Briatore Right. Di Canio Wrong About Mancienne...Helguson Back on?...Managerial Search Back on?

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Interesting Perspective

Dave McIntyre BBC606 - More ammunition for Briatore
- Michael Mancienne’s inclusion in the England squad is potentially bad news for those unhappy with Flavio Briatore’s involvement in team affairs at QPR.
- Like Samuel Di Carmine’s netbuster against Birmingham, news of Mancienne’s call-up will no doubt further convince Briatore that these football ‘experts’ aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and that he should continue calling the shots.
- Briatore was keen for Rangers to sign Mancienne from Chelsea earlier this year, but former coach Gigi De Canio was against the move.
- De Canio, a man who otherwise had very little say over transfer dealings, managed to convince his bosses not to pursue the player.
- In fact, De Canio was at times reluctant to even select Mancienne when he was at Rangers.
- And even after the Italian was replaced with Iain Dowie, there was no firm move from Rangers to try and bring Mancienne back to Loftus Road.
- I agreed with De Canio and still don’t believe signing Mancienne would have been a good move for Rangers.
- But there are plenty others – England Under-21 boss Stuart Pearce and the vast majority of QPR fans for starters – who regard Mancienne as a top player.
- And since his loan move to Wolves, Mancienne has won new admirers and a place in Fabio Capello’s squad.
- Briatore was an admirer as well, so now has a ready-made response to those who say he should appoint a manager and give him control over buying players.
- And this after Di Carmine, a player he wanted in the team, smashed home a beauty against Birmingham while another of his preferred choices, Damiano Tommasi, won praise for his performance. Briatore has been on a roll.

It won’t last. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that.
- Tommasi, a 34-year-old who has suffered serious injuries to both knees, is beginning to struggle badly after a solid enough start, and was picked apart by Burnley’s youthful midfield on Saturday.

And while Di Carmine has some good attributes, he is not the answer to Rangers’ shortcomings up front.
- Heidar Helguson could be if he can get back his match sharpness and stay fit, but doubts about his long-term fitness led to his proposed transfer from Bolton stalling last week.
- Talks to try and salvage that move will take place over next couple of days, and Helguson could yet join Rangers before Saturday’s match against his former club Watford.

- Whether Gareth Ainsworth is still ‘in charge’ for that game remains to be seen.
- He’s been flavour of the month at Rangers and very much in pole position for the manager’s job since Dowie’s departure, despite more exotic names being linked with the job.
- But the culture of the club is so fickle and volatile, one home defeat was always likely to change that and, sure enough, the search for a manager is now underway in the wake of the loss to Burnley.
- Getting someone to take the job won’t be easy though, for reasons that are now being well documented but existed before the appointment of both De Canio and Dowie - and arguably even before that.
- If Ainsworth stays in caretaker charge and gets a win at Watford, he’ll be the main man again.
- At QPR, you really are only as good as your last game. BBC606

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