Have no idea what happened. Terms such as "gutted" and "Sick as a parrot" come to mind! But postings will resume. As for what was previously posted, who knows!
So this site is up-and-running and some additional things/links will be added, to make it more like the original site. Some of the content though, will unfortunately not be restored.
BlogThis!
QPR REPORT
News about Queens Park Rangers (QPR)
Monday, October 17, 2005
QPR1st on QPR's Remaining Directors & Wanlock & Barnaby Consortiums
QPR1st -Kevin McGrath officially resigns as a director
October 16, 2005 - Whilst doing one of our regular checks on the companies house website towards the end of last week, we were interested to note that Kevin McGrath's official resignation as a director on the board of QPR holdings ltd had been filed....This means that following the departures of Bill Power and Mark Devlin, the board representation now consists purely of those representing Moorbound ltd and the overseas consortiums of Wanlock and Barnaby LLC's. .... http://web.archive.org/web/20051018125620/http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/main/newsarticle.asp?id=34
QPR1st News Update -Latest news update October 15, 2005
.....The most recent annual return is up to May 13th 2005 .....The addresses of Wanlock and Barnaby are both in the financial district of New York [Albany, NY]. Barnaby holdings is based at the offices of USA Corporate Services Inc. Wanlock's address has several offices, including a law firm and an accountant. Both companies are LLC's (Limited Liability Companies).
http://web.archive.org/web/20051018125620/http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/main/newsarticle.asp?id=35
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Don Rogers Turns SIXTY
Happy Sixtieth Birthday, Don Rogers!
Don Rogers - Born October 25, 1945
DEBUT -Tuesday, 24th September 1974 as a sub in a 2-2 draw at home to Everton (Aged: 28)
CLUB CAREER -13 League apps (+5 as sub), 5 goals
http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=9786
[Also birthday today, Steve Hodge - October 25, 1962
http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/searchresults.asp?FootballHeroName=Steve+Hodge
# posted by Administrator @ 12:26 AM 0 comments
Monday, October 24, 2005
Holloway on Wanting Langley at QPR
TEAMTALK
Holloway jumps to Langley's defence
Manager Ian Holloway has rubbished speculation that Richard Langley has already fallen out of favour at QPR.The 25-year-old rejoined the west London club in August after a two-year spell at Cardiff - but has started only two matches since his return.Boss Holloway confronted a Rangers fan who voiced his displeasure at Langley's situation shortly before Saturday's 3-0 win over Norwich - a match from which Langley was omitted once more."I didn't want to lose Richard Langley in [2003], and I was desperate to get him back here," Holloway insisted."He is not quite fit yet - but we will get him fit." http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/News/Story_Page/0,7760,1801_783065,00.html
# posted by Administrator @ 10:49 PM 0 comments
QPR 1st's Meeting with Paladini & Caliendo - Report
Minutes/Report from Meeting with QPR Board reps Friday 21st October 2005
http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc
In attendance:
QPR Holdings Ltd Reps:
Gianni Paladini (GP) Chairman; Antonio Caliendo (AC) Monaco groups’ consultant; Chris Pennington (CP) Chief financial officer
QPR 1st Reps:
Geoff Gibbs (GG) Treasurer; Tracy Stent (TS) Chairperson
Other: Tony Altieri; Italian translator
Venue: The Chairman’s office, QPR FC.
http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc
# posted by Administrator @ 5:28 PM 0 comments
QPR 3 Norwich 0 - Additional Match Reports
Independent - QPR 3 Norwich
Indepdent - Conrad Leach Norwich City have conceded seven goals in their last two games, all in the first half, and have replied with only two. They lie only four points off the relegation zone and their hopes of instant promotion back to the Premiership will be in tatters before long if their form continues like this.
Those hopes are looking shaky enough as it is. The Norfolk side were four goals behind last Tuesday at Luton before they replied with a couple of consolation efforts and then swiftly shipped three at Loftus Road on Saturday, effectively ending any ideas, even before half-time, of a point. The confidence engendered by their East Anglia derby win against Ipswich a month ago has rapidly disappeared.
Norwich City have conceded seven goals in their last two games, all in the first half, and have replied with only two. They lie only four points off the relegation zone and their hopes of instant promotion back to the Premiership will be in tatters before long if their form continues like this.
Those hopes are looking shaky enough as it is. The Norfolk side were four goals behind last Tuesday at Luton before they replied with a couple of consolation efforts and then swiftly shipped three at Loftus Road on Saturday, effectively ending any ideas, even before half-time, of a point. The confidence engendered by their East Anglia derby win against Ipswich a month ago has rapidly disappeared.
Dean Ashton, sporting a cut above his left eye, articulated the general frustration at the Canaries' form but admitted, worryingly, that no one appears any closer to working out its root cause.
"This was as bad if not worse than Tuesday," he said. "There's been a lot of talking going on in the dressing-room and so there should be. Once again it's not good enough. Everyone's trying to get together to find out what is going wrong. Individually we've got to look at ourselves and ask, 'Are we doing enough?'"
Ashton's cut, which needed three stitches, was testament to his commitment to the team cause, but the defenders need to look at their contribution. Lee Cook's cross from the left wing to Kevin Gallen at the far post was in the air long enough for Jim Brennan to cover but there was no resistance as his headed pass was met by the equally unguarded Marc Nygaard six yards out.
For their second goal Cook again supplied the ball, this time from a free-kick, for Paul Furlong - with his back to goal - to flick his header past Robert Green while Georges Santos had too much time to volley in from 20 yards after Ashton's headed clearance only looped up to the midfielder.
Ashton added: "I don't think concentration is the problem. We're just too easy to score against."
He then had a slip in his own concentration when he said: "We set out four banks of four and within half an hour they're 3-0 up which can't be right." His meaning was clear but their manager, Nigel Worthington, must feel right now that 16 players on the pitch is what he needs.
Goals: Nygaard (11) 1-0; Furlong (18) 2-0; Santos (42) 3-0.
Queen's Park Rangers (4-4-2): Royce; Bignot, Shittu, Evatt, Dyer; Gallen, Bircham (Santos, 38), Doherty, Cook (Ainsworth, 83); Furlong, Nygaard (Sturridge, 26) Substitutes not used: Cole (gk), Moore.
Norwich City (4-4-2): Green; Colin, Doherty, Fleming, Brennan; Henderson (Marney, h-t), Hughes, Charlton, McVeigh (Ryan Jarvis, h-t); Ashton, Huckerby. Substitutes not used: Ward (gk), Louis-Jean, Rossi Jarvis.
Referee: R Olivier (West Midlands).
Booked: QPR: Bignot; Norwich: Hughes, McVeigh.
Man of the match: Cook.
Attendance: 15,976.
Dean Ashton, sporting a cut above his left eye, articulated the general frustration at the Canaries' form but admitted, worryingly, that no one appears any closer to working out its root cause.
"This was as bad if not worse than Tuesday," he said. "There's been a lot of talking going on in the dressing-room and so there should be. Once again it's not good enough. Everyone's trying to get together to find out what is going wrong. Individually we've got to look at ourselves and ask, 'Are we doing enough?'"
Ashton's cut, which needed three stitches, was testament to his commitment to the team cause, but the defenders need to look at their contribution. Lee Cook's cross from the left wing to Kevin Gallen at the far post was in the air long enough for Jim Brennan to cover but there was no resistance as his headed pass was met by the equally unguarded Marc Nygaard six yards out.
For their second goal Cook again supplied the ball, this time from a free-kick, for Paul Furlong - with his back to goal - to flick his header past Robert Green while Georges Santos had too much time to volley in from 20 yards after Ashton's headed clearance only looped up to the midfielder.
Ashton added: "I don't think concentration is the problem. We're just too easy to score against."
He then had a slip in his own concentration when he said: "We set out four banks of four and within half an hour they're 3-0 up which can't be right." His meaning was clear but their manager, Nigel Worthington, must feel right now that 16 players on the pitch is what he needs.
Goals: Nygaard (11) 1-0; Furlong (18) 2-0; Santos (42) 3-0.
Queen's Park Rangers (4-4-2): Royce; Bignot, Shittu, Evatt, Dyer; Gallen, Bircham (Santos, 38), Doherty, Cook (Ainsworth, 83); Furlong, Nygaard (Sturridge, 26) Substitutes not used: Cole (gk), Moore.
Norwich City (4-4-2): Green; Colin, Doherty, Fleming, Brennan; Henderson (Marney, h-t), Hughes, Charlton, McVeigh (Ryan Jarvis, h-t); Ashton, Huckerby. Substitutes not used: Ward (gk), Louis-Jean, Rossi Jarvis.
Referee: R Olivier (West Midlands).
Booked: QPR: Bignot; Norwich: Hughes, McVeigh.
Man of the match: Cook.
Attendance: 15,976.
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/coca_cola/article321759.ece
# posted by Administrator @ 7:56 AM 0 comments
WEB ARCHIVES II
# posted by Administrator @ 5:54 PM 0 comments
Aaron Brown Returns to QPR
Cheltenham Official Site - Brown returns to QPR.
Wide midfielder Aaron Brown has chosen to return to Queens Park Rangers, his home club. Aaron came to Cheltenham on the 23rd September and started the matches against Northampton, Peterborough and Torquay before being substituted during the second half of those three games. He remained on the substitutes bench against Lincoln and Grimsby..
Whilst the player could have been selected for both Tuesday's LDV Vans game at Shrewsbury, plus Saturday's match at Darlington Aaron decided he would prefer to return to London.
http://web.archive.org/web/20051018125620/http://www.cheltenhamtownfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,10434~728037,00.html?ptvParm=
# posted by Administrator @ 5:13 PM 0 comments
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Gianni Paladini Interviewed
Kilburn Times
Exclusive -Gianni Paladini interviewKilburn Times/Camden Times nwl.sport@archant.co.uk12 October 2005 QPR chairman Gianni Paladini NEW QPR chairman Gianni Paladini has revealed his plans for the club in an exclusive interview with the Times, writes Ben Kosky.Paladini, who was already Rangers' majority shareholder, took over last month after winning a boardroom battle with previous chairman Bill Power.The Italian explains why he has adopted a 'hands-on' role in the day-to-day running of the club since the departure of chief executive Mark Devlin.Paladini also believes he can make Rangers a profitable company - and pledges that if he fails, the shortfall will be made up by himself and fellow major shareholders.And the Rangers chairman plans to reintroduce a family section at Loftus Road, possibly as soon as next week, to counter falling attendances since the summer rise in ticket prices.Read the full interview in this week's Times.
http://web.archive.org/web/20051018125620/http://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/content/camden/kilburntimes/sport/story.aspx?brand=KLBTOnline&category=sportfootball&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=sportklbt&itemid=WeED12%20Oct%202005%2013%3A11%3A32%3A930
Full Interview/Article posted at http://web.archive.org/web/20051018125620/http://www.qpr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threadsandp=119508andt=36750
# posted by Administrator @ 9:22 AM 1 comments
Ainsworth on Playing at his old Club, Preston North End
Kilburn Times
Ainsworth wants win on North End return
nwl.sport@archant.co.uk12 October 2005
Gareth Ainsworth wants victory against his old club Preston
GARETH Ainsworth has finally got his goal touch back - and intends to make sure it stays with him in familiar surroundings on Saturday, writes Ben Kosky.The winger, who notched his first goal of the season in QPR's 3-1 defeat by Crystal Palace last time out, aims to be firing on all cylinders when he returns to his old stamping ground at Deepdale.It will be the first time Ainsworth, 32, has played there since the last of his three spells with Preston in 2002 and, having failed to celebrate his 400th league appearance with a win, he is determined to make amends in the 401st."I've scored in every season in the professional game since I was 18 and it was nice to keep that run going," Ainsworth told the Times."It would have been better still to clock a win in my 400th appearance, but it wasn't to be. Everyone was absolutely gutted after that game - we didn't feel Palace had played particularly well, but we knew we hadn't either."We've been working hard to try and put things right since then and we could do with three points on Saturday."I've got very fond memories of Preston - they gave me my chance in professional football and I gave them some of my best years."I always gave 100 per cent for them and I think the Deepdale crowd appreciated that - they're a very knowledgeable lot, just like they are at QPR."After the highs of the last two or three years, they've had a sticky start, particularly at home and we've got to build on the good results we've had in our last few away games. We should have a few back from injury, so that'll help."I'm still in touch with a few people up at Preston and I'm really looking forward to going back."Hopefully they won't give me too much stick - nothing like what Marc Bircham gets at Millwall, anyway!"http://web.archive.org/web/20051018125620/http://www.wktimes.co.uk/content/brent/wembleychronicle/sport/story.aspx?brand=KLBTOnline&category=SportFootball&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=sportwkc&itemid=WeED12%20Oct%202005%2013%3A06%3A57%3A743
# posted by Administrator @ 9:20 AM 0 comments
QPR Admit to FA Charges re Leicester Brawl
BBC- Foxes and QPR respond to charges
Queens Park Rangers have admitted a Football Association charge of failing to ensure that their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion.
However, Leicester have denied the same charge. Both relate to the brawl that took place in Rangers' 2-1 win at the Walkers Stadium on 24 September.
Both clubs requested personal hearings, which are yet to be scheduled.
There were claims that QPR supporters were taunted with chants about the London bombings during the game.
Referee Colin Webster showed two red and seven yellow cards, with Rangers' Paul Furlong grabbing the winner just before he was sent off.
Leicester's Alan Maybury saw red earlier in the game
# posted by Administrator @ 8:36 AM 0 comments
Stan Bowles - Interview, The Independent
Independent - STAN BOWLES
Stan Bowles: 'Clough, Brooking, Eriksson... I don't rate any of them'
Published: 13 October 2005
Brian Viner Interview: He walked out on England, openly consorted with gangsters and once took a bribe to throw a game, but still evokes nostalgia for a 1970s golden age
Nostalgia, it occurs to me as I nurse a pint of bitter in a shabby pub on a shabby street in Spitalfields, in the East End of London, is fundamentally delusional. England's footballers have just qualified for the 2006 World Cup, yet here I am waiting to meet a man who, more than most, symbolises a decade in which England failed to reach successive World Cups, who walked out on his national team over a perceived slight, who openly consorted with gangsters, who once accepted a bribe to throw a game, who makes some of the most poorly behaved players in modern football look like paragons of virtue.
Yet to most football lovers of my generation, me included, the name Stan Bowles evokes a golden age. It's rather odd.
Time passes. My pint glass is almost empty, our 1pm rendezvous is long gone, and still there is no sign of Bowles. He has agreed to meet me to publicise a new book based on a regular item on the BBC's Football Focus programme, called Cult Heroes. The book contains one so-called cult hero for every League club in England and Scotland, and Bowles, not surprisingly, is the Queen's Park Rangers pick. He also features in the book's Cult Heroes XI, along with George Best, Paul Gascoigne and Matt Le Tissier, as well as lesser luminaries such as "Vodka" Vic Kasule of Albion Rovers and Torquay United's Derek "the dude" Dawkins.
Finally, he arrives. "What's a cult hero?" he asks me. Whatever it is, he does not look like one. The blue eyes are as keen as ever, but he has the broken veins of a heavy smoker and the dirty blond locks are now white. He is lean enough, but has a dissolute, nervy air. He sits underneath a collage of great West Ham players through the ages.
"The aristocrats of ******* football, West Ham used to be called," he says, with a throaty, nicotine-laced chuckle. Just to save on asterisks, incidentally, I will refrain throughout from quoting him verbatim. "I remember playing against Trevor Brooking. He'd go on the wing, drop a shoulder, cross the ball to the near post, and that was it. I said, 'Is that all he's got?' Didn't rate him at all."
Bowles has never been one to venerate sacred cows. When he left QPR he signed for Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, but Clough did not impress him.
"He couldn't coach. Him and Peter Taylor just used to walk their dogs down the Trent, where we trained in a park. Jimmy Gordon, a little Scots fella, he took the training. Cloughie must have had something, but I haven't a clue what it was. I never saw it."
I have a silent bet with myself that Bowles will not rate Sven Goran Eriksson either, and silently I clear up. Which is more than he generally does. To calculate how much money he has gambled away would take him the rest of today and all day tomorrow, he says.
"I fell asleep at half-time in that Austria game. That Eriksson doesn't know what he's doing. I heard him on the news saying the team played well; he must be the only person in England who thought that. Mind you, he's always at bloody football matches. Someone said he was at Rochdale the other day. I prefer my lifestyle, I can tell you that."
I do not think Sven would swap. The Bowles lifestyle includes a bit of repping for a Brentford-based tile company - "not that I know anything about tiles, only that they're square" - and the odd question-and-answer session in pubs and clubs, for which he gets paid up to £600 a time. He used to do a bit of match-day hospitality at QPR, until they told him they were halving his wages. So the only money he makes from football now is from the Q&As; fortunately for him there are enough of us out there who remember him as one of football's great entertainers, which is why his 1996 autobiography continues to tick over.
He got a decent advance for the book, he says, although of course it didn't last long. "I'm not too worried about that, though. The art of the game is getting it, what you do with it afterwards doesn't make no difference, do you know what I mean? You get immune to losing."
His mobile rings. "My broker," he says, with a grin. "Your pawnbroker?" I say. A big, smoker's laugh. "Very good. I like that."
I ask whether, to fund his gambling habit, he was ever invited to throw a football match. After all, some of his closest boyhood friends were members of Manchester's Quality Street Gang, and they didn't earn that name by having soft centres.
"It may have cropped up," he says, almost coyly. "But the only time I done it was a five-a-side. Do you remember the national five-a-side tournament? I was playing for QPR and we reached the final against Leyton Orient. I had a good mate who was an Orient supporter - Jewish Dennis he was called, he's dead now - and he'd backed them to win the thing, £1,000 at 8-1.
"He said to me, 'If you go boss-eyed in the final, you've got a grand'. Well, I only stood to get £200 if we won the final, so I said, 'Certainly'. I scored a goal but we lost 6-1, and our manager, Gerry Francis, said to me afterwards, 'You looked a bit tired in the second half'." Bowles' laughter rings round the pub. "But it was only five-a-side. It didn't matter."
Playing for England never mattered to him, either. "I was happy playing for QPR, that was all. I played five times for England, for three different managers. Some say I got them all the sack."
I tell him what Alan Hudson, another whose talent and trickery illuminated the 1970s, once said to me, that the trio of him, Bowles and the similarly blessed Frank Worthington did not collectively get as many England caps as Carlton Palmer. "Yeah," says Bowles. "I even had less than Ralph Coates. I played with him at Orient, when I went there after Forest. And I thought, 'How did you get any caps?' I just used him as a decoy."
But if he didn't care about playing for England himself, why should it bother him who did? Maybe, in his own way, he cared too much. When the caretaker manager Joe Mercer pulled him off just after half-time in the home international against Northern Ireland on 15 May 1974, he decided he had had enough of the England set-up.
"I left the hotel the next day, before the game against Scotland. Mick Channon was my room-mate, and he said, 'You can't do this to England'. I said, 'Watch me. You see that car outside, that's the one I'm jumping in.' I went to White City dogs that night, and there were a load of reporters following me round. Unfortunately one of them, a Daily Mirror reporter, got knocked out by one of my ... associates. He fell down the stairs and hit his head on the concrete. The next day it looked as if about eight people had beaten him up, but it wasn't like that."
"That's OK, then," I say, and he obliges me with a chuckle.
Bowles lights up another Benson & Hedges, which he smokes in the time-honoured way of a 60-a-day man, cupped in his hand with the tip all but brushing against his palm. I ask if he has heard the latest health bulletin on his mate George Best, perhaps the only footballer who emerged from the 1970s with a reputation for unreliability to match his own.
"No, I haven't seen him since he was taken ill. I had to give up drinking with George, you know. He never seemed to get pissed. He could drink from 10 in the morning to 12 at night, and I couldn't do that. I tried it a few times, but I left him once in Chelsea and I wound up on one of them bridges, walking completely the wrong way. I didn't know where I was."
Bowles laughs, then looks rather wistfully into the middle distance. "As a footballer, there's nobody to touch George. Best player I ever saw by a mile. Rooney's a good player, but he hasn't got it all like George had. And George was a good-looking kid. Poor young Wayne's got a face only a mother could love.
"Anyway, I don't watch much football now. That Thierry Henry, he's the only player I'd pay to watch now. Tricky, knows what he's doing, I like that.
"Of course, I could have stayed in the game, could have had a couple of jobs managing lower-league clubs, but once it's over it's over. I could handle that. My old QPR team-mate Dave Clement couldn't, that's why he killed himself. But I could handle it. I was lucky."
It is rather gratifying to hear that Bowles feels lucky. His own mother once said that if he invested in a cemetery, people would stop dying. "Yeah," he says, "but I've had a blinding time."
The life and times of Stan Bowles
Born: 24 December 1948, in Manchester.
Clubs: Manchester City, Bury, Crewe, Carlisle, Queen's Park Rangers, Nottingham Forest, Leyton Orient, Brentford.
Club career: 505 appearances, 127 goals.
International career: Five caps, one goal for England.
Debut: Friendly, 0-0 v Portugal in Lisbon, 3 April 1974.
Last game: Friendly, 0-2 v the Netherlands at Wembley, 9 February 1977.
* A footballing maverick? Was possibly the most naturally gifted Englishman, but Bowles' off-field activities dominated as many headlines as those he created on it. After brief and unsuccessful spells at Manchester City and Bury, Bowles arrived at Crewe and became an instant hero. By far the best player in the Fourth Division, Bowles remained prone to the lure of the horses.
* His manager's verdict: Manager Ernie Tagg once said: "If Stan could pass a betting shop like he can pass a football, he would be all right." Tagg even used to give Bowles' wages directly to his wife.
* Carlisle hero: In October 1971 Bowles was sold to Second Division Carlisle United for £12,000. Becoming their hero almost as quickly, the midfielder was sold to QPR in September 1972 for £110,000.
* Loftus Road legend: It was at Loftus Road that he achieved the greatest acclaim, helping QPR to finish second in the First Division in 1976 and being capped by England between 1974 and 1977.
* Always a gambler, Bowles moved to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest in 1979. However, after only six months at the club he was sold to Leyton Orient and began dropping down the leagues, finally settling at Brentford, where he enjoyed the twilight of his career. In 2004, QPR supporters voted him their greatest-ever player, in recognition for his exploits during the 1970s. He is now an after-dinner speaker and has his own betting column.
'Cult Heroes' is published by BBC Books, priced £9.99.
Nostalgia, it occurs to me as I nurse a pint of bitter in a shabby pub on a shabby street in Spitalfields, in the East End of London, is fundamentally delusional. England's footballers have just qualified for the 2006 World Cup, yet here I am waiting to meet a man who, more than most, symbolises a decade in which England failed to reach successive World Cups, who walked out on his national team over a perceived slight, who openly consorted with gangsters, who once accepted a bribe to throw a game, who makes some of the most poorly behaved players in modern football look like paragons of virtue.
Yet to most football lovers of my generation, me included, the name Stan Bowles evokes a golden age. It's rather odd.
Time passes. My pint glass is almost empty, our 1pm rendezvous is long gone, and still there is no sign of Bowles. He has agreed to meet me to publicise a new book based on a regular item on the BBC's Football Focus programme, called Cult Heroes. The book contains one so-called cult hero for every League club in England and Scotland, and Bowles, not surprisingly, is the Queen's Park Rangers pick. He also features in the book's Cult Heroes XI, along with George Best, Paul Gascoigne and Matt Le Tissier, as well as lesser luminaries such as "Vodka" Vic Kasule of Albion Rovers and Torquay United's Derek "the dude" Dawkins.
Finally, he arrives. "What's a cult hero?" he asks me. Whatever it is, he does not look like one. The blue eyes are as keen as ever, but he has the broken veins of a heavy smoker and the dirty blond locks are now white. He is lean enough, but has a dissolute, nervy air. He sits underneath a collage of great West Ham players through the ages.
"The aristocrats of ******* football, West Ham used to be called," he says, with a throaty, nicotine-laced chuckle. Just to save on asterisks, incidentally, I will refrain throughout from quoting him verbatim. "I remember playing against Trevor Brooking. He'd go on the wing, drop a shoulder, cross the ball to the near post, and that was it. I said, 'Is that all he's got?' Didn't rate him at all."
Bowles has never been one to venerate sacred cows. When he left QPR he signed for Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, but Clough did not impress him.
"He couldn't coach. Him and Peter Taylor just used to walk their dogs down the Trent, where we trained in a park. Jimmy Gordon, a little Scots fella, he took the training. Cloughie must have had something, but I haven't a clue what it was. I never saw it."
I have a silent bet with myself that Bowles will not rate Sven Goran Eriksson either, and silently I clear up. Which is more than he generally does. To calculate how much money he has gambled away would take him the rest of today and all day tomorrow, he says.
"I fell asleep at half-time in that Austria game. That Eriksson doesn't know what he's doing. I heard him on the news saying the team played well; he must be the only person in England who thought that. Mind you, he's always at bloody football matches. Someone said he was at Rochdale the other day. I prefer my lifestyle, I can tell you that."
I do not think Sven would swap. The Bowles lifestyle includes a bit of repping for a Brentford-based tile company - "not that I know anything about tiles, only that they're square" - and the odd question-and-answer session in pubs and clubs, for which he gets paid up to £600 a time. He used to do a bit of match-day hospitality at QPR, until they told him they were halving his wages. So the only money he makes from football now is from the Q&As; fortunately for him there are enough of us out there who remember him as one of football's great entertainers, which is why his 1996 autobiography continues to tick over.
He got a decent advance for the book, he says, although of course it didn't last long. "I'm not too worried about that, though. The art of the game is getting it, what you do with it afterwards doesn't make no difference, do you know what I mean? You get immune to losing."
His mobile rings. "My broker," he says, with a grin. "Your pawnbroker?" I say. A big, smoker's laugh. "Very good. I like that."
I ask whether, to fund his gambling habit, he was ever invited to throw a football match. After all, some of his closest boyhood friends were members of Manchester's Quality Street Gang, and they didn't earn that name by having soft centres.
"It may have cropped up," he says, almost coyly. "But the only time I done it was a five-a-side. Do you remember the national five-a-side tournament? I was playing for QPR and we reached the final against Leyton Orient. I had a good mate who was an Orient supporter - Jewish Dennis he was called, he's dead now - and he'd backed them to win the thing, £1,000 at 8-1.
"He said to me, 'If you go boss-eyed in the final, you've got a grand'. Well, I only stood to get £200 if we won the final, so I said, 'Certainly'. I scored a goal but we lost 6-1, and our manager, Gerry Francis, said to me afterwards, 'You looked a bit tired in the second half'." Bowles' laughter rings round the pub. "But it was only five-a-side. It didn't matter."
Playing for England never mattered to him, either. "I was happy playing for QPR, that was all. I played five times for England, for three different managers. Some say I got them all the sack."
I tell him what Alan Hudson, another whose talent and trickery illuminated the 1970s, once said to me, that the trio of him, Bowles and the similarly blessed Frank Worthington did not collectively get as many England caps as Carlton Palmer. "Yeah," says Bowles. "I even had less than Ralph Coates. I played with him at Orient, when I went there after Forest. And I thought, 'How did you get any caps?' I just used him as a decoy."
But if he didn't care about playing for England himself, why should it bother him who did? Maybe, in his own way, he cared too much. When the caretaker manager Joe Mercer pulled him off just after half-time in the home international against Northern Ireland on 15 May 1974, he decided he had had enough of the England set-up.
"I left the hotel the next day, before the game against Scotland. Mick Channon was my room-mate, and he said, 'You can't do this to England'. I said, 'Watch me. You see that car outside, that's the one I'm jumping in.' I went to White City dogs that night, and there were a load of reporters following me round. Unfortunately one of them, a Daily Mirror reporter, got knocked out by one of my ... associates. He fell down the stairs and hit his head on the concrete. The next day it looked as if about eight people had beaten him up, but it wasn't like that."
"That's OK, then," I say, and he obliges me with a chuckle.
Bowles lights up another Benson & Hedges, which he smokes in the time-honoured way of a 60-a-day man, cupped in his hand with the tip all but brushing against his palm. I ask if he has heard the latest health bulletin on his mate George Best, perhaps the only footballer who emerged from the 1970s with a reputation for unreliability to match his own.
"No, I haven't seen him since he was taken ill. I had to give up drinking with George, you know. He never seemed to get pissed. He could drink from 10 in the morning to 12 at night, and I couldn't do that. I tried it a few times, but I left him once in Chelsea and I wound up on one of them bridges, walking completely the wrong way. I didn't know where I was."
Bowles laughs, then looks rather wistfully into the middle distance. "As a footballer, there's nobody to touch George. Best player I ever saw by a mile. Rooney's a good player, but he hasn't got it all like George had. And George was a good-looking kid. Poor young Wayne's got a face only a mother could love.
"Anyway, I don't watch much football now. That Thierry Henry, he's the only player I'd pay to watch now. Tricky, knows what he's doing, I like that.
"Of course, I could have stayed in the game, could have had a couple of jobs managing lower-league clubs, but once it's over it's over. I could handle that. My old QPR team-mate Dave Clement couldn't, that's why he killed himself. But I could handle it. I was lucky."
It is rather gratifying to hear that Bowles feels lucky. His own mother once said that if he invested in a cemetery, people would stop dying. "Yeah," he says, "but I've had a blinding time."
The life and times of Stan Bowles
Born: 24 December 1948, in Manchester.
Clubs: Manchester City, Bury, Crewe, Carlisle, Queen's Park Rangers, Nottingham Forest, Leyton Orient, Brentford.
Club career: 505 appearances, 127 goals.
International career: Five caps, one goal for England.
Debut: Friendly, 0-0 v Portugal in Lisbon, 3 April 1974.
Last game: Friendly, 0-2 v the Netherlands at Wembley, 9 February 1977.
* A footballing maverick? Was possibly the most naturally gifted Englishman, but Bowles' off-field activities dominated as many headlines as those he created on it. After brief and unsuccessful spells at Manchester City and Bury, Bowles arrived at Crewe and became an instant hero. By far the best player in the Fourth Division, Bowles remained prone to the lure of the horses.
* His manager's verdict: Manager Ernie Tagg once said: "If Stan could pass a betting shop like he can pass a football, he would be all right." Tagg even used to give Bowles' wages directly to his wife.
* Carlisle hero: In October 1971 Bowles was sold to Second Division Carlisle United for £12,000. Becoming their hero almost as quickly, the midfielder was sold to QPR in September 1972 for £110,000.
* Loftus Road legend: It was at Loftus Road that he achieved the greatest acclaim, helping QPR to finish second in the First Division in 1976 and being capped by England between 1974 and 1977.
* Always a gambler, Bowles moved to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest in 1979. However, after only six months at the club he was sold to Leyton Orient and began dropping down the leagues, finally settling at Brentford, where he enjoyed the twilight of his career. In 2004, QPR supporters voted him their greatest-ever player, in recognition for his exploits during the 1970s. He is now an after-dinner speaker and has his own betting column.
'Cult Heroes' is published by BBC Books, priced £9.99 http://web.archive.org/web/20051018125620/http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/news/article319092.ece
# posted by Administrator @ 8:11 AM 0 comments
Web Archives
RETRIEVED II
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Don Rogers Turns SIXTY
Happy Sixtieth Birthday, Don Rogers!
Don Rogers - Born October 25, 1945
DEBUT -Tuesday, 24th September 1974 as a sub in a 2-2 draw at home to Everton (Aged: 28)
CLUB CAREER -13 League apps (+5 as sub), 5 goals
http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=9786
[Also birthday today, Steve Hodge - October 25, 1962
http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/searchresults.asp?FootballHeroName=Steve+Hodge
# posted by Administrator @ 12:26 AM 0 comments
Monday, October 24, 2005
Holloway on Wanting Langley at QPR
TEAMTALK
Holloway jumps to Langley's defence
Manager Ian Holloway has rubbished speculation that Richard Langley has already fallen out of favour at QPR.The 25-year-old rejoined the west London club in August after a two-year spell at Cardiff - but has started only two matches since his return.Boss Holloway confronted a Rangers fan who voiced his displeasure at Langley's situation shortly before Saturday's 3-0 win over Norwich - a match from which Langley was omitted once more."I didn't want to lose Richard Langley in [2003], and I was desperate to get him back here," Holloway insisted."He is not quite fit yet - but we will get him fit." http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/News/Story_Page/0,7760,1801_783065,00.html
# posted by Administrator @ 10:49 PM 0 comments
QPR 1st's Meeting with Paladini & Caliendo - Report
Minutes/Report from Meeting with QPR Board reps Friday 21st October 2005
http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc
In attendance:
QPR Holdings Ltd Reps:
Gianni Paladini (GP) Chairman; Antonio Caliendo (AC) Monaco groups’ consultant; Chris Pennington (CP) Chief financial officer
QPR 1st Reps:
Geoff Gibbs (GG) Treasurer; Tracy Stent (TS) Chairperson
Other: Tony Altieri; Italian translator
Venue: The Chairman’s office, QPR FC.
http://web.archive.org/web/20051025164513/http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc
# posted by Administrator @ 5:28 PM 0 comments
QPR 3 Norwich 0 - Additional Match Reports
Independent - QPR 3 Norwich
Indepdent - Conrad Leach Norwich City have conceded seven goals in their last two games, all in the first half, and have replied with only two. They lie only four points off the relegation zone and their hopes of instant promotion back to the Premiership will be in tatters before long if their form continues like this.
Those hopes are looking shaky enough as it is. The Norfolk side were four goals behind last Tuesday at Luton before they replied with a couple of consolation efforts and then swiftly shipped three at Loftus Road on Saturday, effectively ending any ideas, even before half-time, of a point. The confidence engendered by their East Anglia derby win against Ipswich a month ago has rapidly disappeared.
Norwich City have conceded seven goals in their last two games, all in the first half, and have replied with only two. They lie only four points off the relegation zone and their hopes of instant promotion back to the Premiership will be in tatters before long if their form continues like this.
Those hopes are looking shaky enough as it is. The Norfolk side were four goals behind last Tuesday at Luton before they replied with a couple of consolation efforts and then swiftly shipped three at Loftus Road on Saturday, effectively ending any ideas, even before half-time, of a point. The confidence engendered by their East Anglia derby win against Ipswich a month ago has rapidly disappeared.
Dean Ashton, sporting a cut above his left eye, articulated the general frustration at the Canaries' form but admitted, worryingly, that no one appears any closer to working out its root cause.
"This was as bad if not worse than Tuesday," he said. "There's been a lot of talking going on in the dressing-room and so there should be. Once again it's not good enough. Everyone's trying to get together to find out what is going wrong. Individually we've got to look at ourselves and ask, 'Are we doing enough?'"
Ashton's cut, which needed three stitches, was testament to his commitment to the team cause, but the defenders need to look at their contribution. Lee Cook's cross from the left wing to Kevin Gallen at the far post was in the air long enough for Jim Brennan to cover but there was no resistance as his headed pass was met by the equally unguarded Marc Nygaard six yards out.
For their second goal Cook again supplied the ball, this time from a free-kick, for Paul Furlong - with his back to goal - to flick his header past Robert Green while Georges Santos had too much time to volley in from 20 yards after Ashton's headed clearance only looped up to the midfielder.
Ashton added: "I don't think concentration is the problem. We're just too easy to score against."
He then had a slip in his own concentration when he said: "We set out four banks of four and within half an hour they're 3-0 up which can't be right." His meaning was clear but their manager, Nigel Worthington, must feel right now that 16 players on the pitch is what he needs.
Goals: Nygaard (11) 1-0; Furlong (18) 2-0; Santos (42) 3-0.
Queen's Park Rangers (4-4-2): Royce; Bignot, Shittu, Evatt, Dyer; Gallen, Bircham (Santos, 38), Doherty, Cook (Ainsworth, 83); Furlong, Nygaard (Sturridge, 26) Substitutes not used: Cole (gk), Moore.
Norwich City (4-4-2): Green; Colin, Doherty, Fleming, Brennan; Henderson (Marney, h-t), Hughes, Charlton, McVeigh (Ryan Jarvis, h-t); Ashton, Huckerby. Substitutes not used: Ward (gk), Louis-Jean, Rossi Jarvis.
Referee: R Olivier (West Midlands).
Booked: QPR: Bignot; Norwich: Hughes, McVeigh.
Man of the match: Cook.
Attendance: 15,976.
Dean Ashton, sporting a cut above his left eye, articulated the general frustration at the Canaries' form but admitted, worryingly, that no one appears any closer to working out its root cause.
"This was as bad if not worse than Tuesday," he said. "There's been a lot of talking going on in the dressing-room and so there should be. Once again it's not good enough. Everyone's trying to get together to find out what is going wrong. Individually we've got to look at ourselves and ask, 'Are we doing enough?'"
Ashton's cut, which needed three stitches, was testament to his commitment to the team cause, but the defenders need to look at their contribution. Lee Cook's cross from the left wing to Kevin Gallen at the far post was in the air long enough for Jim Brennan to cover but there was no resistance as his headed pass was met by the equally unguarded Marc Nygaard six yards out.
For their second goal Cook again supplied the ball, this time from a free-kick, for Paul Furlong - with his back to goal - to flick his header past Robert Green while Georges Santos had too much time to volley in from 20 yards after Ashton's headed clearance only looped up to the midfielder.
Ashton added: "I don't think concentration is the problem. We're just too easy to score against."
He then had a slip in his own concentration when he said: "We set out four banks of four and within half an hour they're 3-0 up which can't be right." His meaning was clear but their manager, Nigel Worthington, must feel right now that 16 players on the pitch is what he needs.
Goals: Nygaard (11) 1-0; Furlong (18) 2-0; Santos (42) 3-0.
Queen's Park Rangers (4-4-2): Royce; Bignot, Shittu, Evatt, Dyer; Gallen, Bircham (Santos, 38), Doherty, Cook (Ainsworth, 83); Furlong, Nygaard (Sturridge, 26) Substitutes not used: Cole (gk), Moore.
Norwich City (4-4-2): Green; Colin, Doherty, Fleming, Brennan; Henderson (Marney, h-t), Hughes, Charlton, McVeigh (Ryan Jarvis, h-t); Ashton, Huckerby. Substitutes not used: Ward (gk), Louis-Jean, Rossi Jarvis.
Referee: R Olivier (West Midlands).
Booked: QPR: Bignot; Norwich: Hughes, McVeigh.
Man of the match: Cook.
Attendance: 15,976.
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/coca_cola/article321759.ece
# posted by Administrator @ 7:56 AM 0 comments
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