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Friday, August 07, 2009

QPR's 2009/10 Championship Previews: What All the "Experts" Predict

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THE FAN SITES PREVIEWS

- Dave Barton's QueensParkRangersFC - Comprehensive Championship Club-by-Club Assessment


- From Vital Football QPR/Adam Boxer - Season Previews

- Mike - QPR Report

- Clive Whittingham - Loft For Words

- Scott Jones - We are the Rangers Boys

- Former Chairman Bill Power

- Ben Kosky - Kilburn Times

- Longegunmen - QPR Fanz

- Liam Osborne QPR Mad

- Dave Barton - Queens Park Rangers FC

- Paul Finney - Independent Rs

- Dot.org's Drew Garro

- Dave McIntyre

- AKUTR's Dave Thomas


- Vital Football QPR's Adam Boxer


- QPRNet's Simon Skinner Assessment of QPR's Squad: The Defense .... The Midfield.... The Forwards


- LoftforWords's Clive Whittingham - Club by Club - Specifically QPR


IndependentRs - "Vox Populi

1. Adam Boxer/Vital Football QPR

2. ZenithR

3. Kilburn Times Ben Kosky

4. Dave McIntyre

5. Dave Barton


- The Godfather/WATRB Championship Preview


Apologies if any omissions! Just contact me and it will be added

Championship Diamonds Daily Mail/Abigail Montrose
"Young diamonds in the lower leagues: Southampton boss Alan Pardew's guide to the rising stars from QPR to Crystal Palace
....ANGELO BALANTA QPR. Age: 19 COLOMBIAN forward who has come through the ranks at QPR and has scored two goals in 13 games since his debut in 2007. Balanta had three months on loan at Wycombe last season, scoring three goals in 11 games.
- Pardew says: He’s a wide player, so don’t judge him on his goals record. He seems to have found his body and is learning his capabilities. He is a speed machine, lightning quick and has good technique. He will be a big player for QPR this season and I can see him making big waves. Mail


QPR - CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEWS

- Championship Odds: The Various Bookies


The Guardian/Mikey Stafford and Simon Burnton - Championship
"...Queens Park Rangers
Manager Jim Magilton
One to watch Adel Taarabt, 20
- Bookies installed QPR as favourites for the title a year ago. A year of mild disappointment and a couple of managerial changes later, they are likely to take aim at the play-offs armed with a rapidly-improving squad including the £3.5m Argentinian midfielder Alejandro Faulin.
Prediction Play-off possibility"
Complete Guardian Championship Preview


The Independent - Neil Warnock's guide to the Championship season
As the league kicks off tonight, with the battle for promotion promising to be fiercer than ever, the Crystal Palace manager and columnist for The Independent casts his expert eye over the contenders
...Queen's Park Rangers
Manager: Jim Magilton (June 2009) Last season: 11th
- Warnock's verdict: They've spent £3.5m on one player, the biggest signing in the division, and no one has heard of him. I wonder how many times Jim saw Faurlin play. These things happen there on a regular basis, but QPR fans will tell you it's better now than when they were going into administration. Our "local" derby with Charlton has gone – our first reserve game when I took over was there. It's 11 miles on satnav, I took an hour and 45 minutes to get there and missed the start.
- Key stat: Managed only 18 away points last term.
- Key man: Radek Cerny – One of the best keepers in the league last season, with 16 clean sheets.
- Major signings: A Faurlin (Instituto, £3.5m), A Taarabt (Tottenham, loan). Major departures: L Camp, D Blackstock (both Nottm Forest), D Delaney (Ipswich).
- Promotion odds: 7-1 (Ladbrokes). The Independent


BBC Club by Club Championship Guide - QPR
QPR
- How did they do last year? Abysmally compared to the hype they generated, but Paulo Sousa, Gareth Ainsworth and particularly Iain Dowie did well to keep them in the top half given the way the club has been mismanaged.
- Who's the gaffer? Former Northern Ireland midfielder Jim Magilton will be looking to prove Ipswich wrong for sacking him and has a great chemistry with assistant boss John Gorman.
- Who's the player to watch? Midfielder Adel Taarabt is on a season-long loan from Tottenham and could be a star player for Rangers - if he gets his own way.
- How will they do? "QPR are the hardest side in the division to predict," says BBC Sport's David McIntyre. "Last season I confidently wrote off their chances, but now I'm not so sure. Expectations are lower, there are signs co-owner Flavio Briatore is taking a back seat and Rangers do have some good players. I believe they are the one team in that division who could storm away if they could just build up some momentum. The question is whether they can get off the ground. Magilton's first task is to get enough points to avoid a complete disaster, because such a volatile club really could head out of the Championship in either direction."
- Your say - Discuss QPR's chances on 606
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/ArticleSear....phrase=Football
- Complete BBC Championship Guide


Skysports - Championship 09/10
- Some big names will be looking to mount a promotion push when the Coca-Cola Championship season kicks off. We take a look at each team's chances of making it to the Premier League...
Skysports.com looks at each team's chances....
QPR
Manager: Jim Magilton
Position last season: 11th
Ground: Loftus Road
Capacity: 18,682
Players in: Alejandro Faurlin (Instituto, £3.5million), Adel Taarabt (Spurs, loan), Alessandro Pellicori (Avellino, free)
Players out: Liam Miller (released), Zesh Rehman (Bradford, free), Jake Cole (Barnet, free), Danny Maguire (released), Chris Arthur (released), Damien Delaney (Ipswich, undisclosed), Lee Camp (Nottingham Forest, undisclosed), Dexter Blackstock (Nottingham Forest, undisclosed), Jordi Lopez (Swansea, free)
Key man: Akos Buzsaky
Chances: The Championship's billionaires row return for another tilt at the Premier League and if Jim Magilton is still in a job come May they will not be far away.
Prediction: 6th
Sky Bet odds: 14/1
Complete Championship Preview


The Times - Team-by-Team Guide
- "....Queen’s Park Rangers
The QPR revolution hasn’t really worked yet, has it? Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore came in as if they were going to blow Chelsea out the water; instead they have been upstaged by Fulham. Word has it that Jim Magilton, hardly an unequivocal success in three years in charge of Ipswich Town, is likely to have to dance to his employers’ tune. His first three signings this summer have been Alejandro Faurlin, an Argentinian midfield player costing a distinctly un-Championship £3.5 million, Abel Taarabt, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, and Alessandro Pellicori, an Italian journeyman forward. Proof that rich owners does not necessarily mean rich pickings.
- Prediction: 18 - The Times


The Telegraph - The new Championship season begins on Aug 8 - how will the teams will fare? - By Steve Wilson, Sam Green and David Edbrooke
QPR
Premier class: Wayne Routledge
A player signed by Harry Redknapp and Martin O'Neill must have something going for him, even if Routledge has so far failed to live up to his early promise
Championship fare: The self-styled 'richest club in the world' have so far failed to turn hard cash in to success on the pitch.
PREDICTION: Play-off contenders but on the outside looking in. Telegraph


Preston Official Site - Championship Preview: QPR to WBA
With the brand new Championship season all but upon us, now seems to be the perfect time for PNE.com to assess all the runners and riders in English football's second tier.
We look inside each squad to see who's in, who's out, and crucially, how they're rated by 'The Insider', who is back for the start of the new season to advise who you should be backing via PNEBetting.com....This third part of our preview looks at the teams from Q to W.
QPR
Manager - Jim Magilton
Last Season (finishing position) - 11th
Ins: Alejandro Damian Faurlin (Instituto), Alessandro Pellicori (Avellino), Adel Taarabt (Tottenham)
Outs: Dexter Blackstock (Nottingham Forest), Damien Delaney (Ipswich), Lee Camp (Nottingham Forest), Jake Cole (Barnet), Zesh Rehman (Bradford City), Chris Arthur (Released), Reece Crowther (Released), Danny Maguire (Released), Liam Miller (Released)
- Like many of their rivals for the top six, QPR have been very active in the transfer market with big money signings arriving at Loftus Road and some pounds recouped at the other end.
- The R's also have a new man in the dugout in Jim Magilton and the billionaire owners of the Club will be hoping his experience of managing in the Championship will be the difference for them this year.
- Premiership experience provided by the likes of Taarabt, Routledge and Helguson will give them an added edge and they also have the backing of some rather large pockets should things not be looking too rosy come the January transfer window.
- The Insider Says: Magilton's men were in the running for a Play-Off position for the majority of last season and that is likely to be what they will be doing this campaign. It will all hinge on how well the former Ipswich boss can mould the undoubted talent he has at his disposal into a unit that can get points home and away. Consistency on their travels and in West London will see QPR challenge for a Play-Off position at least this year.
Verdict: Top Ten
Championship Odds: 16/1 - Preston


Eurosport -The Coca-Cola Football League Championship - Countdown: Queens Park Rangers
-- Eurosport.yahoo.com continues its countdown to the Championship season with a look at cash-rich QPR.
- Manager: Jim Magilton
-Last 10 Seasons
(1999/2000 to 2008/2009): 10/19/-/-/-/11/21/18/14/11
POSSIBLE STARTING XI:
Radek Cerny
Damion Stewart - Kaspars Gorkss - Peter Ramage - Matthew Connolly
Mikele Leigertwood - Lee Cook - Alejandro Faurlin - Martin Rowlands
Rowan Vine - Heidar Helguson
- BACK-UPS FROM: Niki-Lee Bulmer - Fitz Hall - Joe Oastler - Gary Borrowdale - Gavin Mahon - Wayne Routledge - Akos Buzsaky - Matteo Alberti - Hogan Ephraim - Gareth Ainsworth - Romone Rose - Patrick Agyemang - Angelo Balanta - Ray Jones - Antonio German
- TRANSFERS:
- In - Alejandro Faurlin (Instituto, £3.5m), Adel Tarabt (Tottenham, loan)
- Out - Dexter Blackstock (Nottingham Forest), Jordi Lopez (Swansea), Jake Cole (Barnet), Lee Camp (Nottingham Forest), Damien Delaney (Ipswich), Zesh Rehman (Bradford)
- POSITIVES: With all their riches, the 'Manchester City of the Championship' will always be able to outbid most clubs in the transfer market. If they can add the right quality to their squad they will no doubt be a team to look out for this season.
- NEGATIVES: A feature of cash-rich teams is often a trigger-happy chairman and R's owner Flavio Briatore (pictured) has already pinned his colours to the mast with a regular procession of fired managers. Since Ian Holloway left the club in 2006 there have been nine managerial changes, culminating in Jim Magilton's appointment. With this kind of instability at the club, it remains to be seen if the latest boss can bring the instant success the owner so craves.
- VERDICT: R's fans have already expressed their disappointment at the appointment of Magilton, but he is a man who knows the division well and, although he is not the big name fans wanted, he may yet prove to be exactly what the ambitious London outfit need at this moment in time to progress. 7th.
Mario Hajiloizis / Eurosport


The Times/John Aizelwood - The Championship Countdown
- Big spenders...
- Queens Park Rangers The Loftus Road money men are yet to flash the silly cash but the temperamental Adel Taarabt has arrived from Tottenham for another loan spell. The £3.5m spent on the Argentine midfielder Alejandro Faurlin and the arrival of Italian striker Alessandro Pellicori have excited and baffled in equal measure...."
...To go up
West Bromwich Albion, Sheffield United
Playoffs
Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Cardiff City
To go down
Scunthoorpe, Plymouth, Barnsley - The Times


The Independent/Tom Jones - Championship preview: The season ahead
"....Queens Park Rangers
In: A Pellicori (Avellimo, free), A Taarabt (Spurs, loan).
Out: D Blackstock (Nottm Forest, undisc), L Camp (Nottm Forest, undisc), D Delaney (Ipswich, undisc), J Cole (Barnet, free), Z Rehman (Bradford, free)
Manager: Jim Magilton. Key man: Damion Stewart.
Last season: 10th. Title odds: 19-1. Prediction: 10th. Pressure will be on Magilton if expectations exceed results. Independent


News of the World/Martin Hardy - Championship Guide
QPR
- JIM MAGILTON has the task of returning Rangers to the Premier League for the first time in 14 years after a season which saw three managers fail to deliver Flavio Briatore's vision of "boutique football".
- He sets out to succeed where Iain Dowie, Paulo Sousa and Gareth Ainsworth could not - and having failed to deliver in three years at Ipswich.
- Magilton will not complain at Briatore's rumoured meddling in team affairs. He said: "I value the opinions of everyone at the club - but in the end they'll agree that I'm right!"
KEY MAN: Akos Buzsaky
News of the World


Ian Holloway/Sunday Mirror - Ralph Ellis - Championship Guide
...QPR
Manager: Jim Magilton
Unknown quantities. What will that money bring them? Too many changes too much instability. Jim Magilton has good players and if he gets a chance can give them leadership.
MY KEY MAN: MARTIN ROWLANDS
ODDS: 12/1
Click to Read entire Championship Preview


Sporting Life/PA Sport - Pete Thompson
"...- New QPR manager Jim Magilton will also be under pressure to succeed as the wealthy Londoners look to return to the Premier League for the first time since 1996.
-Magilton has splashed out £3.5million on Argentinian playmaker Alejandro Faurlin to raise expectations levels even higher at Loftus Road." Sporting Life


And Teletext Championship Guide
"... QPR: New boss Jim Magilton has purged an under-performing Rangers squad and Adel Taarabt has rejoined on loan, but they may struggle to improve on last season's 11th place in a competitive division. Prediction: 12th - Teletext

- Football League Championship Preview

- Independent: Championship Players to Watch

- Football League: Championship Players - Ones to Watch

- BBC's Paul Fletcher Championship Preview