3 1/2 Years Ago: Sousa "Terminated"

The Sousa Sacked Stories

The Daily Mail EXCLUSIVE: Portugal legend Sousa sent packing as QPR call time on their latest boss
By Sportsmail Reporter
Queens Park Rangers have sacked manager Paulo Sousa after just five months in charge.
The Championship club have appointed winger Gareth Ainsworth as caretaker for the rest of the season. Ainsworth had a previous spell as manager before the appointment of Sousa in November.
The former Juventus and Inter Milan midfielder, who arrived amid great fanfare but failed to mount a serious challenge for promotion, may now seek to take legal action against the club.
The club has been troubled by internal turmoil since the arrival of chairman Flavio Briatore in 2007. Top scorer Dexter Blackstock was sent on loan to Nottingham Forest last week in a move which Sousa said he had no say in.
Sousa's No 2 Bruno Oliverier a was sacked on Monday, since when Sousa's own departure has seemed inevitable. - The Daily Mail


The Times - QPR sack manager Paulo Sousa
Queens Park Rangers have sacked Paulo Sousa after just five months in charge.
- Flavio Briatore, the club's ambitious millionaire chairman and co-owner insisted that Sousa had been dismissed for “divulging highly confidential information” rather than because the club are languishing in tenth place in the Coca-Cola Championship, with little chance of reaching the play-offs this season.
- A club statement read: “Queens Park Rangers Football Club has today had to terminate Paulo Sousa‘s employment with the club with immediate effect.
- “It came to the club‘s attention that Mr Sousa had, without authority, divulged highly confidential and sensitive information
- “The club, with legal advice, responded in this way to protect its position.”
- The former Portugal midfielder, 38, took over at Loftus Road in November after Iain Dowie was axed but won just seven of his 26 games at the helm.
- The writing appeared to be on the wall after Sousa revealed at the weekend that top-scorer Dexter Blackstock had been loaned to Championship rivals Nottingham Forest without his knowledge.
- His predecessor Dowie lasted just 15 games before he was dismissed after clashing with Briatore over team selection and the Italian owner of the Renault Formula One team is now looking for his seventh manager since taking over the club a year and a half ago.
- John Gregory, Luigi De Canio and caretakers Mick Harford and Gareth Ainsworth have also been dispensed with. Ainsworth, who has remained on the coaching staff, will be back in charge for the rest of the season, starting with Saturday’s trip to Burnley, while Paul Ince and Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson have been linked with the role. The Times


Mirror/Alan Nixon - QPR sack manager Paulo Sousa for leaking information
- Paulo Sousa is ready to fight QPR for a pay-off - after being sacked last night following a row over leaks about the club's affairs.
- The Portuguese coach was axed in a letter to his home yesterday following weeks of speculation about his future.
- Sousa was questioned by club bosses about claims he had told supporters about trouble behindthe-scenes in the past few weeks.
- The former Juventus and Borussia Dortmund star strenuously denied those allegations and was stunned by the sacking - although he was aware Rangers were going to bring in a new man above him for next season.
- A sources close to Sousa said: "Paulo is a very dignified man and a professional. He would not go round telling tales about club affairs to fans." Rangers will promote Gareth Ainsworth to the role of boss for now.. Daily Mirror


Daily Mail/"HatchetMan" Perspective - Same old storyline at QPR as Sousa becomes the latest to star in a brief encounter
- So Paulo Sousa has been axed by QPR after just 26 games. No-one saw that coming did they?
- The fact that it came about after alleged leaks gives the departure an unexpected twist but the manager's job at the club remains a short-term deal under the current ownership.
- The club have now gone through five managers since Flavio Briatore and co took the reins. Who would want to take that job now?
- The qualifications for the role seem to be as much to do with putting up with the alleged meddling of the owners and having a good lawyer to ensure a lucrative exit when it inevitably comes before the contract expires as anything to do with the sport.
- Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, the key QPR investors, have become the Axemen of the Championship and Loftus Road is set to remain a bloody and painful place for some time.
- It will probably stay like that until they move on, in fact, and when big money moves out of a club after such disjointed management, the sequel of the current production could well be Apocalypse Now. Daily Mail

Additional Reactions

- The Sun/Geoff Sweet
- Only person who’d take QPR job is somebody hoping for pay-off in six months - WANTED: A football manager who fancies getting sacked after six months.
You will, though, walk away with an undisclosed pay-off!
- Applicants should apply immediately to QPR supremo Flavio Briatore.
- The Loftus Road chief saw off his fourth boss in 18 months yesterday after Portuguese coach Paulo Sousa was dumped — just 26 games into the job.
- Sousa’s not alone. His predecessor Iain Dowie lasted 15 games — in fact the average shelf-life of a QPR boss under Briatore works out at just 17 games.
- The QPR hotseat is now so hot, that, according to a club insider, it’s only suitable for “an old guy looking for a quick pay-off — or a youngster happy to be told exactly what to do”.
- Because F1 chief Briatore runs QPR with an iron grip.
- Our source close to the players told how Briatore: Sent Sousa a letter to underline how he was only a coach and NOT a manager and that the instruction from the board was to play 4-4-2 for the remainder of the season.
- Last Saturday phoned in from Malaysia to demand Sousa replace Liam Miller with Lee Cook at half-time in the goalless draw with Crystal Palace, which he did. Demanding substitutions was a regular occurrence.
- Regularly visited the dressing room and interrupted Sousa’s pre-match team talks.
- Our source added: “QPR under Briatore is a complete shambles — an amateur club could be run better.
- “Paulo, like Dowie before him, was actually a strong person but that’s the last sort of coach the chairman wants.”
- Sousa, 38, was dumped on Thursday night, with the Championship club claiming he divulged sensitive information and that they acted after taking legal advice to “protect their position”.
- Fans’ favourite Gareth Ainsworth was immediately put in charge as caretaker (for the second time) until the end of the season after Sousa’s No 2 Bruno Oliveira had his contract terminated on Monday.
- It was first thought Sousa’s downfall was revealing he knew nothing about the decision to loan out top-scorer Dexter Blackstock to Nottingham Forest.
- But last night it emerged Sousa had allegedly spoken out of turn to a fan about fitness and contract details of some first-team squad members and that this information appeared on websites.
- The source added: “Briatore thinks that because he pays good wages the players are behind him. But the truth is they are afraid to say boo to a goose and most of them think he hasn’t got a clue.
- “There is a post-season trip to Bahrain but hardly anyone wants to go and instead they’ve instructed their agents to find new teams.”
- Briatore bought the club with a group of friends, including Grand Prix chum Bernie Ecclestone, in September 2007.
- Other Briatore casualties include John Gregory and Luigi de Canio, plus Mick Harford, who lost his job as a caretaker boss. The Sun


Des Kelly/The Mail - Ruthless Ranger All change: Briatore the axeman - When I interviewed Flavio Briatore for the BBC, the perma-tanned head honcho had just been installed at Queens Park Rangers and was promising a directors’ box full of beautiful people and a ‘boutique’ club.
- After going through five managers in 18 months, Briatore’s project at Loftus Road is looking more like Woolworths.
- Rumours abound that the Formula One boss tries to select the team, despite his patent lack of knowledge.
- Meanwhile, the dismissal of Paulo Sousa after just 26 matches was explained with the preposterous excuse that he leaked ‘highly confidential and sensitive information’ when he admitted the club’s top scorer had been loaned out without his prior knowledge.
- It wasn’t confidential information. But it was obviously sensitive — to someone, at least. The Mail


The Mail - Media blackout: QPR ban players from discussing Sousa sacking- QPR have banned their players from speaking out over the sacking of manager Paolo Sousa.
- The club are keen to draw a line under the Portuguese's departure but are wary his exit has caused anger and unrest among the players with whom he was extremely popular.
- Sousa was allegedly sacked over a report which appeared on a fans website claiming to be quoting the manager and his views on how the club was being run.
- Sousa refutes the allegatons and claims to have never discussed club matters with any fan.
- Several players have expressed concern at the clubs actions and wanted to speak out but now realise doing so may jeopardise their own future" The Mail


Martin Samuels Daily Mail - Flavio Briatore is turning Queens Park Rangers job into mission Impossible- When Steve McClaren left Manchester United he had a choice of jobs and asked Sir Alex Ferguson for advice.
- Don't pick a club, Ferguson told him, pick a chairman. McClaren went to Middlesbrough to work with the dependable Steve Gibson.
- The biggest laugh of the week, therefore, concerns the rumours emanating from Queens Park Rangers that chairman Flavio Briatore wishes his seventh victim (sorry, manager) to be Sir Alex's talented son, Darren.
- If Ferguson senior was so protective of a humble assistant in McClaren, why would he let a cherished family member fall into the clutches of this idiot?
Briatore's brief yet chaotic time at Loftus Road has made Rupert Lowe's spells at Southampton look like masterpieces of consistent vision.
Briatore has employed six managers, including caretakers, in little more than 18 months, and the most recent one, Paulo Sousa, lasted 26 games.
- Even the unemployed should beware Briatore. Paul Ince is in the frame, but while he might be keen to work in football again, he is not that desperate, surely?
- The same goes for Dennis Wise. Having just left a nuthouse at Newcastle United, this career move would qualify him for a straitjacket more than a tracksuit.
- Many in football claim Wise was doing a creditable job at Newcastle's academy before being overtaken by events. Why would he check into another asylum?
You must be joking? Even Dennis Wise would be mad to join another madhouse after leaving Newcastle
- If even half the stories circulating about Briatore's stewardship at QPR are true then any credible manager would run a mile. It has been suggested Briatore has phoned in from Malaysia to insist on half-time substitutions and summoned a manager from the field where he was warming up the players to tell him what the starting XI should be.
- So many sources paint a similar picture that it is hard to believe they are all fantasists, even if Briatore denies picking the team.
His protests, however, are increasingly hollow.
- 'If the results are good, nobody puts their nose in,' he says. 'I have an opinion on things because we have invested a lot of money.'
That is the point, though. Briatore and friends have not invested a lot of money. Not by the standards of modern football, not compared to, say, Roman Abramovich or even Mike Ashley, not compared to what is about to happen at Manchester City.
- Briatore has helped clear the debts and provided adequate investment for ordinary Championship players; which is why QPR remain an ordinary Championship team.
- The total commitment of Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone to QPR is estimated in the region of £20million, although some of Briatore's share has already been palmed off to Lakshmi Mittal, said to be the fifth richest man in the world.
- Indeed, there are some very wealthy citizens at QPR; not that you would know it from anything bar the boardroom egos.
- And one imagines Darren's dad knows exactly how to deal with them
- With Briatore in charge, that should have qualified him for some form of long-service carriage clock.
- His predecessor, Iain Dowie, took charge of 15 games, John Gregory and Mick Harford got five games each, while Luigi De Canio made it to 35 games, almost a whole season, before he got the bullet. This is the equivalent of five or six seasons at another club because one match at QPR equates, much like dog years, to seven with a rational man in charge.
- The conceit of Briatore is such that leaks from QPR now put promising young managers in the frame for the vacancy, as if anyone of substance would chance his career working for the regime at Loftus Road.
- What could Darren Ferguson gain from association with Briatore, apart from a pay-off?
- He would be better off seeing the job through at Peterborough United, biding his time for the opportunity to work at a bigger club with a sensible owner. Daily Mail

Bumpy....

And the fact that we NOW have Warnock....or that Sousa was recently axed by Leicester has no bearing on what happened at QPR a year and a half ago...and the role played - Any attempts at "Revisionist" history notwithstanding.

This left a very bad taste in the mouth indeed !Did we find out the whole story about blackstock
i believe he had scored about 10 or so goals upto about December , then did he have a little injury ?Next minute he was out on months loan at that time could not believe DB had gone out !
Clubs then were just benefiting from our pure incompetence !
Glad its starting to change now KLR.

I thought it was Paladini who allegedly took a cut, not Sousa??