Flashback: Blackstock on Not Playing - Under Dowie

[QPR Report]

A reminder that despite "some" denouncing Sousa for not starting Dowie, it was an "issue" before Sousa. And after Sousa is gone, we're still apprently selling Blacksock. And where's the denounciation for this?

Blackstock/Icons - November 2008 I´m no scapegoat

Chairman Flavio Briatore has been hands-on since day one at QPR There was a lot of talk about me being left on the bench the game after Iain Dowie got sacked. People said it was because Flavio [Briatore] wanted more of the new lads to play. To be honest it didn´t bother me at all. I´ve played some part in every game this season, whether it´s been starting or from the bench. It´s a squad game and you have to know that you´re not going to play every minute of every match.

Flavio´s been really involved with the players since day one. He´s always been in and around the dressing room and nothing´s changed now that Gareth Ainsworth´s in charge. Iain Dowie did well for us and I don´t know the reason for him going but managers come and go. It´s part of the game now and you just have to get on with it.

As long as we keep winning I really don´t mind not scoringI´m pleased with my own form so far this season. I got some goals early on and although they dried a bit before I scored at the weekend, I still think I´m playing well. As long as we keep winning I really don´t mind.

Things are good outside football as well. My little boy, Ramirez, is eight months old and he´s getting big. He´s just started crawling so I spend most of my time chasing after him!


I´ll be back with more news soon,
Dex
www.dexterblackstockofficialwebsite.com/blog/20180.I_m%20no%20scapegoat

[QPR Report]

Or Remember this
Dowie Was Sacked After Briatore Picked QPR Team
Queens Park Rangers chairman Flavio Briatore sacked manager Iain Dowie on Friday after a major row erupted over the Italian tycoon's insistence on picking the team.
Oct 25, 2008 6:32:38 AM

The Daily Mirror has revealed that Iain Dowie's demise as QPR manager became inevitable once the club's co-owner and chairman, Flavio Briatore, decided to dictate team selection.

Joint QPR owner Briatore's relationship with Dowie had been stormy ever since the one-time Crystal Palace, Charlton and Covntry manager succeeded popular coach Luigi De Canio - who returned to Italy for personal reasons - in May.

But things came to a head this week, says the Mirror, when Briatore handed Dowie a list of 11 players and told him it was the QPR team to play Reading at the Madejski Stadium this weekend.

The eleven included Briatore’s compatriots Samuel Di Carmine and Matteo Alberti as well as Colombian-born youngster Angelo Balanta and on-loan Spaniard Daniel Parejo. But the likes of six-goal English striker Dexter Blackstock were dropped.

Dowie refused to accept Formula One tycoon Briatore’s interference and told the F1 Renault team boss to sack him. Briatore promptly obliged.

Now midfielder Gareth Ainsworth is in temporary charge of the team, with names such as Terry Venables, Roberto Mancini, Steve Cotterill, Alan Curbishley and others being tossed into the ring by pundits as possible successors to Dowie, who has now seen his last three appointments end ignominiously in the sack after relatively few games in charge - 15 in the case of Rangers.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Briatore's action was part of his reasserting his authority in the Loftus Road boardroom. Earlier in the week Briatore clashed with the vice-chairman, Amit Bhatia, after the latter - billionaire shareholder Lakshmi Mittal's son-in-law - released a personally signed statement promising to reduce ticket prices for home matches.

Briatore apparenting telephoned QPR sporting director Gianni Paladini to accuse him of undermining his authority and promised tofire him. But Paladini survived a board meeting on Thursday attended by all the Championship club's "major powers," revealed the Guardian.

The paper also states that Briatore had been unhappy with Dowie for some weeks and suspected him of criticising him behind his back over perceived lack of support in the transfer market. Briatore helped to recruit Parejo, who is on loan from Real Madrid and on a lucrative contract by Championship standards, and Emmanuel Ledesma, who joined on loan from Genoa. Neither have been in the starting line-up recently, while Damiano Tommasi, the Italian midfielder, has not yet appeared in the first-team.

So Briatore took team selection upon himself and Dowie duly asked to be sacked in protest. It is assumed that to have resigned might have had negative financial implications for Dowie.

Briatore is supported on the QPR board by fellow F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone. He has a truce now with Bhatia, but the possibility remains, says the Guardian, that the Mittals will try to buy out Briatore and Ecclestone.

Meanwhle, on the pitch, QPR have won just one of their last six league matches and lie ninth in the table ahead of their clash with third-placed Reading.

Mark Hinton, Goal.com

www.goal.com/en-us/news/85/england/2008/10/25/930922/dowie-was-sacked-after-briatore-picked-qpr-team