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MIRROR/John Cross - EXCLUSIVE: QPR facing player-wages crisis
Queens Park Rangers chairman Tony Fernandes will have to brace himself for a huge financial hit if the club lose their battle against the drop.
That's because ambitious QPR signed up most of this season's big-name arrivals on lucrative deals which DO NOT include relegation clauses.
It is understood Norwich and Swansea - who went up to the top flight with QPR last summer - put clauses into player contracts that would see wages reduced by between 33 and 50 per cent if they return to the Championship.
But when QPR went for big signings, they struggled to persuade the likes of Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Anton Ferdinand to gamble on such deals, which might drop dramatically in value if things go wrong on the pitch.
Barton was accused by Wolves midfielder Karl Henry early in the season of bragging of being on £80,000-a-week following his move from Newcastle - a figure that dwarves the earnings of players at Swansea and Norwich.
But Fernandes has already stressed his big ambitions for the club and wanted to bring in players to ensure QPR were going places.
They signed Nedum Onuora from Manchester City in January, but the England Under-21 defender admitted he took persuading to come to London and it's understood he is on around £60,000-a-week.
QPR are now trying to renegotiate the contracts of some players - including Jamie Mackie - to ensure their pay goes down if the club makes an instant return to the Championship.
Airline tycoon Fernandes is confident of beating relegation though, and manager Mark Hughes insists he believes his squad is strong enough to stay up.
QPR need to keep their top flight status as, even including the parachute payments they would receive in the Championship, they will struggle with such a high wage bill - just as West Ham have done in the current campaign. Mirror
The Sun/Charlie Wyett - Hops apocalypse
QPR face a financial nightmare if they are relegated — because NONE of their stars will be forced to take a pay cut.
Hoops' big earners like £70,000-a-week Joey Barton and January signing Djibril Cisse, who gets £60,000 a week, will still be paid their contracts if they drop into the Championship.
Premier League players normally see their wages cut by between 33-50 per cent if they are relegated.
But Rangers were so desperate to sign players like Shaun Wright-Phillips and Anton Ferdinand last summer they did not include a relegation clause in contracts following their promotion in May.
QPR's mega-rich owner Tony Fernandes has deep pockets but it seems he is now realising the impact of relegation, with some players on four-year deals worth over £10million.
Chief executive Phillip Beard said: "Ideally, we stay in the Premier League. If things don't work out, we'll fight tooth and nail to come back up." The Sun
MAIL -
QPR owner Fernandes faces financial nightmare if they go down as stars will KEEP wages
Struggling QPR face a financial meltdown if they are relegated from the Barclays Premier League — because none of their stars will be forced to take a pay cut.
Rangers' big earners like £70,000-a-week Joey Barton will still get paid in full if they drop into the Championship.
Pay up: QPR did not put relegation clause in Joey Barton's contract
Premier League teams usually include a relegation clause which would cut slash a players' wage by half if they are relegated.
But Rangers were so desperate to bolster their squad with the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Anton Ferdinand last summer they did not include a relegation clause in contracts following their promotion in May.
Rangers remain bullish about their staying up despite dropping into the bottom three after Saturday's defeat at fellow-strugglers Bolton.
Striker Cisse, another big earner on £60,000 a week, said: 'We have to fight until the end and that's what we are going to do. I love challenges and I love the club already. I will do my best to help the club stay up because we belong in the Premier League now.'
Deep pockets: QPR owner Tony Fernandes
QPR’s mega-rich owner Tony Fernandes has deep pockets but it seems he is now realising the impact of relegation, with some players on four-year deals worth over £10million.
Chief executive Phillip Beard said: 'Ideally, we stay in the Premier League. If things don’t work out, we’ll fight tooth and nail to come back up"Mail
CNN/Richard Quest - Pit lane to football pitch: Fernandes' plans for sporting success
"...Fernandes said the opportunity to build and shape a team is what attracted him to Caterham, and also to QPR.
He purchased F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's majority stake in the London-based team in August 2011, and brought in Welsh manager Mark Hughes to replace Neil Warnock -- the man who led QPR into the top flight but was struggling to keep the team there.
Fernandes funded several big signings in the January transfer window in order to stem the run of bad results, but QPR dropped into the relegation zone after another defeat on Saturday -- and the team has not won since January 21.
"Look, this is not a one year project," he said. "I sat on that seat when I bought this club and we lost 4-0. My whole life has been about building the right structures, the right people and just like Caterham, step by step -- we're getting better and better.
"We may have some bumps along the way but this doesn't change our determination to make this something special."
Fernandes is confident that, given time, he can transform QPR into a successful team.
"This is a raw diamond that needs polishing. It's got a bit of love, it needs a lot more, but it's in a prime area of London."
CNN NewSource.
- QPR CEO if Relegated West London Sport
- QPR's LatestAccounts:
IAN RIDLEY/EXPRESS - MARK HUGHES DELUDED
QPR manager Mark Hughes was naturally upset with the officials at Bolton who were unable to spot Clint Hill’s header crossing the line.
- “We have to demand their performances are better. What we’re finding is that key moments and key decisions are going against us,” said Hughes.
- Actually, he should demand that his players’ performances are better. It is key moments when strikers miss chances and key errors when defenders concede goals that are really going against QPR.
- If Hughes believes officials, rather than his side’s shortcomings, are threatening to cost QPR their Premier League place, then he is suffering from the delusion of too many managers who oversee their team’s relegation. Express
The National/Andy Mitten
QPR are still waiting to witness that spark from Mark Hughes
f you are after genuine insight into Mark Hughes, the Queens Park Rangers manager, his autobiography is not the place to find it. Sparky: Barcelona, Bayern & Back is a contender for the worst footballer autobiography ever to grace the printing press and runs to just 81 pages of text.
The only passages of note are the ones where Hughes is dismissive of his time playing for Barcelona, where his attempts to learn Spanish amounted to being able to ordering two drinks. And where he refers to one of the world's great football clubs as "German jokers Bayern Munich".
Hughes has won few friends or admirers since, except for the trusty coaching trio of Mark Bowen, Kevin Hitchcock and Eddie Niedzwiecki he takes with him from club to club.
"Hughes is the most rude and ignorant man I have met in football," said someone who worked with the Welshman when he was the manager at Fulham.
It is the inflated opinion of himself that saw him quit Fulham last June, apparently believing that he was in the frame for the Chelsea job.
He questioned Fulham's ambition but his decision to walk out on a club that finished eighth in the Premier League drew a furious response from Mohamed Al Fayed, the chairman, who described Hughes as "a strange man".
"He is not just disrespectful but entirely wrong," Al Fayed said at the time on the club website.
Hughes was a rumbustious player who seems to have carried this characteristic into management.
His Blackburn side had a reputation for being overly physical, not unlike Hughes the player, who made his name with Manchester United.
But he was perceived to be a rising star in management and left Rovers to replace Sven Goran Eriksson at Manchester City in 2008. However, he was dismissed by City four months into his second season after a run of just two victories in 11 games.
Few in exectuive positions at the Etihad Stadium have a good word to say about him, particularly as he aligned himself with his controversial adviser Kia Joorabchian and finds himself unable to resist taking a pop at his former employers and the man who replaced him, claiming Roberti Mancini had an "out of date" style and dubbing him an "absolute autocrat".
He timing was lousy as City thumped United 6-1 at Old Trafford in the wake of criticism.
Last season, Hughes had a dig ahead of City's trip to Fulham, only to see Mancini's team win 4-1.
Mancini said: "We don't know each other but I'm happy when Mark Hughes talks to the newspapers before a game because we win. He did the same before the Fulham game last November, so I'm happy if he talks about me before every game."
Asked if he would do the same to another manager, Mancini said: "No, absolutely not because I don't know all the managers. It's impossible because every manager has his own methods."
He still has his supporters, though. "I like him," says someone who works with him at Queens Park Rangers, where he took over in January after being out of work for six months. "He's serious, quiet, doesn't suffer fools, but if he knows and trusts you then I find him good to work with and a shrewd judge of a player."
Others are less generous in their appraisals, as QPR fans will be if he takes their side down.
Rangers have won just one of their eight league games under his charge. More worryingly, they've also lost to fellow strugglers Wolves and Bolton. QPR sit 18th in both the league and are accused of lax discipline.
Hughes was a fantastic footballer for Wales and United, a genuine terrace hero. Yet far from the image of the timid individual who only wanted to play football portrayed in interviews, he was aware of his value and knew how to manipulate it, as illustrated by his departure from Old Trafford.
In 1986, the United chairman Martin Edwards was singled out as the instigator of the sale of United's star striker to Barcelona and a barrage of criticism ensued.
"The only way Hughes would sign another contract was with a get-out clause allowing him to leave," claims Edwards. "If we hadn't given him a contract he would have gone for nothing. I put a clause in for �1.8 million (Dh10.3m) and I did that to protect Manchester United. I didn't want Mark Hughes to go, United didn't want him to go, but Mark Hughes decided to go.
"That never came over in the media and I got all the stick. Maybe he had committed to Barcelona halfway through the 1985/86 season and maybe by the end he didn't want to go, but he'd signed a deal with them."
Despite being paid "telephone numbers", Hughes was homesick and returned to Old Trafford in 1988, via a briefly successful spell in Bavaria with the "jokers", and was a star of the United side which won the league for the first time in 26 years in 1993 and the team that won the double a year later,
Hughes left Old Trafford for a second time in 1995, before continuing to flourish as a player at Chelsea. His career wound down at Southampton, Everton and Blackburn, his professionalism and dedication saw him playing at the top level until he was 38, while at the same time being manager of his country, Wales.
That role was initially shared and temporary, but Hughes impressed, more so because he wasn't seen as a natural for management.
Now we will have to see if his natural fighting qualities are enough to save QPR.
The National
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