Post by Macmoish on Feb 17, 2011 19:34:56 GMT
Dave McIntyre Blog
Warnock’s major comedown
By davidmcintyre
From Messi to McIntyre in less than 24 hours. How the mighty have fallen.
A day after meeting Barcelona’s players as they trained at Loftus Road, Neil Warnock was back to dealing with the likes of me.
He managed to put a brave face on it, and as usual was having none of my attempts to put words in his mouth. It’s been nearly a year of this now. A change of tactics may be needed.
In an ideal world, he’d have compared Troy Hewitt to Les Ferdinand – the obvious comparison (for a lazy person) to make, given the latter’s rise from another local non-League club.
That one was politely shot down straightaway, and was always going to be. But a comparison with DJ Campbell; now that was a goer, I thought.
‘Neil Warnock reckons he’s unearthed the new DJ Campbell in non-League hotshot Troy Hewitt….’
It was all done in my head, and I knew which papers would take it. Job virtually done. All Warnock had to do was play ball.
He wasn’t having it. I had two or three attempts, but he just wouldn’t take the bait. Some nonsense about comparisons being daft and not putting pressure on a youngster. Whatever. I zoned out at that point, my superbly-crafted story ruined.
On a serious note, players from the lower divisions and non-League often emerge and attract interest, and it’s almost always misplaced. But I think Hewitt can go a long way. I like him. People whose judgement I trust like him even more, and have been watching him for some time.
There are clubs that have been tracking Hewitt for much longer than QPR and will be bitterly disappointed that he looks set to join them. He’s regarded by a number of good judges as a genuine prospect.
That said, the jump from Ryman League to the Championship and soon, possibly, to the Premier League, would be an absolutely monumental one. Anything he does this season should be seen as a bonus. It could take 18 months or longer for Hewitt to adapt.
Even if it doesn’t – and I have a feeling he might hit the ground running – sooner or later a player making that kind of step up will almost certainly hit a wall.
When that happens, it’s simply part of learning the professional game. And that game can involve going from flavour of the month to a cast-off very quickly.
An option for a club in Rangers’ position is always to take on a player like Hewitt as a no-risk signing, and then loan him to another League club to see how he fares.
I asked Warnock if he’d consider doing this, and he was adamant that he wants Hewitt in his squad. That’s a big compliment.
As of this afternoon, talks were at an advanced enough stage for me to be pretty convinced Hewitt will be a QPR player.
Warnock expects the signing to be completed soon – and is also confident he won’t be losing one striker as another comes in.
He has spoken about Ishmael Miller to West Brom, who have an option to recall the player at 24 hours’ notice.
There’s been speculation that, having taken over as Albion manager, Roy Hodgson might exercise that option.
At the moment though, that seems unlikely to happen, at least until Hodgson or one of his staff has watched him in action for Rangers. Even then, Miller will probably stay put.
Even so, Warnock has been looking at other possible loan signings should he lose Miller in the next few weeks.
As things stand, Miller will be on the team coach to Preston and it is, apparently, on that coach that Warnock will decide whether to make a change to his defence on Saturday.
Matt Connolly and Bradley Orr are the most likely casualties if he alters things, with Pascal Chimbonda and Fitz Hall waiting in the wings. Dan Shittu is another option.
Would he change a successful team? I believe yes, simply because Rangers dropped points at the turn of the year when he decided against making changes during a very hectic period, despite considering it very seriously.
For that reason, with games again coming thick and fast, I expect Warnock to make the odd change, if not this weekend then soon.
Finally, I want to say thanks for the many nice comments I received after my post about Harold Winton, some of which I’ll pass onto his family.
I also want to clarify something about my post on the Amulya loan davidmcintyre.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/the-loan-in-5-minutes/ , which attracted some not-so-nice comments! That’s fine. I’m always hearing from and meeting Rangers fans who tell me what rubbish I talk and that I’m consistently wrong. I’m well used to that.
I should say though that the post, which some saw as negative and even scaremongering, didn’t actually include any personal opinion on the Amulya loan whatsoever.
It was purely a brief factual rundown in light of a letter sent to shareholders that had caused some confusion – as the issue of the loan often does.
davidmcintyre.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/warnocks-major-comedown/
DAVE MCINTYRE'S "AMULYA LOAN" POST
[This was the Amulya Loan piece by Dave McIntyre referenced above (and 7 responses posted)
davidmcintyre.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/the-loan-in-5-minutes/
The loan: in 5 minutes
By davidmcintyre
Just a quick post – and a massive over-simplification – about a letter sent to shareholders regarding the non-repayment of a £10m loan to Amulya.
Here’s the broad thrust of what it’s all about…
Most QPR fans are aware of the infamous ABC loan. This was a £10m loan which enabled the club to come out of administration in 2002, paying Chris Wright some of the money he was owed as a result of his time as chairman and owner.
This loan was bad news, and the interest repayments alone were a noose around the club’s neck. It meant that ABC Corporation, in loaning QPR that money, had the right to acquire Loftus Road should that loan not be repaid at the due date. In short, Loftus Road was used as collateral to secure that loan.
What’s never said about the ABC loan is that a large chunk of it was also used to fund QPR’s promotion by making the club the biggest spenders in Division Two. Without that additional capital, it’s doubtful Rangers would have gone up. Most wrongly believe that promotion was achieved on a shoestring.
Before and after the 2007 takeover, the ABC loan was a big issue facing the club, and by definition the new owners.
In order for QPR to repay ABC, the club was loaned £10m by Amulya – a company the club say Flavio Briatore and Amit Bhatia have an interest in.
This did NOT mean that the issue of the £10m loan had gone away. It meant that the loan had been transferred from ABC to Amulya, who then had the option to acquire Loftus Road just as ABC did previously.
The loan to Amulya was due to be repaid by QPR by the end of July 2010, at which time the likes of Briatore expected to be owning a Premier League club, with all the financial rewards that brings.
When the loan was not repaid by QPR to Amulya, that option to acquire – the ‘deadline’ for the club – was extended to the end of October 2010 and then to the end of January 2011.
With the second date now passed, the directors are looking to move it to May 2011 – by which time they really do expect QPR to be in the Premier League.
In the meantime, Loftus Road will remain as their collateral, or to put it another way, their insurance, should that not happen and the loan remain unpaid.
Like ABC, Amulya have the option to effectively acquire the stadium for the £10m they loaned to QPR (even though the stadium was last valued at more than £21m).
This can seem confusing, and I’ve been asked how the directors can “default on their own loan”. The answer is to stop seeing QPR and the owners as one and the same. They’re not.
The loan isn’t “theirs” and neither is the default on the repayment. It’s QPR’s alone.
The club was given that £10m by Amulya to repay the ABC loan. And like that previous loan, QPR must repay it or face the prospect of losing Loftus Road.
The bottom line is that the ‘sorting’ of the ABC loan was no more intended to be a gift to QPR on the part of the current owners than Wright’s investment back in the mid-90s. Both were directors’ loans – a fact that in both cases was overlooked because of the hype surrounding the respective regimes and their willingness to spend money on players.
And in an important sense, those two eras are linked by this £10m loan. The Amulya loan was used to pay off the ABC loan, which was arranged in response to the troublesome directors’ loans that QPR were not in a position to repay in 2001, when Wright quit.
Got that? It’s a loan to repay the loan that settled the other loan
Warnock’s major comedown
By davidmcintyre
From Messi to McIntyre in less than 24 hours. How the mighty have fallen.
A day after meeting Barcelona’s players as they trained at Loftus Road, Neil Warnock was back to dealing with the likes of me.
He managed to put a brave face on it, and as usual was having none of my attempts to put words in his mouth. It’s been nearly a year of this now. A change of tactics may be needed.
In an ideal world, he’d have compared Troy Hewitt to Les Ferdinand – the obvious comparison (for a lazy person) to make, given the latter’s rise from another local non-League club.
That one was politely shot down straightaway, and was always going to be. But a comparison with DJ Campbell; now that was a goer, I thought.
‘Neil Warnock reckons he’s unearthed the new DJ Campbell in non-League hotshot Troy Hewitt….’
It was all done in my head, and I knew which papers would take it. Job virtually done. All Warnock had to do was play ball.
He wasn’t having it. I had two or three attempts, but he just wouldn’t take the bait. Some nonsense about comparisons being daft and not putting pressure on a youngster. Whatever. I zoned out at that point, my superbly-crafted story ruined.
On a serious note, players from the lower divisions and non-League often emerge and attract interest, and it’s almost always misplaced. But I think Hewitt can go a long way. I like him. People whose judgement I trust like him even more, and have been watching him for some time.
There are clubs that have been tracking Hewitt for much longer than QPR and will be bitterly disappointed that he looks set to join them. He’s regarded by a number of good judges as a genuine prospect.
That said, the jump from Ryman League to the Championship and soon, possibly, to the Premier League, would be an absolutely monumental one. Anything he does this season should be seen as a bonus. It could take 18 months or longer for Hewitt to adapt.
Even if it doesn’t – and I have a feeling he might hit the ground running – sooner or later a player making that kind of step up will almost certainly hit a wall.
When that happens, it’s simply part of learning the professional game. And that game can involve going from flavour of the month to a cast-off very quickly.
An option for a club in Rangers’ position is always to take on a player like Hewitt as a no-risk signing, and then loan him to another League club to see how he fares.
I asked Warnock if he’d consider doing this, and he was adamant that he wants Hewitt in his squad. That’s a big compliment.
As of this afternoon, talks were at an advanced enough stage for me to be pretty convinced Hewitt will be a QPR player.
Warnock expects the signing to be completed soon – and is also confident he won’t be losing one striker as another comes in.
He has spoken about Ishmael Miller to West Brom, who have an option to recall the player at 24 hours’ notice.
There’s been speculation that, having taken over as Albion manager, Roy Hodgson might exercise that option.
At the moment though, that seems unlikely to happen, at least until Hodgson or one of his staff has watched him in action for Rangers. Even then, Miller will probably stay put.
Even so, Warnock has been looking at other possible loan signings should he lose Miller in the next few weeks.
As things stand, Miller will be on the team coach to Preston and it is, apparently, on that coach that Warnock will decide whether to make a change to his defence on Saturday.
Matt Connolly and Bradley Orr are the most likely casualties if he alters things, with Pascal Chimbonda and Fitz Hall waiting in the wings. Dan Shittu is another option.
Would he change a successful team? I believe yes, simply because Rangers dropped points at the turn of the year when he decided against making changes during a very hectic period, despite considering it very seriously.
For that reason, with games again coming thick and fast, I expect Warnock to make the odd change, if not this weekend then soon.
Finally, I want to say thanks for the many nice comments I received after my post about Harold Winton, some of which I’ll pass onto his family.
I also want to clarify something about my post on the Amulya loan davidmcintyre.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/the-loan-in-5-minutes/ , which attracted some not-so-nice comments! That’s fine. I’m always hearing from and meeting Rangers fans who tell me what rubbish I talk and that I’m consistently wrong. I’m well used to that.
I should say though that the post, which some saw as negative and even scaremongering, didn’t actually include any personal opinion on the Amulya loan whatsoever.
It was purely a brief factual rundown in light of a letter sent to shareholders that had caused some confusion – as the issue of the loan often does.
davidmcintyre.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/warnocks-major-comedown/
DAVE MCINTYRE'S "AMULYA LOAN" POST
[This was the Amulya Loan piece by Dave McIntyre referenced above (and 7 responses posted)
davidmcintyre.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/the-loan-in-5-minutes/
The loan: in 5 minutes
By davidmcintyre
Just a quick post – and a massive over-simplification – about a letter sent to shareholders regarding the non-repayment of a £10m loan to Amulya.
Here’s the broad thrust of what it’s all about…
Most QPR fans are aware of the infamous ABC loan. This was a £10m loan which enabled the club to come out of administration in 2002, paying Chris Wright some of the money he was owed as a result of his time as chairman and owner.
This loan was bad news, and the interest repayments alone were a noose around the club’s neck. It meant that ABC Corporation, in loaning QPR that money, had the right to acquire Loftus Road should that loan not be repaid at the due date. In short, Loftus Road was used as collateral to secure that loan.
What’s never said about the ABC loan is that a large chunk of it was also used to fund QPR’s promotion by making the club the biggest spenders in Division Two. Without that additional capital, it’s doubtful Rangers would have gone up. Most wrongly believe that promotion was achieved on a shoestring.
Before and after the 2007 takeover, the ABC loan was a big issue facing the club, and by definition the new owners.
In order for QPR to repay ABC, the club was loaned £10m by Amulya – a company the club say Flavio Briatore and Amit Bhatia have an interest in.
This did NOT mean that the issue of the £10m loan had gone away. It meant that the loan had been transferred from ABC to Amulya, who then had the option to acquire Loftus Road just as ABC did previously.
The loan to Amulya was due to be repaid by QPR by the end of July 2010, at which time the likes of Briatore expected to be owning a Premier League club, with all the financial rewards that brings.
When the loan was not repaid by QPR to Amulya, that option to acquire – the ‘deadline’ for the club – was extended to the end of October 2010 and then to the end of January 2011.
With the second date now passed, the directors are looking to move it to May 2011 – by which time they really do expect QPR to be in the Premier League.
In the meantime, Loftus Road will remain as their collateral, or to put it another way, their insurance, should that not happen and the loan remain unpaid.
Like ABC, Amulya have the option to effectively acquire the stadium for the £10m they loaned to QPR (even though the stadium was last valued at more than £21m).
This can seem confusing, and I’ve been asked how the directors can “default on their own loan”. The answer is to stop seeing QPR and the owners as one and the same. They’re not.
The loan isn’t “theirs” and neither is the default on the repayment. It’s QPR’s alone.
The club was given that £10m by Amulya to repay the ABC loan. And like that previous loan, QPR must repay it or face the prospect of losing Loftus Road.
The bottom line is that the ‘sorting’ of the ABC loan was no more intended to be a gift to QPR on the part of the current owners than Wright’s investment back in the mid-90s. Both were directors’ loans – a fact that in both cases was overlooked because of the hype surrounding the respective regimes and their willingness to spend money on players.
And in an important sense, those two eras are linked by this £10m loan. The Amulya loan was used to pay off the ABC loan, which was arranged in response to the troublesome directors’ loans that QPR were not in a position to repay in 2001, when Wright quit.
Got that? It’s a loan to repay the loan that settled the other loan