Post by Macmoish on Sept 14, 2011 8:23:23 GMT
There have been so many interviews, recently, that's it's always possible, already been posted/published. Apologies if...
Goal.com
QPR Owner Tony Fernandes: We Will Only Move For David Beckham If It Makes Good Sense To The Club
The tycoon told Goal.com that he will evaluate whether signing the former England captain would suit the interests of the club and emphasised the importance of a new stadium
14-Sep-2011 1:20:00 PM
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More On : Los Angeles Galaxy, QPR, David Beckham
QPR owner - Tony Fernandes
CNN
EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey | Chief Correspondent
QPR owner Tony Fernandes has admitted he will only attempt to sign David Beckham in January if it is in the wider interests of the club.
The aviation tycoon, who completed his takeover of the west London club in August, has spoken openly of his desire to sign the LA Galaxy star when his contract ends in November.
But in an exclusive interview with Goal.com, Fernandes said that he would "evaluate" any possible deal to ensure that it was financially viable to the club.
When asked whether a move for Beckham could be in the offing, he said: "I don't know. Never say never. There is no single policy at QPR, whether it's David Beckham or Joey Barton or whoever.
“We have to look at each situation and evaluate if it makes good sense to the club.
“We have got to have a long-term plan. The key is not just signings but delivering
a good academy, a good scouting system, a good training facility. There is a lot of work to be done."
Beck for good? | The former England star could return to the Premier League
The ambitious owner said QPR would need to move from Loftus Road - the club’s modest 18,000 capacity stadium – before they could sign the world's marquee footballers.
GOAL.COM MEETS...
TONY FERNANDES
“We were close to signing Sebastien Bassong and I still would loved to have got Scott Parker but it wasn't to be”
Read the full interview
"You can't have £150,000-a-week players if you have a stadium like this - one day we will have to look at something. It's been less than a month [since the takeover],” he explained.
The Malaysian magnate also hailed the club’s recruitment drive in the final few days of the transfer window which saw Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young, Armand Traore and loan star Jason Puncheon arrive at Loftus Road.
He added: "We have kind of put our mark on the table, to say we will do what it takes."
Should Fernandes sanction an audacious bid to sign Beckham in the winter transfer window they could face competition from Tottenham, whose manager Harry Redknapp says he would "love" to have him in his squad.
A move to Loftus Road could appeal to the former Manchester United man, who is keen to play for Team GB at the 2012 Olympics, but as Goal.com revealed this week, the 36-year-old will not make any decisions on his future until October and has a one-year deal on the table from LA Galaxy.
www.goal.com/en-india/news/222/transfer-zone/2011/09/14/2664919/qpr-owner-tony-fernandes-we-will-only-move-for-david-beckham
FULL INTERVIEW
Our new signings have made me a bloody happy man - but never say never on David Beckham' - QPR owner Tony Fernandes on his plans for the Premier League newcomers
The charismatic tycoon tells Goal.com about realising his dream, the footballers they tried to sign in the summer and how he plans to overhaul the club's modest infrastructure
14-Sep-2011 12:52:00 PM
0
Comments
More On : QPR, David Beckham, QPR vs Aston Villa
QPR owner - Tony Fernandes
CNN
EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey | Chief correspondent
It is three hours before Tony Fernandes' first Loftus Road match as the new owner of QPR.
He has just returned from pitchside of this atmospheric old stadium, where he has been mingling with Formula One driver Heikki Kovalainen, one of his many A-list guests for the evening.
Don't Miss
* Fernandes: Never say never over Beckham
* Campbell: I'm delighted Barton is captain
* Warnock buoyed by new signings
* QPR's Barton: We’ll only get better
As monarch of all he now surveys, how is the latest tycoon to buy a Premier League club feeling?
"I'm kind of devoid of emotion I'm so excited, if that makes sense," explained the 47-year-old Malaysian. "I'm also damn bloody nervous because the expectation is tremendous, isn't it? It's a new team and it takes time to gel. But, overall, I'm loving every moment, to be honest."
Fernandes cuts a relaxed figure. During the entertaining goalless draw against Newcastle United later that evening, TV pictures show him laughing and chatting amicably in the directors' box, where he is sat alongside the more publicity-shy Lakshmi Mittal, Britain's richest billionaire.
The former Virgin and Warner music executive, who amassed his fortune from the budget airline AirAsia before moving into F1 with Team Lotus, is pinching himself at entering the madcap Premier League world.
TONY FERNANDES ON...
- The right way to run a club
When the benefactor goes it can all collapse. It's better to build a proper infrastructure and legacy
- Missed transfer targets
We were close to signing Sebastien Bassong. I would have loved to have got Scott Parker
- The new signings
If you had said to me 'Tony, at the end of the window we will have these five players' I would say, 'well I would be a bloody happy man'
- Warnock
Others can get ideas but there has to be one captain of the ship. I am very happy with Neil
Speaking in a hospitality box overlooking the halfway line, Fernandes said: "I listened to football when I was a nine-year-old on the BBC World Service - tuning in on short wave radio. It is unreal for me in many ways. Formula One, an airline – but this is it for me, a London club. If there was a comic strip, it would be Roy of the Rovers.
"I enjoy everything I do but it is a little extra. Running an airline I love. I love my people and I love the challenge but owning a football club and running it as a business is a bit more exciting."
As a student Fernandes lived above a kebab shop on London's Uxbridge Road while taking his accountancy degree at the London School of Economics.
"I walked past here everyday. It was great that I had a few minutes before [this interview], it was nice to walk around, very surreal. To suddenly think that I kind of own this is really cool."
Not that Fernandes regards QPR as a trophy. Despite taking over the club little over three weeks ago in a blaze of publicity and overseeing a massive recruitment drive in the final week of the transfer window that saw Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young, Armand Traore and Jason Puncheon (on loan) arrive, the club's new owner said: "We have kind of put our mark on the table, to say we will do what it takes. But also we are not a Man City or a Chelsea or Man United. We are not because I do think businesses need to be run as businesses. When the benefactor then goes, it can all collapse. It has got to be run properly.
"Nothing can guarantee that the owner will not say, 'I have had enough'. Then what happens? It's better to build a proper business and a proper infrastructure. Whoever is chairman, whoever is in charge will then carry on the legacy."
Yet big names are on Fernandes' radar, among them David Beckham, who the club want to sign when his LA Galaxy contract expires in November.
Will English football's most famous export be pitching up next at Loftus Road?
"I don't know. Never say never. There is no policy at QPR, whether it's David Beckham or Joey Barton or Scott Parker or whoever. We have to look at each situation and evaluate if it makes good sense to the club. We have got to have a long-term plan. The key is not just signings but delivering a good academy, a good scouting system, a good training facility. There is a lot of work to be done."
Fernandes recognises that the club are hamstrung by their cosy but proportioned home, which holds just 18,000 spectators, and a training ground in Harlington under the Heathrow flight path which is a world away from the magnificent purpose built headquarters of the likes of Chelsea and United.
"You can't have £150,000-a-week players if you have a stadium like this," he said. "One day we will have to look at something. It's been less than a month [since the takeover].
"Training is very important, it's more important than the stadium. When I took over AirAsia, after only seven planes I built an academy. People were like, 'why are you building an academy when you only have seven planes?'
"I had a vision of having 100 planes. You can have all the metal you want but if you don't have the right people, you can forget about it. So the academy is important. The stadium is a big thing and we have to look at where we are going to be, I would definitely like a big stadium."
Manager Neil Warnock and new chief executive Philip Beard have already been detailed to source a new training base. Fernandes is a man in a hurry.
PROFILE | Tony Fernandes
- Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on April 30, 1964
- Worked as financial controller for Richard Branson's Virgin Records in the late 1980s
- Bought troubled airline AirAsia in 2001 shortly after 9/11. A year later the company broke even and cleared all its debts
- Launched Team Lotus Formula 1 in 2010
- Is president of the ASEAN Basketball League of South East Asia
"I asked Neil for a paper and he was, like, 'Can we get through the transfer window first?' We have got to work fast. He has to double up his efforts. We can't wait because the world doesn't wait for anybody. We are looking within the west London area. I have left it to the boys.
"We might take a site that we can add to it. I don't know. It's too early in the day. We have got to have a good facility. Neil and Phil will look at what those are. Whether we take a purpose built site, whether we take something we can add to or it's just a piece of land, I don't know yet."
Fernandes has brought the feelgood factor back to the club, something generally absent during the turbulent reign of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, the former owners whose 66 per cent share of the club he bought for £45 million.
Reflecting on the "very tense, very exciting" final days of the transfer window, which he spent at his Malaysia base (he also has a home in Belgravia "opposite Kevin Pietersen") and principally on the phone to Warnock, Fernandes was satisfied with the club's business even if a few transfers did not materialise.
"We looked at Sebastien Bassong. That came close but at the end of the day there were issues with Spurs getting Gary Cahill and stuff like that so it didn't go through. I still would have loved somehow to have got Scott Parker in here but it wasn't to be. Overall, if you said to me, let alone the fans, 'Tony, at the end of window you will have these five players plus Puncheon', I would have said, 'I would be a bloody happy man if I was able to do that'."
Further reinforcements are expected in the next window.
"We will have to see where we are in January and what our ambitions are. It's hard for me to say that right now. We will have to see how everyone performs and whether we need to strengthen and whether we have enough. We have a good squad, I have to say, looking at what we have got. And we have good back-ups as well. Neil's got a bit of choice."
Fernandes' objective for his first season at the club is clear. "Number one is to keep the club up," he said. "That is the right target to set and the objective I have set Neil. Anything more is a bonus for me. From that we will grow and build something better. As someone who loves sport, you have to have lofty ambitions. Of course we want to do better but let's not get carried away."
Fernandes talks well about allowing his manager to manage and insists he will have no input in team selection. "I don't even know what the team is tonight," he explained. "He would tell me if I asked but it's not for me to ask."
The Rangers owner tells one off-record anecdote of a player at a top-six Premier League club whom he suggested to Warnock they could buy and the idea was strongly rejected by the manager.
"Others can give their ideas but there has to be one captain of the ship," said Fernandes. "I'm very happy with Neil. I haven't got much to compare him with, because I haven't worked with lots of managers. But I have enjoyed him thoroughly. We have a very open relationship.
"I will let him get on and do his job, the same as with Mike Gascoyne at Team Lotus. They are both emotional and highly charged people and very passionate about what they are doing, and have had many run-ins with their previous clubs and owners. I was in the media business for 12 years. I like people with passion and I can deal with emotion, so I will give him my full support."
Upon purchasing Fulham in 1997, Mohamed Al-Fayed declared his vision to make them "the Manchester United of the south", a statement that has had an increasingly hollow ring to it over the years.
Can QPR, a club with a bigger traditional following and profile, ever achieve such status?
"It is feasible but that is a big statement," Fernandes cautioned. "Nothing wrong with ambition but a lot wrong with saying it and not doing it. So let's just see where we get to in the years that come. You can say, 'Tony you did it' or 'Tony you talked rubbish'. I would rather just go out and do it."
As a man of action, you kind of sense he will do just that.
Follow Wayne Veysey on
www.goal.com/en-india/news/2896/premier-league/2011/09/14/2663500/our-new-signings-have-made-me-a-bloody-happy-man-but-never
Goal.com
QPR Owner Tony Fernandes: We Will Only Move For David Beckham If It Makes Good Sense To The Club
The tycoon told Goal.com that he will evaluate whether signing the former England captain would suit the interests of the club and emphasised the importance of a new stadium
14-Sep-2011 1:20:00 PM
0
Comments
More On : Los Angeles Galaxy, QPR, David Beckham
QPR owner - Tony Fernandes
CNN
EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey | Chief Correspondent
QPR owner Tony Fernandes has admitted he will only attempt to sign David Beckham in January if it is in the wider interests of the club.
The aviation tycoon, who completed his takeover of the west London club in August, has spoken openly of his desire to sign the LA Galaxy star when his contract ends in November.
But in an exclusive interview with Goal.com, Fernandes said that he would "evaluate" any possible deal to ensure that it was financially viable to the club.
When asked whether a move for Beckham could be in the offing, he said: "I don't know. Never say never. There is no single policy at QPR, whether it's David Beckham or Joey Barton or whoever.
“We have to look at each situation and evaluate if it makes good sense to the club.
“We have got to have a long-term plan. The key is not just signings but delivering
a good academy, a good scouting system, a good training facility. There is a lot of work to be done."
Beck for good? | The former England star could return to the Premier League
The ambitious owner said QPR would need to move from Loftus Road - the club’s modest 18,000 capacity stadium – before they could sign the world's marquee footballers.
GOAL.COM MEETS...
TONY FERNANDES
“We were close to signing Sebastien Bassong and I still would loved to have got Scott Parker but it wasn't to be”
Read the full interview
"You can't have £150,000-a-week players if you have a stadium like this - one day we will have to look at something. It's been less than a month [since the takeover],” he explained.
The Malaysian magnate also hailed the club’s recruitment drive in the final few days of the transfer window which saw Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young, Armand Traore and loan star Jason Puncheon arrive at Loftus Road.
He added: "We have kind of put our mark on the table, to say we will do what it takes."
Should Fernandes sanction an audacious bid to sign Beckham in the winter transfer window they could face competition from Tottenham, whose manager Harry Redknapp says he would "love" to have him in his squad.
A move to Loftus Road could appeal to the former Manchester United man, who is keen to play for Team GB at the 2012 Olympics, but as Goal.com revealed this week, the 36-year-old will not make any decisions on his future until October and has a one-year deal on the table from LA Galaxy.
www.goal.com/en-india/news/222/transfer-zone/2011/09/14/2664919/qpr-owner-tony-fernandes-we-will-only-move-for-david-beckham
FULL INTERVIEW
Our new signings have made me a bloody happy man - but never say never on David Beckham' - QPR owner Tony Fernandes on his plans for the Premier League newcomers
The charismatic tycoon tells Goal.com about realising his dream, the footballers they tried to sign in the summer and how he plans to overhaul the club's modest infrastructure
14-Sep-2011 12:52:00 PM
0
Comments
More On : QPR, David Beckham, QPR vs Aston Villa
QPR owner - Tony Fernandes
CNN
EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey | Chief correspondent
It is three hours before Tony Fernandes' first Loftus Road match as the new owner of QPR.
He has just returned from pitchside of this atmospheric old stadium, where he has been mingling with Formula One driver Heikki Kovalainen, one of his many A-list guests for the evening.
Don't Miss
* Fernandes: Never say never over Beckham
* Campbell: I'm delighted Barton is captain
* Warnock buoyed by new signings
* QPR's Barton: We’ll only get better
As monarch of all he now surveys, how is the latest tycoon to buy a Premier League club feeling?
"I'm kind of devoid of emotion I'm so excited, if that makes sense," explained the 47-year-old Malaysian. "I'm also damn bloody nervous because the expectation is tremendous, isn't it? It's a new team and it takes time to gel. But, overall, I'm loving every moment, to be honest."
Fernandes cuts a relaxed figure. During the entertaining goalless draw against Newcastle United later that evening, TV pictures show him laughing and chatting amicably in the directors' box, where he is sat alongside the more publicity-shy Lakshmi Mittal, Britain's richest billionaire.
The former Virgin and Warner music executive, who amassed his fortune from the budget airline AirAsia before moving into F1 with Team Lotus, is pinching himself at entering the madcap Premier League world.
TONY FERNANDES ON...
- The right way to run a club
When the benefactor goes it can all collapse. It's better to build a proper infrastructure and legacy
- Missed transfer targets
We were close to signing Sebastien Bassong. I would have loved to have got Scott Parker
- The new signings
If you had said to me 'Tony, at the end of the window we will have these five players' I would say, 'well I would be a bloody happy man'
- Warnock
Others can get ideas but there has to be one captain of the ship. I am very happy with Neil
Speaking in a hospitality box overlooking the halfway line, Fernandes said: "I listened to football when I was a nine-year-old on the BBC World Service - tuning in on short wave radio. It is unreal for me in many ways. Formula One, an airline – but this is it for me, a London club. If there was a comic strip, it would be Roy of the Rovers.
"I enjoy everything I do but it is a little extra. Running an airline I love. I love my people and I love the challenge but owning a football club and running it as a business is a bit more exciting."
As a student Fernandes lived above a kebab shop on London's Uxbridge Road while taking his accountancy degree at the London School of Economics.
"I walked past here everyday. It was great that I had a few minutes before [this interview], it was nice to walk around, very surreal. To suddenly think that I kind of own this is really cool."
Not that Fernandes regards QPR as a trophy. Despite taking over the club little over three weeks ago in a blaze of publicity and overseeing a massive recruitment drive in the final week of the transfer window that saw Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young, Armand Traore and Jason Puncheon (on loan) arrive, the club's new owner said: "We have kind of put our mark on the table, to say we will do what it takes. But also we are not a Man City or a Chelsea or Man United. We are not because I do think businesses need to be run as businesses. When the benefactor then goes, it can all collapse. It has got to be run properly.
"Nothing can guarantee that the owner will not say, 'I have had enough'. Then what happens? It's better to build a proper business and a proper infrastructure. Whoever is chairman, whoever is in charge will then carry on the legacy."
Yet big names are on Fernandes' radar, among them David Beckham, who the club want to sign when his LA Galaxy contract expires in November.
Will English football's most famous export be pitching up next at Loftus Road?
"I don't know. Never say never. There is no policy at QPR, whether it's David Beckham or Joey Barton or Scott Parker or whoever. We have to look at each situation and evaluate if it makes good sense to the club. We have got to have a long-term plan. The key is not just signings but delivering a good academy, a good scouting system, a good training facility. There is a lot of work to be done."
Fernandes recognises that the club are hamstrung by their cosy but proportioned home, which holds just 18,000 spectators, and a training ground in Harlington under the Heathrow flight path which is a world away from the magnificent purpose built headquarters of the likes of Chelsea and United.
"You can't have £150,000-a-week players if you have a stadium like this," he said. "One day we will have to look at something. It's been less than a month [since the takeover].
"Training is very important, it's more important than the stadium. When I took over AirAsia, after only seven planes I built an academy. People were like, 'why are you building an academy when you only have seven planes?'
"I had a vision of having 100 planes. You can have all the metal you want but if you don't have the right people, you can forget about it. So the academy is important. The stadium is a big thing and we have to look at where we are going to be, I would definitely like a big stadium."
Manager Neil Warnock and new chief executive Philip Beard have already been detailed to source a new training base. Fernandes is a man in a hurry.
PROFILE | Tony Fernandes
- Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on April 30, 1964
- Worked as financial controller for Richard Branson's Virgin Records in the late 1980s
- Bought troubled airline AirAsia in 2001 shortly after 9/11. A year later the company broke even and cleared all its debts
- Launched Team Lotus Formula 1 in 2010
- Is president of the ASEAN Basketball League of South East Asia
"I asked Neil for a paper and he was, like, 'Can we get through the transfer window first?' We have got to work fast. He has to double up his efforts. We can't wait because the world doesn't wait for anybody. We are looking within the west London area. I have left it to the boys.
"We might take a site that we can add to it. I don't know. It's too early in the day. We have got to have a good facility. Neil and Phil will look at what those are. Whether we take a purpose built site, whether we take something we can add to or it's just a piece of land, I don't know yet."
Fernandes has brought the feelgood factor back to the club, something generally absent during the turbulent reign of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, the former owners whose 66 per cent share of the club he bought for £45 million.
Reflecting on the "very tense, very exciting" final days of the transfer window, which he spent at his Malaysia base (he also has a home in Belgravia "opposite Kevin Pietersen") and principally on the phone to Warnock, Fernandes was satisfied with the club's business even if a few transfers did not materialise.
"We looked at Sebastien Bassong. That came close but at the end of the day there were issues with Spurs getting Gary Cahill and stuff like that so it didn't go through. I still would have loved somehow to have got Scott Parker in here but it wasn't to be. Overall, if you said to me, let alone the fans, 'Tony, at the end of window you will have these five players plus Puncheon', I would have said, 'I would be a bloody happy man if I was able to do that'."
Further reinforcements are expected in the next window.
"We will have to see where we are in January and what our ambitions are. It's hard for me to say that right now. We will have to see how everyone performs and whether we need to strengthen and whether we have enough. We have a good squad, I have to say, looking at what we have got. And we have good back-ups as well. Neil's got a bit of choice."
Fernandes' objective for his first season at the club is clear. "Number one is to keep the club up," he said. "That is the right target to set and the objective I have set Neil. Anything more is a bonus for me. From that we will grow and build something better. As someone who loves sport, you have to have lofty ambitions. Of course we want to do better but let's not get carried away."
Fernandes talks well about allowing his manager to manage and insists he will have no input in team selection. "I don't even know what the team is tonight," he explained. "He would tell me if I asked but it's not for me to ask."
The Rangers owner tells one off-record anecdote of a player at a top-six Premier League club whom he suggested to Warnock they could buy and the idea was strongly rejected by the manager.
"Others can give their ideas but there has to be one captain of the ship," said Fernandes. "I'm very happy with Neil. I haven't got much to compare him with, because I haven't worked with lots of managers. But I have enjoyed him thoroughly. We have a very open relationship.
"I will let him get on and do his job, the same as with Mike Gascoyne at Team Lotus. They are both emotional and highly charged people and very passionate about what they are doing, and have had many run-ins with their previous clubs and owners. I was in the media business for 12 years. I like people with passion and I can deal with emotion, so I will give him my full support."
Upon purchasing Fulham in 1997, Mohamed Al-Fayed declared his vision to make them "the Manchester United of the south", a statement that has had an increasingly hollow ring to it over the years.
Can QPR, a club with a bigger traditional following and profile, ever achieve such status?
"It is feasible but that is a big statement," Fernandes cautioned. "Nothing wrong with ambition but a lot wrong with saying it and not doing it. So let's just see where we get to in the years that come. You can say, 'Tony you did it' or 'Tony you talked rubbish'. I would rather just go out and do it."
As a man of action, you kind of sense he will do just that.
Follow Wayne Veysey on
www.goal.com/en-india/news/2896/premier-league/2011/09/14/2663500/our-new-signings-have-made-me-a-bloody-happy-man-but-never