saturday 17 October.
- Helguson had a further scan on his injured calf this morning. Mackay said: "We've spoken to Heidar and the specialist since then and he has torn his calf muscle, so he's going to be out for a couple of weeks - Watford
From The Mirror - 28/09/09 From QPR to NVA
"For those of you who have felt aggrieved at having to miss a game due to a work conference, or wedding, here is a sobering letter from a 1969 QPR programme…
- “Dear Sir, I am an Englishman who emigrated to the USA in February 1968, by February 1969 I was in the US Army and now I am over in Vietnam fighting this war, but every week I get news clippings of the great QPR from a good friend of mine Bob Thorpe. If I ever get home to England the first Saturday I will be watching the only team – QPR.
- “Is there anybody reading this who would like to send me clippings or photographs of the great team?
- “Yours truly, the only QPR supporter in Vietnam – PFC Nils Guy 171447871 - CoD 1/35th Inf 4th Div.
- According to the letters editor Nils wrote two messages on the back of his envelope – ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘QPR for the Cup!’
- Instead of watching Rodney Marsh and Tony Hazell at Loftus Road poor Nils was patrolling through the Vietnamese jungle waiting for the Viet Cong to ambush him.
- Think yourselves lucky. - Mirror
[Note: If anyone should happen to know whatever happened to PFC Nils Guy, please post here or contact]
- QPR Fan/Mirror Blogger Jesse Whitock on QPR vs Barnsley
- The Return of Football Aid - QPR
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
- Next: Newcastle vs QPR
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
- Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR "It's a game I really want to win" Planet Swans
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- QPR Youth Defeat Southend: Match Report
- West Ham and Millwall Charged by FA
- Briatore NOT in the foremost list of "Meddling Chairmen"
- Ex-QPR, Steffan Moore Turns 26
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
Eleven Years Ago..Ray Harford Resigns...Vinnie Jones Passed Over.
- Eleven Years Ago today: Ray Harford resigns as QPR manager after a terrible year in charge. Ian Dowie - rather than Vinnie Jones - took over as caretaker manager. Two weeks later, Gerry Francis was appointed QPR manager. Ray Harford went on to coach elsewhere, before sadly, dying, only in his later fifties, in August, 2003.
- The Barnsley Goals
- Using The Term "Yid" to Apply to Spurs/Spurs Supporters
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Very Happy Birhday to QPR Supporter and Former Chairman, Bill Power (BP)
- From Yesterday: Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [Four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters are speculating about a supposed prominent Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- Three Year Flashback: "QPR vs AKUTRS"
- Also Birthdys today: Pat Agyemang (29) and - QPR Cup Final Replay Sub
Goal.com - Sep 29, 2009 - Gianluca Di Marzio Will Not Be Napoli's New Sporting Director - Report
- According to rumours circulating around Napoli, Di Marzio was expected to be announced as the new sporting director, but it is not true...
- Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis & director Pierpaolo Marino discuss the club's recent poor form
- The sudden resignation of Pierpaolo Marino as Napoli's sporting director, has caused in his now former club to go in search of an immediate replacement for him.
- With rumours circulating that Queens Park Rangers director Gianluca Di Marzio could be in line for the newly-opened vacancy, the man himself has quashed any suggestion to the veracity of these whispers.
- "I have never been contacted by [Napoli owner Aurelio] De Laurentiis," Di Marzio said to Novantesimo.it.
- "I am comfortable at Queens Park Rangers in England, and I don't believe that I will immerse myself in the chaotic happenings like those going on at Napoli at the moment."
- The QPR director believed that Marino may have made some errors - whether financial - in paying too much for certain individuals - or technical - for not buying a player to do a certain role.
- He added, "There may have been too many errors in the acquisition of players, either paying too much, or more importantly, not getting someone to play a role not already covered." -
Rick D'Andrea, Goal.com
- More about Gianni Di Marzio & QPR
Helguson Injury Update- After having a second scan today....
"Watford Official Site - TRIO SET TO MISS OUT
- "...Speaking this afternoon, the gaffer updated www.watfordfc.com on the latest situation from the treatment room at London Colney.
- Loanee Heidar Helguson will not be involved in either of Watford's games this week and with an international break looming, that provides the Icelandic striker with further time to prove his fitness before the Hornets' trip north to face Middlesbrough on Saturday 17 October.
- Helguson had a further scan on his injured calf this morning. Mackay said: "We've spoken to Heidar and the specialist since then and he has torn his calf muscle, so he's going to be out for a couple of weeks - Watford
From The Mirror - 28/09/09 From QPR to NVA
"For those of you who have felt aggrieved at having to miss a game due to a work conference, or wedding, here is a sobering letter from a 1969 QPR programme…
- “Dear Sir, I am an Englishman who emigrated to the USA in February 1968, by February 1969 I was in the US Army and now I am over in Vietnam fighting this war, but every week I get news clippings of the great QPR from a good friend of mine Bob Thorpe. If I ever get home to England the first Saturday I will be watching the only team – QPR.
- “Is there anybody reading this who would like to send me clippings or photographs of the great team?
- “Yours truly, the only QPR supporter in Vietnam – PFC Nils Guy 171447871 - CoD 1/35th Inf 4th Div.
- According to the letters editor Nils wrote two messages on the back of his envelope – ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘QPR for the Cup!’
- Instead of watching Rodney Marsh and Tony Hazell at Loftus Road poor Nils was patrolling through the Vietnamese jungle waiting for the Viet Cong to ambush him.
- Think yourselves lucky. - Mirror
[Note: If anyone should happen to know whatever happened to PFC Nils Guy, please post here or contact]
- QPR Fan/Mirror Blogger Jesse Whitock on QPR vs Barnsley
- The Return of Football Aid - QPR
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
- Next: Newcastle vs QPR
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
- Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR "It's a game I really want to win" Planet Swans
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- QPR Youth Defeat Southend: Match Report
- West Ham and Millwall Charged by FA
- Briatore NOT in the foremost list of "Meddling Chairmen"
- Ex-QPR, Steffan Moore Turns 26
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
Eleven Years Ago..Ray Harford Resigns...Vinnie Jones Passed Over.
- Eleven Years Ago today: Ray Harford resigns as QPR manager after a terrible year in charge. Ian Dowie - rather than Vinnie Jones - took over as caretaker manager. Two weeks later, Gerry Francis was appointed QPR manager. Ray Harford went on to coach elsewhere, before sadly, dying, only in his later fifties, in August, 2003.
- The Barnsley Goals
- Using The Term "Yid" to Apply to Spurs/Spurs Supporters
Monday, September 28, 2009
Helguson Injury Update....QPR (Loan) Player Makes Championship Team of the Week....Leigertwood Lauded
-
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Flashback: A QPR-supporter serving in the American army during the Vietnam War, writing to the QPR Programme
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
Helguson Injury Update- After having a second scan today....
"Watford Official Site - TRIO SET TO MISS OUT
- "...Speaking this afternoon, the gaffer updated www.watfordfc.com on the latest situation from the treatment room at London Colney.
- Loanee Heidar Helguson will not be involved in either of Watford's games this week and with an international break looming, that provides the Icelandic striker with further time to prove his fitness before the Hornets' trip north to face Middlesbrough on Saturday 17 October.
- Helguson had a further scan on his injured calf this morning. Mackay said: "We've spoken to Heidar and the specialist since then and he has torn his calf muscle, so he's going to be out for a couple of weeks - Watford
- Congratulations to Ben Watson on making Football League's Championship Team of the Week! -
Complete Team of the Week: Paul Rachubka Blackpool - Chris Gunter Nottm Forest -
Jose Fonte Crystal Palace - Sean St.Ledger Middlesbrough - Dean Moxey Derby - Etienne Esajas Sheff Wed - Kevin Nolan Newcastle - Richard Chaplow Preston - Ben Watson QPR - Billy Sharp Doncaster - Leon Best Coventry Full Team
QPR Official Site - BEN GIVES THEM WAT' FOR!
- Midfielder Ben Watson has been named in the Football League's Championship Team of the Week following his performance at the weekend.
- The Wigan Athletic loanee played a pivotal role in the R's midfield engine room, as Jim Magilton's men continued their fine run of form with a 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday afternoon.
- Watson scored one and played provider for Akos Buzsaky to notch Rangers' second, as the Hoops rain riot against Mark Robins' side.
- Produced by the Press Association, the Team of the Week features the eleven top performing players from each division from the weekend matches. To view the Team of the Week, click here QPR
- QPR Youth Defeat Southend: Match Report
- Helguson Injury Update: Having Second Scan
QPR Official Site MAGILTON: 'MIKELE IS MAGNIFICENT'
- Rangers boss Jim Magilton has lavished praise on the 'outstanding' Mikele Leigertwood.
- The former Sheffield United ace notched the R's opening goal of the game in our 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday, prompting Magilton - who has opted to use Leigertwood at right back instead of his accustomed central midfield role in recent weeks - to wax lyrical about his display.
- "Mikele is an outstanding athlete and an outstanding person, both on and off the park," he told www.qpr.co.uk.
- "He has goals in his locker, there's no doubt about that.
- "He scored a wonderful goal playing in midfield earlier in the campaign from an area which I believe he can really exploit and he bombed on from right back on Saturday and scored another classic."
- Magilton added: "He's an awesome individual.
- "He's a proper footballer and I'm absolutely chuffed to bits with him."
- Despite seeing his side romp to victory against the Tykes, Magilton - with one eye on the R's mouth-watering trip to Newcastle United on Wednesday night - believes the best is yet to come from his charges.
- "It's still very much work in progress," he said.
- "There's so much room for improvement.
- "There's a long way to go, but there's a great belief in the camp and the confidence is growing.
- "We set ourselves high standards here and we'll continue to do so." QPR
- Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [And four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters wondering about a Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- West Ham and Millwall Charged by FA
- Next: QPR Travel to top-of-the-table Newcastle on Wedneday!
- The ref for this game is R L Shoebridge.
- QPR last played Newcastle in QPR's relegation season of 1995/1996 when Ray Wilkins was QPR manager and Kevin Keegan was at Newcastle with Newcastle's big signing was Les Ferdinand! QPR lost 3-2 at Loftus Road and 2-1 at Newcastle.
- Playing for both teams: Les Ferdinand, Glen Roeder, Kevin Brock, Wayne Fereday, Kenny Sampson, Gavin Peacock, Ian Bennett. Peter Ramage! Managing both teams: Jim Smith
- Past QPR vs Newcastle Results
- Newcastle's 2009/10 Results...Newcastle Squad
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports
- The Various QPR Fan Sites Match Reports of QPR vs Barnsley
- Mirror - Rangers Boss Criticizes Adel Taarabt
- Earlier Compilation of QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports and Managerial Comments
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- QPR Youth Defeat Southend
- Briatore NOT in the foremost list of "Meddling Chairmen"
- Bernie Ecclestone Under His Own Pressures
- Ex-QPR, Steffan Moore Turns 26
- Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR "It's a game I really want to win" Planet Swans
- Telegraph/Oliver Brown - Flavio Briatore ordered a Queen's Park Rangers substitution from Kuala Lumpur
- List of even-more-meddling Chairmen than Flavio Briatore (allegedly)
- Briatore/Ecclestone Updates
- Couple of the number of previous "stories" claiming Briatore's deep involvement
- Mail / Rob Draper - Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
FLASHBACKS
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
Eleven Years Ago..Ray Harford Resigns...Vinnie Jones Passed Over.
- Eleven Years Ago today: Ray Harford resigns as QPR manager after a terrible year in charge. Ian Dowie - rather than Vinnie Jones - took over as caretaker manager. Two weeks later, Gerry Francis was appointed QPR manager. Ray Harford went on to coach elsewhere, before sadly, dying, only in his later fifties, in August, 2003.
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Flashback: A QPR-supporter serving in the American army during the Vietnam War, writing to the QPR Programme
- The Business Views (non QPR) of Lakshmi Mittal
Helguson Injury Update- After having a second scan today....
"Watford Official Site - TRIO SET TO MISS OUT
- "...Speaking this afternoon, the gaffer updated www.watfordfc.com on the latest situation from the treatment room at London Colney.
- Loanee Heidar Helguson will not be involved in either of Watford's games this week and with an international break looming, that provides the Icelandic striker with further time to prove his fitness before the Hornets' trip north to face Middlesbrough on Saturday 17 October.
- Helguson had a further scan on his injured calf this morning. Mackay said: "We've spoken to Heidar and the specialist since then and he has torn his calf muscle, so he's going to be out for a couple of weeks - Watford
- Congratulations to Ben Watson on making Football League's Championship Team of the Week! -
Complete Team of the Week: Paul Rachubka Blackpool - Chris Gunter Nottm Forest -
Jose Fonte Crystal Palace - Sean St.Ledger Middlesbrough - Dean Moxey Derby - Etienne Esajas Sheff Wed - Kevin Nolan Newcastle - Richard Chaplow Preston - Ben Watson QPR - Billy Sharp Doncaster - Leon Best Coventry Full Team
QPR Official Site - BEN GIVES THEM WAT' FOR!
- Midfielder Ben Watson has been named in the Football League's Championship Team of the Week following his performance at the weekend.
- The Wigan Athletic loanee played a pivotal role in the R's midfield engine room, as Jim Magilton's men continued their fine run of form with a 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday afternoon.
- Watson scored one and played provider for Akos Buzsaky to notch Rangers' second, as the Hoops rain riot against Mark Robins' side.
- Produced by the Press Association, the Team of the Week features the eleven top performing players from each division from the weekend matches. To view the Team of the Week, click here QPR
- QPR Youth Defeat Southend: Match Report
- Helguson Injury Update: Having Second Scan
QPR Official Site MAGILTON: 'MIKELE IS MAGNIFICENT'
- Rangers boss Jim Magilton has lavished praise on the 'outstanding' Mikele Leigertwood.
- The former Sheffield United ace notched the R's opening goal of the game in our 5-2 victory against Barnsley on Saturday, prompting Magilton - who has opted to use Leigertwood at right back instead of his accustomed central midfield role in recent weeks - to wax lyrical about his display.
- "Mikele is an outstanding athlete and an outstanding person, both on and off the park," he told www.qpr.co.uk.
- "He has goals in his locker, there's no doubt about that.
- "He scored a wonderful goal playing in midfield earlier in the campaign from an area which I believe he can really exploit and he bombed on from right back on Saturday and scored another classic."
- Magilton added: "He's an awesome individual.
- "He's a proper footballer and I'm absolutely chuffed to bits with him."
- Despite seeing his side romp to victory against the Tykes, Magilton - with one eye on the R's mouth-watering trip to Newcastle United on Wednesday night - believes the best is yet to come from his charges.
- "It's still very much work in progress," he said.
- "There's so much room for improvement.
- "There's a long way to go, but there's a great belief in the camp and the confidence is growing.
- "We set ourselves high standards here and we'll continue to do so." QPR
- Four Year Flashback: Gianni Paladini Appointed QPR Chairman
- [And four years later, at least a few messgaboard posters wondering about a Paladini role if the Mittals take over from Briatore]
- West Ham and Millwall Charged by FA
- Next: QPR Travel to top-of-the-table Newcastle on Wedneday!
- The ref for this game is R L Shoebridge.
- QPR last played Newcastle in QPR's relegation season of 1995/1996 when Ray Wilkins was QPR manager and Kevin Keegan was at Newcastle with Newcastle's big signing was Les Ferdinand! QPR lost 3-2 at Loftus Road and 2-1 at Newcastle.
- Playing for both teams: Les Ferdinand, Glen Roeder, Kevin Brock, Wayne Fereday, Kenny Sampson, Gavin Peacock, Ian Bennett. Peter Ramage! Managing both teams: Jim Smith
- Past QPR vs Newcastle Results
- Newcastle's 2009/10 Results...Newcastle Squad
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports
- The Various QPR Fan Sites Match Reports of QPR vs Barnsley
- Mirror - Rangers Boss Criticizes Adel Taarabt
- Earlier Compilation of QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports and Managerial Comments
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- QPR Youth Defeat Southend
- Briatore NOT in the foremost list of "Meddling Chairmen"
- Bernie Ecclestone Under His Own Pressures
- Ex-QPR, Steffan Moore Turns 26
- Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR "It's a game I really want to win" Planet Swans
- Telegraph/Oliver Brown - Flavio Briatore ordered a Queen's Park Rangers substitution from Kuala Lumpur
- List of even-more-meddling Chairmen than Flavio Briatore (allegedly)
- Briatore/Ecclestone Updates
- Couple of the number of previous "stories" claiming Briatore's deep involvement
- Mail / Rob Draper - Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
FLASHBACKS
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
Eleven Years Ago..Ray Harford Resigns...Vinnie Jones Passed Over.
- Eleven Years Ago today: Ray Harford resigns as QPR manager after a terrible year in charge. Ian Dowie - rather than Vinnie Jones - took over as caretaker manager. Two weeks later, Gerry Francis was appointed QPR manager. Ray Harford went on to coach elsewhere, before sadly, dying, only in his later fifties, in August, 2003.
Snippets: Helguson Having Second Scan...Next Newcastle...Barnsley...Flashbacks: Paladini Appointed Chair...Harford Quits: Dowie not Vinnie Jones
-
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Lincoln Announce their new manager (Hint: It's not Gareth Ainsworth)
- West Ham and Millwall Charged by FA
- Helguson Injury Update - Watford Observer/Frank Smith - Watford expect Heidar Helguson to miss games against Coventry City and Cardiff City - Saturday 26th September 2009
- Heidar Helguson is expected to miss the Hornets next two league games with the calf injury he picked up against Leicester City last week.
- Helguson had an MRI scan on Wednesday and Watford manager Malky Mackay had hoped the striker could have played during today's 1-1 draw with Reading, but the Scot has confirmed the 32-year-old will have another scan on Monday.
- Mackay said: “We didn't like the reaction we saw this morning and that being the case there will be another scan done on him, so I doubt there will be any chance of Heidar playing this week. Watford Observer
Watford Official Site - HEIDAR UPDATE
Sat 26 Sep 2009 - WATFORD loanee Heidar Helguson will have another scan next week after his calf injury meant he was forced to sit out today's draw with Reading. The Icelandic forward grabbed two goals on his return to Vicarage Road last weekend but he couldn't recover in time for the latest fixture. Speaking after the game, Watford boss Malky Mackay said: "We are going to have another scan. "We didn't like the reaction we saw this morning and that being the case there will be another scan done on him, so I doubt there will be any chance of Heidar playing this week" Watford
- Next: QPR Travel to top-of-the-table Newcastle on Wedneday!
- The ref for this game is R L Shoebridge.
- QPR last played Newcastle in QPR's relegation season of 1995/1996 when Ray Wilkins was QPR manager and Kevin Keegan was at Newcastle with Newcastle's big signing was Les Ferdinand! QPR lost 3-2 at Loftus Road and 2-1 at Newcastle.
- Playing for both teams: Les Ferdinand, Glen Roeder, Kevin Brock, Wayne Fereday, Kenny Sampson, Gavin Peacock, Ian Bennett. Peter Ramage! Managing both teams: Jim Smith
- Past QPR vs Newcastle Results
- Newcastle's 2009/10 Results...Newcastle Squad
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports
- The Various QPR Fan Sites Match Reports of QPR vs Barnsley
- Mirror - Rangers Boss Criticizes Adel Taarabt
- Earlier Compilation of QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports and Managerial Comments
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- QPR Youth Defeat Southend
- Briatore NOT in the foremost list of "Meddling Chairmen"
- Bernie Ecclestone Under His Own Pressures
- Ex-QPR, Steffan Moore Turns 26
- Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR "It's a game I really want to win" Planet Swans
- Telegraph/Oliver Brown - Flavio Briatore ordered a Queen's Park Rangers substitution from Kuala Lumpur
- List of even-more-meddling Chairmen than Flavio Briatore (allegedly)
- Briatore/Ecclestone Updates
- Couple of the number of previous "stories" claiming Briatore's deep involvement
- Mail / Rob Draper - Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
FLASHBACKS
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
Four Years Ago... QPR OFFICIAL SITE - 28 September 2005 Statement GIANNI PALADINI
- Gianni Paladini has been appointed Chairman of Queens Park Rangers Football Club and QPR Holdings Ltd.
- Interim Chairman Gualtiero Trucco has stepped down and the Board of Directors have unanimously chosen Paladini to take on the role on a full-time basis.
The changes were agreed at a Loftus Road Board Meeting on Wednesday afternoon and Paladini is delighted by the honour of this 'challenging but exciting' role.
"The Monaco investors have recommended that I be appointed Chairman and I am deeply honoured that the Directors have allowed me this opportunity.
"I hope now that after a period of instability we can all look forward to the brightest of futures at Loftus Road.
"We have a wonderful manager, an exciting and improving squad and a real opportunity to push for a place in the play-offs and even the Premiership.
"I believe these are wonderful times to be a QPR supporter and I just want to play whatever part I can in bringing both success and stability to this Club.
"I fully appreciate that supporters will have been a little bewildered by recent events and I wish that so much of what has happened could have happened differently.
"But I believe we now have the right people in place, both on the pitch and behind the scenes, to take this club forward.
"I would like to thank every single fan for their continued, passionate support for QPR and I would also like to pay tribute to all the staff here.
"Life hasn't been particularly easy for them recently either but every single one continues to work as hard as ever for the benefit of this club.
"It has never been clearer to me that, both in the stands and behind the scenes, this is a wonderful place full of very special people."
Eleven Years Ago..Ray Harford Resigns...Vinnie Jones Passed Over.
- Eleven Years Ago today: Ray Harford resigns as QPR manager after a terrible year in charge. Ian Dowie - rather than Vinnie Jones - took over as caretaker manager. Two weeks later, Gerry Francis was appointed QPR manager. Ray Harford went on to coach elsewhere, before sadly, dying, only in his later fifties, in August, 2003.
QPR Official Site, September 28, 1998 - RAY HARFORD STEPS DOWN
- Queens Park Rangers FC announced on Monday morning the resignation of Manager Ray Harford following the team's 4-1 defeat at Oxford United on Saturday. Ray felt that at this difficult time it was in the Club's best interests he should step down.
- The Club has appointed player/coach Iain Dowie, who has also been managing the unbeaten Reserve Team, as Caretaker Manager. Dowie will be in charge of the team for tomorrow's game at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and for next Saturday's home match against Grimsby Town.
- The Board intend to advertise the position of manager and will be hoping to interview a short lisst of candidates over the next two weeks. An appointment will be made in due course.
- In the probability of the home game against Ipswich Town on 11th October being postponed due to International duties, the Board will endeavour to have a manager in place by the following game away to Huddersfield town (17th October).
- The Board gave careful consideration to appointing Player/Assistant Manager Vinnie Jones as Manager. The Board decided that it was in the best interests of the Club to formulate a short list of candidates for the position of Manager who will be interviewed in due course. Vinnie will be considered as part of this process.
- A further announcement will be made in due course.
QPR Official Site - September 28th 1998 - HARFORD'S FURIOUS LAST WORDS
- RAY HARFORD certainly didn't mince his words after his last game in charge at Oxford United.
- Ray said:"I thought the performance was pathetic. Without doubt, it was the worst performance I've ever been associated with. It was rank poor in the first half and when we went 2-0 down it was deplorable. There was a lack of heart. It is no coincidence that we've gone a year without winning away from home. I feel awful and very ashamed for the supporters. I've tried different shapes, different methods, different systems and it still hasn't worked. I'm running out of ideas now."
The Independent - September 29,1998 - by Alan Nixon - Harford resigns as QPR manager
- Ray Harford yesterday resigned as manager of troubled Queen's Park Rangers and brought his unhappy reign to an end within in a year.
Harford left after thinking over his future at the weekend following a humbling 4-1 defeat at Oxford United.
- Coach at Blackburn Rovers when they won the title, Harford has had considerable problems at Rangers where he feels that he has been denied transfer funds. The signing of Vinnie Jones was made over his head and lately the fans have turned against the manager and his struggling team. A compensation figure has yet to be agreed, but rather than wait to haggle Harford has decided to leave.
Harford's chance of being given an escape route to Newcastle United disappeared when Kenny Dalglish was sacked a month ago.
- Harford, who left West Bromwich Albion in the middle of last season to join the QPR, has achieved only one victory with the Loftus Road side in nine games this season. The club, second from bottom in the First Division, have appointed Iain Dowie, the Northern Ireland international striker, as caretaker manager. A statement from the club said: "Ray felt at this difficult time it was in the club's best interests he should step down."
QPR Official Site - September 28, 1998 - DOWIE ON NEW POST
- IAIN DOWIE has outlined his hopes for his role as caretaker boss at Rangers. He wants 100% commitment from the players as he aims to improve fortunes on the field of play.
- Iain says:"It's a lovely opportunity for me, but it's tinged with sadness because Ray Harford has decided to step down. Ray spoke to me and wished me all the best, telling me to grab the opportunity with both hands.
- "And that's what I intend to do. I've always wanted to be a football manager. I'd like to get the players here playing here with a smile on their faces. No disrespect to Ray, but the players here need to realise that they need to perform to a much higher level. I certainly won't accept the standard of Saturday's performance at Oxford. I want us to play with a lot more enthusiasm, passion and pride in the shirt. The first thing I said to the players today was that we must have pride in QPR, because it is a very big club.
- "I 'll accept people making honest mistakes, but I won't accept a lack of effort, a lack of commitment to Queens Park Rangers, and a lack of self-belief in wanting to pass the ball. This club has got fanatical supporters and we have got to give those fans some passion on the pitch that they can respond to.
- "It's a case of getting into good habits, building confidence and cajoling. That's my job. I think one of my strengths is that I can man-manage, so the players will understand exactly what I expect them to do.
- "I will set Premeirship standards on the training field and around the club. So hopefully we can start performing to those standards."
Harford's Final Game: Oxford 4 QPR 1
- QPR: Harper, Heinola (Scully 53), Baraclough, Yates, Ready, Maddix, Slade, Peacock, Kulcsar (Sheron 70), Gallen, Murray (Rose 63).
Sporting Life: "Oxford put the 7-0 shocker at Sunderland behind them with their best performance of the season at the Manor Ground to destroy QPR who suffered their fifth consecutive away defeat.
- Because of a lengthy injury list United had to field the same team that lost so heavily at the Stadium of Light last week and they were too skilful for the Londoners from the start.
- Record signing Dean Windass went close after six minutes with a spectacular volley on the turn which just cleared the crossbar. It was created by Joey Beauchamp who went one better 15 minutes later with his first goal of the season.
- He found full-back Simon Marsh in space in the penalty area and his firmly hit shot was too hot for goalkeeper Lee Harper to hold and Beauchamp netted from the rebound.
- Oxford peppered Rangers' goal but they had to wait until the 64th minute for the second which Harper gifted to them.
- He hit a clearance against Andy Thomson and the ball ran to substitute Matt Murphy who rolled it into an empty net from 30 yards.
- Rangers could not contain the home side whose other two goals came in a three-minute spell.
- Paul Powell put Marsh through on the left and his inch-perfect cross was sidefooted in by Thomson for number three and Windass completed the rout with the best goal of the match.
- Powell and Murphy opened the visitors' defence for Windass to cut in from the right and sidefoot past Harper into the far corner of the net.
- Rangers substitute Tony Scully netted a consolation goal a minute from the end.
Teams
Oxford Utd: Whitehead, Robinson, Marsh, Gray, Whelan (Murphy 55), Gilchrist, Powell, Smith (Hill 81), Thomson, Windass (Cook 83), Beauchamp. Goals: Beauchamp 15, Murphy 64, Thomson 72, Windass 75.
QPR: Harper, Heinola (Scully 53), Baraclough, Yates, Ready, Maddix, Slade, Peacock, Kulcsar (Sheron 70), Gallen, Murray (Rose 63). ." Sporting Life
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Lincoln Announce their new manager (Hint: It's not Gareth Ainsworth)
- West Ham and Millwall Charged by FA
- Helguson Injury Update - Watford Observer/Frank Smith - Watford expect Heidar Helguson to miss games against Coventry City and Cardiff City - Saturday 26th September 2009
- Heidar Helguson is expected to miss the Hornets next two league games with the calf injury he picked up against Leicester City last week.
- Helguson had an MRI scan on Wednesday and Watford manager Malky Mackay had hoped the striker could have played during today's 1-1 draw with Reading, but the Scot has confirmed the 32-year-old will have another scan on Monday.
- Mackay said: “We didn't like the reaction we saw this morning and that being the case there will be another scan done on him, so I doubt there will be any chance of Heidar playing this week. Watford Observer
Watford Official Site - HEIDAR UPDATE
Sat 26 Sep 2009 - WATFORD loanee Heidar Helguson will have another scan next week after his calf injury meant he was forced to sit out today's draw with Reading. The Icelandic forward grabbed two goals on his return to Vicarage Road last weekend but he couldn't recover in time for the latest fixture. Speaking after the game, Watford boss Malky Mackay said: "We are going to have another scan. "We didn't like the reaction we saw this morning and that being the case there will be another scan done on him, so I doubt there will be any chance of Heidar playing this week" Watford
- Next: QPR Travel to top-of-the-table Newcastle on Wedneday!
- The ref for this game is R L Shoebridge.
- QPR last played Newcastle in QPR's relegation season of 1995/1996 when Ray Wilkins was QPR manager and Kevin Keegan was at Newcastle with Newcastle's big signing was Les Ferdinand! QPR lost 3-2 at Loftus Road and 2-1 at Newcastle.
- Playing for both teams: Les Ferdinand, Glen Roeder, Kevin Brock, Wayne Fereday, Kenny Sampson, Gavin Peacock, Ian Bennett. Peter Ramage! Managing both teams: Jim Smith
- Past QPR vs Newcastle Results
- Newcastle's 2009/10 Results...Newcastle Squad
- Next game after next: Swansea Away on Saturday
QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports
- The Various QPR Fan Sites Match Reports of QPR vs Barnsley
- Mirror - Rangers Boss Criticizes Adel Taarabt
- Earlier Compilation of QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports and Managerial Comments
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- QPR Youth Defeat Southend
- Briatore NOT in the foremost list of "Meddling Chairmen"
- Bernie Ecclestone Under His Own Pressures
- Ex-QPR, Steffan Moore Turns 26
- Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR "It's a game I really want to win" Planet Swans
- Telegraph/Oliver Brown - Flavio Briatore ordered a Queen's Park Rangers substitution from Kuala Lumpur
- List of even-more-meddling Chairmen than Flavio Briatore (allegedly)
- Briatore/Ecclestone Updates
- Couple of the number of previous "stories" claiming Briatore's deep involvement
- Mail / Rob Draper - Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
FLASHBACKS
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
Four Years Ago... QPR OFFICIAL SITE - 28 September 2005 Statement GIANNI PALADINI
- Gianni Paladini has been appointed Chairman of Queens Park Rangers Football Club and QPR Holdings Ltd.
- Interim Chairman Gualtiero Trucco has stepped down and the Board of Directors have unanimously chosen Paladini to take on the role on a full-time basis.
The changes were agreed at a Loftus Road Board Meeting on Wednesday afternoon and Paladini is delighted by the honour of this 'challenging but exciting' role.
"The Monaco investors have recommended that I be appointed Chairman and I am deeply honoured that the Directors have allowed me this opportunity.
"I hope now that after a period of instability we can all look forward to the brightest of futures at Loftus Road.
"We have a wonderful manager, an exciting and improving squad and a real opportunity to push for a place in the play-offs and even the Premiership.
"I believe these are wonderful times to be a QPR supporter and I just want to play whatever part I can in bringing both success and stability to this Club.
"I fully appreciate that supporters will have been a little bewildered by recent events and I wish that so much of what has happened could have happened differently.
"But I believe we now have the right people in place, both on the pitch and behind the scenes, to take this club forward.
"I would like to thank every single fan for their continued, passionate support for QPR and I would also like to pay tribute to all the staff here.
"Life hasn't been particularly easy for them recently either but every single one continues to work as hard as ever for the benefit of this club.
"It has never been clearer to me that, both in the stands and behind the scenes, this is a wonderful place full of very special people."
Eleven Years Ago..Ray Harford Resigns...Vinnie Jones Passed Over.
- Eleven Years Ago today: Ray Harford resigns as QPR manager after a terrible year in charge. Ian Dowie - rather than Vinnie Jones - took over as caretaker manager. Two weeks later, Gerry Francis was appointed QPR manager. Ray Harford went on to coach elsewhere, before sadly, dying, only in his later fifties, in August, 2003.
QPR Official Site, September 28, 1998 - RAY HARFORD STEPS DOWN
- Queens Park Rangers FC announced on Monday morning the resignation of Manager Ray Harford following the team's 4-1 defeat at Oxford United on Saturday. Ray felt that at this difficult time it was in the Club's best interests he should step down.
- The Club has appointed player/coach Iain Dowie, who has also been managing the unbeaten Reserve Team, as Caretaker Manager. Dowie will be in charge of the team for tomorrow's game at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and for next Saturday's home match against Grimsby Town.
- The Board intend to advertise the position of manager and will be hoping to interview a short lisst of candidates over the next two weeks. An appointment will be made in due course.
- In the probability of the home game against Ipswich Town on 11th October being postponed due to International duties, the Board will endeavour to have a manager in place by the following game away to Huddersfield town (17th October).
- The Board gave careful consideration to appointing Player/Assistant Manager Vinnie Jones as Manager. The Board decided that it was in the best interests of the Club to formulate a short list of candidates for the position of Manager who will be interviewed in due course. Vinnie will be considered as part of this process.
- A further announcement will be made in due course.
QPR Official Site - September 28th 1998 - HARFORD'S FURIOUS LAST WORDS
- RAY HARFORD certainly didn't mince his words after his last game in charge at Oxford United.
- Ray said:"I thought the performance was pathetic. Without doubt, it was the worst performance I've ever been associated with. It was rank poor in the first half and when we went 2-0 down it was deplorable. There was a lack of heart. It is no coincidence that we've gone a year without winning away from home. I feel awful and very ashamed for the supporters. I've tried different shapes, different methods, different systems and it still hasn't worked. I'm running out of ideas now."
The Independent - September 29,1998 - by Alan Nixon - Harford resigns as QPR manager
- Ray Harford yesterday resigned as manager of troubled Queen's Park Rangers and brought his unhappy reign to an end within in a year.
Harford left after thinking over his future at the weekend following a humbling 4-1 defeat at Oxford United.
- Coach at Blackburn Rovers when they won the title, Harford has had considerable problems at Rangers where he feels that he has been denied transfer funds. The signing of Vinnie Jones was made over his head and lately the fans have turned against the manager and his struggling team. A compensation figure has yet to be agreed, but rather than wait to haggle Harford has decided to leave.
Harford's chance of being given an escape route to Newcastle United disappeared when Kenny Dalglish was sacked a month ago.
- Harford, who left West Bromwich Albion in the middle of last season to join the QPR, has achieved only one victory with the Loftus Road side in nine games this season. The club, second from bottom in the First Division, have appointed Iain Dowie, the Northern Ireland international striker, as caretaker manager. A statement from the club said: "Ray felt at this difficult time it was in the club's best interests he should step down."
QPR Official Site - September 28, 1998 - DOWIE ON NEW POST
- IAIN DOWIE has outlined his hopes for his role as caretaker boss at Rangers. He wants 100% commitment from the players as he aims to improve fortunes on the field of play.
- Iain says:"It's a lovely opportunity for me, but it's tinged with sadness because Ray Harford has decided to step down. Ray spoke to me and wished me all the best, telling me to grab the opportunity with both hands.
- "And that's what I intend to do. I've always wanted to be a football manager. I'd like to get the players here playing here with a smile on their faces. No disrespect to Ray, but the players here need to realise that they need to perform to a much higher level. I certainly won't accept the standard of Saturday's performance at Oxford. I want us to play with a lot more enthusiasm, passion and pride in the shirt. The first thing I said to the players today was that we must have pride in QPR, because it is a very big club.
- "I 'll accept people making honest mistakes, but I won't accept a lack of effort, a lack of commitment to Queens Park Rangers, and a lack of self-belief in wanting to pass the ball. This club has got fanatical supporters and we have got to give those fans some passion on the pitch that they can respond to.
- "It's a case of getting into good habits, building confidence and cajoling. That's my job. I think one of my strengths is that I can man-manage, so the players will understand exactly what I expect them to do.
- "I will set Premeirship standards on the training field and around the club. So hopefully we can start performing to those standards."
Harford's Final Game: Oxford 4 QPR 1
- QPR: Harper, Heinola (Scully 53), Baraclough, Yates, Ready, Maddix, Slade, Peacock, Kulcsar (Sheron 70), Gallen, Murray (Rose 63).
Sporting Life: "Oxford put the 7-0 shocker at Sunderland behind them with their best performance of the season at the Manor Ground to destroy QPR who suffered their fifth consecutive away defeat.
- Because of a lengthy injury list United had to field the same team that lost so heavily at the Stadium of Light last week and they were too skilful for the Londoners from the start.
- Record signing Dean Windass went close after six minutes with a spectacular volley on the turn which just cleared the crossbar. It was created by Joey Beauchamp who went one better 15 minutes later with his first goal of the season.
- He found full-back Simon Marsh in space in the penalty area and his firmly hit shot was too hot for goalkeeper Lee Harper to hold and Beauchamp netted from the rebound.
- Oxford peppered Rangers' goal but they had to wait until the 64th minute for the second which Harper gifted to them.
- He hit a clearance against Andy Thomson and the ball ran to substitute Matt Murphy who rolled it into an empty net from 30 yards.
- Rangers could not contain the home side whose other two goals came in a three-minute spell.
- Paul Powell put Marsh through on the left and his inch-perfect cross was sidefooted in by Thomson for number three and Windass completed the rout with the best goal of the match.
- Powell and Murphy opened the visitors' defence for Windass to cut in from the right and sidefoot past Harper into the far corner of the net.
- Rangers substitute Tony Scully netted a consolation goal a minute from the end.
Teams
Oxford Utd: Whitehead, Robinson, Marsh, Gray, Whelan (Murphy 55), Gilchrist, Powell, Smith (Hill 81), Thomson, Windass (Cook 83), Beauchamp. Goals: Beauchamp 15, Murphy 64, Thomson 72, Windass 75.
QPR: Harper, Heinola (Scully 53), Baraclough, Yates, Ready, Maddix, Slade, Peacock, Kulcsar (Sheron 70), Gallen, Murray (Rose 63). ." Sporting Life
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Magilton Criticizes Taarabt
-
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- The Various QPR Fan Sites Match Reports of QPR vs Barnsley
- A Second MRI Scan for Helguson
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- List of even-more-meddling Chairmen than Flavio Briatore (allegedly)
- [Kevin] Gallen Winds Back The Clock With Vintage Show
- Briatore/Ecclestone Updates
- Telegraph/Oliver Brown - Flavio Briatore ordered a Queen's Park Rangers substitution from Kuala Lumpur
- Couple of the number of previous "stories" claiming Briatore's deep involvement
Mirror-: Rangers boss Jim Magilton blasts 'silly boy' Adel Taarabt
- Jim Magilton blasted ’silly boy’ Adel Taarabt after he gestured to home supporters during QPR’s mauling of Barnsley.
- The midfielder, on-loan from Tottenham, was jeered by fans after he squandered a second half chance instead of passing to his team-mates.
- And the sulky 20-year-old reacted furiously by waving his arms in their direction.
- Rangers boss Magilton admitted he was angry with the Morocco international’s attitude.
- He said: “He’s a wonderful footballer and at times he will infuriate everyone like he infuriates me.
- “But he’s very much a prized asset of ours. If he’s reacted he’s been a little bit silly but that’s what you get with talented footballers.
- “They can be a bit headstrong at times. Will I put an arm around him? No, I’ll probably throttle him for not passing!"
- There was no sign of chairman Flavio Briatore at Loftus Road. The disgraced former boss of the Renault F1 team usually loves the limelight but is keeping a low profile.
- And he would have enjoyed the first-half, as Rangers raced to a 3-0 lead.
- Mikele Leigertwood put them ahead in the seventh minute when he raced forward and fired an unstoppable low shot past David Preece.
- On loan Wigan midfielder Ben Watson then set up Akos Buzsaky, who rounded Preece before slotting home.
- The Hungarian added his second in the 39th minute with a wonderful chip from 30-yards that sailed over Preece.
- They were Buzsaky’s first goals since returning from a serious knee operation.
- He added: “It is always special when you score a goal after being out with an injury for such a long time.
- “I am feeling good now and I have won back my place in the team. I cannot wait for the next game.”- Barnsley pulled two goals back after half-time when Steve Foster headed in from Iain Hume’s 50th minute free-kick.
- Damion Stewart then fouled Adam Hammill in the area and while Radek Cerny saved Andy Gray’s spot-kick, the striker tucked home the rebound.
- Watson again took full advantage of Barnsley’s poor defending in the 67th minute when Preece allowed his tame header to squeeze under his body and over the line.
- And on loan Arsenal striker Jay Simpson completed the scoring when he tapped home from Kaspars Gorkss’ header for QPR’s fifth.
- New Barnsley boss Mark Robins is now focused on dragging his side back up the Championship table.
- He added: “I came in and there was no transfer window, so you are working with other clubs to find out which players the managers will let out.
- “I am sure the players we have brought in will turn things around for us. We just need to get them out on the training field. We will find a way of stop shipping these goals.”
- QPR: Cerny, 6; Leigertwood, 7, Gorkss, 7, Stewart, 5, Borrowdale, 6; Routledge, 7, (Faurlin, 69), 6, Watson, 8, Rowlands, 6, Buzsaky, 9; Vine, 6, (Taarabt 70), 6, Simpson, 6, (Pellicori, 79), 6. Subs not used: Heaton, Ramage, Mahon, Ephraim,
- Barnsley: Preece, 4; Doyle, 5, Foster, 5, Shotton, 5, Dickinson, 5; De Silva, 7, Colace, 6, Butterfield, 6, (Kozluk, 58), 6, Hammill, 5; Hume, 6, (Bogdanovic, 60), 6, A. Gray, 5, (Campbell-Ryce, 76), 6. Mirror
- Earlier Compilation of QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports and Managerial Comments
- Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR "It's a game I really want to win" Planet Swans
- Mail / Rob Draper - Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
Also:
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
- Ex-QPR John Delve Turns 56
- Using the term "Yids" in reference to Spurs or Spurs Players
- Flashback II: Antonio Giraudo in the QPR Director's Box
- Flashback: John Gregory talking about Gary Waddock staying...And Ensuing QPR staff changes
- England U-20 Lose
- Colin Todd Axed after Four Months
- League Cup (Carling Cup) Draw Made
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- The Various QPR Fan Sites Match Reports of QPR vs Barnsley
- A Second MRI Scan for Helguson
- Long-time QPR SUPPORTER, Harold Winton Honoured by QPR with Lifetime Achievement Award
- List of even-more-meddling Chairmen than Flavio Briatore (allegedly)
- [Kevin] Gallen Winds Back The Clock With Vintage Show
- Briatore/Ecclestone Updates
- Telegraph/Oliver Brown - Flavio Briatore ordered a Queen's Park Rangers substitution from Kuala Lumpur
- Couple of the number of previous "stories" claiming Briatore's deep involvement
Mirror-: Rangers boss Jim Magilton blasts 'silly boy' Adel Taarabt
- Jim Magilton blasted ’silly boy’ Adel Taarabt after he gestured to home supporters during QPR’s mauling of Barnsley.
- The midfielder, on-loan from Tottenham, was jeered by fans after he squandered a second half chance instead of passing to his team-mates.
- And the sulky 20-year-old reacted furiously by waving his arms in their direction.
- Rangers boss Magilton admitted he was angry with the Morocco international’s attitude.
- He said: “He’s a wonderful footballer and at times he will infuriate everyone like he infuriates me.
- “But he’s very much a prized asset of ours. If he’s reacted he’s been a little bit silly but that’s what you get with talented footballers.
- “They can be a bit headstrong at times. Will I put an arm around him? No, I’ll probably throttle him for not passing!"
- There was no sign of chairman Flavio Briatore at Loftus Road. The disgraced former boss of the Renault F1 team usually loves the limelight but is keeping a low profile.
- And he would have enjoyed the first-half, as Rangers raced to a 3-0 lead.
- Mikele Leigertwood put them ahead in the seventh minute when he raced forward and fired an unstoppable low shot past David Preece.
- On loan Wigan midfielder Ben Watson then set up Akos Buzsaky, who rounded Preece before slotting home.
- The Hungarian added his second in the 39th minute with a wonderful chip from 30-yards that sailed over Preece.
- They were Buzsaky’s first goals since returning from a serious knee operation.
- He added: “It is always special when you score a goal after being out with an injury for such a long time.
- “I am feeling good now and I have won back my place in the team. I cannot wait for the next game.”- Barnsley pulled two goals back after half-time when Steve Foster headed in from Iain Hume’s 50th minute free-kick.
- Damion Stewart then fouled Adam Hammill in the area and while Radek Cerny saved Andy Gray’s spot-kick, the striker tucked home the rebound.
- Watson again took full advantage of Barnsley’s poor defending in the 67th minute when Preece allowed his tame header to squeeze under his body and over the line.
- And on loan Arsenal striker Jay Simpson completed the scoring when he tapped home from Kaspars Gorkss’ header for QPR’s fifth.
- New Barnsley boss Mark Robins is now focused on dragging his side back up the Championship table.
- He added: “I came in and there was no transfer window, so you are working with other clubs to find out which players the managers will let out.
- “I am sure the players we have brought in will turn things around for us. We just need to get them out on the training field. We will find a way of stop shipping these goals.”
- QPR: Cerny, 6; Leigertwood, 7, Gorkss, 7, Stewart, 5, Borrowdale, 6; Routledge, 7, (Faurlin, 69), 6, Watson, 8, Rowlands, 6, Buzsaky, 9; Vine, 6, (Taarabt 70), 6, Simpson, 6, (Pellicori, 79), 6. Subs not used: Heaton, Ramage, Mahon, Ephraim,
- Barnsley: Preece, 4; Doyle, 5, Foster, 5, Shotton, 5, Dickinson, 5; De Silva, 7, Colace, 6, Butterfield, 6, (Kozluk, 58), 6, Hammill, 5; Hume, 6, (Bogdanovic, 60), 6, A. Gray, 5, (Campbell-Ryce, 76), 6. Mirror
- Earlier Compilation of QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports and Managerial Comments
- Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR "It's a game I really want to win" Planet Swans
- Mail / Rob Draper - Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
Also:
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
- Ex-QPR John Delve Turns 56
- Using the term "Yids" in reference to Spurs or Spurs Players
- Flashback II: Antonio Giraudo in the QPR Director's Box
- Flashback: John Gregory talking about Gary Waddock staying...And Ensuing QPR staff changes
- England U-20 Lose
- Colin Todd Axed after Four Months
- League Cup (Carling Cup) Draw Made
The Briatore/QPR Managerial "Revelations"...Sousa Really Wants to Beat QPR...QPR vs Barnsley...Clarke Carlise Recalls His Drinking Problems
-
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- List of even-more-meddling Chairmen than Flavio Briatore (allegedly)
- [Kevin] Gallen Winds Back The Clock With Vintage Show
Telegraph/Oliver Brown - Flavio Briatore ordered a Queen's Park Rangers substitution from Kuala Lumpur
- QPR supporters could be forgiven for not remembering their derby match against Crystal Palace on April 4 this year.
- It was a turgid goalless draw and yet, unbeknown to those in the stands at Loftus Road, something extraordinary was happening as midfielder Lee Cook came on for the home side at half-time to replace Liam Miller.
- Telegraph Sport can disclose that the substitution was made on the direct orders of Flavio Briatore, the QPR chairman and co-owner, working 6,500 miles away at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur.
- Sources close to the west London club have confirmed that the disgraced former Renault team principal, unimpressed by the footage he had seen of Miller's first-half performance, contacted Paulo Sousa, the then team manager, to demand that the 28 year-old be replaced by Cook.
- It would be neither the first time nor the last that Briatore exercised such a remarkable degree of control over selection decisions at QPR.
- Gareth Ainsworth, a stalwart QPR player who has also spent two spells as caretaker manager, had an equally memorable brush with the Briatore treatment.
- Ainsworth was in charge for the club's fourth-round Carling Cup match at Manchester United on Nov 11, 2008, and, in sodden conditions, decided to leave his mobile phone in the dressing room, in his jacket pocket. After a 1-0 defeat he returned to find 72 missed calls from Briatore.
- As insights into Briatore's outlandish methods as a football club owner, these are instructive. The Italian continued to be investigated by the Football League, who were digesting the full details of his order to Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash at last year's Singapore Grand Prix, before deciding whether to apply their fit and proper persons test.
- It is far from certain that Briatore will be removed by the League as a QPR owner since he could not be banned from Formula One directly, having resigned from Renault before last week's FIA hearing in Paris, where a ban was merely recommended.
- Among the conditions of the League's test is that subjects must declare that they have not been banned by a sports governing body from involvement in the administration of that sport, and Briatore could claim that he has not.
- Instead the 59 year-old's extravagant presence remains acutely felt around Loftus Road, even at his time of personal turmoil. Since Nov 2007, when he took over QPR with the joint backing of Bernie Ecclestone, F1's commercial rights holder, and Lakshmi Mittal, the billionaire steel magnate, he has elevated the club's ambitions, reigniting the prospect of a swift return to the Premier League, and presided over some dramatic upheavals.
- Briatore is already on to his fifth manager, in Jim Magilton, while respected and long-serving club officials such as former secretary Sheila Marson have been sacked without so much as a word of explanation. Almost all decisions at QPR are coloured by Briatore's cult of personality, as Sousa, Magilton's predecessor and once a protégé of Jose Mourinho, discovered.
- Sousa was unveiled as manager in Nov 2008 amid great excitement, the photogenic young Portuguese finding himself acclaimed as the Championship's answer to Mourinho; the new 'special one'.
- But he rapidly decided that even though he was technically in charge of the team, he had precious little power. To his chagrin, Briatore would undermine his selections by conveying team line-ups of his own immediately before kick-off.
- Tensions came to a head when Crystal Palace came to Shepherd's Bush, for the match that brought the Miller substitution.
- Dexter Blackstock was at the time QPR's top scorer by some margin and yet it was announced that he would be loaned out to Nottingham Forest, one of the club's main division rivals.
- Sousa, stunned, admitted that the move had been made without his knowledge. It had instead been sanctioned by Briatore, understood to have been affronted by Blackstock's perceived lack of respect.
- Rowan Vine, Blackstock's strike partner, was asked what he thought of the switch. His response was well-documented: "There doesn't seem to be a lot of need to let your top goalscorer go for the last part of the season. It doesn't really make sense." Briatore's reaction, less so: Vine was fined two weeks' wages for speaking out of turn.
- Although Briatore has never been afraid to castigate the QPR players – accounts abound of his running commentaries from the directors' box, muttering oaths about the poor skills on show – he can also be surprisingly comradely.
- In Feb 2008 he stepped into the breach when Luigi De Canio, his first appointment as manager, had to return home to Italy due to a family bereavement. Briatore took over team-talk duties for the home game against Bristol City, telling the team: "You are professionals. We pay you. You know exactly what to do. I want you to go out there and do it. You win, for Gigi. OK, that's all."
- Briatore, who has developed a "love" for QPR, declared upon his arrival that it was mission to provide entertainment and the beautiful game. After De Canio's departure, preposterous rumours circulated that Briatore was poised to install a name as manager that QPR's fans could barely believe: Zinedine Zidane.
- What the fans got, ultimately, was Iain Dowie. With Dowie's unglamorous image and uninspired tactics running counter to his benefactor's template, it did not take long to realise that this was another marriage that could never work.
- "I liked Flavio as a person," said Dowie, fired after just five months in Oct 2008-- "I won 53 per cent of my matches at QPR, so I'm very proud of my record. It's just that Flavio's vision for the club was very different to the one that I had."
- That Briatore has noble ambitions for the club is not in doubt; the question today is whether he can return to bring those to fulfilment, now that he has been found guilty of the most ignoble episode to scandalise motorsport.
- Should the Football League keep him in place, it will require Briatore to do what he loathes most, namely to keep a low profile." Telegraph
- Couple of the number of previous "stories" claiming Briatore's deep involvement
- Briatore/Ecclestone Snippets
Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR
September 27 2009 07:47 by Phil Sumbler/Planet Swans
Paulo Sousa is desperate to get one over his former employers next Saturday at the Liberty
Current meets old next Saturday for Paulo Sousa as he comes face to face with the side who dismissed him last April for 'divulging sensitive information"
And as he celebrated his first home league victory with the Swans against Sheffield United he almost immediately looked beyond Tuesday night at Doncaster and ahead to next Saturday and the chance to get one over on QPR
Sousa said "It's a game I really want to win.
I don't have any regrets from my time at QPR.
"I thought I did a great job there but it did not work out for me. I've already proved what I can do at this level.
"I had a good relationship with the players at QPR and I care about them but my job is to see us start winning games.
"My aim is to build Swansea up and move forward up the league." Planet Swans
Sunday People/Chris Davies - Tyke that! QPR on a high five
QPR 5 Barnsley 2
- Qpr celebrated their first home win of the season with a high five as they battered Barnsley.
- For a spell after the interval it was squeaky bum time at Loftus Road as the Tykes, trailing 3-0 at the break, pulled two goals back.
- But a mistake that will haunt Barnsley goalkeeper David Preece and an own-goal by Stephen Foster put Rangers back on track for three points.
- Once again QPR chairman Flavio Briatore, at the centre of the Renault Crashgate scandal, was absent.
- Rangers sped into an early lead when, in the seventh minute, Mikele Leigertwood took advantage of some generous Barnsley defending.
- Collecting Wayne Routledge's pass, Leigertwood ran 20 yards unchallenged by three Barnsley players and beat Preece with a low right foot shot from 20 yards.
- Then, in the 15th minute, Barnsley's offside trap failed as Ben Watson slipped the ball to Akos Buzsaky, whose angled drive took a slight deflection off Foster.
- Barnsley didn't learn from their mistakes and six minutes from halftime Simpson put Buzsaky clear to make it 3-0 with a magnificent shot from 30 yards which went over Preece's outstretched arms.
- The match seemed to be over as a true contest, but within 11 minutes of the restart Barnsley scored twice.
- In the 51st minute Rangers failed to pick up Foster as he headed in Iain Hume's free-kick. Five minutes later Damien Stewart brought down Adam Hammill and, though Radek Cerny saved Andy Gray's penalty, the Barnsley striker slammed home the rebound.
- Rangers looked a bag of nerves until Preece allowed Watson's scuffed shot in the 66th minute to slip from his grip, with the ball trickling agonisingly over the line.
- Barnsley's misery was completed in the 79th minute when unlucky defender Foster deflected Simpson's shot past Preece.
- Qpr: Cerny 7 - Leigertwood 7, Stewart 6, Gorkss 7, Borrowdale 7 - Routledge 7 (Faurlin, 69mins, 6), Watson 7, Rowlands 6, *BUZSAKY 8 - Vine 7 (Taarabt, 69 mins, 6), Simpson 7 (Pellicori, 79 mins).
- Barnsley: Preece 4 - Doyle 4, Foster 6, Shotton 5, Dickinson 4 - De Silva 6, *COLACE 8, Butterfield 5 (Bogdanovic, 60 mins, 6), Hammill 4 - Hume 6, Gray 6 (Campbell-Ryce, 76 mins). Referee: K. Evans 7. Sunday People
- Earlier Compilation of QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports and Managerial Comments
Mail / Rob Draper - Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
- The turning point for Clarke Carlisle came as he curled up in a corner seat of the team coach as QPR prepared to drive to their overnight stay before a match at Colchester.
- He was hoping no one would smell his breath and manager Ian Holloway would be unaware that he was still drunk from the night before.
- 'It was a Friday morning,' remembers Carlisle. 'I tried to hide on the bus, I didn't talk to anyone and I slumped myself in the corner, but it was blatantly obvious. I knew I'd get my comeuppance if Olly (Holloway) caught wind, which he did. I was half-expecting it, probably.'
- To the fans and staff at Burnley, where Carlisle is the defensive lynchpin in their impressive start in the Premier League, it all seems barely credible. 'He's super, isn't he,' says the receptionist at Turf Moor, expressing a view that each member of staff repeats.
- There is no more popular footballer at the club and yet, six years ago this month, Carlisle was undergoing rehabilitation at the Sporting Chance clinic set up by Tony Adams.
- Despite drinking heavily every night, Carlisle's career had progressed from Blackpool to QPR and on to England Under-21 status. He admits that often an evening out would begin with eight pints of lager before moving on to spirits. Incredibly, he would still be able to train the next day.
- 'It was only when it got to the point that it was virtually every day that it became noticeable,' he says. 'The more I found I could get away with, the more I allowed myself to do.'
- Just the one: Carlisle allowed himself a glass of champagne after Burnley's playoff win secured promotion to the Premier League at the end of last season
- Reaching a recognisable nadir enabled Carlisle to begin the slow climb back to the top. Next month he is 30 and for the first time in his career, which has also taken in Watford and Leeds, he is a regular Premier League defender, a status many who watched him as a teenager assumed he would achieve effortlessly.
He did play for Watford in the Premier League, but only after they had already been relegated, injury keeping him out for most of the season.
- 'This time it's been entirely different,' says Carlisle. 'We toiled all last season to earn the right to play the best teams in the nation and now we're revelling in it. No one can take a victory at home against Manchester United in the Premier League away from me. That's definitely something I will hold dear.'
- Happy on the pitch and settled off it - he is married to Gemma and they have a 22-month-old son, Marley, and Carlisle's 10-year-old daughter, Francesca, from a previous relationship - Carlisle attributes that fateful weekend in September 2003, when Holloway hauled him off the bus and sent him home, as the point at which his recovery began.
- 'The next day my eyes opened to what I was doing to myself and my career,' he says. 'It only takes a minor moment. I was having a pint and watching the results come in that Saturday afternoon and I thought, 'What are you doing, waiting to see the result of your team coming in on TV? You should be playing!' The next day I rang Olly and said, 'I don't know what's going on here, I need help'.'
- Tough assignment: Carlisle marshalls Tottenham's Jermain Defoe
A month of rehabilitation and subsequent counselling allowed him to identify issues in his life which drove him to alcohol. Now he is teetotal and in good company at Burnley. Manager Owen Coyle has never touched alcohol, despite growing up in an era when heavy drinking was almost compulsory at some football clubs.
- 'I only just found out that the gaffer is teetotal,' says Carlisle. 'We've talked about it and what he has seen drinking do to people. It's something he never wants to play with. You can have nothing but respect for that. The man must have had unbelievable drive when he was young, when you're very impressionable.'
- Carlisle is happy now to acknowledge that one of the ironies of his life was that during his period of alcoholism he was hailed as Britain's Brainiest Footballer after answering questions on human biology on a television show.
- 'Intelligence and common sense are two different things,' says Carlisle, who as a boy achieved 10 A-grades at GCSE at Balshaws School in Leyland, Lancashire. His parents, both practising Christians, instilled a strong work ethic in him and they remain an influence.
- 'When you're going through low times you feel very isolated, but when you come out the other side and look back, that's when you see where your help came from,' says Carlisle. 'At times it [Christianity] didn't feel like a source of strength but now I can see that it was.'
- He and his wife became regular churchgoers during their time at Watford and are searching for a church near their new home in Ripponden. He admits that his perspective on his professional and family life has changed.
- 'I came to a point last year where I said to Gemma, 'I'm sick of striving. Instead of looking at what everyone else has got, let's look at what we've got and enjoy it'.
'Now I'm just thoroughly enjoying what's happening and the success that has come with that has been phenomenal. Winning the play-off final was probably the biggest sporting occasion of my life.'
- He even allowed himself just one celebratory drink. 'I had a glass of champagne with everyone at the play-off final,' he says. 'Some alcoholics can't deal with a drop; others are bit more free with how they live their lives afterwards.
- 'The reasons behind that one drink were not the same as my reasons in the past. Before, I'd go out to get obliterated. That's not on the agenda any more.' Mail
Also:
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
- Ex-QPR John Delve Turns 56
- Using the term "Yids" in reference to Spurs or Spurs Players
- Flashback II: Antonio Giraudo in the QPR Director's Box
- Flashback: John Gregory talking about Gary Waddock staying...And Ensuing QPR staff changes
- England U-20 Lose
- Colin Todd Axed after Four Months
- League Cup (Carling Cup) Draw Made
- The cutting-edge QPR Report Messageboard: Visit - even post on - the combination quasi-blog and messageboard for additional up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and occasionally, general football items. Links to items on other QPR boards, always welcome!
- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- List of even-more-meddling Chairmen than Flavio Briatore (allegedly)
- [Kevin] Gallen Winds Back The Clock With Vintage Show
Telegraph/Oliver Brown - Flavio Briatore ordered a Queen's Park Rangers substitution from Kuala Lumpur
- QPR supporters could be forgiven for not remembering their derby match against Crystal Palace on April 4 this year.
- It was a turgid goalless draw and yet, unbeknown to those in the stands at Loftus Road, something extraordinary was happening as midfielder Lee Cook came on for the home side at half-time to replace Liam Miller.
- Telegraph Sport can disclose that the substitution was made on the direct orders of Flavio Briatore, the QPR chairman and co-owner, working 6,500 miles away at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur.
- Sources close to the west London club have confirmed that the disgraced former Renault team principal, unimpressed by the footage he had seen of Miller's first-half performance, contacted Paulo Sousa, the then team manager, to demand that the 28 year-old be replaced by Cook.
- It would be neither the first time nor the last that Briatore exercised such a remarkable degree of control over selection decisions at QPR.
- Gareth Ainsworth, a stalwart QPR player who has also spent two spells as caretaker manager, had an equally memorable brush with the Briatore treatment.
- Ainsworth was in charge for the club's fourth-round Carling Cup match at Manchester United on Nov 11, 2008, and, in sodden conditions, decided to leave his mobile phone in the dressing room, in his jacket pocket. After a 1-0 defeat he returned to find 72 missed calls from Briatore.
- As insights into Briatore's outlandish methods as a football club owner, these are instructive. The Italian continued to be investigated by the Football League, who were digesting the full details of his order to Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash at last year's Singapore Grand Prix, before deciding whether to apply their fit and proper persons test.
- It is far from certain that Briatore will be removed by the League as a QPR owner since he could not be banned from Formula One directly, having resigned from Renault before last week's FIA hearing in Paris, where a ban was merely recommended.
- Among the conditions of the League's test is that subjects must declare that they have not been banned by a sports governing body from involvement in the administration of that sport, and Briatore could claim that he has not.
- Instead the 59 year-old's extravagant presence remains acutely felt around Loftus Road, even at his time of personal turmoil. Since Nov 2007, when he took over QPR with the joint backing of Bernie Ecclestone, F1's commercial rights holder, and Lakshmi Mittal, the billionaire steel magnate, he has elevated the club's ambitions, reigniting the prospect of a swift return to the Premier League, and presided over some dramatic upheavals.
- Briatore is already on to his fifth manager, in Jim Magilton, while respected and long-serving club officials such as former secretary Sheila Marson have been sacked without so much as a word of explanation. Almost all decisions at QPR are coloured by Briatore's cult of personality, as Sousa, Magilton's predecessor and once a protégé of Jose Mourinho, discovered.
- Sousa was unveiled as manager in Nov 2008 amid great excitement, the photogenic young Portuguese finding himself acclaimed as the Championship's answer to Mourinho; the new 'special one'.
- But he rapidly decided that even though he was technically in charge of the team, he had precious little power. To his chagrin, Briatore would undermine his selections by conveying team line-ups of his own immediately before kick-off.
- Tensions came to a head when Crystal Palace came to Shepherd's Bush, for the match that brought the Miller substitution.
- Dexter Blackstock was at the time QPR's top scorer by some margin and yet it was announced that he would be loaned out to Nottingham Forest, one of the club's main division rivals.
- Sousa, stunned, admitted that the move had been made without his knowledge. It had instead been sanctioned by Briatore, understood to have been affronted by Blackstock's perceived lack of respect.
- Rowan Vine, Blackstock's strike partner, was asked what he thought of the switch. His response was well-documented: "There doesn't seem to be a lot of need to let your top goalscorer go for the last part of the season. It doesn't really make sense." Briatore's reaction, less so: Vine was fined two weeks' wages for speaking out of turn.
- Although Briatore has never been afraid to castigate the QPR players – accounts abound of his running commentaries from the directors' box, muttering oaths about the poor skills on show – he can also be surprisingly comradely.
- In Feb 2008 he stepped into the breach when Luigi De Canio, his first appointment as manager, had to return home to Italy due to a family bereavement. Briatore took over team-talk duties for the home game against Bristol City, telling the team: "You are professionals. We pay you. You know exactly what to do. I want you to go out there and do it. You win, for Gigi. OK, that's all."
- Briatore, who has developed a "love" for QPR, declared upon his arrival that it was mission to provide entertainment and the beautiful game. After De Canio's departure, preposterous rumours circulated that Briatore was poised to install a name as manager that QPR's fans could barely believe: Zinedine Zidane.
- What the fans got, ultimately, was Iain Dowie. With Dowie's unglamorous image and uninspired tactics running counter to his benefactor's template, it did not take long to realise that this was another marriage that could never work.
- "I liked Flavio as a person," said Dowie, fired after just five months in Oct 2008-- "I won 53 per cent of my matches at QPR, so I'm very proud of my record. It's just that Flavio's vision for the club was very different to the one that I had."
- That Briatore has noble ambitions for the club is not in doubt; the question today is whether he can return to bring those to fulfilment, now that he has been found guilty of the most ignoble episode to scandalise motorsport.
- Should the Football League keep him in place, it will require Briatore to do what he loathes most, namely to keep a low profile." Telegraph
- Couple of the number of previous "stories" claiming Briatore's deep involvement
- Briatore/Ecclestone Snippets
Sousa Sets His Sights On Victory Over QPR
September 27 2009 07:47 by Phil Sumbler/Planet Swans
Paulo Sousa is desperate to get one over his former employers next Saturday at the Liberty
Current meets old next Saturday for Paulo Sousa as he comes face to face with the side who dismissed him last April for 'divulging sensitive information"
And as he celebrated his first home league victory with the Swans against Sheffield United he almost immediately looked beyond Tuesday night at Doncaster and ahead to next Saturday and the chance to get one over on QPR
Sousa said "It's a game I really want to win.
I don't have any regrets from my time at QPR.
"I thought I did a great job there but it did not work out for me. I've already proved what I can do at this level.
"I had a good relationship with the players at QPR and I care about them but my job is to see us start winning games.
"My aim is to build Swansea up and move forward up the league." Planet Swans
Sunday People/Chris Davies - Tyke that! QPR on a high five
QPR 5 Barnsley 2
- Qpr celebrated their first home win of the season with a high five as they battered Barnsley.
- For a spell after the interval it was squeaky bum time at Loftus Road as the Tykes, trailing 3-0 at the break, pulled two goals back.
- But a mistake that will haunt Barnsley goalkeeper David Preece and an own-goal by Stephen Foster put Rangers back on track for three points.
- Once again QPR chairman Flavio Briatore, at the centre of the Renault Crashgate scandal, was absent.
- Rangers sped into an early lead when, in the seventh minute, Mikele Leigertwood took advantage of some generous Barnsley defending.
- Collecting Wayne Routledge's pass, Leigertwood ran 20 yards unchallenged by three Barnsley players and beat Preece with a low right foot shot from 20 yards.
- Then, in the 15th minute, Barnsley's offside trap failed as Ben Watson slipped the ball to Akos Buzsaky, whose angled drive took a slight deflection off Foster.
- Barnsley didn't learn from their mistakes and six minutes from halftime Simpson put Buzsaky clear to make it 3-0 with a magnificent shot from 30 yards which went over Preece's outstretched arms.
- The match seemed to be over as a true contest, but within 11 minutes of the restart Barnsley scored twice.
- In the 51st minute Rangers failed to pick up Foster as he headed in Iain Hume's free-kick. Five minutes later Damien Stewart brought down Adam Hammill and, though Radek Cerny saved Andy Gray's penalty, the Barnsley striker slammed home the rebound.
- Rangers looked a bag of nerves until Preece allowed Watson's scuffed shot in the 66th minute to slip from his grip, with the ball trickling agonisingly over the line.
- Barnsley's misery was completed in the 79th minute when unlucky defender Foster deflected Simpson's shot past Preece.
- Qpr: Cerny 7 - Leigertwood 7, Stewart 6, Gorkss 7, Borrowdale 7 - Routledge 7 (Faurlin, 69mins, 6), Watson 7, Rowlands 6, *BUZSAKY 8 - Vine 7 (Taarabt, 69 mins, 6), Simpson 7 (Pellicori, 79 mins).
- Barnsley: Preece 4 - Doyle 4, Foster 6, Shotton 5, Dickinson 4 - De Silva 6, *COLACE 8, Butterfield 5 (Bogdanovic, 60 mins, 6), Hammill 4 - Hume 6, Gray 6 (Campbell-Ryce, 76 mins). Referee: K. Evans 7. Sunday People
- Earlier Compilation of QPR vs Barnsley Match Reports and Managerial Comments
Mail / Rob Draper - Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
- The turning point for Clarke Carlisle came as he curled up in a corner seat of the team coach as QPR prepared to drive to their overnight stay before a match at Colchester.
- He was hoping no one would smell his breath and manager Ian Holloway would be unaware that he was still drunk from the night before.
- 'It was a Friday morning,' remembers Carlisle. 'I tried to hide on the bus, I didn't talk to anyone and I slumped myself in the corner, but it was blatantly obvious. I knew I'd get my comeuppance if Olly (Holloway) caught wind, which he did. I was half-expecting it, probably.'
- To the fans and staff at Burnley, where Carlisle is the defensive lynchpin in their impressive start in the Premier League, it all seems barely credible. 'He's super, isn't he,' says the receptionist at Turf Moor, expressing a view that each member of staff repeats.
- There is no more popular footballer at the club and yet, six years ago this month, Carlisle was undergoing rehabilitation at the Sporting Chance clinic set up by Tony Adams.
- Despite drinking heavily every night, Carlisle's career had progressed from Blackpool to QPR and on to England Under-21 status. He admits that often an evening out would begin with eight pints of lager before moving on to spirits. Incredibly, he would still be able to train the next day.
- 'It was only when it got to the point that it was virtually every day that it became noticeable,' he says. 'The more I found I could get away with, the more I allowed myself to do.'
- Just the one: Carlisle allowed himself a glass of champagne after Burnley's playoff win secured promotion to the Premier League at the end of last season
- Reaching a recognisable nadir enabled Carlisle to begin the slow climb back to the top. Next month he is 30 and for the first time in his career, which has also taken in Watford and Leeds, he is a regular Premier League defender, a status many who watched him as a teenager assumed he would achieve effortlessly.
He did play for Watford in the Premier League, but only after they had already been relegated, injury keeping him out for most of the season.
- 'This time it's been entirely different,' says Carlisle. 'We toiled all last season to earn the right to play the best teams in the nation and now we're revelling in it. No one can take a victory at home against Manchester United in the Premier League away from me. That's definitely something I will hold dear.'
- Happy on the pitch and settled off it - he is married to Gemma and they have a 22-month-old son, Marley, and Carlisle's 10-year-old daughter, Francesca, from a previous relationship - Carlisle attributes that fateful weekend in September 2003, when Holloway hauled him off the bus and sent him home, as the point at which his recovery began.
- 'The next day my eyes opened to what I was doing to myself and my career,' he says. 'It only takes a minor moment. I was having a pint and watching the results come in that Saturday afternoon and I thought, 'What are you doing, waiting to see the result of your team coming in on TV? You should be playing!' The next day I rang Olly and said, 'I don't know what's going on here, I need help'.'
- Tough assignment: Carlisle marshalls Tottenham's Jermain Defoe
A month of rehabilitation and subsequent counselling allowed him to identify issues in his life which drove him to alcohol. Now he is teetotal and in good company at Burnley. Manager Owen Coyle has never touched alcohol, despite growing up in an era when heavy drinking was almost compulsory at some football clubs.
- 'I only just found out that the gaffer is teetotal,' says Carlisle. 'We've talked about it and what he has seen drinking do to people. It's something he never wants to play with. You can have nothing but respect for that. The man must have had unbelievable drive when he was young, when you're very impressionable.'
- Carlisle is happy now to acknowledge that one of the ironies of his life was that during his period of alcoholism he was hailed as Britain's Brainiest Footballer after answering questions on human biology on a television show.
- 'Intelligence and common sense are two different things,' says Carlisle, who as a boy achieved 10 A-grades at GCSE at Balshaws School in Leyland, Lancashire. His parents, both practising Christians, instilled a strong work ethic in him and they remain an influence.
- 'When you're going through low times you feel very isolated, but when you come out the other side and look back, that's when you see where your help came from,' says Carlisle. 'At times it [Christianity] didn't feel like a source of strength but now I can see that it was.'
- He and his wife became regular churchgoers during their time at Watford and are searching for a church near their new home in Ripponden. He admits that his perspective on his professional and family life has changed.
- 'I came to a point last year where I said to Gemma, 'I'm sick of striving. Instead of looking at what everyone else has got, let's look at what we've got and enjoy it'.
'Now I'm just thoroughly enjoying what's happening and the success that has come with that has been phenomenal. Winning the play-off final was probably the biggest sporting occasion of my life.'
- He even allowed himself just one celebratory drink. 'I had a glass of champagne with everyone at the play-off final,' he says. 'Some alcoholics can't deal with a drop; others are bit more free with how they live their lives afterwards.
- 'The reasons behind that one drink were not the same as my reasons in the past. Before, I'd go out to get obliterated. That's not on the agenda any more.' Mail
Also:
- The Fourth Official for QPR-Barnsley Twittering before and after the game
- Year Flashback: Newspaper Story re a proposed QPR Name Change - and the Immediate QPR Statement Denying anything to the story.
- Ex-QPR John Delve Turns 56
- Using the term "Yids" in reference to Spurs or Spurs Players
- Flashback II: Antonio Giraudo in the QPR Director's Box
- Flashback: John Gregory talking about Gary Waddock staying...And Ensuing QPR staff changes
- England U-20 Lose
- Colin Todd Axed after Four Months
- League Cup (Carling Cup) Draw Made