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Friday, May 28, 2010

QPR Report Friday: Ambrose Signing...Paladini Happy for Holloway But Unrepentant Over Axing Him...Joe Lewis: No Sale

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- Nice QPR VIDEO Memory: Gerry Francis's QPR (with Wilkins, Ferdinand, Sinclair, etc) Winning at Newcastle


- QPR Chairman Paladini Defends his Dismissal of Ian Holloway "We Were Right to Let Ollie Go" (Click back page-page 48)"
Gianni Paladini - "....No one is happier for Him than me. I rang him to wish him good luck before the play-offs and we still have a good relationship.
"I have the utmost respect for the man, but if you think back five years to his final weeks at QPR, I think a lot of people felt it was time to move on..."
"What he's done with Blackpool is a miracle really.....He's done a great job there [at Blackpool] and did a great job at QPR. But if you think back to his last home game, against Leicester, people were not happy."
"We've got a great manager now in Neil Warnock and Ian Holloway has moved on and achieved success, which no one deserves more than him".

[Just to note Dave McIntyre Tweet re this article "[C]riticism of GP for "re-opening" Ollie row. It doesn't work that way. My choice to go there (as the issue's relevant this week), not his" Dave McIntyre

- [Flashback to February 2006 and Gianni Paladini Placing Ian Holloway on Gardening Leave]


- Paddy Kenny Still in Play

- Borrowdale: No Charlton Decision

- Wolves Want Scunthorpe's Gary Hooper

- Ex-QPR Terrell Forbes Joins Orient

- Ex-QPR Dominic Shimmin Joins Dundee

- Possible Impact on Premiership Clubs of New UEFA Spending Rules

- Homegrown Player Compromise Sought by Football League

- Three Players Appeal for More Football Investment in Non-League Youth

- Obama, Biden and Bill Clinton Meet the USA World Cup Squad

- Reminder: Two Indian Youth Players Will be Training at QPR This Summer


Croydon Advertiser - Darren Ambrose QPR deal done for £750,000 as money runs dry
- CRYSTAL Palace will need to continue flogging their best players at knock-down prices to survive – unless the consortium aiming to buy the club step in.
- Darren Ambrose, the Eagles' top scorer last season with 20 goals, will become the first to be sold when he joins Queen's Park Rangers today for £750,000.

His departure comes hot on the heels of Nick Carle's free transfer to Sydney FC this week, two years after Palace forked out £1 million to sign the Australian from Bristol City.

The Eagles' administrator Brendan Guilfoyle, of the P & A Partnership, was only financed until the end of the season and now has no way of paying the club's £800,000 monthly wage bill other than generating revenue through player sales.

Ambrose's move to Loftus Road has enabled Guilfoyle to pay May's salaries – he would have had to ask the permission of the Professional Footballers' Association to defer the wages for a month had it not gone through.

But he will need to get rid of another of Palace's top players in a month's time if the sale of the club has not taken a significant step forward.

Unfortunately for Palace, many of their key assets are out of contract this summer and can leave for nothing if they wish. Former Eagles boss Neil Warnock is intent on capitalising as he builds the Rangers squad for a play-off push next season, and soon-to-be free agents Shaun Derry and Clint Hill are also in his sights. Reports have claimed both will follow Ambrose to QPR.

But Guilfoyle needs transfer fees and will have to continue selling players to keep paying the bills unless the CPFC 2010 consortium – the prospective buyers of the club – agree to fund Palace through the summer.

He will hold a creditors' committee meeting today (Friday) to keep those creditors informed of the latest developments ahead of the CVA meeting next week.

Last week the consortium – headed by Eagles fans Steve Parish and Martin Long – agreed a conditional deal with Selhurst Park's administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers to buy the ground.

But they are unwilling to complete the purchase before being convinced that the terms of the creditors voluntary arrangement (CVA) - the compulsory method of exiting administration - will be accepted by those owed money by the club.

With an expected offer of one penny return for every pound owed, it will not be easy for 2010 to reach that 75 per cent threshold, particularly with former chairman Simon Jordan claiming he is owed £7.8 million.

Guilfoyle, who only recognises £1.9 million of that debt, said this week that Palace were "in a bad place" and admitted the club's future was now on a knife edge.

"Fans will be concerned because they see their star players being sold," he said.

"Now we are unfunded we need CPFC 2010 to intervene. I still feel there is every intention on the part of CPFC to complete the purchase but they need to secure the stadium first as that's the first step.

"We don't have the ability to pay the current wages. We are already dealing with what's behind us rather than what's in front." Croydon Advertiser


Croydon Advertiser - Darren Ambrose accepts chance to rejoin ex-Eagles boss

DARREN Ambrose is expected to complete his move to Queen's Park Rangers today (Friday) after agreeing terms with the west London club.

Ambrose, who was Crystal Palace's top scorer this season with 20 goals, has accepted a contract offer from Rangers manager Neil Warnock and the £750,000 deal should go through today, subject to a medical.

Having been given permission to talk to Ambrose this week, former Eagles boss Warnock moved swiftly to offer terms to the 26-year-old midfielder and the deal was almost done at the time of going to press.

The cash received from Ambrose's sale will help Palace's administrator Brendan Guilfoyle pay the club's £800,000 wage bill this week – but it is unlikely the former Charlton Athletic player will be the only one making the switch from Selhurst Park to Loftus Road.

Warnock revealed he made an early enquiry about signing Eagles goalkeeper Julian Speroni but admits he will lose out on the Argentine if a Premier League club comes calling.

Clint Hill and Shaun Derry are both out of contract this summer and reports have claimed they will also join Warnock at QPR in the next few weeks.

The Hoops' boss was delighted to have signed Ambrose however, having had his bid of £750,000 accepted by Guilfoyle this week. It was not likely to be refused either – Warnock claimed he received the initial call from Palace telling him Ambrose was for sale, rather than having to enquire about the player's availability himself.

Nevertheless, the fee represents a profit for Palace who signed Ambrose from Charlton on a free transfer last summer but the bid is still at least half of his true valuation.

Warnock told Advertiser Sport yesterday his attempt to sign Ambrose for the second time in a year was almost complete, barring any last minute problems.

"I expect the transfer to be concluded on Friday – I would say we are 90 per cent there," said Warnock.

"We just need to dot some 'i's and cross some 't's. We aren't far away."

Reports have claimed that Palace pair Shaun Derry and Clint Hill are also set to rejoin Warnock when their contracts expire in June.

Warnock admitted he had many transfer targets this summer but insisted he needed to assess the players he has already at QPR before he pursues his interest in others.

"I have about 30 targets and I don't want to sign them all!" he said. "The boys who are out of contract, I think would like to come, but I need to look at who I've got in the current squad first."

It has been claimed that Clint Hill has a "verbal agreement" that he will join QPR when he becomes a free agent.

Warnock did not deny his interest in Hill and confirmed he was in the market for a left-back.

He added: "I have spoken to a number of left-backs and yes I have seen the same reports. But at the moment I have to get one or two things out of the way this week first."

Asked if he had approached any other Palace players, Warnock replied: "I spoke to Julian [Speroni] early doors but that's on the back burner at the moment as he is out of the country. I think he's probably holding out for a Premier League club anyway." Croydon Advertiser


Peteborough Evening Telegraph - Posh: Lewis to get better deal By Alan Swann
- Peterborough United are to offer goalkeeper Joe Lewis a new, improved contract.
- England under 21 international Lewis has been linked with a move to Premier League Spurs this summer. He was also named as a £500,000 target for Championship club QPR in the Fulham Chronicle yesterday.
- Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony has revealed that a Premier League offered £2 million for Lewis last season. The 22 year-old has two years left on his current London Road deal.
- MacAnthony said: “The article in the Fulham Chronicle is a joke considering we were offered four times that last March by a Premier League club. QPR couldn’t affford to buy Joe as they don’t spend a lot of money on transfer fees and to be honest if Joe were to move in the future it would be a top club in the Premier League.
- “In fairness to Joe he hasn’t rocked the boat asking about leaving and he will be one of a few players we will be discussing new contract terms with in the next few months to extend his stay.
- “Joe is a professional on and off the pitch and a few players could learn a few things from him regarding this and how he handles his career.”
- Lewis joined Posh from Nowrich for a club record £400,000 in January, 2008. He was the club’s player-of-the-year last season..." Peterborough Evening Telegraph


- World Cup Sex Permitted

The Times/Polly Botsford - 27th May 2010 - Can lawyers make good football agents?
....The heart of an agent’s role is making contacts and turning those contacts into contracts; this is something lawyers can struggle with.
Neil Warnock, the football manager now at Queen’s Park Rangers in West London, says: “It will only work if they know about football.” That sounds obvious but Warnock says that he receives at least two or three calls a day from agents whom he describes as “wasters” because they appear to know little about the club or even the game itself. “They should spend time at a club, hang out with players and find out what they want, what their needs are, what the club’s needs are.”
The problem is that lawyers often do not have the time - or inclination - to do this. Finding players to represent is easy enough (one solicitor says that he has received 40 video-based CVs in just two months), getting in the club’s door is not
.. The Times


- Marking Some 1,000 Days Since the Briatore-Ecclestone Takeover of QPR

- Marking Eight Years Since QPR Exited Administration (With the 10 Million Pound ABC Loan)

- Video From 1975-76: Arsenal vs QPR

- Video From 1975-76: QPR vs Derby County

- Updated: Ex-QPR 93 Ivor Powell Retires

- 2010/2011 Championship Promotion Odds

- Premiership Fan Satisfaction Survey

- Premier League Hit By New UEFA Rule (Might Impact on QPR)

- Ex-QPR Dean Parrett Scored the only goalin the England U-19 game vs the Republic of Ireland in the Ukraine.

- Ex-QPR Andy Sinton Appointed Manager of Telford

- A QPR Report Public Thanks to Rodney Marsh

- Portsmouth Coming to Washington DC

- Betting Odds: QPR's Championship Prospects in 2010/2011

- The End of the Chris Charles BBC Blog (Always Welcome on QPR Report!)

- Update/Profile re QPR's Axed-last-year Youth Coach, Steve Brown

- Updated QPR "Wallpaper" Available

- Further Lakshmi Mittal Olympic 2012 Sponsorship

- Flashback: QPR's 2007/08 & 2008/09 Championship Odds

- 53rd Birthday Today for Former QPR (Briefly) Winger, Clive Walker

- Eighteen Months ago, QPR Signed Helguson

- Eighteen Months Ago, QPR signed Borrowdale

- Peter Ridsdale and the missing £500,000


- Great Gesture by Millwall

- Non-QPR Football: Watch The Grass Grow

- FA's Non-Independent Chairman

- Ex-Liverpool Chairman's (Lengthy) Open Letter to The Times re Liverpool Matters

- Sheffield Wednesday Overcharged Away Fans

- QPR's Pre-Season Calendar

- The A-Z of QPR Fan Sites