Ferguson/QPR?...QPR's Summer Move for Swindon's Simon Cox?...Wayne Fereday Looks Back and Regrets Leaving

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- For a slew of "cutting-edge" articles and links to articles re QPR and football-in-general...For a site where differing opinions are encouraged - as long as the subject is football - but without the ad-hominems: Visit the completely-independent QPR Report Messageboard. Post if you want. Or just read if you prefer. ALL perspectives genuinely welcomed!
- Among today's posted articles: QPR's 34 Managers in 40 Years .... Person Changes His Name to..."Queens Park Rangers" .... What Chairman Briatore was Saying, One Year Ago....Ref Says Chelsea Approached him before Liverpool game about not booking players!.... The History of Match-Fixing in English Football


The Mirror/James Nursey - Queens Park Rangers close in on Darren Ferguson
-Queens Park Rangers hope to exploit a bargain buy-out clause in Darren Ferguson's contract as Peterborough manager.
-Gareth Ainsworth has been made caretaker boss until the end of the season following Paulo Sousa's sacking.
-But QPR supremo Flavio Briatore has identified Ferguson, 37, as his No.1 choice. Sir Alex Ferguson's son guided Posh to promotion from League Two in his first full season at the helm. They are currently second in League One.
-Ferguson, appointed in January 2007, is believed to have a buy-out clause of less than £100,000.
-Should Posh fail to go up, Ferguson may well be tempted to move to Championship club Rangers in the summer..- The Mirror


Swindon Advertiser/Anthony Marshall - QPR to make summer move for Cox
- CHAMPIONSHIP rich boys QPR are set to test Town’s resolve with a big money bid for Simon Cox in the summer.
- Rangers have joined West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City in expressing an interest in Swindon’s top scorer, while Derby County have also been regular admirers of the 27-goal front man, pictured, during a prolific season.
- The Hoops are owned by Formula One tycoons and multi-millionaires Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, but despite their significant wealth have struggled to make any impression at the right end of the Championship and sacked head coach Paulo Sousa on Thursday night.
- Sources close to the west London club have told the Advertiser that QPR chiefs see Cox as the man to fire them into the Premier League next year, and the 21-year-old has made no secret of his desire to play at a higher level.
- Town chairman Andrew Fitton has always admitted he will not stand in the way of Cox leaving to further his career, if any potential deal can net Swindon a healthy profit on the £200,000 they recruited the front man for in January 2008.
- Cox has already struck three hat-tricks this season and will be hoping to move closer to a 30-goal tally this afternoon at Brighton. And that feat, in a team struggling to avoid relegation, has caught the eye of scouts and managers across the country.
- Reports claim QPR will put in a bid of £1.5million for the former Reading striker, however the Advertiser understands an offer around £1million is more likely to come from Loftus Road. Swindon Advertiser


Wayne Fereday Looks Back: Daily Echo/Neil Perrett - Rubbish... but not the worst
- WAYNE Fereday knows he was rubbish when he played for Cherries – he’s just glad Jeff Stelling didn’t rub it in.
- Now 45 and still living locally, Fereday made 30 mostly forgettable appearances during a brief spell at Dean Court in the early 1990s.
- But when Sky Sports anchorman Stelling published his book ‘England’s Worst Footballers’ in 2004, Fereday missed out on the inglorious title of being crowned Cherries’ worst.
- Before joining Cherries, Fereday had endured an equally unhappy stay at Newcastle – and also thought he might be in line to appear in their hall of shame.
- “When the book came out, I expected to be Newcastle and Bournemouth’s worst player,” admitted Fereday, who now works as a delivery driver for Cookes Furniture in Christchurch.
- “I always thought I had half-a-chance of seeing my name in lights but it didn’t happen. George Lawrence beat me to it at Bournemouth and Marcelino got the vote at Newcastle.
- “I thought I might get one, if not both, and was very surprised to get neither. I was quite happy about it though!”
- Despite failing to cover himself in glory at St James’ Park and Dean Court, Fereday enjoyed a promising start to his career at QPR.
- As a 17-year-old, he scored twice on his debut before going on to play more than 200 games for the West London club – and six seasons in the top flight.
- Still talked about as the fastest winger to play for QPR, he also won international honours alongside luminaries such as David Seaman and Tony Adams for England under-21s.
- But after leaving the bright lights of London following a £400,000 move to the North East, Fereday found he had walked into a living hell.
- “It was the biggest mistake I ever made,” he admits. “I’ve got fond memories of my time at QPR but things went downhill rapidly after I left.
- “I’d been at QPR for 10 years and there was never any real pressure there.
- “If they had a good run in the cup and finished mid-table, that was a good season.
- “Although Newcastle were in the league below, the expectations were enormous. And although I started okay, I then had a couple of indifferent games and the crowd got on my back.
- “I was a confidence player and needed the crowd with me. At Newcastle, they would eat you alive if you didn’t produce the goods and I didn’t.”
- If Fereday thought his problems were over when he arrived at Dean Court in November 1990, he was very much mistaken. Harry Redknapp signed him in a deal that saw Gavin PeaC*** move in the opposite direction.
- “It was exactly the same at Bournemouth,” said Fereday. “I hadn’t got Newcastle out of my system and probably thought it was going to be easier than it was.
- “The lower down the leagues you go, the less time you get on the ball. It was a shame I didn’t show more for myself or the fans and, rightly so, they gave me grief at Bournemouth as well.”
- Fereday is currently a match co-ordinator for the Press Association and covers most Portsmouth games. His wife Theresa works in the media department at Fratton Park and they live in Christchurch.
- His three children – Samantha Jane, 23, Simon, 21, and TJ, 18 – and grandsons, James, five, and five-month-old Louie, all live in Broadstone and Canford Heath.
- With Cherries and Newcastle battling to avoid the drop, West Brom, another of his former clubs, are also in relegation trouble this season.
- “I don’t want to see any of them go down,” said Fereday, whose career was cut short by injury while at Cardiff in 1995.....” Daily Echo
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