- Play "Spot The Ball" - #3
QPR 1929-1930-
Throughout the day, updates, comments and perspectives re QPR and football in general are posted and discussed on the QPR Report Messageboard...Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
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- On This Day in Football: March 2..Ray Drinkwater's Final Game for QPR...Trevor Sinclair Turns 38
- Ned Zelic Assessed
- Marking One Year of Neil Warnock: The Announcement Statements and Assessments a year ago
- Richard Langley to Abderdeen: Update
The Sun/Shaun Custis - QPR in takeover talks
- QPR have entered into takeover talks with a group of American and Asian businessmen.
- SunSport understands the consortium want to acquire 67 per cent of the Championship leaders from the owners, headed by F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone.
- Preliminary agreements have been signed and due diligence is taking place. An agreement could be reached by next week.
- A source said: "They're very serious and have the funds to back them in the Prem." The Sun
UPDATED TABLE
QPR 34 36 67
Swansea 34 18 62
Cardiff 34 17 61
Nott'm F 34 16 59
Norwich 34 12 59
Leeds 34 7 54
Leicestr 34 0 52
Guardian/Rob Bagchi - Football League blog badge
QPR's swashbuckling Adel Taarabt leads ranks of second division Caesars
Neil Warnock has built his Championship title-chasing team around a mercurial No7 and is reaping reward for the decision
Adel Taarabt may wear Queens Park Rangers' No7 shirt but he follows a long line of sublimely-skilled old-fashioned No10s who have graced Loftus Road over the past 45 years. Call them playmakers, fantasistas, attacking midfielders or inside-forwards, but I doubt any supporters have been so blessed as those of the west London club whose glorious memories of Rodney Marsh, Stanley Bowles, Gerry Francis, Tony Currie, an ageing but still inspirational Trevor Francis and Roy Wegerle, have been burnished by the outrageously gifted Moroccan's performances this season.
When signed by Tottenham Hotspur as a 17-year-old four years ago, the Spurs manager, Martin Jol, called him "a wizard", saying, "on the ball I don't think there's another talent like him in England". If that sounds hyperbolic, it was positively downbeat compared to the praise of his agent, Rudy Raba, who set the bar ludicrously high. Raba, of course, earns his money by fluffing his players' egos and talking up their capabilities but even so his assessment that "in France he is considered the new Zidane" took flattery to an absurd extreme.
During Taarabt's brief cameos for Spurs he didn't even look like a team player never mind the second coming of Zidane. He had good control and an array of ball-juggling skills that marked him out as the sort of footballer Ron Atkinson used to call "amusement arcades", all tricks and deft flicks but very little game intelligence or positional awareness. He seemed destined for a career of peripheral self-indulgence, a YouTube showboater and gimmicky solo act who could not integrate his astonishing artistry into a team.
The fans loved him, as they always love those whose skills are unattainable. You could look at Jermaine Jenas, say, and delude yourself into thinking "I could do that". With Taarabt you could never fool yourself that what he can do with the ball is within your reach. But Jenas came much closer to fitting Harry Redknapp's requirements and the overwhelming majority of managers with that option would have made the same judgment.
Last season he was loaned to QPR and signed a long-term deal in the summer. There he has transformed himself from a player whose career seemed to be all about personal glory to one at the heart of the team. He has even been handed the captaincy. He remains mercurial and full of barefaced cheek, but he now lays the ball off at the right time more frequently, takes up clever positions and is cool as you like in front of goal.
And credit here must go to Neil Warnock, who has lightened up considerably since moving to London with Crystal Palace. There was no room for "show ponies" in his earlier gameplans, let alone building a team around a player who can still be inclined to sulk.
Other ball marvels who have had to knuckle down, such as Joe Cole, have appeared sedated, as if curbing instincts has robbed them of their special quality. But Taarabt continues with his dragbacks, Cruyff turns, sidesteps and even unveiled a "rainbow flick" against Reading, where he knocked the ball from his right instep on to his left heel and arced it over his head. When added to his imperious dribbling, crossing, shooting, greater discipline and awareness, his 15 Championship goals and 13 assists, make him the division's outstanding player.
Alec Stock signed Marsh in 1966 from Fulham and faced the same scepticism that Warnock endured at the start of the season, when he persuaded Taarabt to leave Spurs. In his autobiography, A Little Thing Called Pride, Stock remembered the derision his decision brought but there are echoes of the Moroccan's attributes for a team in Stock's explanation of his recruitment policy. "Immediately he [Marsh] had signed there were people in the game who took great delight in telling me what was wrong with our new player," he wrote. "'He's a clown', they said. 'He doesn't like hard work and he isn't consistent.' I wasn't particularly looking for consistency. I wanted style and imagination."
Taarabt brings style and imagination in abundance to Rangers and joins a list of other great Caesars who thrived at second division level, such as Blackpool's Tony Green and Alan Suddick, Port Vale's Ray Walker and Manchester United's Gerry Daly. Green and Daly were equally effective in the First Division, the former's career-ending injury when playing for Newcastle United continues to be lamented at St James' Park, where older fans still talk about his mesmerising dribbling.
The cynics may say wait until Taarabt plays consistently in the Premier League before passing judgment and there are callow, petulant edges to his character that his on-field maturity has not yet eradicated. But the signs are encouraging and QPR supporters know a good thing when they see one. After all they have had the good fortune to witness so many in the past. The Guardian
Enlarged: 1946: Alderman W. H. Church, J.P., L.C.C. on QPR (Thanks as Always to "Bushman")QPR Official Site - GAFFER PREPARES TO OUT-FOX SVEN'S MEN
Posted on: Wed 02 Mar 2011
Neil Warnock believes Rangers face their toughest test of the season to date when in-form Leicester City head to W12 on Saturday afternoon.
Sven Goran Eriksson's men - who have won seven of their ten fixtures since the turn of the year - currently sit just outside the play-off places and the R's gaffer is predicting a tough test against the Foxes.
"Leicester will be our most difficult game of the season," Warnock told www.qpr.co.uk.
"They're absolutely flying at the moment and we're going to have to come up with the right answers to get something from the game."
Warnock added: "We've got 12 matches remaining, six at home and six away, but we'll continue to take one at a time.
"Over the 12 games we've got to strive to be as consistent as everybody else.
"I'm really pleased we've got a full week this week.
"Shittu and Hall have done magnificently, but they'll need a break.
"We've got to be ready for Leicester, and so have the crowd.
"It's looking like it'll be a sell out and our fans need to take the roof off Loftus Road between now and the end of the season."
*To purchase your tickets for the big clash in W12, call the QPR Box Office on 08444 777 007 or click here
http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2304129,00.html
QPR Official Site - BUZSAKY: I'VE MISSED MY SONG!
Akos Buzsaky started his first competitive match in over four months on Saturday, and told www.qpr.co.uk that it was great to be back - because he missed his song!
The fans' favourite, who had been on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury against Norwich in October, is compared to the great Pele in the popular chant and he said: "It has meant a lot to get such support from the fans - I've missed my song! And it's a good song! I think the lads have missed it too because they are always singing it to me at the training ground!
"But it's been really good to feel the support of the fans. And this has been a big driving force for me, to be better and to satisfy them as best I can."
The 28 year-old, who joined QPR from Plymouth Argyle three years ago, admitted he was surprised to find himself in the starting line-up so soon, having only made two substitute appearances since his return to fitness.
"It was unbelievable for me to start the game because I only returned to full training a month ago," he said.
"I know how hard I am working at the training ground and outside, so it is a good feeling for me to know what I am doing is right.
"I do my own work away from the training ground because I realise that with my knee, which has had two operations - the cruciate and the cartilage - I must do a lot of extra work.
"And that is what I am doing, which has paid off already. If I didn't do this extra work, I know I wouldn't be at this stage."
Buzsaky completed 70 minutes at the Riverside, and he added: "I felt good, I felt great. I didn't feel tired when I was out there and I could have played longer, but I know it was right to take me off because we didn't want to risk anything.
"I tried to keep it simple and I tried to do what I could for the team. I knew I wasn't going to be at my best in my first match back but the main thing was to win the game, and hopefully I have done enough to stay in the team."
Back-to-back wins sees Rangers remain five points clear at the top of the table, but Buzsaky says there is no chance of the R's getting complacent as we head into the business end of the season.
"With 12 games to go we are top of the league, and there can't be more pressure than that!" he said.
"Anybody you play against, whether it is Leicester, Cardiff, Sc**thorpe or Doncaster, everyone needs the points at this stage.
"Every match is going to be like a Cup Final for us between now and the end of the season. It's very good to have a winning mentality because it gives you confidence and a good spirit in the dressing room.
"We want to go as far as we can and win as many matches as we can now, so that it puts less pressure on us towards the end of the season."
http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2305090,00.html
QPR Official Site - HULSE NETS HAT-TRICK IN RESSIES WIN
Posted on: Tue 01 Mar 2011
- Rob Hulse scored a hat-trick as QPR Reserves beat their Crystal Palace counterparts 7-2 at Harlington this afternoon.
- The Rangers striker netted all three in the first half and youngster Taylor Parmenter was also on target before the break as the R's went in 4-1 up at the interval.
Youth product Michael Doughty increased the lead further on 58 minutes with a penalty after he himself won the spot-kick following a mazy run into the Eagles area.
Petter Vaagan Moen - who, along with Hogan Ephraim and Radek Cerny, played the full 90 minutes - crashed home the sixth for Rangers from 16 yards following good work by Josh Parker.
While the R's dominated territorially, they saw their advantage reduced on 70 minutes when the Eagles pulled another back after a goalmouth scramble following a corner.
But it was Rangers who had the final say, with substitute Frankie Sutherland grabbing the goal of the game with 15 minutes remaining.
-The midfielder picked the ball up just inside the Palace half and advanced before firing an unstoppable shot from 35 yards, which whistled past the Eagles custodian to cap a fine afternoon's work for Ronnie Jepson's men.
Following the game, Reserve Team Manager Jepson told www.qpr.co.uk: "It was a fine performance. I was really pleased with the attitude and application of players in the side such as Rob, Hogan, Radek and Petter.
"They were a great example for the younger lads in the side.
"It will do Rob no harm at all to get a few goals under his belt like that.
"You've seen in the last couple of games prior to this one, we had Fitz (Hall) and Danny (Shittu) playing, and it just serves to keep them topped up.
"Frankie grabbed a great goal at the end, it was a fine strike. What pleased me most was I just had a chat with him, and he told me he's been practicing them, which is fantastic."
http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/ReserveNews/0,,10373~2305305,00.html
- When Saturday Comes/Andy Ryan - "QPR Take Modern Route to Success"
- Queens Park Rangers have been crowned as Goal.com UK's Team of the Month for February.
- Player of Year Dinner: 150 Tickets Left
Harrow Official Site on Troy Hewitt (Still Not announced by QPR)
"AFC Hornchurch 2-0 Harrow - A changed Harrow side, missing striker Troy Hewitt who signed for Queens Park Rangers, as well the injured Ryan Watts and the ill David Ijaha, went down to a goal in each half at AFC Hornchurch." Harrow
- June 2011 "race for Life, Herne Bay): "Neil Roberts Dying Wish for More Runners"
- Caliendo Payday? (Unless already paid) "A £2,000,000 interest free loan owing to Mr. A Caliendo is repayabale on 28 February 2011 and redeemable at any time prior to that date at the sole discretion of QPR..." QPR Annual Report, July 2009
- Pre-Season Championship Previews/Predictions
