Simpson Unhappy...Delaney on QPR Fans and Briatore...QPR and Indian Football...Newcastle's Routledge Praised...Fitz Hall on Playing Against QPR

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- Antonio Caliendo Complains to The FA?

- Harold Winton RIP

- Ad: Crystal Palace for Sale...Sobering Reading re Crystal Palace Finances

- QPR vs Ipswich Previews

- Briatore Still Guilty- Claims F1's Jean Todt

- The Success of Mansfield's Pay What You Want. Sit Where You Want

- Year Flashback: Glowing Profile of Sousa

- Three Year Flashback: The China Brawl and Southend Humiliation

Mirror/James Nursey
Arsenal loan star holds showdown talks after QPR axe - Exclusive
- Arsenal starlet Jay Simpson has held showdown talks with QPR boss Mick Harford after being controversially axed.
- Simpson, 21, is on a season-long loan at Loftus Road from The Emirates.
- And the striker, who has often played up front on his own, is the club’s top scorer with 10 goals this term.
- But he is unhappy at being dropped for Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at lowly Peterborough, where QPR finished with nine men.
-Simpson was demoted to the bench to make way for new loan signings Marcus Bent and Tamas Priskin, who both made their debts.
- Bent and Priskin went straight into the starting line-up despite having scored just two goals between them this season for Middlesbrough and Ipswich respectively.
- Harford has urged Simpson to knuckle down and win his place back.
- But the youngster believes Bent and Priskin should have to earn the right to take his place.
- Now Simpson is anxious to secure a recall for tonight’s game at home to Ipswich.
- Rangers are still looking for their first win under Harford after Paul Hart controversially left the club last month.
- Simpson’s grievance with Harford is the latest problem to afflict the crisis club this season.
- Jim Magilton was sacked over a bust-up with Akos Buzsaky, and his successor Hart then fell out with on loan Tottenham midfielder Adel Taarabt - as revealed by MirrorFootball .
-Hart facing QPR axe over Taarabt row - exclusive
- Club sporting director Gianni Paladini has already indicated he wants to buy Simpson permanently in the summer, even if Rangers fail to go up.
- But the ace wants a crack at the Premier League next season, either with Arsenal or another top-flight club." Mirror


Ipswich Official Site - DAMIEN KNOWS RANGERS DANGER
Posted on: Tue 09 Feb 2010
- Damien Delaney has a warning for his Town team-mates and sympathy for the QPR fans ahead of his return to Loftus Road.
- The Republic of Ireland international is set to make his first appearance back at Rangers since heading to Portman Road in the summer and knows the threat the Londoners carry.
- "On their day, when that team clicks they have a lot of attacking weapons at their disposal," Damien told the Club website.
- "They are not bad defensively either. Last season we had one of the best defensive records in the Championship but as has been proven, QPR can have their off days as well and they've had a couple this season."
- Damien made 59 appearances for Rangers before joining Town and has some fond memories of his time at the club.
- "Playing wise, I really enjoyed it and I've got a lot of friends still at the club," added the defender.
- "We played some good football and the supporters are fantastic there. I've got a lot of time for them. They are very passionate for their club. They are genuine, good people and they have been promised the earth but it's not been delivered yet.
- "I should imagine they are very frustrated at the moment. Flavio [Briatore] has been at the club for two years or so now and said he would do this and do that but it's not happened." Ipswich


- Indian Football and Lakshmi Mittal: "World's most popular game football ready for makeover in India"
- "NEW DELHI: Football is finally finding its feet in the willows nation. The world’s most popular game, played in over 200 countries, is ready for
a makeover in India with efforts by football authorities and even corporates.
- Ask steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal and liquor baron Vijay Mallya, they all see a great business proposition in Indian football. While Mallya’s United Breweries sponsors East Bengal FC, LN Mittal and Sunil Mittal have drawn up big plans to support the world’s favourite game at the grassroots level in India..."
- "...There’s also help at hand from overseas. British first division FC, Queens Park Rangers (QPR), in which LN Mittal owns a stake, is planning to open football academies in India over the next few years and is currently working on a strategy.
- Says Ishan Saksena, CEO and MD of QPR: “Football is a sunrise sport in India. From a business standpoint, it’s the most opportune time to be here. For our academies, we are looking for the right partner and the right location. Our intent is to do it in a big way...”


Newcastle Journal/Luke Edwards - Wayne Routledge is given a stage to shine on
- WAYNE Routledge will never have a better stage to show off his talent as Chris Hughton declared his new signing is at the perfect point in his career to become a star at Newcastle United.
- Routledge’s journey has been one of what might have beens and unfulfilled potential, with eight clubs in five years telling the story of a young man who has never managed to settle before his January move from QPR.

However, Routledge’s performance in the destruction of Cardiff City was one of the highlights of a memorable evening and the 25-year-old has added some much needed pace and creativity to a previously pedestrian midfield.

And Hughton, who worked with the winger at Tottenham Hotspur, is confident he has seen a different person at Newcastle to the one which he previously knew, as he urged Routledge to finally realise the potential which saw him tipped to become an England international during his formative years at Crystal Palace.

“I think he is at the right age now,” said Hughton, who acknowledged Routledge has so far failed to scale the heights he was expected to as a teenager.

“We hope he will be here for a good while. We have brought him in here at a very good time for him in his life. He has had good experiences and if he has had bad ones, he will have learnt from them too.

“He has been to some big clubs and performed at some big clubs and I just hope we have got him at a very good time.”

Hughton added: “He is a player who has developed with age.

“He has had some challenges, a couple of loan moves that perhaps did not go so well, he did not get the football he wanted.

“But he is a good age now and a player of experience and I see a better all-round player now.”

One of the problems with Newcastle this season has been the lack of balance to the side with the majority of their attacking play coming down the left flank, where Jonas Gutierrez and Jose Enrique have excelled.

But Routledge’s arrival on the opposite flank makes the Magpies far less predictable, and enables them to stretch congested Championship midfields and packed defences.

Hughton deserves credit for spotting that deficiency in his squad and while he knows Newcastle will not always be able to attack with the same ferocity as they did against Cardiff, he hopes they will be more of a handful in open play with Routledge on board.

He said: “He’s a versatile player. Although predominantly a right sided player and at times an old-fashioned right winger, he can play infield, he can play on the left, he can play off the front so I think he will give us a variety in his game.

“But, generally, he is an all-round player now whereas perhaps, when he was young, he was seen as an out and out right winger.

“I think he is a player who can come inside, as we saw with the goals he provided the other night.

“He is able to drift into other areas and affect the game from there as well.

“With Wayne, he is a lad that has played a lot of football already this season and he put in a lot of good performances at QPR, so he is one we didn’t expect to take too long to settle.”

United’s win over Cardiff stretched their unbeaten run to 15 games and broke a club record which had stood for 60 years, although Hughton was unimpressed by historical statistics ahead of tonight’s trip to Derby County.

He added: “At this moment records do not mean anything to me. The only thing that means anything is maintaining where we are, and we all know what our goal is this season. The most important thing is achieving that.

“Perhaps you look back and review the season and enjoy those moments then, but at this moment there is a lot of pressure on us.

“There are a group of teams below us that are pushing very hard and will continue to push hard.

“We have to make sure we continue to be focused.” Journal


Shields Gazette - I'll give my Hall against QPR –
- FITZ Hall will give his all to Newcastle United – even if it means condemning his club Queens Park Rangers to another season in the Championship.
- The on-loan defender is able to play against QPR in the final game of the season at Loftus Road.
- And Hall could be in a position to deny QPR a play-off place on May 2.
- "It's a mad one, because we've got them on the last game of the season, and it could all boil down to that game," Hall told the Gazette.
- "And I think I'm allowed to play in that game.
- "QPR have been a top club themselves. They're going through a bit of a rough patch.
Obviously, I'm here, but I wish them all the best – I could be going back there at the end of the season." Shields Gazette

SHIELDS GAZETTE - Loan Ranger Fitz eyeing United switch
February 2010
- FITZ Hall insists he would love to extend his stay at St James's Park beyond the end of the season.
- Hall was drafted in by boss Chris Hughton after a scan showed Steven Taylor faced a two-month spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.
- He could make his second appearance for the Magpies at Derby tomorrow night – and the prospect of a permanent move to the promotion-chasing club is at the back of his mind.
- "I've signed until the end of the season, and after this season, I still have two more years at Queens Park Rangers," Hall said.
- "I'm a QPR player, so it would be wrong for me to look at anything else. I'll just take each game as it comes.
- "Helping Newcastle to promotion would be amazing. They've been doing well without me, but for me to come in and add a bit would be amazing."
- Hall would love another crack at top-flight football after tasting the Premier League with Wigan and Crystal Palace.
- "Every footballer, if they give up their dream of playing in the Premiership, might as well retire," said Hall. "That's every footballer's dream, and I'm no different.
- "I played in the Premiership, and this is probably my biggest achievement, signing for Newcastle until the end of the season. I feel like an 18 year old again!
- "It does seem weird when you look at the Premiership and see some of the names there, and Newcastle in the Championship.
- "But they're where they should be, and that's at the top Shields Gazette