When I was browsing the internet this morning I saw that Queens Park Rangers F.C. had released a club statement on the official website stating that the rumours of manager Neil Warnock resigning from the club are false.
My first thoughts are “oh no, not again”. Since the club achieved promotion back to the Premier League, the sacking of Chairman Ishan Saksena and the resignation of vice-chairman Amit Bhatia, anxiety over the direction of the club had risen to a high level. Ridiculously increased ticket prices were the first problem, the second appears to be the signing of new players.
Peterborough’s hot shot striker, Craig Mackail-Smith was in talks with the club after a reported £3 million bid had been accepted by Posh but the striker turned us down. He had also turned down newly promoted Norwich City too and could be on his way to Championship side, Leicester City.
Whilst I feel that £3 million for a player with no Championship pedigree, never mind Premier League experience is ridiculous, a statement made by Peterborough’s Barry Fry is rather worrying.
He said: “Craig met QPR manager Neil Warnock and was impressed with him, but he wanted assurances that Neil would still be manager at the start of the season and didn’t get them.”
This is probably why the club released the statement that Neil Warnock has not resigned and is still in charge but something is not quite right here.
Other rumours and reports say that free agent, Jay Bothroyd will not be moving to Rangers because of his huge wage demands.
There is understood to be a wage cap in place at the club so that there is no over-expenditure whilst in the Premier League which bodes well for the future of the club if the worst is to happen. Although Bothroyd would be a bargain on a free transfer, he’s not worth breaking the wage bank for. However, given the financial assets of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, many fans would be asking “why not, they can afford it”.
Adding to these two failed signings, I can now understand why Danny Graham chose to move to Swansea City over QPR now. Again, another transfer I am glad we avoided due to the high transfer fee for an unproven player in the top flight, the fact he chose the Swans over the R’s stung.
Reports say that he was guaranteed more first-team football at Swansea than Neil Warnock could offer but maybe it was more along the lines of why Mackail-Smith turned us down. Although, the fact he turned down Norwich too may suggest otherwise, maybe wages?
Journalist and Queens Park Rangers supporter, Dave McIntyre wrote an excellent piece today on what seems to be brewing in the Loftus Road boardroom, click on the link to read: http://davidmcintyre.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/a-critical-stage/
It’s no coincidence that when Bhatia and Saksena had more control in the club, we hired Neil Warnock, he was able to make the squad his own and we win the Championship title in 1 season.
Since they’ve left, the ticket prices have risen, unproven Premier League players are turning down moves to Loftus Road, rumours of Neil Warnock falling out with the board are rife and players have reportedly been snubbed over promotion winning bonuses they have earned.
This is the QPR I know, but why couldn’t the success and plain sailing last for at least 1 more season!
Queens Park aRmchair 