The Sun - Harry Redknapp
TRUST ME ... Redknapp's plea
Let me buy who I want for QPR and I’ll carry the can if it goes wrong By HARRY REDKNAPP SunSport columnist FOOTBALL is not all about money — thankfully even these days. To get a team promoted from the Championship to the Premier League does not rely on the chairman’s bank balance. Once you are in the top flight money becomes more of a factor — but even then it is not vital. As manager of QPR, who have just been relegated, I am not looking for loads of cash to throw at the transfer market. All I want the owners of the club to do is back my judgment. I do not want to spend all their money either. I don’t have to. But the one thing I am asking for is to be given the authority to make the decisions about which players we go for. Then I know it’s been my handiwork and my ideas. And also if it goes badly wrong then it is nobody else’s fault except mine — and I will take full responsibility for it. When I was last in the Championship, with Ports-mouth, we did not chuck money at transfers. What we invested in were characters. The likes of Paul Merson, Arjan de Zeeuw, Tim Sherwood and Steve Stone. Players coming to the end of their careers but who still had that hunger to want to achieve something. Players who could back me up and get us playing the right football — and to win matches of course. That didn’t take fortunes. Most of it was done with free transfers and loan deals, where the parent club was paying a large part of a player’s wages. But boy, did they repay me by the bucketload. In that respect, I want to have the same powers to choose where we go in terms of playing staff now. I know what I am doing, I know the game and know what QPR need to get back into the Premier League. It will be a difficult task but a challenge I am excited about undertaking. And one which I believe the owners of the football club want to support me in. They are nice people, good people. And when you work for good people, you want to work hard for them and produce something for them. I went out for dinner recently with Milan Mandaric, a shrewd businessman who doesn’t throw his money around. I worked for him at Portsmouth and he trusted in me and let me get on with the job of building a team which was capable of getting us out of trouble. When I arrived there I think the club was in the bottom six of the Championship and so I started piecing together a team. We built it on free transfers and ‘has-beens’ — as many people thought they were. But those players knew what it took to win a match and they knew what it took to keep a dressing-room highly charged and enthusiastic. Last week, we had been working on trying to sign Wayne Bridge. He had been released by Manchester City after a season-long loan at Brighton and a player of his calibre cannot be left alone for too long or else he will quickly get picked up. And that’s what happened as Reading stepped in to get him. That’s the kind of bloke I am looking for. He is a hugely experienced left-back and clearly still up for a game every week. He was exceptional at the Amex last season. I don’t need to spend loads doing it and I don’t want to spend all the owners’ money. I believe the future is good at QPR. Obviously, there are quite a few players we need to shift this summer. But they are still good players and will do a job for someone else. That’s football, every manager has his personal requirements. I am committed to QPR. I want to do well for the club and I want to take it back where it belongs, in the Premier League. I understand what it takes to get a team out of the Championship — character more than anything. The kind of players who will be up for it every Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, without flagging and without complaining. That’s what I need and money is not a factor in that. You will find as much character at the bottom of League Two as you will at the top of the Premier League, if not more. It will be one of my biggest challenges to get QPR back up again, that is for sure. The Championship, after all, is seen as the toughest league. But it will be right up there with my biggest achievements in the game if we do it next season. I am happy to be at the club and am excited about what we can do. All I ask for is that the people at the top end trust me and acknowledge I have good experience and know-how. I think last season showed that just chucking money at the team is by no means a guarantee of success. But I am still hungry, as I hope the players who stay with me are and those who join me at the club will be. There’s no point otherwise. The Sun
MIRROR - Gareth Ainsworth...
"...His career highlights were a five-year spell with Wimbledon and seven years at QPR, and it was at Loftus Road that he took his first steps into management. Ainsworth, who has just signed a two-year deal to continue as manager at Wycombe, said: “I had two short periods as QPR’s caretaker manager and it was as chaotic then as it seems to be now. “They were making the ‘The Four Year Plan’ documentary in my time there, so I made a couple of appearances in that. But it is certainly fair to say that working under someone like Flavio Briatore was an eye-opener. “It taught me a lot, even though it all came a bit early for me. “One of the most important things is that as a manager now it will always be me who picks the team!”... Mirror
MAIL/Joe Bernstein
Hartford sacked as assistant from MK Dons after just a year on the job MK Dons have sacked their assistant-manager Mick Harford after only 12 months in the job. Harford was regarded as one of the most fearsome players of his generation and had spells with 11 clubs including Newcastle, Chelsea and Luton. He has also previously managed QPR, Nottingham Forest, Rotherham and Luton. www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2338154/Mick-Hartford-sacked-assistant-manager-MK-Dons.html |
QPR Official Site - June 8, 1999
GERRY DETERMINED TO REBUILD
DIRECTOR of Football Gerry Francis is working hard to rebuild the club during the close season.
Gerry is determined to change things around - on and off the field - to ensure that Rangers have a much brighter future.
He says: " I've had a long relationship with QPR. I was captain here when we recorded our highest ever position in the league as runners-up in 1975/76. I came back as a manager and took the club to its second highest position of fifth just five years ago. So having returned to the club, I did not want to be the manager that took Rangers down. To stay up was obviously very important to the club and the supporters and also to myself.
"It gives us a chance to try to rebuild. I'm Director of Football and I'm looking at every avenue of rebuilding this football club and starting again.
"It's no use lying to the supporters. This is not going to be easy. Our financial situation isn't going to change overnight. There are teams we will be playing against next season who will be spending a lot of money, so our position hasn't changed. All we've managed to do is to stay as a First Division club, which is very, very important.
"But from a buying and selling point of view, we're certainly not going to be able to compete against many of the teams we will be playing against, so it's up to me to find what I can and utilise what I can. I certainly want to make sure we're not in the position we've been in over the past two seasons.
"To be honest, though, results don't lie - certainly not for two years. The team and the squad are not good enough. They need to get better and they need to get stronger. We've got to do that somehow within our financial situation.
"My aim is to take the club up from all angles. Financially, from a football-sense, from a playing-sense, from an Academy-sense. That's going to take a bit of time, but we have to start climbing the League."
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NEIL WARNOCK ON BHATIA AND PALADINI
"...Thanks also to Amit Bhatia for taking me to QPR where I had a wonderful experience turning the club around and worked with Gianni Paladini, who always made me smile and still does"