QPR Report Friday Snippets...Peterborough Previews..."Briatore's the Top of the Sacking Stakes"...Waddock and Ainsworth

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Yet Another QPR Loan?...Routledge Stars...A Rather Optimistic Harford!..Holloway Axe Flashback
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- Four Year Flashback: QPR's Sacking of Ian Holloway

- Peterborough Preview

- Pellicori Update

- Flashback: 3 1/2 Years Since Gianni Paladini's "Enemy Within" Interview

- BBC Chris Charles "Review of The Week" (with usual QPR component)

- Routledge Stars (Hall Plays) as Newcastle Crush Cardiff



Mirror/James Nursey - Villa midfielder agrees QPR loan move- Aston Villa midfielder Isaiah Osbourne is set to join QPR when the loan window reopens.
- Osbourne, 22, is back at Villa after a spell with Championship Middlesbrough, where he played nine games.
- But the ex-trainee is being sent back out on loan again as he is not in Villa manager Martin O’Neill’s plans.
- And Osbourne has agreed to a switch to Loftus Road to play for Rangers from next week until the end of the season. Mirror


Evening Standard/David Yuill - I have what it takes to keep Flavio happy, says QPR boss Mick Harford
- As the eighth man to take his place in the Queens Park Rangers hotseat under Flavio Briatore, caretaker manager Mick Harford could be forgiven for staying faithful to that football cliche of taking each game as it comes.

But the former Luton Town boss is not expecting any surprises from the volatile Italian co-owner, who arrived at the club just over two years ago, and is hoping he can use the rest of the season to prove he deserves the job on a permanent basis.

Harford, who first joined Rangers under the wing of John Gregory three years ago, believes he has what it takes to meet the demands of the formidable QPR hierarchy and is determined to mount a late push for a play-off place.

“I have got a good affiliation with the club. I know the chairman very well and I know how the club works,” said Harford.

“I knew some of the players when I came back and the club have given me the opportunity to stake a claim for the job.

“It's a good club. Well respected and well renowned as a top Championship club looking to achieve things and move forward towards the goal of playing in the Premier League.

“I was here with John Gregory and thoroughly enjoyed my time. I had a dialogue with Flavio and the chairman Gianni Paladini about my role. I didn't see it was for me and we decided to part ways. It was all very amicable.

“I then got to come back again to work with Paul Hart who, for whatever reason, decided to leave and I have now been given the opportunity to manage the club again.”

No-nonsense Harford has been quick to stamp his mark on the playing squad. Without a win in the four Championship games since a Boxing Day victory over Bristol City, Harford strengthened his squad during the January transfer window with five new signings.

He added: “I'm very pleased. I think we have brought in some quality players who are going to improve our squad. We needed to boost the squad, it was wafer thin in numbers and experience. The likes of Tamas Priskin, Matt Hill and Marcus Bent will give us that.”

The re-signing of Rangers favourite Nigel Quashie on a free transfer, the loan signings of Priskin, Bent and Hill as well as the arrival of former Fulham and Arsenal right-back Moritz Volz — who is expected to complete his short-term deal today — should give Harford the fresh impetus he craves.

“We have had a resurgence with the players coming in,” he said. “There's a feel-good factor around the place. The players can see that we are trying to take things forward and there's a spring in the step of the squad.

“There's a lift in confidence and they are training very hard. If we could transfer how they have been training out on to the pitch on a Saturday afternoon, we'd have no problems.”

Rangers currently sit in 14th place, seven points off the play-offs, and Harford insists that recent results simply do not tell the full story.

“We've played decent football and created a lot of chances but not converted them,” admitted Harford ahead of tomorrow's trip to struggling Peterborough.

“We've brought in some strikers and hopefully we can amass some points, lift ourselves into a reasonable position and mount a challenge for the play-offs.” Evening Standard

- Peterborough Preview- Pellicori Update

- Spot The Error!

- Chelsea Transfer Ban...Lifted!

- Messageboard Ban on QPR Report!

- Mansfield Town One-time Ticket Offer: Pay What You Want. Sit Where you Want

- League Rules re Loans, three clubs in a Season

- Football Financial Meltdown

- Portsmouth Fans Appeal in Person to the Football League


Peterborough Evening Telegraph - Preview: Briatore's the top of the sacking Stakes 05 February 2010 - By Alan Swann

Darragh MacAnthony is averaging a Posh manager every 10 months, but he's miles behind QPR owner Flavio Briatore in the sacking stakes.

Briatore has gone through six permenant managers and five temporary ones since taking control at Loftus Road in November 2007. That's an average of one every two-and-a-half months.

The last full-time boss Paul Hart lasted five games before resigni ng, allegedly because Briatore tried to tell him who to pick, and current caretaker-chief Mick Harford, a man deemed not good enough to manage Luton in the Blue Square Premier League earlier this season, presumably has a suitcase packed just in case.

Unsurprisingly QPR fans staged a mass protest against Briatore after their season hit a new low as they lost to Sc*n*horpe at Loftus Road last Saturday.

Some of the supporters were dressed as clowns in protest at their club becoming a circus. Defeat at the team bottom of The Championship tomorrow and Harford may as well go and clear his desk.

He has launched a defence of his bosses though. Harford said: 'The fans have every right to voice their opinions so long as it is done in the right and proper manner.

Match preview and live updates: Posh v QPR.

"People might perceive us as a laughing stock, but I know this club is run in a professional manner. Everyone can have their opinions, but I have an inside view on it.

"Will fans stay away in protest at Briatore? They won't stay away if we start winning."

Briatore stated that he wanted Champions League Football at QPR within three years of his takeover which might explain why John Gregory left a month later.

Others to have tried and failed to pick their own starting line-ups include: Harford (one month, five games), Luigi Di Canio (seven months, 35 games), Iain Dowie (three months, 15 games), Gareth Ainsworth (one month, seven games), Paulo Sousa (five months, 26 games), Gareth Ainsworth (one month, five games), Jim Magilton (four months, 24 games), Steve Gallon & Marc Bircham (one week, one game), Paul Hart (one month, five games).

Hart declined to comment after his hasty departure following an FA Cup defeat at home to Sheffield United last month.

But a friend said: "There is no point in commenting. You just wouldn't believe what happens behind the scenes." Peterborough Evening Telegraph


Bucks Free Press/Dave Peters - Gaz was my number one target
Friday 5th February 2010

WANDERERS boss Gary Waddock hailed the arrival of former Premiership winger Gareth Ainsworth on transfer deadline day and said: “He was my number one priority.”

The 36-year-old made a massive impact when he joined Blues on loan before Christmas, inspiring them to their only back-to-back victories this season before his time was cut short by a calf injury.

But Waddock will have to wait before he can get his man out on the park.

Ainsworth is still two weeks away from a return to the training field as he continues his recovery from the injury he sustained on Wanderers’ training field just two games into his loan.

But Waddock knows his man will be worth the wait.

He said: “I really wanted to get him. He is everything you want in a pro. Everybody could see the impact he had when he came on loan and that was just for two games – we have got him for 18 months and it is great news for us.”

Fortunately for Blues, Ainsworth was just as keen on Wycombe as Wanderers were keen on him.

He jumped at the chance to re-join the club and said it was a no brainer committing to the year-and-a-half long deal.

He had other clubs queuing up to talk to him when QPR announced they were releasing their loyal servant from his contract six months early last Friday and awarding him a free transfer.

But he didn’t talk to any of them. His mind was already set on Wycombe.

He said: “I really wanted to come back. It was a no-brainer for me. I only wanted to come here and I see it as unfinished business.

“I know Gary Waddock very well and I think he is going to be a top manager.

“He and Steve Hayes are very ambitious for this club, but they didn’t try and pull the wool over my eyes.

“I am excited to be here and I an 100 per cent committed to the cause.

“I just want to play and prolong my career for as long as I can and I am ready to fight and scrap and do everything I can to keep us up this year.” This is Local London