Tabloid -QPR to Sack Jim Magilton - Southate Contender...Players to Decide Magilton Fate

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Express/Matt Law - STEVE COPPELL LINED UP FOR QPR FAME AS JIM MAGILTON IS SUSPENDED

STEVE COPPELL heads the list to become QPR’s ninth manager in three years after Jim Magilton’s suspension caused a huge split in the club.

QPR are investigating allegations that Magilton butted midfielder Akos Buzsaky after the 3-1 defeat at Watford on Monday night.

It was hoped Buzsaky would accept an apology from Magilton yesterday, but he did not back down and the club decided to launch an internal investigation.

Assistant manager John Gorman and reserve team boss Keith Ryan are both backing Magilton and have taken legal advice over their own positions.

They do not want to return to work at Loftus Road unless Magilton’s suspension is lifted and did not take training yesterday. Both men refused requests to fill in for him during the investigation.

Youth team managers Steve Gallen and Marc Bircham have been placed in temporary charge for the game against West Brom on Monday.

Magilton, who took advice from the League Managers’ Association, said: “While passions can run high in football, especially after a poor display, I categorically deny any allegation of wrongdoing.

“I understand the club have initiated an internal investigation, with which I will co-operate fully. This is an unfortunate situation and I am looking forward to resuming my responsibilities shortly.”

Magilton is adamant he and Buzsaky simply argued head to head, while the player feels the manager’s actions constituted a butt.

Sources close to QPR last night thought it unlikely he, Gorman or Ryan will be given the chance to return. A club spokesman confirmed Magilton had been suspended, adding: “An announcement regarding the futures of John Gorman and Keith Ryan will be made in due course.”

Chairman Flavio Briatore is thought to be returning to London to help deal with the situation.

Buzsaky has not handed in a transfer request, but he and team-mate Patrick Agyemang are said to be deeply unhappy at recent events. Agyemang was reported to have defended Buzsaky by shouting at Magilton then squaring up to him.

Buzsaky released a statement, saying: “I am entirely focused on our next fixture.”

One senior player, however, has alleged that Monday night’s incident was not the first of its type, claiming a similar fall-out happened after the defeat at Doncaster last month. Express


Mirror - QPR to sack Jim Magilton - with Gareth Southgate a shock contender for the job James Nursey
QPR will sack manager Jim Magilton after his furious bust-up with Akos Buzsaky.

They already scouring for a replacement with Gareth Southgate a shock contender.

Rangers boss Magilton, 40, was suspended yesterday for allegedly head-butting Buzsaky after Monday night’s 3-1 loss at Watford.

But MirrorFootball understands Magilton was on the verge of being sacked anyway had the club lost their next game away at West Brom on Monday.

And QPR’s internal investigation into the clash at Vicarage Road is certain to end with Magilton leaving Loftus Road.

He was absent from training yesterday as Rangers’ unsettled players held a fiery meeting with club director Gianni Paladini to demand answers.

Hungarian midfielder Buzsaky, 27, a 76th-minute substitute at Watford, refused to train yesterday until the matter is resolved.

He is livid about his treatment after being accused by Magilton of being too soft in the Vicarage Road changing room after their loss.

Buzsaky then complained he was unfairly picked out for criticism given the team had won just once in seven Championship matches.

And it was at this point that Magilton allegedly thrust his head into Buzsaky’s as tempers flared.

Now Magilton will not be returning as his job was already on the line following a 5-1 home defeat by Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Assistant manager John Gorman and reserve team boss Keith Ryan also face the axe.

Youth team coaches Steve Gallen and Marc Bircham, an ex-QPR midfielder, have been placed in temporary charge ahead of the trip to West Brom.

Former Middlesbrough manager Southgate, 39, heads QPR’s short-list to replace Magilton and is keen on the post.

Darren Ferguson, who recently left Peterborough, is also on it but has turned down the job before and is believed to be holding out for Bolton as Gary Megson is under pressure.

Magilton admits he had a “difference of opinion” with Buzsaky but said: “while passions can run high in football, especially after a poor performance, I categorically deny any allegation of wrongdoing.”
Mirror


Mail/Simon Jones - QPR players meet to decide the fate of suspended boss Jim Magilton
- QPR'S players will determine the fate of suspended manager Jim Magilton after the club launched an inquiry into his alleged attack on Akos Buzsaky.
Senior players, including Buzsaky, were called to a meeting with club executives last night to give their version of what happened on Monday night following the 3-1 defeat at Watford.
- Sportsmail exclusively revealed that Magilton, who denies any wrongdoing, was said to have butted Hungary midfielder Buzsaky after tempers flared in the dressing room and striker Patrick Agyemang was forced to intervene.
- QPR suspended Magilton with immediate effect yesterday pending the internal investigation. And they were forced to put youth-team coaches Steve Gallen and Marc Bircham in temporary charge after Magilton's assistants, John Gorman and Keith Ryan, said they would not work for the club until Magilton was reinstated.
- Magilton, 40, admitted after the game that he had a 'difference of opinion' with Buzsaky but yesterday maintained his innocence in a statement: 'While passions can run high in football, especially after a poor performance, I categorically deny any allegation of wrongdoing.
- 'I understand that the club has initiated an internal investigation, with which I will co-operate fully. This is an unfortunate situation and I look forward to resuming my responsibilities shortly.'
- However, many of the players have come out in support of Buzsaky and consider Magilton to have overstepped the mark. In fact, when Gorman asked for a show of hands for who wanted to back their manager yesterday, not a single player raised their arm. They were intending to voice their opinions with club officials last night and that will leave the Rangers board with little alternative.
Even if the evidence is inconclusive, the weight of numbers against him will make it difficult for the board to keep him on.
- But if deemed guilty, the club would be within their rights to sack him on the grounds of gross misconduct.
Magilton was appointed in June when he became the seventh different manager to lead QPR since they were taken over by Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone.
Buzsaky, who refused to return to the dressing room and was seen wandering along the asphalt in front of the Vicarage Road main stand long after the final whistle, wants to stay at the club and denied reports yesterday he had asked for a transfer.
... Mail


Mirror - Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone's money isn't buying happiness for QPR fans By Nick Ive in Mirror Football Blog

When Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore launched their £14million take-over of Queens Park Rangers in August 2007, their fans were dreaming of a golden new era.

Their financial clout was boosted further when Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal – whose £18.4 billion wealth makes him even richer than Manchester City's owner Sheik Mansour bin Zayed – came on board four months later.

Overnight the billionaire owners saved Rangers from financial meltdown and turned them into the world's richest club.

Despite the club's status, the owners were applauded in some quarters for not flinging money around. There were no promises of quick fixes – the aim appeared to be one of long-term stability.

Briatore may have issues to deal with elsewhere as he battles Formula 1 race-fixing allegations. But QPR's problem appears to be a lack of stability, something that was evident before the current regime was in place.

Including the current temporary appointment of Steve Gallen and Marc Bircham at the helm, Rangers have now had a staggering 10 full-time or temporary managers since 2006.
They have lurched from one crisis to another. Now Jim Magilton's job is on the line following a bust-up with midfielder Akos Buzsaky after Monday's 3-1 Championship defeat at Watford.

The last manager to last for any significant period of time at Loftus Road was Ian Holloway, who was in charge from February 2001 to February 2006.

Since then none of his nine successors have lasted more than than half a century of games as the club have flirted with relegation at worst and enjoyed mid-table mediocrity at best.

Gary Waddock, John Gregory, Mick Harford, Luigi De Canio, Iain Dowie, Gareth Ainsworth (twice), Paulo Sousa and now Gallen and Bircham have been handed chances – albeit brief ones – to deliver success.

Certainly Briatore has been “hands on” as an owner.

Ainsworth was in charge for Carling Cup match at Manchester United in November 2008 and left his mobile phone in the dressing room. After the match, he discovered 72 missed calls from Briatore.

The Rangers owner also ordered Sousa to make a substitution at half-time while he was watching a match in Malaysia.

Last season QPR had three different managers in charge including Ainsworth on two separate occasions

Magilton was appointed in June and things started so brightly for the former Ipswich boss as QPR made a promising start.

Magilton's bust-up with Buzsaky coincides with the Londoners plummeting down the table to 12th after a run of one win in their last seven.

The last of that woeful sequence were a 5-1 hammering at home to Middlesbrough and then the Watford debacle.

Rangers fans may have to wait further still for the glory days to return to Loftus Road. Mirror