QPR Report Twitter Feed

Sunday, July 31, 2011

QPR Report Monday Update: Week of Takeover, Squad Numbers, Signings and Open Day?....Italy Video...Five Year Flashback: Chairman Paladini

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-- Play "SPOT THE BALL!"
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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general....Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
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- The Latest "Football Rich List" (QPR no longer #1)

- Bullard Reportedly told by Hull Not to Return

- Next: Crawley Town vs QPR - Ticket Information

- Flashback to June QPR Official Site: "Plans are already afoot for a pre-season celebration, once the players return to training in July" - QPR

- Three Year Flashback: Lee Cook Returns and The New QPR: The New QPR: Evolution Not Revolution - Views of Ian Dowie, Stan Bowles and Ali Russell

- Previews/Predictions for 2011/12 CHAMPIONSHIP!

- April Flashback: Routledge to QPR on a Free!

- Italy Match Fixing Claims from Atalanta

- QPR only one of three or four Premiership clubs NOT playing in the Premiership League. (Norwich, Swansea, Wigan. Wolves. WBA. Bolton. Blackburn. Aston VIlla. Sunderland. Liverpool. Everton. Chelsea. Fulham. Arsenal. Man Ut. Newcastle all are.
(Spurs, Manchester City, QPR are not) - League


Sami Mokbel/Daily Mail - Warnock set to inherit transfer war chest with takeover looming
- Air Tycoon Tony Fernandes is preparing to hand Queens Park Rangers manager Neil Warnock a transfer fund of £10million as he looks to finalise his takeover plans.
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Sportsmail exclusively revealed how the Malaysian-businessman held talks with QPR co-owner Bernie Ecclestone and his business partner Flavio Briatore over purchasing a majority stake in the Barclays Premier League new-boys.
- And Fernandes’ interest in the Loftus Road club was evident when the millionaire businessman joined Briatore on a whistlestop visit to Bergamo, Italy, to watch the West London club win the three-team Bortolotti Trofeo tournament, which also included Atalanta and Braga.
- The 47-year-old, who is also team-principle for Formula One outfit Team Lotus, flew to Italy from Budapest after Saturday’s qualifying session for the Hungary Grand Prix, before returning on Sunday morning for the race itself.
And Sportsmail has learned discussions over Fernandes’ proposed buy-out are at a ‘highly advanced’ stage and he is hopeful of being on board by the start of the new season.
- Fernandes and Warnock met briefly after the tournament as the QPR boss looked to strike a relationship he hopes will bring the job stability he craves after months of speculation over his role.
- And West Ham supporter Fernandes is ready to back Warnock in a show of support for the experienced manager.
- Warnock told Sportsmail: ‘Myself, Flavio [Briatore] and Tony all had a positive chat after the match on Saturday.
- ‘We’ve already spoken about possible targets and he is a very positive chap.’
Warnock has been restricted to free transfers this summer, with Jay Bothroyd, Daniel Gabbidon and Kieron Dyer all arriving for nothing.
- The Loftus Road chief will continue that trend this week by completing free transfer moves for former Ipswich goalkeeper Brian Murphy and ex-Portsmouth striker Danny Webber.
- But Fernandes’ investment will give Warnock the chance to spend some money for the first time this summer.
- Having missed out on Kyle Naughton to Norwich, a new right-back remain one of Warnock’s top priorities with Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha high on his hitlist.
- Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas is liked by Warnock, as is Jimmy Bullard - whose future at Hull is shrouded in doubt after he was suspended by the Tigers last week.
Warnock hopes to complete his first cash deal today when he holds talks with striker - DJ Campbell after QPR met Blackpool’s £1.25million release clause for the striker. Daily Mail

QPR Triumph in Italy

- New Video From Italy Games



-QPR Win in Italy! Photos from "QPR, Atalanta, SC Braga - Trofeo Bortolotti"

- QPR Win in Italy! Photos of QPR and Flavio Briatore - from "QPR, Atalanta, SC Braga - Trofeo Bortolotti"


- Additional Photos from Atalanta Including Taarabt with TROPHY!


- Photo of Team with Trophy (Including Past, Present and Future? Owners)


- Video of Trophy Presentation (posted by Devon Park Ranger)

- QPR Official Site - WARNOCK: 'A NICE HABIT TO BE IN'

- QPR Official Site - TOUR BLOG: PART VI

- MATCH 2 - QPR Official Site -R'S WIN TROFEO BARTOLOTTI


Flashback Five Years: Gianni Paladini's QPR Official Statement re Training Ground and "Campaign Against QPR" Five Year Flashback: Chairman Paladini Denies and Denounces

"...It is frustrating that, despite all the hard work everyone has been doing during pre-season, a tiny minority of people seem intent on damaging team morale and destroying the Club in the run up to our important first game..."
"...The latest is the absurd rumour suggested on a message board that the players were locked out of the Harlington training ground, when in fact Gary Waddock had just given them the day off as they had only recently arrived back from a busy schedule in Italy...."
"...The Club is in a better financial position than it has been in for a number of years. Things are still tough, but we have reduced the annual debt by millions and intend to reduce it further. Yet ridiculous rumours still seem to be invented by a few people for reasons beyond me...
"QPR fans will ask themselves why should people invent such rumours? The purpose can only be to destabilise the Club and to injure the morale of players and fans just days before the season kicks off. The Club will not allow another season to be derailed by these people....We will not allow a tiny group of people, driven by an agenda that has nothing to do with football, to destroy this Club...."
"For the last time I say to those who's criticism of the Board has developed into an agenda to undermine the Club, if you know of a better alternative to take QPR forward with the necessary funding to support it, then please let us know. Otherwise stop pursuing a divisive and destructive agenda. The Board, the players and staff and the thousands of fans of QPR will not allow a small selfish group to ruin the season for the rest of us...." QPR Statement


- Three Year Flashback: Parejo and Gorkss Join QPR

- AFC Wimbledon's Odyssey

- COMPLETE WORLD CUP DRAW

- Bushman's Photos from 1959-1960 Season

- VIDEO re "Inside QPR" - Looks to be a Truly Riveting Video 'Four Year Plan'

- Parliamentary Committee Issues Report Calling for stronger FA, Control over Club Ownership and stronger, implemented "Fit and Proper" Rule, and So Forth

- Year Flashback: Nobody Else Wants Him so Taarabt Open to QPR

- Two Year Flashback: Alessandro Pellicori Joins Queen's Park Rangers

SQUAD NUMBERS FORTHCOMING QPR's Ian Taylor: "For all those asking ... We're expecting to announce the #QPR squad numbers early next week" http://twitter.com/IJTaylor81

- Guide to Football Grounds... Guide to Loftus Road

- Four Year Flashback: "QPR Chief Paladini to Sell Up"

- UDPATED: Europe's Top Clubs Threaten Revolt. Fan Reaction

- FA Reportedly Given Year to Reform or Else Legislation

- Flashback: The 1959/1960 Season

- A Statistical Guide to Points Needed to Stay Up

- Premiership Relegation Odds

- An Early Preview of QPR vs Bolton

- Premiership Rules re Kits

- VANISHED WITHOUT NOTICE! The Club's Official Messageboard

- Still No QPR Offical Site Update re the Status of the Official Supporters Club (OSC). Despite Committee Resignations.

- Home Ticket Price Information


QPR's Remaining Pre-season Games
- Tuesday 2nd August - Crawley Town (a) 7.45pm
- Friday August 5 - Luton (A)
QPR

QPR Report Sunday: QPR Win Tournament: Flavio Briatore Very Much Present!...Aston Villa Try to "Steal" Campbell: QPR Talks on Tuesday...QPR "Billions"

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- --- QPR Win in Italy! Photos from "QPR, Atalanta, SC Braga - Trofeo Bortolotti"

- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general....Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
_____________________________________________________________________________________

- Three Year Flashback: Parejo and Gorkss Join QPR

- AFC Wimbledon's Odyssey

- Next: Crawley Town vs QPR - Ticket Information

2014 WORLD CUP DRAW
• Group H: England, Ukraine, Montenegro, Poland, Moldova, San Marino
• Group A: Scotland, Wales, Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Macedonia
• Group F: Northern Ireland, Portugal, Russia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg
• Group C: Republic of Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan - World Cup Draw - COMPLETE WORLD CUP DRAW


Mirror - Villa keen to hijack QPR move for Blackpool striker
- A full version of this story appears in today's People. Read it online at People.co.uk
- Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish is trying to beat QPR to the signing of DJ Campbell – marking a sentimental return for the Blackpool striker.
- The Seasiders have agreed a £1.25million fee for Campbell with Neil Warnock’s Premier League newcomers.
- But Hotline can reveal that Villa’s new boss believes he is leading the race for the 29-year-old forward. Mirror


QPR WIN in Atalanta!

- Additional Photos from Atalanta Including TROPHY!

- Photo of Team with Trophy (Including Past, Present and Future? Owners)


- Video of Trophy Presentation (posted by Devon Park Ranger)


QPR Official Site - WARNOCK: 'A NICE HABIT TO BE IN'

Posted on: Sun 31 Jul 2011

Neil Warnock was all smiles as QPR clinched the Trofeo Bartolotti in Italy on Saturday night.

Rangers opened the three-team tournament with a 1-0 win over SC Braga, before going on to enjoy a 3-2 spot-kick victory against hosts Atalanta, after the match finished 1-1.

A delighted Warnock told www.qpr.co.uk: "We were the underdogs, but we've come away with the trophy, so it's a nice habit to be in.

"They were two good games against two good teams.

"It was a very worthwhile exercise."

Warnock added: "We stuck at it against two very good sides.

"We're very difficult to break down and that's a great quality to have.

"To come away conceding just the one goal is hugely positive for us and I thought we thoroughly deserved to win the tournament in the end."
http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/TheGaffer/0,,10373~2406170,00.html


MATCH 2 - QPR Official Site -R'S WIN TROFEO BARTOLOTTI
Posted on: Sat 30 Jul 2011

QPR clinched the Trofeo Bartolotti in Italy tonight (Saturday).

After beating Portuguese side SC Braga 1-0 earlier in the evenings thanks to Jay Bothroyd's goal, Rangers shared the spoils with Atalanta in their final fixture - before triumphing 3-2 on penalty kicks.

Ali Faurlin gave Rangers a 21st minute lead, only for Padoin to equalise six minutes later.

Jay Bothroyd, Adel Taarabt and Bradley Orr all scored from the spot, whilst trialist Brian Murphy saved one spot kick.

Neil Warnock made wholesale changes for the second fixture against the Italians.

Trialist Brian Murphy started in goal, behind a back four of Matt Connolly, Fitz Hall, Danny Gabbidon and Kieron Dyer.

Faurlin and Shaun Derry sat deep in midfield, with Akos Buzsaky, Tommy Smith and Taarabt supporting lone front-man Patrick Agyemang.

Rangers began on the front foot, with Taarabt's deflected strike squirming wide in the opening five minutes.

Play soon switched to the other end and former Ipswich Town custodian Murphy did his chances of earning a contract no harm whatsoever with a stunning save to keep out Ardemagni's stooping header.

Buoyed by that excellent stop, the R's were soon a goal to the good on 21 minutes.

After Agyemang was sent tumbling 30 yards from goal, Taarabt curled a delicious cross into the penalty box and the unmarked Faurlin finished with aplomb from eight yards out.

Rangers looked comfortably, but the hosts - buoyed by a partisan home crowd - drew level in the 27th minute.

After the R's failed to clear their lines, a cross from the left by-line was smashed home by Padoin to bring the Serie A side level.

Both sides - to their credit - pushed for a late winner, but it wasn't forthcoming, as honours ended even and the match went to penalty kicks.

Bothroyd, Taarabt and Orr all scored from 12-yards, as Rangers ran out 3-2 winners.

Atalanta: Frezzolini, Capelli, Manfredini, Schelotto (Radovanovic 7), Peluso, Caseta, Padoin, Pettinari, Ferri, Ardemagni, Marilungo.

Subs: Facheris, Lucchini, Bonaventura, Masiello, Gabbiadini, Zappacosta, Kone, Suagher, Raimondi, Minotti, Tiribocchi.

QPR: Trialist, Connolly, Gabbidon (Trialist 7), Hall, Dyer (Orr 34), Faurlin (Gorkss 39), Buzsaky, Taarabt, Smith (Vaagan-Moen 34), Derry (Bothroyd 45), Agyemang (Ephraim 45).

Subs: Kenny, Hill. QPR

MATCH I: QPR Official Site - QPR 1, BRAGA 0Posted on: Sat 30 Jul 2011

Jay Bothroyd's first goal in QPR colours handed Neil Warnock's men an opening victory in the Trofeo Bartolotti.

Bothroyd - who used to ply his trade in Italy for Perugia - bagged the only goal of the opening 45 minute match of the tournament, firing home on 19 minutes.

Adel Taarabt and Bradley Orr were heavily involved in the goal, with the latter's pin-point centre leaving the former Cardiff City front-man with the simplest of finishes from the edge of the six-yard box.

The victory means QPR will now play hosts Atalanta at 10.00pm local time in game three of the three match tournament.

Neil Warnock named a strong side against last season's Europa League finalists.

Paddy Kenny lined up in goal, with the R's back four comprising of Orr, Danny Gabbidon, Matt Connolly and Clint Hill.

Kieron Dyer partnered Ali Faurlin in midfield, with skipper Taarabt, Tommy Smith and Hogan Ephraim providing the support for Bothroyd in attack.

After a slow start, it was Braga who fashioned the first chance of note in the seventh minute.

Left-back Vincius galloped down the flank, before firing a curled effort on target which Kenny did well to smother.

But it was Rangers who took the lead on 19 minutes - and what a goal it was too!

Taarabt's pinpoint cross-field pass found the roaming Orr and when he opted to cushion a first time volley across the face of the six-yard box, Bothroyd fired the R's in front from close range.

Braga should've been level moments later, but Lima - with the goal at his mercy - skewed the ball wide from ten yards, when it appeared easier to score.

Rangers were forced into a change on 31 minutes, with Akos Buzsaky replacing Ephraim, who appeared to have sustained a facial injury.

With the local Atalanta fans in full voice ahead of their side's opening match, the R's - despite Kenny being forced to tip over a goal-bound header - comfortably saw out the last few minutes to register a noteworthy victory.

QPR: Kenny, Orr, Hill, Dyer, Connolly, Gabbidon, Taarabt, Ephraim (Buzsaky 31), Bothroyd, Smith, Faurlin.

Subs: Trialist, Gorkss, Hall, Trialist, Buzsaky, Derry, Vaagan-Moen, Agyemang.

Braga: Quim, Coelho, Ewerton, Baiano, Lima (Meyong 27), Djamal (Barbosa 39), P Vinicius (Galo 27), Luis, Alan, Pizzi, Viana.

Subs: Marcos, Vinicius, Mossoro, Cesar, Henrique, Gomes, Imorou, Salino. QPR


QPR - TOUR BLOG: PART VI

Posted on: Sun 31 Jul 2011

After last night's success in the Trofeo Bartolotti in Bergamo, the R's players will enjoy a well-deserved rest day today.

With the QPR coach not pulling up to the Palace Hotel in Milano Marittima until around 4.00am this morning, Neil Warnock opted to give his whole squad the day off ahead of tomorrow's lunchtime flight back to Gatwick.

Last night's victory in the prestigious pre-season tournament in Atalanta owed as much to our quality, as it did to our determination and doggedness.

Time and time again both SC Braga and Atalanta struggled to break us down, which only goes to show that the shape and formation work that the R's have been focusing on in training is working wonders to date.

One attack after another was repelled by the R's defensive unit, with Matt Connolly amongst the most impressive performers in the defensive third last night.

At the other end of the pitch, it was great to see Jay Bothroyd score his goal since his summer switch, whilst Ali Faurlin appears to be going from strength to strength in QPR colours, with another couple of expert performances and a goal to boot.

Trialist Brian Murphy looks like he might have done enough to earn a contract, with the gaffer revealing he expects to sit down with the player early next week.

Not only is 'Murph' a decent keeper, but he already looks at home amongst his fellow professionals, often at the centre of the non-stop banter on this pre-season trip.

All in all, it's been another tour to remember, with the big Barclays Premier League kick-off now just less than two weeks away.

Oh, and there's also the small matter of DJ Campbell. The gaffer is hoping to sit down with him on Tuesday, after the R's had a bid accepted for the Blackpool striker earlier this week.
Arriverderci from Italy … QPR


DAILY MAIL/Adrian Deevoy - The 20 billion reasons why QPR should be the next champions of the Premier League

When the struggling west London club was taken over by three super-rich entrepreneurs with a combined wealth of £20 billion – double that of Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich – QPR fans thought their dreams had come true. So why, after finally making it into the Premier League, are the Hoops still living on the breadline?

Neil Warnock glares at the horizontal rain. It came up from Cornwall and is moving east across Devon and onto Dartmoor. He’s got a lot on his mind. It’s a good job his team are winning 11-0 with ten minutes to go.
‘We only need a dozen!’ chime an optimistic faction of the 800-strong Tavistock faithful, who have turned out for this evening’s pre-season friendly with newly anointed Premier League hopefuls Queens Park Rangers.
Their spirited Tavistock first team – ‘The Lambs’, South Western Peninsula League stalwarts – bluster and kick a bit of expensive shin but they’re no Corinthians. The pitch is getting heavy, but nowhere near as heavy as their legs.
And the visitors look pretty good, fit as a butcher’s dog and hard as nails. Not the pampered west London pretty boys the newspapers would have you believe.
An elderly spectator, who has been treating us all to vivid physical descriptions of the QPR players (‘That goalie’s been at the pasties’), is momentarily lost for words when ‘Big’ Danny Shittu, the Nigerian centre-back who rejoined the club earlier this year from Bolton Wanderers, comes on. In an accent broader than the Tamar, he finally finds an appropriate simile.
‘He’s the size of a… chapel!’ he decides.
QPR won 13-0 in the end. The Lambs were slaughtered. But Warnock won’t rest easy.
Playing in the Premier League is going to be hard but he hopes to avoid anything like the shoe-ing his team just gave Tavistock. Yet he remains positively serene.
‘Bloody rain,’ he says, grinning. ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’

For their pre-season tours Manchester United went to the States, Arsenal’s warm-up jaunt triggered boy band mayhem in Malaysia (where even manager Arsène Wenger was manhandled by fans), and Chelsea-mania took hold in Thailand. Meanwhile, QPR attend a glorified village fete in a sodden corner of England. It’s all rather poignant.

On paper, QPR are one of the wealthiest football clubs in Britain, if not the world. They are owned by F1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone and former Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore. Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in the UK, has a 20 per cent stake.
Yet, as a significant chapter in QPR’s history unfolds, and they prepare to return to the top flight for the first time in 15 years, the big money doesn’t seem to have arrived.
Despite the billions stuffed into their owners’ bulging bank accounts, the club has been left financially floundering. The ‘boutique’ football experience the fans were promised at their ground just three and a half miles from Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea has not happened.
Ecclestone and Briatore may own a London football club but their heart – and their money – is in motor racing, and they prefer to spend their time in Monte Carlo rather than Shepherd’s Bush.
Not that either are strangers to the real world. Ecclestone was born into a poor family, started out in business selling second-hand cars and ended up a billionaire (£2.5 billion at the last count) as the circus master and owner of Formula 1. Former restaurant manager Briatore made his estimated £70 million in fashion, nightclubs, motorboats and F1.
Ecclestone and Briatore now inhabit the world of the haves and the have-yachts. They date supermodels. Briatore famously stepped out with Naomi Campbell, sired Heidi Klum’s first child and is now married to Wonderbra wrangler Elisabetta Gregoraci, with whom he has a young son.

Ecclestone’s ex-wife Slavica, mother to his two daughters, Tamara and Petra, was the face and body of Armani.
Ecclestone doesn’t just own a private jet, he owns Biggin Hill airport. He has been known to carry around £100,000 in cash, in a carrier bag, which he once forgot at a meeting in Geneva. Both men wear tinted glasses all the time. And nobody laughs at them. That’s rich.

But since QPR won promotion to the Premier League in May, their high-rolling owners have kept a conspicuously low profile in the football world.
They have hardly lavished money upon the club. In fact, they’ve become almost coy with their cash. This, however, is not an issue they wish to discuss.
‘The idea of ploughing in millions to buy success is not my way of doing things,’ is all Ecclestone will say.
An estimated £55 million in television payments and sponsorship deals will drop into the QPR coffers over the next two years, but no one is guaranteeing that this will filter down to the club, the fans and the future.
In the same week that Warnock was told he would have a meagre £1.25 million budget with which to build a squad that could survive in the Premier League, Ecclestone’s youngest daughter Petra was coolly completing on the most expensive house in Hollywood.
Cost including refurbishment is said to be close to £55 million. (In celebratory mood, Daddy offered the Black Eyed Peas £1 million to play at Petra’s wedding in August. Unsurprisingly, they accepted.)

But busy as Bernie has been with pit politics and property portfolios, the bonsai businessman has still found time to briefly consider, then reject, a buy-out bid for QPR. The offer came from Lakshmi Mittal, the man Ecclestone pointedly calls QPR’s ‘minority shareholder’. But that might just be jealousy talking. Mittal is Britain’s wealthiest man with a fortune over £17.5 billion.

Mittal already owned a slice of the QPR pie, but hungry for more he tabled what he felt was an attractive figure for the Hoops, somewhere around £30 million.
‘Insultingly low,’ was Ecclestone’s response. He is believed to value the club at over £100 million.
And so commenced a battle of wills between two of Europe’s most powerful men.
Now only a fool would confuse the personal wealth of these bartering billionaires – worth in the region of £17.7 billion between them – with the capital they invest in their various businesses.
But it raises a question that QPR supporters must endure on an almost daily basis. How come the richest club on Earth can’t afford a bigger ground, a Premier League-proven centre forward or even a new kit?

Just three weeks before their first Premier League game, QPR had yet to find a sponsor. They were forced to play one friendly sporting old shirts with the previous backer’s name blacked out with gaffer tape. You would think that, considering the business dealings of the club’s owners, securing sponsorship would only involve opening a contacts book and picking a name.
As it stands, QPR can look forward to a season on the most slender of budgets with one of the weaker teams in the league, and with the smallest ground.
Admittedly, some money has been spent on QPR’s 18,000-seater mini-stadium: the television gantry has been extended to accommodate upwards of 30 cameras, and a luxury media suite has been built. But the gloomy players’ facilities were presumably deemed unimprovable, and whether or not Loftus Road’s lamentable lack of leg-room and out-dated toilet facilities were up for reappraisal is unknown. So what’s gone wrong?

Has Mittal lost his taste for the game since the takeover knock-back? Are Ecclestone, a Chelsea fan, and his Juventus-supporting sidekick even interested in QPR any more? Were they ever?
It could be argued that without the intervention of Ecclestone and Briatore, and latterly Mittal, there might be no QPR at all. Had the three wise men not appeared before Christmas 2007 bearing their gift of gold, the club would have gone under.
Shortly after they stepped in, fans were all but kissing Briatore’s boots. But times have changed, paranoia has set in and, in many QPR minds, the saviours have become the saboteurs.
Some suspect that the club has been bought as a rich man’s plaything to be polished up and flogged off for a substantial profit.

When I asked Briatore about his plans for the club in 2008 he said: ‘You cannot make difficult decisions purely with the heart. We have to take it slowly. I don’t want to go up to the Premier League and come straight down again like an elevator. Little by little, that’s the way to become a protagonist in English football.’

He went on to outline his plan to get QPR promoted into the Premier League within three years and established as a successful brand thereafter. And that’s precisely what has happened. Granted, until they snared Warnock, managers were on brisk rotation – five in a year – but Briatore’s three-year plan has ultimately worked.
But football fans love to moan and QPR do it better than most. The club have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory so frequently it has become a Rangers’ mantra that if it weren’t for bad luck, they would have no luck at all.
Even last season’s promotion to the Premier League was soured by the possibility of a last-minute points deduction from the FA following a well-documented fandango surrounding the signing of Argentine midfielder Alejandro Faurlin in 2009.
At the heart of this dispute was QPR’s chairman Gianni Paladini, an amiable fellow with the demeanour of a Neapolitan used-scooter salesman, whose role at QPR is difficult to define. Paladini hasn’t endeared himself to fans by apparently luring unexceptional Italian journeymen to Loftus Road. These players are referred to, by the QPR cognescenti, as Gianni’s Salami Selection as there is often a high ‘donkey’ content.
But QPR did not receive the deduction over Faurlin and were promoted to the Premier League. Strangers hugged on Uxbridge Road as the news broke – just two hours before kick-off – that Rangers could play their final game and lift the Championship trophy unfettered by the all-too-familiar feeling of crushing anti-climax.

Their promotion has been warmly greeted by local businesses, as they stand to benefit by £700,000 a year from passing Premier League trade.
‘It can only be a good thing,’ says Christine Connell, manager of the Crown and Sceptre in Shepherd’s Bush.
‘If the visitors are respectful then they are most welcome,’ adds Mr Akhtar of Lahori Restaurant, Uxbridge Road.
‘If we all become as rich as Bernie, then so be it.’

But for fans the post-promotion euphoria was brief.
‘The thing about being a QPR fan is you’re not happy very often, and when you are it doesn’t last for long,’ says Clive Whittingham of the QPR fansite loftforwords.
‘At the moment it feels a bit like being sent in to fight lions armed only with toothpicks and charged £760 for the privilege.’

As if a 40 per cent hike in season ticket prices didn’t upset the QPR lifers, then announcing some of the highest ticket prices in the country did.

When last year’s £25 seat leapt to nearer £60, a sizable percentage of supporters put their hands up and conceded that they simply couldn’t afford it any more.
In the absence of any official word, the QPR rumour-mill has gone into overdrive. Gossip is rife: Adel Taarabt, the team’s mercurial Moroccan talisman, has been sold to Paris St Germain for £15 million; Warnock wants to resign but is holding out for a pay-off; Mittal will come back with a better offer and all will be milk and honey.
Throughout all of this, Warnock has remained tight-lipped.
‘If I were a younger man,’ says the 62-year-old, negotiating a narrow Cornish country lane.
‘I’d be tearing my hair out by now, because I really don’t know what’s going on and there’s only two-and-a-bit weeks to go until the Bolton game.
‘I don’t know if they’re selling the club,’ he adds.
‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to sign any more players. I don’t know what the owners are doing. I don’t know what’s happening with Adel (Taarabt).’
His eyes crinkle when the talk turns to the Moroccan star.
‘I’ve been too soft on the lad, I know,’ he concedes.
‘But I do like him a lot and I’ll be very sad to see him go.’
Sad? You’ve built an entire team around him; the season is about to start and you don’t know if he still plays for you or not.
‘Ridiculous, isn’t it?’ Warnock sighs. ‘But Flavio is dealing with Adel’s move.
'If it happens, I’d love to have kept him until Christmas.’
So Briatore doesn’t keep you in the picture?
‘I go through Gio (Paladini) really,’ he shrugs.
‘But he speaks to Flavio about 300 times a day in Italian. God knows what they’re talking about.’
And yet, amid the tumult, Warnock comes across as super-humanly calm.
‘No one is going to stop me enjoying this,’ he says.
‘I’m excited. It’s taken me a while – more than five years – to get back up there and I’m going to have the time of my life.’
By bizarre coincidence, a news item has come on the car radio. Something about Ecclestone salting away a few million in Europe.
‘Well, I haven’t got it,’ laughs Warnock.
‘If there’s one man who definitely hasn’t got Bernie Ecclestone’s money, it’s me!’ Daily Mail


- Bushman's Photos from 1959-1960 Season

- VIDEO re "Inside QPR" - Looks to be a Truly Riveting Video 'Four Year Plan'

- Parliamentary Committee Issues Report Calling for stronger FA, Control over Club Ownership and stronger, implemented "Fit and Proper" Rule, and So Forth

- Year Flashback: Nobody Else Wants Him so Taarabt Open to QPR

- Two Year Flashback: Alessandro Pellicori Joins Queen's Park Rangers

SQUAD NUMBERS FORTHCOMING QPR's Ian Taylor: "For all those asking ... We're expecting to announce the #QPR squad numbers early next week" http://twitter.com/IJTaylor81

- Guide to Football Grounds... Guide to Loftus Road

- QPR XI Beat Buckland Athletic

- Cesena-QPR Reports, Photos, Videos

- World Cup Qualifiers: India Knocked out

- USA Axe Coach Bob Bradley

- Four Year Flashback: "QPR Chief Paladini to Sell Up"

- UDPATED: Europe's Top Clubs Threaten Revolt. Fan Reaction

- FA Reportedly Given Year to Reform or Else Legislation

- Flashback: The 1959/1960 Season

- Year Flashback: Vine and Pellicori Reportedly Set to Exit QPR

- A Statistical Guide to Points Needed to Stay Up

- QPR's Championship Medal Sold for just under 1,000 Pounds (Proceeds to QPR in the Community Trust)

- Assessing Premiership Summer Transfers Thus Far (Including QPR)

- Updated Ecclestone Comment re German Bribery Allegation

- Kudos to Chelsea: Make an Official Complaint to Malaysian FA re Anti-Semitic Abuse

- Play "Spot The Ball"

- "How clubs lost control of the football kit"

- Premiership Relegation Odds

- An Early Preview of QPR vs Bolton

- Premiership Rules re Kits

- VANISHED WITHOUT NOTICE! The Club's Official Messageboard

- Still No QPR Offical Site Update re the Status of the Official Supporters Club (OSC). Despite Committee Resignations.

- Home Ticket Price Information

- Something to Look Forward to: Flashback from June Official Site: "Plans are already afoot for a pre-season celebration, once the players return to training in July" - QPR


QPR's Remaining Pre-season Games
- Tuesday 2nd August - Crawley Town (a) 7.45pm
- Friday August 5 - Luton (A)
QPR

Saturday, July 30, 2011

QPR Report Saturday Update: New Ownership?...Atalanta Tournament...Defender?...Pre-Warnock "Cliques were a constant theme...Rangers Dressing Room..."

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- Bushman's Photos from 1959-1960 Season

- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general....Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
_____________________________________________________________________________________

- VIDEO re "Inside QPR" - Looks to be a Truly Riveting Video 'Four Year Plan'

- Parliamentary Committee Issues Report Calling for stronger FA, Control over Club Ownership and stronger, implemented "Fit and Proper" Rule, and So Forth

- Year Flashback: Nobody Else Wants Him so Taarabt Open to QPR

- Two Year Flashback: Alessandro Pellicori Joins Queen's Park Rangers

SQUAD NUMBERS FORTHCOMING QPR's Ian Taylor: "For all those asking ... We're expecting to announce the #QPR squad numbers early next week" http://twitter.com/IJTaylor81

- Gavin Mahon on Watford. Lee Brown on Bristol Rovers

- Swansea Premiership Preparations

- 2014 World Cup Draw Today -- USA's New Coach: Jurgen Klinsman


- QPR's Tournament Matches Tonight!
QPR Official Site - R'S HEAD TO ATALANTA
- Neil Warnock's First Team squad return to action in Italy tonight (Saturday).
- Following hot on the heels of Wednesday's narrow 1-0 defeat to Cesena in San Marino, Rangers face a long four hour coach journey to Atalanta to contest the prestigious 'Trofeo Bartolotti.'
- Serie A hosts Atalanta and Champions League outfit SC Braga, from Portugal, will compete in the three team tournament, which starts at 8.00pm local time.
- Each match will last for 45 minutes and the R's will face Braga in the first fixture of the tournament, before Atalanta will firstly play the losers, and then the victors of that clash for the Trofeo Bortolotti.
- The mini-tournament will take place at Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia.
- The tournament schedule is as follows …
Game 1 - QPR v SC Braga - 8.00pm (local time)
Game 2 - Atalanta v Loser of Game 1 - 9.00pm
Game 3 - Atalanta v Winner of Game 2 - 10.00pm
Presentation ceremony - 11.00pm QPR


NEW CLUB OWNER? (OR PARTIAL OWNER?)

Standard/Simon Johnson - In the driving seat: Tony Fernandes
Tony Fernandes agrees to buy 51% share in QPR


Air Asia owner Tony Fernandes will become a majority shareholder at QPR after agreeing to buy a 51 per cent stake in the club.

Standard Sport can confirm that Fernandes, who is the team principal of Formula One's Team Lotus, has been in talks with the club over a possible takeover.

Rangers have attracted interest from two other unnamed parties since Bernie Ecclestone, who has a 62 per cent stake in the club, admitted in March that he would be willing to sell his share for £100m.

Initial negotiations seemed to ensure Fernandes' investment would only be enough to secure a role as chairman, with co-owners Flavio Briatore and Ecclestone still calling the shots.

However, Fernandes has agreed a deal to buy the majority of Ecclestone's shares to assume overall control.

It could mean a major power shift in the club with Ecclestone and Briatore owning just 16 per cent between them as Lakshmi Mittal still has a 33 per cent stake.

Standard Sport understands Fernandes is flying out to the club's pre-season training base in Italy tomorrow to meet with Warnock and discuss plans for the new season, including some more transfer targets.

Fernandes, who has already been shown around Loftus Road, failed in a bid to buy West Ham in January 2010.

Meanwhile, Rangers are set to finally secure the £1.25m signing of striker DJ Campbell from Blackpool.

Talks had stalled over personal terms for the 29-year-old, who scored 13 goals in the top flight last season, but now a deal is close to being agreed" Standard


Man City Defender Wanted?

MAIL: Warnock eyes swoop for Man City defender Onuoha

- Queens Park Rangers manager Neil Warnock is lining up a loan deal for Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha.
- Warnock is likely to face competition from Blackburn and Everton for Onuoha, 24, and his wages could prove a stumbling block.
- Warnock said: ‘We are a bit thin on full backs at the moment, so we
are looking at that area.’
- QPR are expected to ask City to pay a percentage of Onuoha’s salary but City have been reluctant to agree similar deals this summer. Mail

Sports Ireleand QPR want City defender Onuoha
- Dominic Walsh, 30 July 2011QPR are lining up a loan move for Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha.
- The 24 year old full back impressed in a similar spell with Sunderland last season and has also been linked with moves to Blackburn, Bolton and Everton.
- Wages however could prove a stumbling block to any deal with QPR expected to ask City to cover a portion of the former England under-21’s salary, something that the Eastland’s outfit are reluctant to do. SportsIreland

Also....

Hounslow Chronicle/Tim Street - QPR move still on for Hampton star Inman

DEAN Inman's dream trial at QPR could still be on – despite the cruel ankle injury which seemed to have dashed his hopes.

The Hampton & Richmond Borough centre-back/midfielder impressed the Premiership side's scouts when Hampton beat an XI they sent down to Beveree two weeks ago.

Inman was invited to go on tour with QPR after the game, but the injury he picked up a minute from the end wrecked his chances, and he hasn't kicked a ball in anger since.

And while Inman told your favourite local paper at Tuesday night's friendly with Stevenage he hasn't heard from QPR since, Beavers boss Mark Harper revealed that they are still interested.

He said: “QPR have been in touch again and they still want to take Dean on a week's trial. He needs to get another game under his belt through, and could play on Saturday or Tuesday.”

Harper has already moved to strengthen his back line by snapping up former Brentford right-back Lewis Ferrell from Hayes & Yeading, and could add further steel to his rearguard by signing ex QPR and Woking keeper Rodney Chiweshe.

Both featured in the 1-0 win over Stevenage, and Chiweshe in particular stood out with some impressive saves.

Harper said: “Lewis has committed himself to us, and brings with him the experience of playing 38 games in the Conference last season, while Rodney we are still in talks with.

“He has played well for us in two games and we are hoping to sign him, especially with Matt Lovett having had his operation. We need a good second keeper, and are also looking at Carshalton's Craig Ross.”

Some of the best performances against a strong Stevenage side, however, came from the young guns Harper threw on at half time.

Another youth-teamer, Stuart Duffy, headed the winner late in the first half from a delightful Charlie Moone cross.

Harper added: “Stuart is a good example of what I'm trying to install in our youngsters – give it 100 per cent and you will get your chance. His work rate was tremendous.

“I was pleased with both halves, but especially with the second half when I brought the young players on, as they gave a whole hearted display. They certainly gave me a few headaches about who to sign and who to release.” Hounslow Chronicle


Daily Mail - Sami Mokbel - I felt like a murderer, reveals Faurlin after contentious move

Alejandro Faurlin says he felt as if he had ‘murdered’ someone during the FA probe which threatened Queens Park Rangers top-flight promotion last season.

In March, QPR were charged with seven breaches of third-party ownership and agents laws in relation to Faurlin’s £3.5million move from Instituto de Cordoba in 2009.

Speculation was rife that the charges would lead to a hefty points penalty — one large enough to strip the runaway Championship leaders of promotion.

An independent FA tribunal found QPR guilty on two of of the seven counts — but the club escaped with a £875,000 fine.

Argentine midfielder Faurlin said: ‘Those moments were hard. I knew it wasn’t my fault — but I still saw my name everywhere.

In the newspaper, the television and you start to feel like you did something wrong.

It makes you feel like you’ve murdered someone. The possibility of losing what we fought all season because of my transfer just made me feel sick.’ Mail


QPR Official Site - FAURLIN: 'BELIEF IS THE KEY'

Alejandro Faurlin is relishing making his Barclays Premier League bow against Bolton Wanderers in 15 days' time.

Faurlin - one of the undoubted stars of the show as the R's romped to the title last season - believes the time has come for him and his team-mates to shine at the top table of English football.

"We worked really hard for this - to be almost at the start of the season feels fantastic," he told www.qpr.co.uk.

"We are very happy as a squad and we're enjoying every second of the countdown to the season."

Faurlin added: "There's going to definitely be a lot more quality in the Premier League.

"Yes, we may get more space and time on the ball at times, but the quality will be higher."

The Argentinean ace believes belief will be key over the coming weeks and months, commenting: "We have to believe in ourselves.

"I believe in myself and I know my team-mates believe in themselves.

"I've never played at this level, but I want it badly and I will do everything for Neil Warnock, my team-mates, the supporters and the Club." QPR



QPR Official Site -Mick Jones Blog - JONES BLOG: THE ITALIAN JOB


Mick Jones brings us his latest blog live from Milano Marittima in Italy

I missed the trip to Italy last year due to a family bereavement, but everyone came back and said what a fantastic tour it was and I have to say I agree, because this year has been exceptional.

Seeing it first hand, you realise just how important this kind of trip is.

In terms of team spirit, it's mind-blowing.

It's important for the staff, as well as the players, to get used to each other's personalities - especially the new lads.

We all know the players we've signed, but to see them bond with their new team-mates in a remarkably short space of time has been tremendous.

The three new lads are big personalities, which is an important thing in football.

They're big name players with big reputations and they've bonded really well.

Looking back to Cornwall, it's an interesting theory going there and then coming out to Italy.

Cornwall is isolated; the weather was poor; boredom can be a big factor.

It's an important measure of a player's personality.

When people get bored, they get irritated and it's a big test.

To take the players into Cornwall, where there's nothing going on and very little to do apart from the golf, it can be a difficult week.

But it also tells you a lot about a person's personality and their attitude.

On the flip side, over here in Italy you've got all you need.

You see lots of each other and it's a great experience.

From my point of view, watching players in Cornwall and then watching them in Italy, you see what's going on in their heads.

It's quite a smart move from the Manager, because he knows that in Cornwall there isn't much happening and then you come out here and it's all going on.

It's great to see Adel out here too.

I've gone on the record in the past as saying that he's one of the most talented players I've seen in my life.

He goes on the field to entertain himself. He's a talented young man and at his age, he's only going to get better.

Looking back to Wednesday, I played against Cesena myself many, many years ago - some of these players weren't even born then!

Italian football hasn't changed since then. Their tradition is what it is.

Wednesday's game was akin to what we're going to see in the Premier League at times.

We saw some massively encouraging signs.

I was really impressed with our performance in the first 30 minutes. Obviously we made changes in the second half which were disruptive, but I sat on the bus on the way home thinking 'that wasn't a bad pre-season exercise at all.'
http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2404972,00.html


QPR Official Site - TOUR BLOG: PART V

Posted on: Sat 30 Jul 2011

The last 24 hours or so have flown by in Italy, as the focus now firmly switches to today's final fixture of the tour.

After a rest day on Thursday, the lads were back in training on Friday morning, with shape and formation yet again at the forefront of First Team Coach Keith Curle's 90 minute session.

Danny Webber was joined on the sidelines by Heidar Helguson, whose minor knock is expected to rule him out of the 'Trofeo Bartolotti' tonight.

One thing that really struck home at training yesterday was the remarkable team spirit that is currently sweeping through the camp.

Mick Jones touched on it in his blog on Friday and it really is something to behold.

I've been at the Club for over five years now and I can honestly say that prior to the arrival of Neil Warnock as Manager, cliques were a constant theme in the Rangers dressing room.

Those days are well and truly over now though, with the entire squad mixing together on a regular basis, whether it's at dinner, by the pool or during their free-time.

As a result, it's a really positive camp to be in and around and that team spirit will, needless to say, play a major role in our Barclays Premier League campaign which starts two weeks today.

It's a short blog entry today, because we're off on the road this morning for our trip to Atalanta, where we'll be providing pre and post match updates throughout the night, so stay tuned! QPR


- Guide to Football Grounds... Guide to Loftus Road

- QPR XI Beat Buckland Athletic

- Cesena-QPR Reports, Photos, Videos

- World Cup Qualifiers: India Knocked out

- USA Axe Coach Bob Bradley

- Four Year Flashback: "QPR Chief Paladini to Sell Up"

- UDPATED: Europe's Top Clubs Threaten Revolt. Fan Reaction

- FA Reportedly Given Year to Reform or Else Legislation

- Flashback: The 1959/1960 Season

- Year Flashback: Vine and Pellicori Reportedly Set to Exit QPR

- A Statistical Guide to Points Needed to Stay Up





- QPR's Championship Medal Sold for just under 1,000 Pounds (Proceeds to QPR in the Community Trust)

- Assessing Premiership Summer Transfers Thus Far (Including QPR)

- Updated Ecclestone Comment re German Bribery Allegation

- Kudos to Chelsea: Make an Official Complaint to Malaysian FA re Anti-Semitic Abuse

- Play "Spot The Ball"

- "How clubs lost control of the football kit"

- Premiership Relegation Odds

- An Early Preview of QPR vs Bolton

- Premiership Rules re Kits

- VANISHED WITHOUT NOTICE! The Club's Official Messageboard

- Still No QPR Offical Site Update re the Status of the Official Supporters Club (OSC). Despite Committee Resignations.

- Home Ticket Price Information

- Something to Look Forward to: Flashback from June Official Site: "Plans are already afoot for a pre-season celebration, once the players return to training in July" - QPR


QPR's Remaining Pre-season Games
- Tonight: (Saturday 30th July) - Trofeo Bortolotti Tournament (a) 8.00pm onwards
- Tuesday 2nd August - Crawley Town (a) 7.45pm
- Friday August 5 - Luton (A)
QPR

Friday, July 29, 2011

QPR Report Friday Update: Takeover Speculation...Squad Numbers Released Early Next Week (Probably)

-

-
- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general....Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
_____________________________________________________________________________________

SQUAD NUMBERS FORTHCOMING
QPR's Ian Taylor: "For all those asking ... We're expecting to announce the #QPR squad numbers early next week" http://twitter.com/IJTaylor81

- Year Flashback: Bradley Orr Joins QPR

- Guide to Football Grounds... Guide to Loftus Road

- QPR XI Beat Buckland Athletic

- Cesena-QPR Reports, Photos, Videos

- World Cup Qualifiers: India Knocked out

- USA Axe Coach Bob Bradley

- Four Year Flashback: "QPR Chief Paladini to Sell Up"

- UDPATED: Europe's Top Clubs Threaten Revolt. Fan Reaction

- FA Reportedly Given Year to Reform or Else Legislation

- Flashback: The 1959/1960 Season

- Year Flashback: Vine and Pellicori Reportedly Set to Exit QPR

- A Statistical Guide to Points Needed to Stay Up


MAIL - Sami Mokbel and Alex Kay - Lotus chief and West Ham fan Fernandes poised to buy QPR for £100m

-Air Asia tycoon Tony Fernandes is plotting a £100million move to buy Queens Park Rangers.
Sportsmail understands the multi-millionaire businessman, who is team principal for Formula One outfit Team Lotus, is growing increasingly confident of striking a deal to take control of the Barclays Premier League club.
- Fernandes, 47, has already been shown around Loftus Road and talked to manager Neil Warnock about transfer funds as Rangers plan for their return to the top flight.
Co-owner Bernie Ecclestone has said £100m would be enough to take over the west London club. Ecclestone holds a 62 per cent shareholding and although business partner Flavio Briatore has an option to buy the shares if the 80-year-old decides to sell, it is believed the pair have given Fernandes the go-ahead for the move.
- The club's other shareholder Lakshmi Mittal has failed to secure Ecclestone's shares after refusing to meet the asking price.
- A QPR statement confirmed 'preliminary discussions' had taken place over the sale. West Ham fan Fernandes lost out to David Gold and David Sullivan in his bid to buy the Hammers in January 2010 but claimed earlier this year that he was still looking to invest in the club. Mail

- Couple of relatively-recent pieces re Fernandes/Football/West Ham & Norwich


QPR Official Site/July 28, 2011 CLUB STATEMENT
- On 4th March 2011 the Company (QPR Holdings Limited) announced that it was in preliminary discussions with a potential purchaser.
- At the time the Takeover Panel confirmed that should those discussions result in an offer being made for the Company, the offer would be subject to the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the Code), even if such an offer was made after 2nd April 2011, being the date on which the Company ceased to be to the Code, due to it being de-listed 10 years previously.
- The Company confirms that these discussions came to an end in March 2011.
- Since the end of these discussions, the Company has entered into preliminary discussions with a different party and can confirm that these discussions and any subsequent transaction would not be subject to the Code.
- Accordingly the Company confirms that is it no longer in an offer period for the purposes of the Code.
- We will be making no further comment at stage. QPR


THE SUN - NEIL WARNOCK plans to make Spurs reject Robbie Keane his last signing of the summer.

QPR boss Warnock is after the Republic of Ireland striker on a season-long loan as he has no money to spend.
Wolves also want Keane, 31, but he prefers a London club.
Warnock said: "They've made it clear to me we've got to try and get value for money and not to spend transfer fees.
"Look at the players I've brought in, Kieron Dyer and Jay Bothroyd. It's not all doom and gloom."
Rangers are in the top flight for the first time since 1996 - and Bradley Orr insists they will fight to stay there.
Defender Orr said: "We have men in this dressing room who would die for each other.
"When you know you can look a team-mate in the eye and see he's given everything for the cause, that makes for a really positive team spirit."
Skipper Adel Taarabt made his first pre-season appearance in QPR's 1-0 defeat to Cesena in Italy last night.
- Moroccan playmaker Taarabt, 22, has been linked with a switch to Paris St Germain.
- But majority shareholders Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore say he will not be leaving during the transfer window.
- Orr added: "Adel is our captain and talisman." The Sun


Fulham Chronicle/Jacob Murtagh - Defender makes QPR vow
- PETER Ramage admits he is at the back of the queue - but the QPR defender is determined to force his way into Neil Warnock’s starting XI.

The former Newcastle United centre back was surprisingly offered a new deal at Loftus Road this summer - despite making just four appearances last season after being sidelined for eight months with a knee injury.

Ramage is one of six players fighting for a place in the heart of the Rangers back line following the arrival of Danny Gabbidon.

The 27-year-old is desperate to force his way to the front of the queue and prove his worth.

He said: "I’ve got to repay the gaffer. He’s been good to me, now it’s my turn to prove he made the right decision. Hopefully I can impress during games and give him a tough decision.

“I want to play centre half - it’s always been my best position. There’s a lot of us but that’s healthy.

“Whoever has the shirt deserves it, but knows they have to perform because there’s hungry players behind them.

“I’m probably at the back of the queue but I’m mentally strong enough to try and force my way in."

Ramage was left out of the tour to Italy this week, along with fellow first-teamers Danny Shittu, Martin Rowlands, Lee Cook and Rob Hulse, to get game time with Robbie Jepson’s reserves.

However, he insists he will be fully fit and raring to go by the time the action gets under way for real against Bolton on August 13.

He added: "It’s never nice being injured, especially when the lads are doing well.

“It’s tough being a part of it from the outside. But I’m feeling good. It’s about getting as many games as I can over pre-season.

“If I can do that hopefully I can push for a starting spot against Bolton
http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/london-sport/london-qpr/2011/07/29/defender-makes-qpr-vow-82029-29137017/#ixzz1TTVCXUkn


QPR Official Site - U-18s IN TIP-TOP SHAPE FOR SEASON

While the focus at Loftus Road centres firmly around Neil Warnock and his Football League Champions' return to the top-flight next term, Steve Gallen's Under-18s continue to go under the radar as they prepare to kick-off the new season as holders of the Youth Alliance League trophy.

And how well preparations are going, too.

It's been a busy old time for Gallen, his backroom team and players alike, with the latter being put through their paces to ensure they're in peak condition to start the season against Luton Town in two weeks' time.

A recent trip to Germany for the Under-18s has just been followed by four fixtures in the space of the past week or so.

It's not necessarily about winning at youth level but Gallen's side are certainly adding results to their performances, having won eight and lost just one of their nine pre-season fixtures to date - and claiming victory in all four of their games over that six-day period.

A 3-1 victory over Boreham Wood kicked-off that run of four straight wins last Wednesday, where Bradley Simmonds' superb long-range effort and goals from Antonio German and Connor Hubble secured the win.

Two days later and Gallen's side were again on the right side of victory, this time against a highly-rated Crystal Palace side where, despite being out of possession for much of the game, Rangers stole a 1-0 win thanks to a Tobi Adekunle effort.

The Under-18s then made a five-hour trip to Cornwall for a mini-tour of the South West, where Jordan Walker's 20-yard strike secured a 1-0 victory over Liskeard Athletic on Sunday.

And that's before the young R's claimed an emphatic 8-1 victory over St Austell just two days later, after Ben Brown was amongst the scorers with an impressive four goals.

Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk, Gallen said: "It's been a busy but enjoyable two weeks for the lads, and their behaviour has been excellent.

"We've played some lovely football and scored some very good goals.

"Frankie Sutherland travelled with us to Cornwall, having been out since March through injury.

"We have to be cautious with him. He's a couple of weeks away from being fully fit. However, although he's not ready, it's great to have him back training with us again.

"I must also reserve a special mention for the QPR fans that came down - some from quite a distance - and made an effort to watch us play in Cornwall.

"I can't thank you enough for your support."

Gallen added: "There's a fortnight to go until our first game of the season against Luton and we're in great shape.

"We're in a good place at the moment and in excellent form.

"We can't make any presumptions and know the hard test that Luton will pose, but we'll be ready.

"It would be nice to retain the title but that's not our main aim - developing players is.

"If we can start producing players for the First Team - like Bruno Andrade, who continues to progress - then we'll all be overjoyed."

The Under-18s round-off their tour of Cornwall with a trip to Elburton Villa in Plymouth tonight (Thursday) - kick-off 7pm. QPR


- QPR's Championship Medal Sold for just under 1,000 Pounds (Proceeds to QPR in the Community Trust)

- Assessing Premiership Summer Transfers Thus Far (Including QPR)

- Updated Ecclestone Comment re German Bribery Allegation

- Kudos to Chelsea: Make an Official Complaint to Malaysian FA re Anti-Semitic Abuse

- Play "Spot The Ball"

- "How clubs lost control of the football kit"

- Premiership Relegation Odds

- An Early Preview of QPR vs Bolton

- Premiership Rules re Kits

- VANISHED WITHOUT NOTICE! The Club's Official Messageboard

- Still No QPR Offical Site Update re the Status of the Official Supporters Club (OSC). Despite Committee Resignations.

- Home Ticket Price Information

- Something to Look Forward to: Flashback from June Official Site: "Plans are already afoot for a pre-season celebration, once the players return to training in July" - QPR


QPR Pre-Season Fixtures 2011/12

Saturday 30th July - Trofeo Bortolotti Tournament (a) 8.00pm onwards

Tuesday 2nd August - Crawley Town (a) 7.45pm

Friday August 5 - Vs Luton (A)
QPR

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Statement from QPR Holdings

-
- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general....Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
_____________________________________________________________________________________


Thu 28 Jul 2011 ..QPR Holdings Limited Statement


"On 4th March 2011 the Company announced that it was in preliminary discussions with a potential purchaser. At the time the Takeover Panel confirmed that should those discussions result in an offer being made for the Company, the offer would be subject to the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the Code), even if such an offer was made after 2nd April 2011, being the date on which the Company ceased to be to the Code, due to it being de-listed 10 years previously. The Company confirms that these discussions came to an end in March 2011.

Since the end of these discussions, the Company has entered into preliminary discussions with a different party and can confirm that these discussions and any subsequent offer would not be subject to the Code.

Accordingly the Company confirms that is it no longer in an offer period for the purposes of the Code."


And now on the QPR Official Site

CLUB STATEMENT
Posted on: Thu 28 Jul 2011

On 4th March 2011 the Company (QPR Holdings Limited) announced that it was in preliminary discussions with a potential purchaser.

At the time the Takeover Panel confirmed that should those discussions result in an offer being made for the Company, the offer would be subject to the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the Code), even if such an offer was made after 2nd April 2011, being the date on which the Company ceased to be to the Code, due to it being de-listed 10 years previously.

The Company confirms that these discussions came to an end in March 2011.

Since the end of these discussions, the Company has entered into preliminary discussions with a different party and can confirm that these discussions and any subsequent transaction would not be subject to the Code.

Accordingly the Company confirms that is it no longer in an offer period for the purposes of the Code.

We will be making no further comment at stage. QPR

QPR Report Thursday: QPR's Cesena Loss: Report, Comment, Video, Photos...Rodney Marsh on QPR...QPR Trial for Non-League Defender

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- PHOTO COMPILATION FROM CESENA

- QPR's New Strip
-
- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general....Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
_____________________________________________________________________________________

- QPR's Championship Medal for Sale (Proceeds to QPR in the Community Trust): Offer Closes in three hours

- Rodney Marsh Tweets re QPR:
"The way the #QPR #football club board have conducted business this summer has been nothing short of embarrassing!" Rodney Marsh Twitter


Dave McIntyre West London Sport - QPR offer trial to Hampton defender
- QPR have offered a trial to Hampton & Richmond defender Dean Inman.
- The 20-year-old has been watched by a number of League clubs and recently impressed in a pre-season friendly against QPR’s reserves.
- Inman, who can also play in midfield, is currently carrying an injury but is expected to train with Rangers before the start of the new season" West London Sport


- Assessing Premiership Summer Transfers Thus Far (Including QPR)

- Four Year Flashback: Camp and Walton Join QPR

- Chris Day Turns 36

- Updated Ecclestone Comment re German Bribery Allegation

- El-Hadji Diouf: Banned by Senegal for Five Years!

- Kudos to Chelsea: Make an Official Complaint to Malaysian FA re Anti-Semitic Abuse

- UDPATED: Europe's Top Clubs Threaten Revolt

- Play "Spot The Ball"

- Reconsidering Standing at Games

- QPR's 1959-1960 Season

- "How clubs lost control of the football kit"


Cesena Narrowly Defeat QPR

- VIDEO: Cesena vs QPR (Complements of QPR Italia's Wally West)

Full team (from Cesena) QUEENS PARK RANGERS: Kenny; Orr ( 38'st Gorkss), Gabbidon ( 29' st Connolly),Perone (1 st Hall Fitz); Hill; Derry ( 21' st Vaagan Moen),Ephrain ( 33' st Buzsaky), Smith ( 1 st Dyer); Taarabt, Faurlin, Bothroyd (1 st Agyemang).
A disposizione ( Murphy,Webber,Caldini) Cesena

- PHOTO COMPILATION FROM CESENA


QPR Official Site - CESENA 1, QPR 0


QPR succumbed to their first defeat of pre-season at the hands of Serie A side Cesena.

A late goal from Bogdani gave the Italians a narrow 1-0 victory, in a good pre-season test for Neil Warnock's men.

An entertaining affair for long spells, Rangers probably did enough to at least warrant a share of the spoils, but the result will mean little to Warnock and co, with the main plus points another injury-free evening, as the clock ticks down to our Barclays Premier League opener against Bolton Wanderers in 17 days time.

Warnock named a strong side for the R's first pre-season fixture on Italian soil, with Danny Gabbidon handed his first start and Jay Bothroyd leading the line.

Paddy Kenny lined up in goal, behind a back four comprising of Bradley Orr, Clint Hill, Gabbidon and a trialist.

Alejandro Faurlin and Shaun Derry occupied the two holding midfield berths, with Tommy Smith, Hogan Ephraim and skipper Adel Taarabt providing support for lone front-man Bothroyd.

It took just three minutes for Taarabt to show glimpses of the type of form that made him the stand-out player in the npower Championship last season.

The R's skipper nutmegged two Cesena defenders with ease before firing a shot on target, which Antonioli did well to parry on the slippery surface.

At the other end, Mutu forced Kenny into a fine save, after the former Chelsea man let fly from distance.

Both sets of players were struggling to stay on their feet due to the inclement conditions, but Faurlin kept his composure on 20 minutes to get away a left footed half-volley that brought the best out of the Cesena custodian.

The R's back four, marshalled centrally by Gabbidon, were rarely tested as the half approached its halfway stage, with Mutu's early effort the only chance of note for the Serie A outfit.

Rangers had vocal appeals for a penalty waved away on 25 minutes, when Bothroyd - having held off his man on the edge of the six-yard box - appeared to be dragged back as he was poised to get his shot away.

Kenny had to be at his agile best to thwart Candreva from close range on 33 minutes, before - from the resultant corner - Comotto's fortuitous flick cannoned back off the upright.

Cesena front-man Candreva looked a threat whenever he was on the ball and when he created a yard of space five minutes before the break, Kenny was grateful to see the ball fizz inches wide of his right hand post.

It was Rangers who created the best chance of the half though on the stroke of half-time, when Orr's perfectly-weighted pass found Bothroyd, who shrugged off the attentions of his marker before firing a fierce left-footed strike on goal, that Antonioli did well to gather at the second attempt.

Seconds later, Taarabt cut in from the left flank, cut inside and fired inches over, as the half - which bizarrely only last 44 minutes - ended goalless.

Warnock rang the changes at the break, with Fitz Hall, Kieron Dyer and Patrick Agyemang all entering the fray for the second 45 minutes.

The second period took time to spring into action, with neither side forcing an opening in the opening quarter of an hour.

Dyer went close to breaking the deadlock around the hour mark, but Antonioli was quick off his line to smother.

Dyer soon turned provider, breaking up play on halfway before sending Taarabt through on goal. Faced one-on-one with Antonoili, the Moroccan attempted to chip the Cesena stopper, only to see his effort land on the top of the net.

Second half substitute Petter Vaagan-Moen's powerful left-footed strike forced Antonioli into a solid save at his feet on 70 minutes, moments before Matt Connolly replaced Gabbidon.

But it was the Italians who grabbed the opening goal of the game late on, when Bogdani evaded the R's offside trap and curled a fine finish beyond Kenny and into the roof of the net.

Rangers could've been level a few minutes later, but Hill's deft chip was hacked off the line.

Cesena: Antonioli, Comotto (Ceccarelli 75), Lauro (De Feudis 87), Colucci, Ricci, Rossi, Malongo (Cesar 56), Parolo, Candreva, Mutu (Bogdani 82), Giaccherini (Livaja 62).

Subs: Ravaglia, Gilnics, Cica, Riski.

Bookings: Rossi

Goals: Bogdani (84)

QPR: Kenny, Orr (Gorkss 77), Hill, Derry (Vaagan-Moen 63), Trialist (Hall 46), Gabbidon (Connolly 70), Taarabt, Smith (Dyer 46), Bothroyd (Agyemang 46), Ephraim (Buzsaky 74), Faurlin.

Subs: Trialist. QPR


QPR Official Site - WARNOCK: 'PERFECT PRE-SEASON GAME'


R's gaffer Neil Warnock was pleased with his charges despite the 1-0 reverse against Cesena in San Marino tonight (Wednesday).

Bogdani bagged the only goal of the game in the closing minutes of the second half, after an even contest against the Serie A newcomers.

Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk at full-time, Warnock said: "It was just what we needed.

"The weather was typically English and they played at a slow tempo that suited us at this stage of our pre-season campaign.

"It won't be that slow in the Premier League, but it was perfect for us on the night."

Warnock added: "It gave us a chance to work on shape and look at certain things.

"We had some really good chances and we'll have to take those in the Premier League, but all in all it was a thoroughly good work-out."

Adel Taarabt got 90 minutes under his belt in his first pre-season outing and Warnock added: "He needed to get some game time and I told him I wanted him to play the full match.

"He lasted well, even though he faded a bit from the 60 minute mark.

"It's good for him to get the time in the bank and it will serve him well going forward." QPR


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