Post by Markqpr on Dec 9, 2009 12:14:32 GMT
Flashback 11 Years today On the official site: December 9, 2009
(In the end, obviously Magilton left; but always denied happened)
CLUB STATEMENT
Posted on: Wed 09 Dec 2009
The Club can confirm that Manager Jim Magilton has been suspended with immediate effect, pending an internal investigation.
The suspension relates to an incident which occurred at Monday's Championship fixture against Watford at Vicarage Road.
The Club will be making no further comment at this stage.
www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~1899681,00.html
www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~1900124,00.html
QPR Official Site DUO IN CARETAKER CHARGE
Posted on: Wed 09 Dec 2009
The Club can confirm that Youth Team managerial duo, Steve Gallen and Marc Bircham, have been placed in temporary charge
following the news that Manager Jim Magilton has been suspended.
The pair will be in charge of the R's Championship fixture against West Bromwich Albion on Monday night.
A further announcement regarding the futures of John Gorman and Keith Ryan will be made in due course
qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=8617
Bircham: Appointment is surreal
Thu, 10 Dec
Marc Bircham admits his sudden elevation to QPR's temporary manager is "surreal".
Former Rangers midfielder Bircham and his fellow youth coach Steve Gallen have taken over with boss Jim Magilton suspended pending an internal investigation into his alleged clash with Akos Buzsaky at Watford on Monday.
With assistant manager John Gorman and reserves coach Keith Ryan staying away in support of Magilton it has been left to Bircham and Gallen to hold the fort, starting with Monday night's trip to West Brom.
"It's just surreal circumstances," Bircham told Rangers' official website.
"We've been focusing on an FA Youth Cup game, and I was out Christmas shopping with my family when I got the call to say me and Steve were going to be in charge on Monday."
uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/10122009/63/bircham-appointment-surreal.html
[The initial reports about the match and what was claimed to have happened - including the recent reaffirmation by Magilton/Independent that it did not happen)
at qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=8593
The Times/Patrick Barclay- December 10, 2009
Flavio Briatore left to cast his net wide after latest troubles
Patrick Barclay, Analysis
Eleven years ago, one West Ham United player almost kicked another’s head off during a dispute in training and, because a television camera caught this particularly disturbing incident, the nation was shocked to hear that fights were far from unusual.
Now it seems that the managers are joining in — or so you would think, to judge from a couple of hair-raising stories that have come out of Stoke City and Queens Park Rangers over the past few days.
After Stoke had lost 2-0 away to Arsenal in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday, James Beattie, the players’ spokesman, was supposed to have become involved in a row with Tony Pulis over the squad’s Christmas outing that dramatically escalated. In truth, it seems like it was more handbags than hammer, and a minor altercation.
But a pattern appeared to be emerging when, within a couple of days, it was disclosed that QPR had suspended Jim Magilton over an allegation of head-butting one of his players, Akos Buzsaky, after the team’s 3-1 defeat in the Coca-Cola Championship against Watford at Vicarage Road.
Had players really become so difficult to discipline? Were fines so ineffective that a rough form of corporal punishment had become the only answer?
It was something of a relief to discover that things were not quite as they seemed. But the true story proved just as much of a shocker. Magilton strongly denied doing anything more than assertively confronting Buszaky and his account was supported by both John Gorman, his highly respected assistant, and Keith Ryan, the reserve-team manager.
Gorman so strongly believed that an injustice had been done that yesterday he refused an offer from Flavio Briatore, the club's controversial co-owner, to take charge of the team, who, until successive defeats by Middlesbrough and Watford, had been in fine form.
Ryan was then asked to shoulder the responsibility that had been taken away from Magilton — and he, too, declined on a point of principle.
It looks as if Briatore will have to look outside if, having digested the results of the promised “internal investigation” of the incident, Magilton is not returned to his post. Already there is speculation about Steve Coppell and Alan Curbishley and, once again, perhaps, football is about to portray itself as a ruthless game, moving on and leaving Magilton with the task of clearing his name.
Even a head-butt might be less painful.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article6950992.ece
Dec 10, 2009
Magilton denies headbutt on Buzsaky but faces sack
Assistants walk out on QPR in support of manager as clash with player escalates
By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent
The suspended Queen's Park Rangers manager Jim Magilton will tell the club's chairman Gianni Paladini that he did not butt Akos Buzsaky and that the two men instead went head-to-head – touching their foreheads – in a confrontation after the defeat at Watford on Monday night.
As the fallout from Magilton's row with his midfielder Buzsaky unfolded yesterday, sources at the club said that they believed the Rangers hierarchy were using the incident to sack Magilton, whose team have won only once in their last seven games. The Championship club were in disarray yesterday morning when Magilton's two assistants John Gorman and Keith Ryan refused to take training and walked out in support of the manager.
The former Northern Ireland midfielder was suspended after Buzsaky's Hungarian representatives visited Paladini on Tuesday and told him that his player was considering pressing assault charges against Magilton. A club source told The Independent: "He [Magilton] was passionate and aggressive but there was no physical contact. Afterwards the player [Buzsaky] ran out in a huff. He ran outside himself. It was nothing."
It is understood that Ryan helped separated the two men, not just the striker Patrick Agyemang, and that most players simply regarded it as the usual loss of temper that follows a bad defeat. Buzsaky was retrieved from the Watford kitman's room where he had gone to get warm and the team went back to London. Only the next day when a complaint was lodged did Magilton realise the severity of the implications for his own career.
It had been reported that Magilton butted Buzsaky when the player responded half-heartedly to a question during a post-match rant from the manager after the 3-1 defeat. This will be the crux of the case against Magilton who is adamant that he did not physically attack the 27-year-old winger.
The club announced yesterday that they would launch an "internal investigation" into Monday night's events although Magilton is now resigned to the fact that he has lost his job and will not be reinstated. The 40-year-old issued a robust statement through the League Managers' Association that signalled he would take the club to a tribunal, which could prove costly for Rangers if they cannot prove he attacked Buzsaky.
Magilton said: "While passions can run high in football, especially after a poor performance, I categorically deny any allegation of wrongdoing following Monday's fixture. I understand that the club has initiated an internal investigation, with which I will cooperate fully."
The mood among some at the club is that Paladini has been unhappy with Magilton after the 5-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough and the defeat to Watford have pushed Rangers off the pace in the Championship. Magilton is the fifth manager at the club since the takeover by a consortium including Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal two years ago. It would be fair to say that little patience has been extended to any of Magilton's predecessors.
Paladini has put the under-18s coach Steve Gallen and academy manager Marc Bircham, both former players, in charge of the team.
Should Magilton be dismissed he will be able to take the club to a tribunal, which will make the final decision on whether he is eligible for a pay-out. Buzsaky yesterday went to the extent of denying that he had put in a transfer request as a result of the incident.
www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/magilton-denies-headbutt-on-buzsaky-but-faces-sack-1837197.html
Dec 11, 2009 at 2:23am
Telegraph/Jim White
Jim Magilton mess merely adds to cloud of confusion swirling round QPR
If Jim Magilton is shown the door after his alleged bust-up, it will only add to the circus at Loftus Road.
Anyone logging on to Queens Park Rangers' official website at the moment is invited by an advert on the home page to "Buy a Player as a Gift".
Sadly, given that several members of the current Rangers squad might happily take their place in any round up of stocking fillers for under a tenner, it turns out that Player is the trade name for an internet subscription service and thus this is not a reference to a mass clear-out of the playing staff after all.
Even so, it is not quite what you would expect of the self-styled second wealthiest football club in the country. You might imagine this ought to be the sort of place where the club's mega-wealthy owners do all the player purchasing themselves.
But then for some time around Loftus Road things have not been quite as they seem. It began, the confusion, about the time the former owner Gianni Paladini claimed he was held up at gunpoint in the stadium in 2005. The six men tried for the crime were all acquitted.
Since then things have become ever less explicable. For instance, once the collective of billionaires to whom Paladini handed over the club in 2007 arrived, you might have expected some fevered transfer activity.
Or just any transfer activity. But the forays of Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal into the market have been more about signing Adel Taarabt on loan from Spurs than pipping Real Madrid to Kaka's signature.
Indeed, such has been their extreme reluctance to sanction any investment beyond improving the quality of the catering in the corporate boxes, it is not exactly clear what the three men – worth in excess of five billion between them – have bought Rangers for.
Of course, it would be unfair to suggest that Ecclestone and Briatore have brought with them none of their expertise at running motor racing to the football field. They have, without doubt, introduced a spot of glamour to the directors' box, where every other Saturday they can be seen sharing their blankets with some photogenic companions.
Plus, the way they operate at Loftus Road is every bit as opaque, and politically charged as anything they have managed in the world of Formula One.
Take this week. The club manager, Jim Magilton, was suspended from duty following an alleged fracas in the dressing room after a defeat at Watford. Nothing has been proven, all parties are denying anything untoward happened, but Magilton has been suspended and probably already fears he is unlikely to be returning to do anything more than pick up his compensation cheque.
If the allegations that he butted one of his players have any foundation, it might be thought that Magilton is not on the firmest of moral high ground here. But compare his treatment with that of Tony Pulis at Stoke City.
Pulis is also alleged to have resorted to the forehead during a debate with his striker James Beattie last weekend. Six days on Pulis is as ensconced as ever at the Britannia Stadium, apparently exonerated.
At QPR, however, the first instinct of the motor racing demons at the merest hint of trouble is to get rid of the manager.
If he goes, Magilton will make it four revolving through the exit door in two years (not including the departure of John Gregory a month before Briatore took over), a turnover which even Jesus Gil in the height of his Caligula-esque reign at Atletico Madrid might have considered a touch over excited.
Some, like Luigi di Canio, have gone for personal reasons. Others – Paulo Sousa – for questioning the directors' decision to sell his best player without informing the manager first. Though to be fair to the owners, at least one boss, mentioning no names Iain Dowie, has gone for the crime of not being very good.
Now the speculation is mounting as to who could succeed the feisty Magilton. Darren Ferguson and Gareth Southgate are said to be at the head of the wish list. In which case, does either of them know what they are letting themselves in for?
Is it in the job description that Briatore picks the team? Or that the manager's first meeting with Ecclestone and Mittal will be the one in which he receives his P45?
Or that, despite being among the richest men on the planet, the directors' attitude to buying new players is to leave that sort of thing to the fans? Who knows.
But doubtless Ferguson and Southgate are at the head of a very long queue. In football, it seems, there is always someone keen to take control of the keys to the asylum.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/championship/queensparkrangers/6782006/Jim-Magilton-mess-merely-adds-to-cloud-of-confusion-swirling-round-QPR.html
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/8606/year-flashback-qpr-suspend-magilton#ixzz50lE9hW20
Flashback to the Appointment of Jim Magilton Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Loftus Road Decision-Time: QPR Appoint Jim Magilton Manager
QPR Official Site EXCLUSIVE: MAGILTON APPOINTED
- Queens Park Rangers Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Jim Magilton as the Club's new Manager.
- The 40 year-old, who made over 50 appearances for Northern Ireland during an illustrious playing career for both Club and country, has put pen to paper on a two year deal at Loftus Road.
- Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk, QPR Holdings Ltd Chairman, Flavio Briatore, expressed his delight at Magilton's arrival, commenting: "We had an incredibly high number of applicants, but Jim was the stand-out candidate for the role.
- "We (the Board) sat down with him on four separate occasions over the last month to discuss our goals and ambitions and he has really impressed myself, Mr Ecclestone, Mr Mittal and Mr Bhatia with his knowledge, understanding and passion for football.
- "He did a very good job at Ipswich Town, playing some fine, attacking football, and he has great ambition to achieve in this next chapter of his managerial career. We are all really looking forward to working with him."
- Magilton enjoyed three seasons at the helm at Portman Road, inspiring the Tractor Boys to an eighth place finish in season 2007/08, before guiding them towards a comfortable top-half finish prior to his departure in April.
- Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk, the R's new boss said: "I'm really looking forward to the challenge of managing this great Football Club.
- "The Board are highly ambitious, but they are very realistic at the same time. I have huge ambitions to achieve as a Manager though, and our aim is to keep progressing, year after year.
- "There is a very strong group of players at the Club and with one or two additions over the summer, we can expect to be in a position to drastically improve upon the eleventh place finish secured last season."
Magilton will be joined at the Club by a new Assistant Manager in the coming weeks.
*The Club will be making no further comment at this stage. QPR
QPR Official Site JIM MAGILTON: IN PROFILE
- Born in Belfast in 1969, James 'Jim' Magilton served as an apprentice at Liverpool.
However, he failed to make a single appearance for the Anfield Club and was transferred to Oxford United in 1990, at the age of 21.
He went on to make 173 appearances in all competitions, scoring 42 goals, before moving to Southampton.
Arriving at The Dell as Alan Ball's second signing following his recent appointment as Manager, Magilton established himself as a key component of the Saints' midfield, with his exquisite range of passing really coming to the forefront.
- He was an ever-present for the South Coast side in the 1994/95 campaign, and went on to feature regularly under both David Merrington and Graeme Souness.
However, his decision not to sign a new contract following the appointment of Dave Jones in the summer of 1997 resulted in a £1.6million move to Sheffield Wednesday.
Magilton enjoyed mixed fortunes at Hillsborough though and soon moved to Ipswich Town on loan.
It was there that he enjoyed arguably the finest chapter of his playing career, making more than 300 appearances in all competitions, and firmly establishing his place in Tractor Boys folklore.
Sandwiched in between his time at the four aforementioned Clubs, Magilton made 52 starts for his native Northern Ireland, scoring five goals.
As his playing days reached a conclusion, Magilton made a tentative approach to fill the vacant managerial role following Joe Royle's departure and he was officially handed the role in early June 2006.
He guided the Tractor Boys to a 14th place finish in his first campaign at the helm, before leading Town to a highly satisfactory eighth place finish 12 months later.
Town were desperately unlucky not to book their place in the end of season play-off's, falling just one point shy of the top six, with an exemplary home record.
However, following changes at Boardroom level at Portman Road towards the end of last season, Magilton was relieved of his duties in April 2009, with the Club in ninth place. QPR
Daily Mirror - Jim Magilton appointed fifth QPR manager since October 2007
- QPR have named former Ipswich boss Jim Magilton as their new manager.
- The 40-year-old, who was sacked by the Tractor Boys in April after failing to guide them into the Coca-Cola Championship play-offs, has signed a two-year deal at Loftus Road.
- Magilton will now be expected to ensure Rangers are challenging for promotion back to the Barclays Premier League after a disappointing 11th-placed finish last term.
- "There is a very strong group here and with one or two additions we can expect to be in a position to drastically improve upon last season," he said.
- Magilton becomes the fifth permanent manager at the west London club since chairman and co-owner Flavio Briatore arrived on the scene in October 2007.
- John Gregory, Luigi De Canio, Iain Dowie and Paulo Sousa have all come and gone, along with caretakers Mick Harford and Gareth Ainsworth - who has been at the helm twice.
- With the wealth of Briatore and fellow investors Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal at the club's disposal, Magilton will be expected to mount a swift challenge.
- The former Northern Ireland, Ipswich and Southampton midfielder was given funds at Portman Road, but despite falling short last season he has impressed Briatore.
- "We had an incredibly high number of applicants, but Jim was the stand-out candidate for the role," said Briatore.
- "We (the board) sat down with him on four separate occasions over the last month to discuss our goals and ambitions and he has really impressed with his knowledge, understanding and passion for football.
"He did a very good job at Ipswich Town, playing some fine, attacking football, and he has great ambition to achieve in this next chapter of his managerial career. We are all really looking forward to working with him."
Magilton, who will name his assistant manager in the coming weeks, added: "I'm really looking forward to the challenge of managing this great football club.
"The board are highly ambitious, but they are very realistic at the same time. I have huge ambitions to achieve as a manager though, and our aim is to keep progressing, year after year." Daily Mirror
LONDON INFORMER/Paul Warburton - Magilton named new QPR boss
- JIM MAGILTON has beaten a score of candidates to secure a two-year contract and become QPR’s eighth manager in three years.
- The former Ipswich boss signed on the dotted line this morning – and starts work on rebuilding the team immediately.
- The appointment of the ex-Northern Ireland international comes almost two months after Paulo Sousa became the last incumbent of the Loftus Road hot-seat to feel the wrath of the board and get sacked.
- Magilton beat off the likes of Aidy Boothroyd, Steve Cotterill, Colin Calderwood, former boss Luigi Di Canio, not to mention another 16 or so managers who also chucked their names into the hat, ‘because he has the finger on the pulse of what championship football is all about’ according to one Rs insider.
- The source added: "He has exactly the background for Championship success – and after three years with Ipswich, he knows what to do.
- "He’s twice come very close with Ipswich – and QPR believe he can take the final step up and take the team into the Premiership."
- Chairman Flavio Britaore privately admitted he got burned by appointing Sousa, who came with a recommendation from Fabio Capello, but no knowledge of the second tier of English football.
- Interestingly, Magilton was reportedly fired by the Tractor Boys in April because he failed to get them in the play-offs despite heavy investment in the team.
- Briatore is reluctant to shell out millions in order to secure a dream return by Rangers to the top-flight after 13 years.
- So the new man at the helm has been told he needs to wheel-and-deal with the squad he’s inherited or pick up Bosmans to change the team into his own image.
- Magilton’s first decision is to decide whether to go ahead with the combined £2.5 million switch of Dexter Blackstock and Lee Camp to Nottingham Forest, as well as allowing Roy Keane to buy Damien Delaney and spirit the defender away to of all places – Ipswich. London Informer
- Magilton Background
qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=4101
qprreport.blogspot.com/2009/06/crack-up-at-loftus-road-qpr-appoint-jim.html
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/8606/year-flashback-qpr-suspend-magilton#ixzz50lELVzpg
Mirror/James Nursey
QPR players asked to testify against boss Jim Magilton - Exclusive
QPR players have been asked to testify against Jim Magilton as the club want evidence before sacking their manager.
Magilton, 40, has been suspended by the Loftus Road club for an alleged head-butt on Akos Buzsaky after Monday’s defeat at Watford.
Most of Rangers’ players witnessed the pair clashing in the visitors’ dressing room at Vicarage Road.
And Magilton is set to be sacked after the club’s next game at West Brom in the Championship on Monday, where Steve Gallen and Marc Bircham will be in temporary charge.
But Magilton has denied head-butting Buzsaky and fears he may not get another managerial job in football.
Rangers now want testimonies from some players to use as evidence to force Magilton out.
But that prospect has not gone down well with QPR stars who do not want to get dragged into a legal row.
Hungarian midfielder Buzsaky has threatened to take legal action against Magilton and his team-mates don’t want to end up in court.
Gareth Southgate, Darren Ferguson and Paul Hart are the candidates to replace Magilton.
But ex-Peterborough manager Ferguson is believed to be holding out for a job with Sheffield United or Bolton should the Premier League strugglers sack Gary Megson
www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/QPR....cle253115. html
BELFAST TELEGRAPH/David Healy
David Healy Belfast Telegraph
A lot has been made this week about an alleged incident involving my old mate Jim Magilton and one of his Queen’s Park Rangers players, Akos Buzsaky.
It would be foolish to go into the specifics of what did or didn’t happen as I was not there, but I can’t say I was stunned by the story — bust-ups happen every week at clubs, as Tony Pulis and James Beattie proved earlier in the week.
I have been involved in them myself and there is nothing new in players being at each other’s throats after a game or during a training session.
I would say every player has been involved in such an incident one way or another.
All it takes is a late tackle in training or something said on the pitch; football is full of pressure and sometimes that spills over.
Falling out with a manager isn’t just as common but it is by no means something new.
People argue with their boss in every walk of life but because football is so high-profile, everything is magnified.
The important thing to add is that these incidents are forgotten as quickly as they begin.
I am a big fan of Graeme Souness and I noticed he said recently that he had no interest in going back into management.
He has played for and managed some of the biggest clubs but doesn’t fancy it now because, as he puts it, “you can can’t manage players”.
Some players earn more money than their boss these days and the important things in their lives are the size of their fancy cars, the size of their house or the latest watch they have.
Things have changed in football and that natural respect is not there in some cases.
Whatever has happened at QPR, I hope Jim Magilton is back as soon as possible.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/....l#ixzz0ZMYgb75A
Des Kelly The Mail
Silence is golden? It depends on who is doing the talking...
The idea that the dressing room is some hermetically sealed haven where managers can fight, hurl boots and butt employees, while clothed or naked, without fear of being exposed is a complete fallacy.
Leaving aside the obvious double entendres in that opening sentence, let us deal with the central issue in a week when two behind-the-scenes feuds became very public indeed.
First, Stoke manager Tony Pulis is said to have butted striker James Beattie after emerging from the shower, accidentally dropping his towel in the ensuing melee.
Apologies for the detail here, but I don’t want to be the only one watching Pulis prowling the touchline against Wigan today plagued by that disturbing mental image. Now you can share in it, too.
Over at Queens Park Rangers, Jim Magilton allegedly had a similar high-speed tete-a-tete with sulking player Akos Buzsaky.
When asked about the clash in the press conference after the match, Magilton said it was something that ‘would be kept in-house’. He was oblivious to the fact that the aggrieved Hungarian was stomping up and down outside the window and could not have been advertising his unhappiness any more clearly if he had been wearing a sandwich board.
Magilton is now facing an internal investigation, which sounds like some rather painful procedure at Customs, and the unedifying prospect of losing his job. The player is discussing ‘legal action’ and being taken seriously. And all of this would be a shock at any club other than the laughable circus that QPR has become under Flavio Briatore and Co.
But the bulk of the complaints have not focused on the incidents themselves or any perceived injustices, but mainly on the fact that we came to hear about these scuffles in the first place.
A succession of managers and ex-players rushed into print to trot out that lazy old cliché ‘what goes on in the dressing room should stay in the dressing room’ as if it was an immutable law.
‘I have been a manager for 18 years and you have certain golden rules,’ said Pulis. ‘One of them I stick to is that whatever happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room. The important thing is the spirit, commitment and togetherness stays in that dressing room. And you don’t get that by dropping things out.’
Best keep hold of your towel, then.
This concept that some kind of football omerta still exists is a quaint one, but it’s nonsense.
Sportsmen, and footballers in particular, have been trampling over that so-called principle for as long as I can remember and never more so than now, in an age where even the most inane piece of tittle-tattle is broadcast globally.
They say a rumour without a leg to stand on will get around the world some other way. And these days it’s usually via the internet.
Then there’s the ghosted autobiography, the newspaper column, the personal website, Twitter, the call to a friendly media contact, usually to cash in, occasionally to make mischief, or sometimes merely to highlight what they believe to be an injustice.
Managers also break that code of confidence themselves, the two most notable figures in recent years being Glenn Hoddle and David O’Leary
But in the past few days, Bolton manager Gary Megson has complained about a clique of players undermining morale in his own dressing room, while at Manchester City, assistant manager Mark Bowen was happily discussing a bust-up in the ranks after the draw against Hull.
So everyone opens the door when it suits them. Because David Beckham had a smart publicist we know Sir Alex Ferguson hit him in the face with a boot; and because Roy Keane had a book to sell that Brian Clough once dared to punch him in the face; and Grimsby boss Brian Laws once broke a player’s cheekbone with a plate of fried chicken wings because… well, you’d need a heart of stone not to laugh at the idea that he literally ‘battered’ one of his players. I think ‘Fowl Play’ was the headline. If it wasn’t, it should have been.
The so-called ‘sanctity of the dressing room’ has already been eroded in rugby league, where cameras film the half-time exchanges. And the moment is fast approaching when the press, radio and TV will be allowed inside football dressing rooms immediately after a match, just as they are in all major American sports.
ESPN’s Disney cash will eventually see to that, although I suspect Ferguson will have retired by then.
In the meantime, the dressing room will have to get accustomed to the limelight. It’s not going to go away.
Pity fans can't walk awayAccording to a statement issued by Portsmouth there is absolutely no financial crisis at the football club and the whole fuss is down to ‘inaccurate media speculation’.
It reminds me of a scene from the film Naked Gun, where Lt Frank Drebin tells passers by to ‘move along, nothing to see here’ in front of an exploding fireworks factory......
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/8606/year-flashback-qpr-suspend-magilton#ixzz50lEYPFN2
(In the end, obviously Magilton left; but always denied happened)
CLUB STATEMENT
Posted on: Wed 09 Dec 2009
The Club can confirm that Manager Jim Magilton has been suspended with immediate effect, pending an internal investigation.
The suspension relates to an incident which occurred at Monday's Championship fixture against Watford at Vicarage Road.
The Club will be making no further comment at this stage.
www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~1899681,00.html
www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~1900124,00.html
QPR Official Site DUO IN CARETAKER CHARGE
Posted on: Wed 09 Dec 2009
The Club can confirm that Youth Team managerial duo, Steve Gallen and Marc Bircham, have been placed in temporary charge
following the news that Manager Jim Magilton has been suspended.
The pair will be in charge of the R's Championship fixture against West Bromwich Albion on Monday night.
A further announcement regarding the futures of John Gorman and Keith Ryan will be made in due course
qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=8617
Bircham: Appointment is surreal
Thu, 10 Dec
Marc Bircham admits his sudden elevation to QPR's temporary manager is "surreal".
Former Rangers midfielder Bircham and his fellow youth coach Steve Gallen have taken over with boss Jim Magilton suspended pending an internal investigation into his alleged clash with Akos Buzsaky at Watford on Monday.
With assistant manager John Gorman and reserves coach Keith Ryan staying away in support of Magilton it has been left to Bircham and Gallen to hold the fort, starting with Monday night's trip to West Brom.
"It's just surreal circumstances," Bircham told Rangers' official website.
"We've been focusing on an FA Youth Cup game, and I was out Christmas shopping with my family when I got the call to say me and Steve were going to be in charge on Monday."
uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/10122009/63/bircham-appointment-surreal.html
[The initial reports about the match and what was claimed to have happened - including the recent reaffirmation by Magilton/Independent that it did not happen)
at qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=8593
The Times/Patrick Barclay- December 10, 2009
Flavio Briatore left to cast his net wide after latest troubles
Patrick Barclay, Analysis
Eleven years ago, one West Ham United player almost kicked another’s head off during a dispute in training and, because a television camera caught this particularly disturbing incident, the nation was shocked to hear that fights were far from unusual.
Now it seems that the managers are joining in — or so you would think, to judge from a couple of hair-raising stories that have come out of Stoke City and Queens Park Rangers over the past few days.
After Stoke had lost 2-0 away to Arsenal in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday, James Beattie, the players’ spokesman, was supposed to have become involved in a row with Tony Pulis over the squad’s Christmas outing that dramatically escalated. In truth, it seems like it was more handbags than hammer, and a minor altercation.
But a pattern appeared to be emerging when, within a couple of days, it was disclosed that QPR had suspended Jim Magilton over an allegation of head-butting one of his players, Akos Buzsaky, after the team’s 3-1 defeat in the Coca-Cola Championship against Watford at Vicarage Road.
Had players really become so difficult to discipline? Were fines so ineffective that a rough form of corporal punishment had become the only answer?
It was something of a relief to discover that things were not quite as they seemed. But the true story proved just as much of a shocker. Magilton strongly denied doing anything more than assertively confronting Buszaky and his account was supported by both John Gorman, his highly respected assistant, and Keith Ryan, the reserve-team manager.
Gorman so strongly believed that an injustice had been done that yesterday he refused an offer from Flavio Briatore, the club's controversial co-owner, to take charge of the team, who, until successive defeats by Middlesbrough and Watford, had been in fine form.
Ryan was then asked to shoulder the responsibility that had been taken away from Magilton — and he, too, declined on a point of principle.
It looks as if Briatore will have to look outside if, having digested the results of the promised “internal investigation” of the incident, Magilton is not returned to his post. Already there is speculation about Steve Coppell and Alan Curbishley and, once again, perhaps, football is about to portray itself as a ruthless game, moving on and leaving Magilton with the task of clearing his name.
Even a head-butt might be less painful.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article6950992.ece
Dec 10, 2009
Magilton denies headbutt on Buzsaky but faces sack
Assistants walk out on QPR in support of manager as clash with player escalates
By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent
The suspended Queen's Park Rangers manager Jim Magilton will tell the club's chairman Gianni Paladini that he did not butt Akos Buzsaky and that the two men instead went head-to-head – touching their foreheads – in a confrontation after the defeat at Watford on Monday night.
As the fallout from Magilton's row with his midfielder Buzsaky unfolded yesterday, sources at the club said that they believed the Rangers hierarchy were using the incident to sack Magilton, whose team have won only once in their last seven games. The Championship club were in disarray yesterday morning when Magilton's two assistants John Gorman and Keith Ryan refused to take training and walked out in support of the manager.
The former Northern Ireland midfielder was suspended after Buzsaky's Hungarian representatives visited Paladini on Tuesday and told him that his player was considering pressing assault charges against Magilton. A club source told The Independent: "He [Magilton] was passionate and aggressive but there was no physical contact. Afterwards the player [Buzsaky] ran out in a huff. He ran outside himself. It was nothing."
It is understood that Ryan helped separated the two men, not just the striker Patrick Agyemang, and that most players simply regarded it as the usual loss of temper that follows a bad defeat. Buzsaky was retrieved from the Watford kitman's room where he had gone to get warm and the team went back to London. Only the next day when a complaint was lodged did Magilton realise the severity of the implications for his own career.
It had been reported that Magilton butted Buzsaky when the player responded half-heartedly to a question during a post-match rant from the manager after the 3-1 defeat. This will be the crux of the case against Magilton who is adamant that he did not physically attack the 27-year-old winger.
The club announced yesterday that they would launch an "internal investigation" into Monday night's events although Magilton is now resigned to the fact that he has lost his job and will not be reinstated. The 40-year-old issued a robust statement through the League Managers' Association that signalled he would take the club to a tribunal, which could prove costly for Rangers if they cannot prove he attacked Buzsaky.
Magilton said: "While passions can run high in football, especially after a poor performance, I categorically deny any allegation of wrongdoing following Monday's fixture. I understand that the club has initiated an internal investigation, with which I will cooperate fully."
The mood among some at the club is that Paladini has been unhappy with Magilton after the 5-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough and the defeat to Watford have pushed Rangers off the pace in the Championship. Magilton is the fifth manager at the club since the takeover by a consortium including Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal two years ago. It would be fair to say that little patience has been extended to any of Magilton's predecessors.
Paladini has put the under-18s coach Steve Gallen and academy manager Marc Bircham, both former players, in charge of the team.
Should Magilton be dismissed he will be able to take the club to a tribunal, which will make the final decision on whether he is eligible for a pay-out. Buzsaky yesterday went to the extent of denying that he had put in a transfer request as a result of the incident.
www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/magilton-denies-headbutt-on-buzsaky-but-faces-sack-1837197.html
Dec 11, 2009 at 2:23am
Telegraph/Jim White
Jim Magilton mess merely adds to cloud of confusion swirling round QPR
If Jim Magilton is shown the door after his alleged bust-up, it will only add to the circus at Loftus Road.
Anyone logging on to Queens Park Rangers' official website at the moment is invited by an advert on the home page to "Buy a Player as a Gift".
Sadly, given that several members of the current Rangers squad might happily take their place in any round up of stocking fillers for under a tenner, it turns out that Player is the trade name for an internet subscription service and thus this is not a reference to a mass clear-out of the playing staff after all.
Even so, it is not quite what you would expect of the self-styled second wealthiest football club in the country. You might imagine this ought to be the sort of place where the club's mega-wealthy owners do all the player purchasing themselves.
But then for some time around Loftus Road things have not been quite as they seem. It began, the confusion, about the time the former owner Gianni Paladini claimed he was held up at gunpoint in the stadium in 2005. The six men tried for the crime were all acquitted.
Since then things have become ever less explicable. For instance, once the collective of billionaires to whom Paladini handed over the club in 2007 arrived, you might have expected some fevered transfer activity.
Or just any transfer activity. But the forays of Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal into the market have been more about signing Adel Taarabt on loan from Spurs than pipping Real Madrid to Kaka's signature.
Indeed, such has been their extreme reluctance to sanction any investment beyond improving the quality of the catering in the corporate boxes, it is not exactly clear what the three men – worth in excess of five billion between them – have bought Rangers for.
Of course, it would be unfair to suggest that Ecclestone and Briatore have brought with them none of their expertise at running motor racing to the football field. They have, without doubt, introduced a spot of glamour to the directors' box, where every other Saturday they can be seen sharing their blankets with some photogenic companions.
Plus, the way they operate at Loftus Road is every bit as opaque, and politically charged as anything they have managed in the world of Formula One.
Take this week. The club manager, Jim Magilton, was suspended from duty following an alleged fracas in the dressing room after a defeat at Watford. Nothing has been proven, all parties are denying anything untoward happened, but Magilton has been suspended and probably already fears he is unlikely to be returning to do anything more than pick up his compensation cheque.
If the allegations that he butted one of his players have any foundation, it might be thought that Magilton is not on the firmest of moral high ground here. But compare his treatment with that of Tony Pulis at Stoke City.
Pulis is also alleged to have resorted to the forehead during a debate with his striker James Beattie last weekend. Six days on Pulis is as ensconced as ever at the Britannia Stadium, apparently exonerated.
At QPR, however, the first instinct of the motor racing demons at the merest hint of trouble is to get rid of the manager.
If he goes, Magilton will make it four revolving through the exit door in two years (not including the departure of John Gregory a month before Briatore took over), a turnover which even Jesus Gil in the height of his Caligula-esque reign at Atletico Madrid might have considered a touch over excited.
Some, like Luigi di Canio, have gone for personal reasons. Others – Paulo Sousa – for questioning the directors' decision to sell his best player without informing the manager first. Though to be fair to the owners, at least one boss, mentioning no names Iain Dowie, has gone for the crime of not being very good.
Now the speculation is mounting as to who could succeed the feisty Magilton. Darren Ferguson and Gareth Southgate are said to be at the head of the wish list. In which case, does either of them know what they are letting themselves in for?
Is it in the job description that Briatore picks the team? Or that the manager's first meeting with Ecclestone and Mittal will be the one in which he receives his P45?
Or that, despite being among the richest men on the planet, the directors' attitude to buying new players is to leave that sort of thing to the fans? Who knows.
But doubtless Ferguson and Southgate are at the head of a very long queue. In football, it seems, there is always someone keen to take control of the keys to the asylum.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/championship/queensparkrangers/6782006/Jim-Magilton-mess-merely-adds-to-cloud-of-confusion-swirling-round-QPR.html
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Flashback to the Appointment of Jim Magilton Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Loftus Road Decision-Time: QPR Appoint Jim Magilton Manager
QPR Official Site EXCLUSIVE: MAGILTON APPOINTED
- Queens Park Rangers Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Jim Magilton as the Club's new Manager.
- The 40 year-old, who made over 50 appearances for Northern Ireland during an illustrious playing career for both Club and country, has put pen to paper on a two year deal at Loftus Road.
- Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk, QPR Holdings Ltd Chairman, Flavio Briatore, expressed his delight at Magilton's arrival, commenting: "We had an incredibly high number of applicants, but Jim was the stand-out candidate for the role.
- "We (the Board) sat down with him on four separate occasions over the last month to discuss our goals and ambitions and he has really impressed myself, Mr Ecclestone, Mr Mittal and Mr Bhatia with his knowledge, understanding and passion for football.
- "He did a very good job at Ipswich Town, playing some fine, attacking football, and he has great ambition to achieve in this next chapter of his managerial career. We are all really looking forward to working with him."
- Magilton enjoyed three seasons at the helm at Portman Road, inspiring the Tractor Boys to an eighth place finish in season 2007/08, before guiding them towards a comfortable top-half finish prior to his departure in April.
- Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk, the R's new boss said: "I'm really looking forward to the challenge of managing this great Football Club.
- "The Board are highly ambitious, but they are very realistic at the same time. I have huge ambitions to achieve as a Manager though, and our aim is to keep progressing, year after year.
- "There is a very strong group of players at the Club and with one or two additions over the summer, we can expect to be in a position to drastically improve upon the eleventh place finish secured last season."
Magilton will be joined at the Club by a new Assistant Manager in the coming weeks.
*The Club will be making no further comment at this stage. QPR
QPR Official Site JIM MAGILTON: IN PROFILE
- Born in Belfast in 1969, James 'Jim' Magilton served as an apprentice at Liverpool.
However, he failed to make a single appearance for the Anfield Club and was transferred to Oxford United in 1990, at the age of 21.
He went on to make 173 appearances in all competitions, scoring 42 goals, before moving to Southampton.
Arriving at The Dell as Alan Ball's second signing following his recent appointment as Manager, Magilton established himself as a key component of the Saints' midfield, with his exquisite range of passing really coming to the forefront.
- He was an ever-present for the South Coast side in the 1994/95 campaign, and went on to feature regularly under both David Merrington and Graeme Souness.
However, his decision not to sign a new contract following the appointment of Dave Jones in the summer of 1997 resulted in a £1.6million move to Sheffield Wednesday.
Magilton enjoyed mixed fortunes at Hillsborough though and soon moved to Ipswich Town on loan.
It was there that he enjoyed arguably the finest chapter of his playing career, making more than 300 appearances in all competitions, and firmly establishing his place in Tractor Boys folklore.
Sandwiched in between his time at the four aforementioned Clubs, Magilton made 52 starts for his native Northern Ireland, scoring five goals.
As his playing days reached a conclusion, Magilton made a tentative approach to fill the vacant managerial role following Joe Royle's departure and he was officially handed the role in early June 2006.
He guided the Tractor Boys to a 14th place finish in his first campaign at the helm, before leading Town to a highly satisfactory eighth place finish 12 months later.
Town were desperately unlucky not to book their place in the end of season play-off's, falling just one point shy of the top six, with an exemplary home record.
However, following changes at Boardroom level at Portman Road towards the end of last season, Magilton was relieved of his duties in April 2009, with the Club in ninth place. QPR
Daily Mirror - Jim Magilton appointed fifth QPR manager since October 2007
- QPR have named former Ipswich boss Jim Magilton as their new manager.
- The 40-year-old, who was sacked by the Tractor Boys in April after failing to guide them into the Coca-Cola Championship play-offs, has signed a two-year deal at Loftus Road.
- Magilton will now be expected to ensure Rangers are challenging for promotion back to the Barclays Premier League after a disappointing 11th-placed finish last term.
- "There is a very strong group here and with one or two additions we can expect to be in a position to drastically improve upon last season," he said.
- Magilton becomes the fifth permanent manager at the west London club since chairman and co-owner Flavio Briatore arrived on the scene in October 2007.
- John Gregory, Luigi De Canio, Iain Dowie and Paulo Sousa have all come and gone, along with caretakers Mick Harford and Gareth Ainsworth - who has been at the helm twice.
- With the wealth of Briatore and fellow investors Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal at the club's disposal, Magilton will be expected to mount a swift challenge.
- The former Northern Ireland, Ipswich and Southampton midfielder was given funds at Portman Road, but despite falling short last season he has impressed Briatore.
- "We had an incredibly high number of applicants, but Jim was the stand-out candidate for the role," said Briatore.
- "We (the board) sat down with him on four separate occasions over the last month to discuss our goals and ambitions and he has really impressed with his knowledge, understanding and passion for football.
"He did a very good job at Ipswich Town, playing some fine, attacking football, and he has great ambition to achieve in this next chapter of his managerial career. We are all really looking forward to working with him."
Magilton, who will name his assistant manager in the coming weeks, added: "I'm really looking forward to the challenge of managing this great football club.
"The board are highly ambitious, but they are very realistic at the same time. I have huge ambitions to achieve as a manager though, and our aim is to keep progressing, year after year." Daily Mirror
LONDON INFORMER/Paul Warburton - Magilton named new QPR boss
- JIM MAGILTON has beaten a score of candidates to secure a two-year contract and become QPR’s eighth manager in three years.
- The former Ipswich boss signed on the dotted line this morning – and starts work on rebuilding the team immediately.
- The appointment of the ex-Northern Ireland international comes almost two months after Paulo Sousa became the last incumbent of the Loftus Road hot-seat to feel the wrath of the board and get sacked.
- Magilton beat off the likes of Aidy Boothroyd, Steve Cotterill, Colin Calderwood, former boss Luigi Di Canio, not to mention another 16 or so managers who also chucked their names into the hat, ‘because he has the finger on the pulse of what championship football is all about’ according to one Rs insider.
- The source added: "He has exactly the background for Championship success – and after three years with Ipswich, he knows what to do.
- "He’s twice come very close with Ipswich – and QPR believe he can take the final step up and take the team into the Premiership."
- Chairman Flavio Britaore privately admitted he got burned by appointing Sousa, who came with a recommendation from Fabio Capello, but no knowledge of the second tier of English football.
- Interestingly, Magilton was reportedly fired by the Tractor Boys in April because he failed to get them in the play-offs despite heavy investment in the team.
- Briatore is reluctant to shell out millions in order to secure a dream return by Rangers to the top-flight after 13 years.
- So the new man at the helm has been told he needs to wheel-and-deal with the squad he’s inherited or pick up Bosmans to change the team into his own image.
- Magilton’s first decision is to decide whether to go ahead with the combined £2.5 million switch of Dexter Blackstock and Lee Camp to Nottingham Forest, as well as allowing Roy Keane to buy Damien Delaney and spirit the defender away to of all places – Ipswich. London Informer
- Magilton Background
qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=4101
qprreport.blogspot.com/2009/06/crack-up-at-loftus-road-qpr-appoint-jim.html
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Mirror/James Nursey
QPR players asked to testify against boss Jim Magilton - Exclusive
QPR players have been asked to testify against Jim Magilton as the club want evidence before sacking their manager.
Magilton, 40, has been suspended by the Loftus Road club for an alleged head-butt on Akos Buzsaky after Monday’s defeat at Watford.
Most of Rangers’ players witnessed the pair clashing in the visitors’ dressing room at Vicarage Road.
And Magilton is set to be sacked after the club’s next game at West Brom in the Championship on Monday, where Steve Gallen and Marc Bircham will be in temporary charge.
But Magilton has denied head-butting Buzsaky and fears he may not get another managerial job in football.
Rangers now want testimonies from some players to use as evidence to force Magilton out.
But that prospect has not gone down well with QPR stars who do not want to get dragged into a legal row.
Hungarian midfielder Buzsaky has threatened to take legal action against Magilton and his team-mates don’t want to end up in court.
Gareth Southgate, Darren Ferguson and Paul Hart are the candidates to replace Magilton.
But ex-Peterborough manager Ferguson is believed to be holding out for a job with Sheffield United or Bolton should the Premier League strugglers sack Gary Megson
www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/QPR....cle253115. html
BELFAST TELEGRAPH/David Healy
David Healy Belfast Telegraph
A lot has been made this week about an alleged incident involving my old mate Jim Magilton and one of his Queen’s Park Rangers players, Akos Buzsaky.
It would be foolish to go into the specifics of what did or didn’t happen as I was not there, but I can’t say I was stunned by the story — bust-ups happen every week at clubs, as Tony Pulis and James Beattie proved earlier in the week.
I have been involved in them myself and there is nothing new in players being at each other’s throats after a game or during a training session.
I would say every player has been involved in such an incident one way or another.
All it takes is a late tackle in training or something said on the pitch; football is full of pressure and sometimes that spills over.
Falling out with a manager isn’t just as common but it is by no means something new.
People argue with their boss in every walk of life but because football is so high-profile, everything is magnified.
The important thing to add is that these incidents are forgotten as quickly as they begin.
I am a big fan of Graeme Souness and I noticed he said recently that he had no interest in going back into management.
He has played for and managed some of the biggest clubs but doesn’t fancy it now because, as he puts it, “you can can’t manage players”.
Some players earn more money than their boss these days and the important things in their lives are the size of their fancy cars, the size of their house or the latest watch they have.
Things have changed in football and that natural respect is not there in some cases.
Whatever has happened at QPR, I hope Jim Magilton is back as soon as possible.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/....l#ixzz0ZMYgb75A
Des Kelly The Mail
Silence is golden? It depends on who is doing the talking...
The idea that the dressing room is some hermetically sealed haven where managers can fight, hurl boots and butt employees, while clothed or naked, without fear of being exposed is a complete fallacy.
Leaving aside the obvious double entendres in that opening sentence, let us deal with the central issue in a week when two behind-the-scenes feuds became very public indeed.
First, Stoke manager Tony Pulis is said to have butted striker James Beattie after emerging from the shower, accidentally dropping his towel in the ensuing melee.
Apologies for the detail here, but I don’t want to be the only one watching Pulis prowling the touchline against Wigan today plagued by that disturbing mental image. Now you can share in it, too.
Over at Queens Park Rangers, Jim Magilton allegedly had a similar high-speed tete-a-tete with sulking player Akos Buzsaky.
When asked about the clash in the press conference after the match, Magilton said it was something that ‘would be kept in-house’. He was oblivious to the fact that the aggrieved Hungarian was stomping up and down outside the window and could not have been advertising his unhappiness any more clearly if he had been wearing a sandwich board.
Magilton is now facing an internal investigation, which sounds like some rather painful procedure at Customs, and the unedifying prospect of losing his job. The player is discussing ‘legal action’ and being taken seriously. And all of this would be a shock at any club other than the laughable circus that QPR has become under Flavio Briatore and Co.
But the bulk of the complaints have not focused on the incidents themselves or any perceived injustices, but mainly on the fact that we came to hear about these scuffles in the first place.
A succession of managers and ex-players rushed into print to trot out that lazy old cliché ‘what goes on in the dressing room should stay in the dressing room’ as if it was an immutable law.
‘I have been a manager for 18 years and you have certain golden rules,’ said Pulis. ‘One of them I stick to is that whatever happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room. The important thing is the spirit, commitment and togetherness stays in that dressing room. And you don’t get that by dropping things out.’
Best keep hold of your towel, then.
This concept that some kind of football omerta still exists is a quaint one, but it’s nonsense.
Sportsmen, and footballers in particular, have been trampling over that so-called principle for as long as I can remember and never more so than now, in an age where even the most inane piece of tittle-tattle is broadcast globally.
They say a rumour without a leg to stand on will get around the world some other way. And these days it’s usually via the internet.
Then there’s the ghosted autobiography, the newspaper column, the personal website, Twitter, the call to a friendly media contact, usually to cash in, occasionally to make mischief, or sometimes merely to highlight what they believe to be an injustice.
Managers also break that code of confidence themselves, the two most notable figures in recent years being Glenn Hoddle and David O’Leary
But in the past few days, Bolton manager Gary Megson has complained about a clique of players undermining morale in his own dressing room, while at Manchester City, assistant manager Mark Bowen was happily discussing a bust-up in the ranks after the draw against Hull.
So everyone opens the door when it suits them. Because David Beckham had a smart publicist we know Sir Alex Ferguson hit him in the face with a boot; and because Roy Keane had a book to sell that Brian Clough once dared to punch him in the face; and Grimsby boss Brian Laws once broke a player’s cheekbone with a plate of fried chicken wings because… well, you’d need a heart of stone not to laugh at the idea that he literally ‘battered’ one of his players. I think ‘Fowl Play’ was the headline. If it wasn’t, it should have been.
The so-called ‘sanctity of the dressing room’ has already been eroded in rugby league, where cameras film the half-time exchanges. And the moment is fast approaching when the press, radio and TV will be allowed inside football dressing rooms immediately after a match, just as they are in all major American sports.
ESPN’s Disney cash will eventually see to that, although I suspect Ferguson will have retired by then.
In the meantime, the dressing room will have to get accustomed to the limelight. It’s not going to go away.
Pity fans can't walk awayAccording to a statement issued by Portsmouth there is absolutely no financial crisis at the football club and the whole fuss is down to ‘inaccurate media speculation’.
It reminds me of a scene from the film Naked Gun, where Lt Frank Drebin tells passers by to ‘move along, nothing to see here’ in front of an exploding fireworks factory......
Read more: qprreport.proboards.com/thread/8606/year-flashback-qpr-suspend-magilton#ixzz50lEYPFN2
(But I won't)
