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- See QPR from Directors Box vs WBA/Meet Warnock/Get Team-Signed Shirt: Charity Auction Fighting Cancer
- Hill Joins Nottingham Forest on loan (Although seemingly not announced yet on the QPR Official Site)..Update: QPR Tweet- Not Officially Confirmed yet by QPR- Joey Barton and Arsenal
- Dyer Injury Update
- Chelsea's Embarassing Team Sheet Error!
- On This Day, 27 Years Ago: THE QPR-Newcastle Game!
- Four Year Flashback: Briatore Talking QPR
- Tony Fernndes: QPR Mascots: Sparky and Jude
- Traore Called up by Senegal for October 9, Mauritius Match
- Next QPR Game: Aston Villa at Loftus Road (Sunday) - Stats/Previews
- QPR vs Chelsea Ticket News
- Three Year Flashback: QPR Fan Groups United in Opposition to QPR Ticket Price Increase
David McIntyre/West London Sport - QPR would cope with relegation – Bhatia
Big-spending QPR would cope financially if they are unable to stay in the Premier League this season, Amit Bhatia has insisted.
The Tony Fernandes-led takeover at Loftus Road resulted in significant investment in new players before the transfer deadline – and added to the club’s already swelled wage bill.
With the likes of Joey Barton and Shaun Wright-Phillips having made an immediate impact – as demonstrated in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Wolves – Rangers now appear capable of comfortably avoiding the drop.
But QPR Holdings vice-chairman Bhatia, who describes the club as “debt-free”, says the new-look regime first discussed what would happen in the event of relegation before deciding to spend.
“The signings we’ve made mean we have every chance of staying up but of course we had to think about the alternative in case that did not happen,” Bhatia told West London Sport.
“For example, in some cases we have relegation clauses in the players’ contracts. In others we were not able to do so but I’ve spoken to Tony about this and we’re both happy.”
QPR’s accounts showed heavy annual losses throughout Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone’s four years as co-owners, during which a number of directors’ loans financed spending on and off the pitch.
An even worse situation developed during the Chris Wright era, when similar funding failed to deliver success and Rangers ended up in administration with Wright as their main creditor.
Bhatia says there is no question of a similar scenario developing under the current owners.
He said: “Let’s be clear, previously directors provided loans and those debts no longer exist. They have been wiped out. In fact I would go so far as to describe the club as being debt-free.
“Cash is now being provided by the owners with no burden being placed upon the club and we felt that was the best way.
“The main thing is that we’ve brought stability to QPR, which was badly needed. It gives us a chance to achieve what we all want for the club.” West London Sport
Daily Mail/Leo's London - Leo Spall
Warnock is asking for trouble by handing captaincy to Barton
Neil Warnock has always been an idiosyncratic manager but you have to wonder about his take on captaincy.
First, he chooses Adel Taarabt as QPR's skipper; then he trumps that by replacing him with Joey Barton.
Has he confused the role with that of an agent provocateur? Does he demand that his Rangers captain must be a supreme irritant of some sort?
Finding two more ill-suited players to wear the captain's armband than Taarabt and Barton really would be a challenge.
Counting against the Moroccan in the captaincy stakes should be his clear focus on individual rather than team play, the exact opposite character type of most natural team leaders.
His obvious treatment of Rangers as a stepping stone to bigger things doesn't make him a shoo-in for the job, either.
Perhaps Warnock thinks picking the player he rates as best in the team as captain is an appropriate policy.
But if that is the case with Barton, it is obviously flawed and asking for trouble.
It took Barton just two games to spark trouble on the pitch and get involved in a slanging match with Wolves player Karl Henry and manager Mick McCarthy off it.
Now we are told he is ordering Taarabt about on the training ground and his predecessor is reacting well.
Given Barton's past on the training ground, it is probably a good job. We have been told many times that Barton is a reformed character, that his violence and anger is behind him.
He has tried to reinvent himself on Twitter with high-brow quotations and some well-meaning contributions to campaigns for the greater good.
Over the top: Wolves' George Elokobi left in a heap after Barton challenge
Over the top: Wolves' George Elokobi left in a heap after a Barton challenge
Yet on the pitch he has shown twice already this season that he is as angry, arrogant and irresponsible as ever.
His behaviour when playing for Newcastle against Arsenal last month, when he feigned injury to get an opponent sent-off, was a disgrace.
So, too, were the potentially inflammatory gestures he made to Wolves fans when QPR were 3-0 up on Saturday.
Gifted player as Barton is, it is hard to think of a less appropriate captain of a club, of a player who doesn't need a genuine leader beside him, someone ready to try to protect him from himself.
He is a key part of the image of Rangers but would any right-minded parent want their child to follow Barton's example?
The debate about players as role models is a minefield but when someone captains a team they are charged with carrying certain responsibilities that Barton is simply not cut-out for.
Warnock and the club may believe that any publicity is good publicity but the manager claimed that his midfielder 'epitomised what we are about' and he is surely mistaken.
QPR have brought something fresh to the Premier League with the enterprising spirit and endlessly ebullient tweeting from the club's new owners.
They have made a raft of interesting and solid-looking signings, made the right noises to fans and have looked a welcome addition to the top flight.
To make their leader on the pitch a trouble-maker who courts controversy is their first big mistake. Mail
David McIntyre/West London Sport - QPR take Spurs youngster on trial
QPR are giving a trial to teenage Tottenham midfielder Freddy Champion – a player who was previously on the books at Loftus Road.
Champion, who was born and raised in Shepherd’s Bush, was with Rangers and Chelsea before Spurs snapped him up in 2010.
The 17-year-old featured for QPR’s reserve side in a match against Watford on Wednesday afternoon. West London Sport
QPR Official Site - QPR vs Watford Reserves - IN RESERVE: RESSIES BEAT HORNETS
Posted on: Wed 21 Sep 2011
QPR Reserves beat a Watford XI this afternoon in a behind-closed-doors friendly fixture at the Club's Training Ground.
Four first half goals from the R's secured a convincing win, in front of the observing eyes of senior management duo Neil Warnock and Mick Jones.
Bradley Orr got the ball rolling after just seven minutes, when the defender latched onto the end of a Jason Puncheon through ball and applied a cool finish from close-range.
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Petter Vaagn Moen doubled the R's lead on 26 minutes. Puncheon's cleared cross, fell to the midfielder, who needed just one touch before unleashing a thunderbolt from 20-yards.
With the momentum now with the home side, it wasn't long before Rangers added another to the scoreline. Puncheon, again the provider, set-up Hogan Ephraim, who slotted the ball home with a first-time right-footed shot across the goalkeeper.
The result was complete just five minutes before half-time. Man of the moment, Puncheon, created space for himself in the middle of the park, before playing in Gary Borrowdale, whose first-time drive put the match to bed.
Second year scholar Sean Murray pulled a consolation back for the visitors, mid-way through the second half, after his perfectly executed free-kick proved too much for Radek Cerny to handle.
QPR XI: Cerny, Orr, Borrowdale, Parmenter, Peroni, Champion, Ephraim, Vaagan Moen, Andrade, Hewitt, Puncheon. QPR
-This Week's "Spot The Ball"