Post by Macmoish on Jan 8, 2019 8:30:02 GMT
Flashback 11 Years (from the QPR Report Blog)
WARNOCK OUT....HUGHES IN?
QPR PART COMPANY WITH WARNOCK
Posted on: Sun 08 Jan 2012
Queens Park Rangers Football Club has today (Sunday 8th January 2012) parted company with Manager Neil Warnock.
Warnock joined the Club in March 2010, overseeing 84 matches in charge, winning 33, drawing 27 and losing 24.
Last season, he successfully guided the Club back to the Premier League for the first time in 15 years.
The Board's commitment to retaining our Premier League status ultimately led to this decision.
QPR Assistant Manager Mick Jones and First Team Coach Keith Curle have also left the Club.
QPR Chairman, Tony Fernandes, said: "This decision has been made in the best interests of the Club and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that was made lightly.
"Sadly, our recent run of poor form has seen us slip alarmingly down the table and the Board felt it was the right time to make a change.
"Neil has acted with honesty, professionalism and integrity throughout his time at the Club, and I would personally like to thank him for his significant contribution to QPR over the last 22 months.
"I genuinely wish him all the very best for the future and he will always be welcome back at Loftus Road."
QPR Vice-Chairman, Amit Bhatia, added: "It is with a very heavy heart that we make this announcement.
"I played a key role in bringing Neil to Loftus Road and consider him to be a close personal friend and a great professional.
"I would like to place on the record my thanks to him for transforming us from a Championship Club to a Premier League Club.
"As a Club we have gained enormously from Neil's wisdom, experience and leadership. He has always performed his managerial duties to the very highest of standards.
"I wish Neil every success going forward and he will always be welcome at QPR.
"I now look forward to the future and the rest of the season as we work towards stabilising our position in the Premier League."
Neil Warnock said: "Obviously I'm very disappointed, but having achieved so much, I leave the Club with a great sense of pride.
"I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me - they deserve success.
"My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League."
He added: "The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future.
"I've been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move."
The Club will now begin its search for a new Manager and will make a further announcement in due course.
London24
QPR sack Warnock: CEO says club will work quickly to appoint replacement
Sunday, January 8, 2012
7:54 PM
Philip Beard has said the club will work fast to replace Neil Warnock
QPR Chief Executive Officer Philip Beard has said the club will work fast to secure a replacement for Neil Warnock, who was sacked tonight (Sunday).
Mark Hughes has been installed as the favourite at the bookies and was backed by Ray Wilkins as the man to take the west London club forward.
“We’re moving as quickly as we can and we’re looking to make an appointment very soon,” Beard told Sky Sports News.
“We have very strong ambitons. We have a good squad and our intention will be to bring some
“We’ve got some people who can help us in the very very very short term. We’ve got some very big games coming up.
“Time is against everybody and we’re getting into the second week of January and we’ve got to make the right purchases. It’s a tricky month to make things happen. We want one or two players to bring in.”
Beard felt it was the right decision at the time but paid tribute to the work Warnock had done.
“We’re going to be criticised whatever we do. We believe this is the right decision at this time,” he added.
“Being in the Premier League is key to the ambitions of the club. We’ve got half a season to prove we want to stay in the Premier League.
“With January being the opportune time we’ve made this decision. Like all QPR fans and supporters we need to acknowledge the great job Neil Warnock has done.”
www.london24.com/sport/championsh....ment_1_1171721?
BBC
Reaction to Neil Warnock's QPR exit
Page last updated at 20:21 GMT, Sunday, 8 January 2012
E-mail this to a friendPrintable version
Warnock's final QPR game was the 1-1 FA Cup third round draw at MK Dons
Neil Warnock has left his role as manager of Queens Park Rangers after a little more than 18 months in charge of the west London club.
The 63-year-old guided the Hoops back into the Premier League last season for the first time in 15 years, but four wins in 20 games this season has left them just a point above the relegation zone. On Saturday, QPR narrowly avoided elimination from the FA Cup courtesy of a last-minute goal to secure a 1-1 draw at MK Dons.
Neil Warnock, via a statement on the club's website: "Obviously I'm very disappointed, but having achieved so much, I leave the club with a great sense of pride.
"I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me - they deserve success.
"My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League.
"The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future.
"I've been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move."
WARNOCK'S QPR RECORD
Continue reading the main story
Played: 84
Won: 33
Drawn:27
Lost: 24
QPR chairman Tony Fernandes via Twitter: "Very very hard decision. I will continue to be open and as transparent as I can. The board and myself had to put the club first.
"We had to think of the future of the club. I appeal to all fans to give us time and understand the future.
"I love stability and I think Neil did an amazing job to get the club up. We are in a good position to judge and this club is very close to our heart.
"It's a nightmare for me. But I take the good with the bad and continue to be open to all QPR fans.
"Trust me, in my 47 years of life I have never had to make such a tough decision. But I [have] got to do what I think is right. It's tough being a leader, but decisions have to be made for the club - which in the short time I have grown to love ever so much."
Former QPR manager Ray Wilkins: "The owners will have taken this decision with a heavy heart. QPR did wonderfully well last year - going up as Championship winners was a terrific effort.
"But it's a results-driven game and you do need to be picking up points. Unfortunately things aren't quite going their way in the Premier League.
"Obviously there has been a disagreement somewhere along the line and they have decided to part ways.
"They had a sticky cup tie yesterday - perhaps that was the last straw.
"[QPR chairman] Tony Fernandes made a very big decision along with his board and it will be very interesting to see how the new manager coming in does."
Ex-QPR manager Iain Dowie: "When you look at what Norwich, and particularly Swansea, have done in terms of no budget they look very comfortable, so because you're in the [transfer] window now whoever comes in has been guaranteed money to spend whatever happens.
"I just think it's a very harsh decision on Neil Warnock. It's obviously a clean brush because [assistant manager] Mick Jones and [first-team coach] Keith Curle have gone as well, so I don't know if someone is lined up or whatever but, nonetheless, it's a difficult day for Neil and his family and he deserves a huge amount of respect for the job he did there."
news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/16463344.stm?
Ray Wilkins/talksport
ormer Queens Park Rangers player and manager Ray Wilkins has told talkSPORT the club must act quickly to replace Neil Warnock who was sacked on Sunday night.
The west London club haven’t won in the Premier League since November and only scraped a draw with Mk Dons in the FA Cup third round thanks to a last gasp goal.
This appeared to be the final straw for the QPR’s owners who relieved him of his duties.
And Wilkins feels in a results based business his sacking was always on the cards despite getting the club back in to the top tier of English football.
He told talkSPORT: “You have to win in football at this current time and those results haven’t been as good as the chairman would have liked and I think we’ve seen the outcome today.
“[Neil Warnock] had done a fantastic job last year in getting the guys up and it’s difficult in the Premier League, it’s a totally different league, and there is no question about it there are new players required to keep them up.
“I’m extremely sadden by [Neil Warnock’s sacking] but they will have to get someone in that knows the Premier League and knows what it is all about because it is not an easy league in which to perform and when you’re down the bottom it’s very tough and every point counts, and they will have to make the right decision.
“It’s very important they get somebody in there as soon as possible and just steady the ship. We’ve seen what a wonderful job Martin O’Neill has done going in at Sunderland and it’s required that somebody goes in very, very quickly.”
And asked if he would take his old job back, Wilkins replied: “It would be an absolute pleasure.”
Meanwhile the former Chelsea assistant manager was angered by reports senior players at QPR were unhappy with Warnock’s training sessions.
And he told talkSPORT that players have to take more responsibility for the club’s results.
“At the end of the day,” he added. “In the Premier League if you don’t have the quality on the pitch it’s extremely difficult for you to get results.”
“The training sessions are OK when you win promotion from the Championship to the Premier League. It’s about time some players actually stood up and acted like men and got out there and performed.
“It’s very easy for senior players to say training sessions aren’t good enough, what about your own performances? Are they good enough?
“If you feel you need a bit more work do what Frank Lampard does at Stamford Bridge and just stay behind for ten minutes and work harder.
“A manager can only do so much, the players have to go and perform. Players have to stand up as soon as they cross that white line and they have to perform.”
Dave McIntyre/West London Sport
Warnock shown the door by QPR
"
Neil Warnock has been sacked as QPR manager.
A replacement is likely to be installed before next weekend’s match against Newcastle, with former Fulham and Manchester City boss Mark Hughes the frontrunner for the job.
Warnock, who took over in March 2010 and led Rangers to promotion last season, has been shown the door after a run of nine matches without a win.
His assistant Mick Jones and first-team coach Keith Curle have also left Rangers, who are currently fourth from bottom of the Premier League.
“This decision has been made in the best interests of the club and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that was made lightly,†QPR chairman Tony Fernandes said in a statement.
“Sadly, our recent run of poor form has seen us slip alarmingly down the table and the board felt it was the right time to make a change.
After a happy start, Fernandes lost faith in Warnock.
“Neil has acted with honesty, professionalism and integrity throughout his time at the club, and I would personally like to thank him for his significant contribution to QPR over the last 22 months.
“I genuinely wish him all the very best for the future and he will always be welcome back at Loftus Road.â€
Vice-chairman Amit Bhatia added: “It is with a very heavy heart that we make this announcement.
“I played a key role in bringing Neil to Loftus Road and consider him to be a close personal friend and a great professional.
“I would like to place on the record my thanks to him for transforming us from a Championship club to a Premier League club. We have gained enormously from Neil’s wisdom, experience and leadership.
“He has always performed his managerial duties to the very highest of standards. I wish Neil every success going forward and he will always be welcome at QPR.
“I now look forward to the future and the rest of the season as we work towards stabilising our position in the Premier League.â€
Warnock, who suffered relegation from the top flight with Notts County and Sheffield United, was desperate for another crack at Premier League management before retiring.
But poor results weakened his position ahead of the all-important transfer window and gave the board misgivings about allowing him to spend more cash this month.
“Obviously I’m very disappointed, but having achieved so much, I leave the club with a great sense of pride,†said Warnock.
“I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me – they deserve success.
“My biggest regret is that the takeover didn’t happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I’d pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League.â€
He added: “The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future.
“I’ve been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move.â€
www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/warnock-shown-door-by-qpr/
FEATURES & COMMENTThe final hours
08/01/2012
by David McIntyre
There had been growing speculation about his future, but Neil Warnock’s sacking came as a shock to him.
On Saturday night, amid rumours that he was about to be axed, he thought he still had the full support of majority shareholder Tony Fernandes.
Warnock was believed to be on thin ice, especially after recent Twitter posts by Fernandes stating that “no-one’s job is safe” and that Saturday’s display at MK Dons left him with “lots to think about.”
“Tony wants us to be at the other end of the table, but when you watch us over the last few weeks, we haven’t done bad.”
But Warnock, who expected to sign at least two players in the coming days, felt too much had been read into Fernandes’ musings.
“I’m not really a Twitter person so I can’t comment on his comments because I’ve not seen them,” said Warnock.
“But I know what Tony’s like and it’ll be something made out of nothing, because everybody tweets him and he replies to everybody.
“I’m concerned about getting players in, and on that he has been very supportive.
“I spoke to Tony, [vice-chairman] Amit Bhatia and the rest of the owners about six weeks ago and told them exactly why we need players and where we need them.
“Nothing has changed since then. If we don’t get those players we will struggle, and he [Fernandes] understands that.
“I can only tell you he’s been 100% supportive since he’s been at the club so I can’t comment on anything other than the fact he wants us to bring players in and do well.”
Warnock was adamant that Rangers’ poor recent results were a consequence of the Fernandes-led takeover being completed shortly before the previous transfer window closed.
It was all smiles to begin with.
It gave the club limited time to do business before the deadline, although big money was spent in order to sign the likes of Joey Barton, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Armand Traore.
The ousted manager believed more spending would move Rangers up the table, and argued it was crucial that new faces arrived sooner rather than later.
He said: “This next seven days is vital because we need two or three in before the Newcastle game on Sunday – not in two or three weeks. So it’s an important time for us.
“We need a bit of luck as well – you do with transfers. We’ve got our irons in the fire, we just need to get them over the line.
“Our aim is to stay up, and to stay up we need four or five players. We knew that in the summer but couldn’t quite get them so have had to hang in there with the squad we’ve got.
“If Tony had been in charge from the end of last season, I don’t think we’d have had a problem given the targets we had.
“There were some good players that went elsewhere and that scuppered all the hard work we did in the summer, so we’ve been catching up all the time.”
And Warnock defended his side’s recent performances, which he insisted have been much better than results suggest.
“Tony wants us to be at the other end of the table, but when you watch us over the last few weeks we haven’t done bad – we’ve done pretty well really,” he said.
“We can’t have had any more knockbacks than we’ve had over the last few weeks, with the Norwich escapade, then Arsenal where we played so well.
“We also dominated at Swansea, which not many teams do. We’ve had a lot of kickbacks, so I’m so pleased with how much effort the players have put in.
“We should have beaten Man City and West Brom – and Norwich too if things hadn’t gone against us. You’ve got to keep persevering and doing our best.
“If you eliminate the elementary mistakes I think we’ve played some good football and more than held our own. With a bit of luck we could be 10th or 11th.” West London Rangers
Guardian/Jamie Jackson
nday 8 January 2012 18.18 EST
QPR's sacking of Neil Warnock had been increasingly on the cards
Manager was at loggerheads with Tony Fernandes over transfer policy and the club's owner was increasingly concerned by the threat of relegation
QPR are looking for a new manager after losing faith in Neil Warnock's ability to keep them in the Premier League. Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty Images
After Neil Warnock watched Queens Park Rangers steal a draw at MK Dons in the FA Cup on Saturday his relaxed demeanour was initially surprising. His dismissal, announced yesterday, may explain it. He may have known of it already. Besides sources at the club suggested the 63-year-old was thinking of retiring at the end of the season anyway.
If this was the case, it was bound to compound the QPR board's two main concerns: the side's relegation form of two points from the last eight Premier League outings and, related to it, investment from a sizeable war chest by a man shortly to leave. With QPR "willing to go for it", according to one club insider, there were serious reservations regarding Warnock's ability to attract the calibre of player required to lift the club from 17th and stay away from danger.
This is why Tony Fernandes, the owner, showed his ruthless streak on Sunday. With Mark Hughes, his favoured replacement, available and interested, Fernandes decided he had witnessed enough drift.
The Malaysian was at stadium:mk on Saturday to see another disjointed display that required a late Heidar Helguson equaliser to avert a spirit‑sapping defeat to a League One club. This came after, on Friday, Fernandes tweeting pointedly "it is important to note no one's job is safe".
Yet when asked on Saturday evening if his chairman's outburst concerned him, Warnock's blasé response was: "I know what Tony is like. It would be something out of nothing. Everybody tweets him. Joe Bloggs off the corner-shop and everybody else tweets him and he replies to everybody. I'm concentrating on trying to get players in and he's very supportive. I can only tell you he's been 100% supportive."
Warnock had been much the same following the 2-1 defeat by Norwich City at Loftus Road last Monday. Lost in the uproar over Joey Barton's red card for moving his head towards Norwich's Bradley Johnson was the fact that QPR had been defeated again. The last time QPR won was on 19 November when Stoke City were beaten 3-2, a dire record observed by Fernandes and Amit Bhatia, the vice‑chairman, as they plotted their winter transfer window strategy.
While Warnock's outrage at Barton's sending off was understandable, when quizzed about the defeat by Norwich he fell back on the old managerial standby of bad luck and other dodgy refereeing decisions he believed have peppered their season. Then he spent the rest of the week railing at the match officials and the Football Association when his captain's red card was not rescinded.
Here was a deepening sense of a manager losing his focus and forgetting the only real measure of his stock: results. On Thursday, before the trip to Milton Keynes, Warnock failed to send the correct message to his players, again pointing his energies at the failed appeal against Barton's red card describing the FA's decision as "scandalous". He may well have had a point, but Warnock was missing the main one: the need to inform his players in strident terms of the requirement to return to winning ways at MK Dons ahead of league outings against Newcastle United and Wigan Athletic.
Regarding the board's concerns over Warnock's recruitment policy a glance at his business in the last window suggests their genesis. Joey Barton is the headline case: he may be the captain and the club's highest earner but the scouser has yet to win a game for QPR and his preoccupation with Twitter should have become an embarrassment to him when the team's results started going south.
Of the rest of Warnock's summer shopping spree, Kieron Dyer is injured (yet again), Shaun Wright-Phillips is inconsistent, Jay Bothoyd overtaken by the 33-year-old Helguson, Danny Gabbidon sluggish, DJ Campbell unconvincing and Armand Traoré has faded, while Anton Ferdinand is steady enough and Bruno Perone and Brian Murphy have madetwo appearances between them.
Warnock also said on Saturday: "This next seven days are vital because we need two or three players in by the Newcastle game. I spoke to Tony and the rest of the owners six or seven weeks ago and told them exactly why we needed players and where we needed them. Our main aim is to stay up, and to stay up we need four or five players."
Except that now Warnock will not pilot this drive for survival. With Kia Joorabchian, Hughes's representative, returning from Brazil on Monday and Fernandes in Singapore, the midweek board meeting may be when the Welshman is handed the challenge of maintaining QPR's status.
Guardian/David Hytner
Neil Warnock set to be replaced by Mark Hughes after leaving QPR
• Manager fell out with owner Tony Fernandes over transfers
• Team had taken two points from last eight league games
Neil Warnock has parted company with Queens Park Rangers and Mark Hughes is set to complete a surprise return to west London, having walked away from Fulham in the summer. Warnock has paid the price for the team's run of dismal results and his failure to see eye to eye with the owner, Tony Fernandes, over squad strengthening.
There would be some irony in Hughes taking over. When he left Craven Cottage in the summer amid great acrimony, it was with the ambition of competing higher up the table. Hughes felt that he was primed in June to succeed Gérard Houllier at Aston Villa, only for the move to break down.
The final act for Warnock came in Milton Keynes on Saturday, when QPR needed an 89th‑minute equaliser from Heidar Helguson to salvage a fortunate 1-1 FA Cup third‑round draw with the League One side MK Dons. Fernandes had travelled with 5,000 Rangers supporters; he was deeply unimpressed and he saw the need to take decisive action. Only last week he had suggested, in a tweet, that nobody's job at the club was safe.
But it was not a snap decision, with tensions having built for some weeks, and there was the sense that both parties had agreed the separation was necessary. There was even the suggestion that it was Warnock who jumped before he was pushed, as he had become so frustrated over January transfer targets. He had spoken for some weeks about the need for at least "three or four" new faces and he wanted to add them on the opening of the window or as close to it as possible.
So far QPR have signed only the striker Federico Macheda on loan from Manchester United. Warnock was at loggerheads with Fernandes over several targets, chief among them the Blackburn Rovers striker Yakubu Ayegbeni, whom he wanted but Fernandes did not. The pair had met at the end of last week to discuss transfer business. Warnock left the meeting feeling that his position had become untenable.
Fernandes became the club's majority shareholder on 18 August, when he bought Bernie Ecclestone's 66% stake. Perversely it was a source of frustration to Warnock that the Malaysian businessman had not gained control sooner in order to allow him a better shot during the summer transfer market.
"My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League," Warnock said on Sunday night.
Warnock succeeded in lifting QPR back to the Premier League after a 15-year absence – they were promoted as Championship champions last May – and he has left with happy memories, even if irritation is vying for prominence. "Obviously I'm very disappointed but, having achieved so much, I leave the club with a great sense of pride. I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me. They deserve success.
"The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future. I've been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move."
Warnock, ultimately, fell because of his results. Never mind the near humiliation in Milton Keynes – where Alejandro Faurlín ruptured his knee ligament and will be out for the rest of the season – his team had taken only two points in the league from an available 24. They sit 17th in the table, one point above the relegation cut-off. The club said, in a statement, that fears over relegation had motivated the decision to part company. Warnock's assistants Mick Jones and Keith Curle have also left the club.
"This decision has been made in the best interests of the club," Fernandes said, "and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that was made lightly. Sadly our recent run of poor form has seen us slip alarmingly down the table and the board felt it was the right time to make a change. Neil has acted with honesty, professionalism and integrity throughout his time at the club and I would personally like to thank him for his significant contribution to QPR over the last 22 months. I genuinely wish him all the very best for the future and he will always be welcome back at Loftus Road."
Fernandes later added on Twitter: "Trust me in 47 years of life I have never had to make such a tough decision. There is no doubt Neil was a good man. A great man. I and the board had to do what we felt was good for the club."
1 Mar 2010 Neil Warnock takes over at QPR after leaving Crystal Palace
7 Mar QPR beat West Bromwich 3-1 in Warnock's first game in charge
2 May Club avoid relegation easily, finishing 13th in the Championship
30 Apr 2011 Promoted as champions to the Premier League after a 2-0 win at Watford
13 Aug Lose first Premier League game 4-0 at home to Bolton
18 Aug Tony Fernandes completes takeover of QPR
20 Aug QPR pick up first win of the season with 1-0 win at Everton
30 Aug Warnock bolsters his squad with Luke Young, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand and Armand Traoré
23 Oct QPR beat Chelsea 1-0 at Loftus Road – their only home win of the season so far
19 Nov QPR win 3-2 away to Stoke City – their last victory before Warnock's sacking
6 Jan 2012 Fernandes statement warns that no job at the club is safe
8 Jan Warnock is sacked with QPR in 17th place, one point above the bottom three Jacob Steinberg
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jan/08/neil-warnock-mark-hughes-qpr
ndependent
Neil Warnock was unexpectedly fired last night as manager of Queen's Park Rangers. Owner Tony Fernandes, who only bought the club in August, sacked the veteran manager a day after watching Rangers snatch a late draw at League One MK Dons in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.
Mark Hughes is favourite to take over as Fernandes wants a big name and his advisor, Kia Joorabchian, was due to fly back from Brazil with a view to speaking to Fernandes. A somewhat surprising partnership of Gianfranco Zola and Ray Wilkins, who managed QPR in 1994-96, is also being discussed.
In a statement, Rangers said after a run of poor form which had "seen us slip alarmingly" they had acted as part of a "commitment to retain their Premier League status."
An eight-match winless League run, in which one point has been taken from the last 18, has seen Rangers drop to 17th in the table, one place and one point above the relegation zone.
However, those six matches included 1-0 defeats at Arsenal and Liverpool and a 2-0 reverse at home to Manchester United. At no stage this season have QPR been in the relegation zone and there have been no calls for Warnock's head from Rangers' fans despite just one win this season at Loftus Road.
Warnock said last night: "I'm disappointed because I think we've been playing well, but a lot of things haven't gone our way in recent games."
"I'd like to have had to chance to strengthen the team in the transfer window and show what I can do with a few new players."
Warnock has had to operate for the opening half of the season with last season's Championship winners plus a few recruits added in great haste after the takeover in the final days of the August transfer window. Chief among those was Joey Barton, but the troubled former England midfielder has been a mixed success, as exemplified by his last match, when he scored the opening goal against Norwich but was then sent off for an alleged head butt.
Warnock added he left QPR with "a great sense of pride". He arrived 22 months ago with the club embroiled in a fight to avoid relegation to League One. Having evaded the drop, he reshaped the side in the summer of 2010 and won the Championship, returning QPR to the top flight for the first time since 1996.
However, the ownership of Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore did not permit much investment during the summer and QPR began the season with a 4-0 home defeat to Bolton.
The owners then sold to another Formula One magnate, Fernandes, enabling Warnock to bring in Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young and Armand Traoré.
Fernandes is understood to be unhappy with their quality, which has made him reluctant to give Warnock more funds, but there were few alternatives at the time.
Warnock was told of the decision to sack him by chief executive Phil Beard, not Fernandes, who did not speak to Warnock at Milton Keynes during or after Saturday's FA Cup tie. The chairmen spends most of his time in Malaysia, where he owns two airlines.
QPR was the 63-year-old Warnock's 10th job in management, having begun at Gainsborough Trinity in 1980. Last season's promotion was his seventh, but his two previous years in the top-flight, with similarly under-funded clubs, Notts County and Sheffield United, ended in relegation. While his promotion record means Warnock will not be short of offers from ambitious Championship clubs, there is a possibility he may now concentrate on media work – including a column in The Independent. He has two children of school age and a home in Cornwall.
www.independent.co.uk/sport/footb....g-6286962 .html
INDEPENDENT
Victim of trying to buy quality without cash
GLENN MOORE MONDAY 09 JANUARY 2012
The QPR chairman, Tony Fernandes, a keen user of new media, pleaded on Twitter last night for fans critical of his decision to fire Neil Warnock to "be patient" and to "give us time". These are not concepts he allowed his manager.
Fernandes and Warnock worked together for less than five months following the Malaysian's August acquisition of the club from Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore. Much of that time the owner was either in Malaysia, where his business interests include two airlines, or on the Formula One circuit with Team Lotus (now Caterham).
When he did see QPR play they rarely won, and the performance at Milton Keynes on Saturday, when Rangers scraped a late draw against League One MK Dons, seems to have been the final straw.
On Twitter, again, he wrote: "Driving back to London. Lots to think about." That followed his pre-match tweet: "This is a journey not a sprint. Along the way we learn. But we continue to develop and along the way hard decisions need to be made ... It's important to note that no one's job is safe."
The timing of Warnock's sacking can be explained by the club's nine-match winless run, and the arrival of the transfer window. Fernandes is understood to be less than impressed with the quality of the recruits Warnock made under him in the last days of the August window, and therefore reluctant to let him invest in this one.
This is hardly surprising given the collective performances of Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young and Armand Traoré, but, as Warnock's replacement may find this month, that is the inevitable consequence of trying to bring players into a promoted team with limited time and funds. Fernandes, new to the sport and managing remotely, appears to have shown a lack of understanding of the circumstances.
Warnock himself said: "My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League."
Chief among those were Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy, who was QPR-bound before Liverpool intervened. Warnock was also close to signing the Footballer of the Year before Tottenham decided to meet West Ham's fee and Parker's terms. Instead Warnock signed Barton, but while his name helped to attract others the troubled former England midfielder has been high-maintenance off the pitch and a mixed success on it. This was exemplified by his last match when he scored the opening goal against Norwich, then was sent off for a headbutt.
While Barton was silly to get involved with Bradley Johnson and the dismissal was widely regarded as harsh, but it has been Rangers' fate recently to be on the wrong side of decisions. They led that match when Barton was dismissed, just as they led West Bromwich when Wright-Phillips had a second goal wrongly chalked off for offside. QPR took one point from those games. Injuries, particularly to central defenders, have also contributed to the team's problems.
Warnock moved for Parker after Fernandes arrived. So tight had been budgetary constraints under Ecclestone that he could not even compete with the clubs promoted behind Rangers last season. Swansea beat him to Danny Graham and Wayne Routledge, and Norwich to the Tottenham loanee Kyle Naughton. Shane Long went to West Bromwich. Warnock had to make do with Danny Gabbidon, Kieron Dyer and Jay Bothroyd on frees, and D J Campbell for £1.25m.
How much money Fernandes is prepared to commit remains to be seen but Warnock will be bitterly disappointed if his successor is able to spend heavily. This was his third crack at the top flight and, having been relegated with underfunded Notts County (1991-92) and Sheffield United (2006-07), he was looking forward to realising Fernandes' ambitions.
Last season's promotion was Warnock's seventh. During his time at QPR he had to work with Briatore, endure the Alejandro Faurlin contract inquiry, and try to build a Premier League team on minimal funds, and it has been the most draining stint of his career. Then again, after more than three decades in management, and a career which has gone from Sunday League Todwick to, for the last dozen years, the Championship or higher, the 63-year-old dearly wants to bow out as an established top-flight manager. His future may well depend just what offers are made.
www.independent.co.uk/sport/footb....h-6287098.ht ml
TELEGRAPH/Jason Burt
Mark Hughes favourite to be installed as new manager of Queens Park Rangers following Neil Warnock's sacking
As revealed by Telegraph Sport, Rangers’ new owner Tony Fernandes had lost faith in Warnock’s ability to save the club from Premier League relegation and decided he had to dismiss him.
Fernandes will have to persuade Hughes, who left Fulham last summer, that he has the substantial funds and ambition to match that of the
48-year-old Welshman who will also want to bring his own backroom staff with him to Loftus Road. Hughes is top of the wanted list and was last night installed as the odds-on favourite by bookmakers.
Hughes left Fulham last summer, activating a release clause after just one season, believing he had taken the club as far as he could without significant investment.
The Welshman made it clear that he wanted a club with ambition and it is believed he could be interested in the Queens Park Rangers project and the plans that are in place.
Fernandes, and his Asian backers, want to invest heavily in this transfer window and then again in the summer and there were serious concerns as to whether Warnock could attract the right calibre of player.
Hughes would help them achieve that aim, they believe, and could persuade the likes of Chelsea’s Alex and Christopher Samba — who he signed for Blackburn Rovers — to join him, along with other high-profile targets.
Given Warnock is also 63 and has stated that Rangers will be his last job as a manager, Fernandes may have also decided that he wanted a more long-term manager to fit into his plans.
The Malaysian entrepreneur is hoping to build a new 30,000-capacity stadium in west London but that project would be shelved if Rangers are relegated.
Another problem for Warnock is that despite the backing he has received he was not appointed by Fernandes.
Warnock’s departure came just a day after Rangers almost suffered an embarrassing FA Cup exit at MK Dons.
The League One side were a minute from beating QPR before Heidar Helguson stole a late equalizer.
And in the league, Warnock has gained just two points from the last eight matches with Rangers sitting in 17th place with 17 points from their first 20 matches.
He was given funds to spend immediately after Fernandes took over in late August, gaining control from the former owner Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore.
It is understood another reason behind his departure might have been the friction over Warnock’s buying — he acquired Anton Ferdinand and Armand Traoré, for example, but the club are back in the market to acquire more defenders.
The high wages being paid to some of his other signings, predating Fernandes’ arrival, such as Jay Bothroyd have also caused alarm.
At the same time there appears to have been disagreements over some transfer targets with Warnock keen to acquire Fulham striker Andy Johnson and Manchester City defender Wayne Bridge, but with the club’s hierarchy unsure.
The irony for Warnock, who leaves after just under two years in charge, is that he gained promotion for Rangers and provided much needed stability at a time when the club was in some disarray behind the scenes.
Last night Rangers issued a statement confirming his departure and the expectation within the game is that Warnock might now decide to retire from the game.
The statement added: “The board’s commitment to retaining our Premier League status ultimately led to this decision.”
Fernandes added: “This decision has been made in the best interests of the club and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that was made lightly.
“Sadly our recent run of poor form has seen us slip alarmingly down the table and the board felt it was the right time to make a change.
"Neil has acted with honesty, professionalism and integrity throughout his time at the club and I would like to thank him for his significant contribution to QPR over the last 22 months.”
Warnock said: “My biggest regret is that the takeover didn’t happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I’d pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League.
"I’ve been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move.”
Rangers have also sacked Warnock’s assistant, Mick Jones, and first-team coach Keith Curle.
If Hughes is appointed he will bring with him his coaching team which includes Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki.
Fernandes took to the social network site Twitter to insist he had not made a “knee-jerk” reaction and said that “soon the future will be unveiled”.
He is hoping that future will include Mark Hughes.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footbal....ks-sacking.html
qprreport.blogspot.com/2012/01/qpr-report-monday-warnock-axing.html
WARNOCK OUT....HUGHES IN?
QPR PART COMPANY WITH WARNOCK
Posted on: Sun 08 Jan 2012
Queens Park Rangers Football Club has today (Sunday 8th January 2012) parted company with Manager Neil Warnock.
Warnock joined the Club in March 2010, overseeing 84 matches in charge, winning 33, drawing 27 and losing 24.
Last season, he successfully guided the Club back to the Premier League for the first time in 15 years.
The Board's commitment to retaining our Premier League status ultimately led to this decision.
QPR Assistant Manager Mick Jones and First Team Coach Keith Curle have also left the Club.
QPR Chairman, Tony Fernandes, said: "This decision has been made in the best interests of the Club and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that was made lightly.
"Sadly, our recent run of poor form has seen us slip alarmingly down the table and the Board felt it was the right time to make a change.
"Neil has acted with honesty, professionalism and integrity throughout his time at the Club, and I would personally like to thank him for his significant contribution to QPR over the last 22 months.
"I genuinely wish him all the very best for the future and he will always be welcome back at Loftus Road."
QPR Vice-Chairman, Amit Bhatia, added: "It is with a very heavy heart that we make this announcement.
"I played a key role in bringing Neil to Loftus Road and consider him to be a close personal friend and a great professional.
"I would like to place on the record my thanks to him for transforming us from a Championship Club to a Premier League Club.
"As a Club we have gained enormously from Neil's wisdom, experience and leadership. He has always performed his managerial duties to the very highest of standards.
"I wish Neil every success going forward and he will always be welcome at QPR.
"I now look forward to the future and the rest of the season as we work towards stabilising our position in the Premier League."
Neil Warnock said: "Obviously I'm very disappointed, but having achieved so much, I leave the Club with a great sense of pride.
"I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me - they deserve success.
"My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League."
He added: "The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future.
"I've been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move."
The Club will now begin its search for a new Manager and will make a further announcement in due course.
London24
QPR sack Warnock: CEO says club will work quickly to appoint replacement
Sunday, January 8, 2012
7:54 PM
Philip Beard has said the club will work fast to replace Neil Warnock
QPR Chief Executive Officer Philip Beard has said the club will work fast to secure a replacement for Neil Warnock, who was sacked tonight (Sunday).
Mark Hughes has been installed as the favourite at the bookies and was backed by Ray Wilkins as the man to take the west London club forward.
“We’re moving as quickly as we can and we’re looking to make an appointment very soon,” Beard told Sky Sports News.
“We have very strong ambitons. We have a good squad and our intention will be to bring some
“We’ve got some people who can help us in the very very very short term. We’ve got some very big games coming up.
“Time is against everybody and we’re getting into the second week of January and we’ve got to make the right purchases. It’s a tricky month to make things happen. We want one or two players to bring in.”
Beard felt it was the right decision at the time but paid tribute to the work Warnock had done.
“We’re going to be criticised whatever we do. We believe this is the right decision at this time,” he added.
“Being in the Premier League is key to the ambitions of the club. We’ve got half a season to prove we want to stay in the Premier League.
“With January being the opportune time we’ve made this decision. Like all QPR fans and supporters we need to acknowledge the great job Neil Warnock has done.”
www.london24.com/sport/championsh....ment_1_1171721?
BBC
Reaction to Neil Warnock's QPR exit
Page last updated at 20:21 GMT, Sunday, 8 January 2012
E-mail this to a friendPrintable version
Warnock's final QPR game was the 1-1 FA Cup third round draw at MK Dons
Neil Warnock has left his role as manager of Queens Park Rangers after a little more than 18 months in charge of the west London club.
The 63-year-old guided the Hoops back into the Premier League last season for the first time in 15 years, but four wins in 20 games this season has left them just a point above the relegation zone. On Saturday, QPR narrowly avoided elimination from the FA Cup courtesy of a last-minute goal to secure a 1-1 draw at MK Dons.
Neil Warnock, via a statement on the club's website: "Obviously I'm very disappointed, but having achieved so much, I leave the club with a great sense of pride.
"I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me - they deserve success.
"My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League.
"The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future.
"I've been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move."
WARNOCK'S QPR RECORD
Continue reading the main story
Played: 84
Won: 33
Drawn:27
Lost: 24
QPR chairman Tony Fernandes via Twitter: "Very very hard decision. I will continue to be open and as transparent as I can. The board and myself had to put the club first.
"We had to think of the future of the club. I appeal to all fans to give us time and understand the future.
"I love stability and I think Neil did an amazing job to get the club up. We are in a good position to judge and this club is very close to our heart.
"It's a nightmare for me. But I take the good with the bad and continue to be open to all QPR fans.
"Trust me, in my 47 years of life I have never had to make such a tough decision. But I [have] got to do what I think is right. It's tough being a leader, but decisions have to be made for the club - which in the short time I have grown to love ever so much."
Former QPR manager Ray Wilkins: "The owners will have taken this decision with a heavy heart. QPR did wonderfully well last year - going up as Championship winners was a terrific effort.
"But it's a results-driven game and you do need to be picking up points. Unfortunately things aren't quite going their way in the Premier League.
"Obviously there has been a disagreement somewhere along the line and they have decided to part ways.
"They had a sticky cup tie yesterday - perhaps that was the last straw.
"[QPR chairman] Tony Fernandes made a very big decision along with his board and it will be very interesting to see how the new manager coming in does."
Ex-QPR manager Iain Dowie: "When you look at what Norwich, and particularly Swansea, have done in terms of no budget they look very comfortable, so because you're in the [transfer] window now whoever comes in has been guaranteed money to spend whatever happens.
"I just think it's a very harsh decision on Neil Warnock. It's obviously a clean brush because [assistant manager] Mick Jones and [first-team coach] Keith Curle have gone as well, so I don't know if someone is lined up or whatever but, nonetheless, it's a difficult day for Neil and his family and he deserves a huge amount of respect for the job he did there."
news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/16463344.stm?
Ray Wilkins/talksport
ormer Queens Park Rangers player and manager Ray Wilkins has told talkSPORT the club must act quickly to replace Neil Warnock who was sacked on Sunday night.
The west London club haven’t won in the Premier League since November and only scraped a draw with Mk Dons in the FA Cup third round thanks to a last gasp goal.
This appeared to be the final straw for the QPR’s owners who relieved him of his duties.
And Wilkins feels in a results based business his sacking was always on the cards despite getting the club back in to the top tier of English football.
He told talkSPORT: “You have to win in football at this current time and those results haven’t been as good as the chairman would have liked and I think we’ve seen the outcome today.
“[Neil Warnock] had done a fantastic job last year in getting the guys up and it’s difficult in the Premier League, it’s a totally different league, and there is no question about it there are new players required to keep them up.
“I’m extremely sadden by [Neil Warnock’s sacking] but they will have to get someone in that knows the Premier League and knows what it is all about because it is not an easy league in which to perform and when you’re down the bottom it’s very tough and every point counts, and they will have to make the right decision.
“It’s very important they get somebody in there as soon as possible and just steady the ship. We’ve seen what a wonderful job Martin O’Neill has done going in at Sunderland and it’s required that somebody goes in very, very quickly.”
And asked if he would take his old job back, Wilkins replied: “It would be an absolute pleasure.”
Meanwhile the former Chelsea assistant manager was angered by reports senior players at QPR were unhappy with Warnock’s training sessions.
And he told talkSPORT that players have to take more responsibility for the club’s results.
“At the end of the day,” he added. “In the Premier League if you don’t have the quality on the pitch it’s extremely difficult for you to get results.”
“The training sessions are OK when you win promotion from the Championship to the Premier League. It’s about time some players actually stood up and acted like men and got out there and performed.
“It’s very easy for senior players to say training sessions aren’t good enough, what about your own performances? Are they good enough?
“If you feel you need a bit more work do what Frank Lampard does at Stamford Bridge and just stay behind for ten minutes and work harder.
“A manager can only do so much, the players have to go and perform. Players have to stand up as soon as they cross that white line and they have to perform.”
Dave McIntyre/West London Sport
Warnock shown the door by QPR
"
Neil Warnock has been sacked as QPR manager.
A replacement is likely to be installed before next weekend’s match against Newcastle, with former Fulham and Manchester City boss Mark Hughes the frontrunner for the job.
Warnock, who took over in March 2010 and led Rangers to promotion last season, has been shown the door after a run of nine matches without a win.
His assistant Mick Jones and first-team coach Keith Curle have also left Rangers, who are currently fourth from bottom of the Premier League.
“This decision has been made in the best interests of the club and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that was made lightly,†QPR chairman Tony Fernandes said in a statement.
“Sadly, our recent run of poor form has seen us slip alarmingly down the table and the board felt it was the right time to make a change.
After a happy start, Fernandes lost faith in Warnock.
“Neil has acted with honesty, professionalism and integrity throughout his time at the club, and I would personally like to thank him for his significant contribution to QPR over the last 22 months.
“I genuinely wish him all the very best for the future and he will always be welcome back at Loftus Road.â€
Vice-chairman Amit Bhatia added: “It is with a very heavy heart that we make this announcement.
“I played a key role in bringing Neil to Loftus Road and consider him to be a close personal friend and a great professional.
“I would like to place on the record my thanks to him for transforming us from a Championship club to a Premier League club. We have gained enormously from Neil’s wisdom, experience and leadership.
“He has always performed his managerial duties to the very highest of standards. I wish Neil every success going forward and he will always be welcome at QPR.
“I now look forward to the future and the rest of the season as we work towards stabilising our position in the Premier League.â€
Warnock, who suffered relegation from the top flight with Notts County and Sheffield United, was desperate for another crack at Premier League management before retiring.
But poor results weakened his position ahead of the all-important transfer window and gave the board misgivings about allowing him to spend more cash this month.
“Obviously I’m very disappointed, but having achieved so much, I leave the club with a great sense of pride,†said Warnock.
“I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me – they deserve success.
“My biggest regret is that the takeover didn’t happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I’d pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League.â€
He added: “The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future.
“I’ve been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move.â€
www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/warnock-shown-door-by-qpr/
FEATURES & COMMENTThe final hours
08/01/2012
by David McIntyre
There had been growing speculation about his future, but Neil Warnock’s sacking came as a shock to him.
On Saturday night, amid rumours that he was about to be axed, he thought he still had the full support of majority shareholder Tony Fernandes.
Warnock was believed to be on thin ice, especially after recent Twitter posts by Fernandes stating that “no-one’s job is safe” and that Saturday’s display at MK Dons left him with “lots to think about.”
“Tony wants us to be at the other end of the table, but when you watch us over the last few weeks, we haven’t done bad.”
But Warnock, who expected to sign at least two players in the coming days, felt too much had been read into Fernandes’ musings.
“I’m not really a Twitter person so I can’t comment on his comments because I’ve not seen them,” said Warnock.
“But I know what Tony’s like and it’ll be something made out of nothing, because everybody tweets him and he replies to everybody.
“I’m concerned about getting players in, and on that he has been very supportive.
“I spoke to Tony, [vice-chairman] Amit Bhatia and the rest of the owners about six weeks ago and told them exactly why we need players and where we need them.
“Nothing has changed since then. If we don’t get those players we will struggle, and he [Fernandes] understands that.
“I can only tell you he’s been 100% supportive since he’s been at the club so I can’t comment on anything other than the fact he wants us to bring players in and do well.”
Warnock was adamant that Rangers’ poor recent results were a consequence of the Fernandes-led takeover being completed shortly before the previous transfer window closed.
It was all smiles to begin with.
It gave the club limited time to do business before the deadline, although big money was spent in order to sign the likes of Joey Barton, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Armand Traore.
The ousted manager believed more spending would move Rangers up the table, and argued it was crucial that new faces arrived sooner rather than later.
He said: “This next seven days is vital because we need two or three in before the Newcastle game on Sunday – not in two or three weeks. So it’s an important time for us.
“We need a bit of luck as well – you do with transfers. We’ve got our irons in the fire, we just need to get them over the line.
“Our aim is to stay up, and to stay up we need four or five players. We knew that in the summer but couldn’t quite get them so have had to hang in there with the squad we’ve got.
“If Tony had been in charge from the end of last season, I don’t think we’d have had a problem given the targets we had.
“There were some good players that went elsewhere and that scuppered all the hard work we did in the summer, so we’ve been catching up all the time.”
And Warnock defended his side’s recent performances, which he insisted have been much better than results suggest.
“Tony wants us to be at the other end of the table, but when you watch us over the last few weeks we haven’t done bad – we’ve done pretty well really,” he said.
“We can’t have had any more knockbacks than we’ve had over the last few weeks, with the Norwich escapade, then Arsenal where we played so well.
“We also dominated at Swansea, which not many teams do. We’ve had a lot of kickbacks, so I’m so pleased with how much effort the players have put in.
“We should have beaten Man City and West Brom – and Norwich too if things hadn’t gone against us. You’ve got to keep persevering and doing our best.
“If you eliminate the elementary mistakes I think we’ve played some good football and more than held our own. With a bit of luck we could be 10th or 11th.” West London Rangers
Guardian/Jamie Jackson
nday 8 January 2012 18.18 EST
QPR's sacking of Neil Warnock had been increasingly on the cards
Manager was at loggerheads with Tony Fernandes over transfer policy and the club's owner was increasingly concerned by the threat of relegation
QPR are looking for a new manager after losing faith in Neil Warnock's ability to keep them in the Premier League. Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty Images
After Neil Warnock watched Queens Park Rangers steal a draw at MK Dons in the FA Cup on Saturday his relaxed demeanour was initially surprising. His dismissal, announced yesterday, may explain it. He may have known of it already. Besides sources at the club suggested the 63-year-old was thinking of retiring at the end of the season anyway.
If this was the case, it was bound to compound the QPR board's two main concerns: the side's relegation form of two points from the last eight Premier League outings and, related to it, investment from a sizeable war chest by a man shortly to leave. With QPR "willing to go for it", according to one club insider, there were serious reservations regarding Warnock's ability to attract the calibre of player required to lift the club from 17th and stay away from danger.
This is why Tony Fernandes, the owner, showed his ruthless streak on Sunday. With Mark Hughes, his favoured replacement, available and interested, Fernandes decided he had witnessed enough drift.
The Malaysian was at stadium:mk on Saturday to see another disjointed display that required a late Heidar Helguson equaliser to avert a spirit‑sapping defeat to a League One club. This came after, on Friday, Fernandes tweeting pointedly "it is important to note no one's job is safe".
Yet when asked on Saturday evening if his chairman's outburst concerned him, Warnock's blasé response was: "I know what Tony is like. It would be something out of nothing. Everybody tweets him. Joe Bloggs off the corner-shop and everybody else tweets him and he replies to everybody. I'm concentrating on trying to get players in and he's very supportive. I can only tell you he's been 100% supportive."
Warnock had been much the same following the 2-1 defeat by Norwich City at Loftus Road last Monday. Lost in the uproar over Joey Barton's red card for moving his head towards Norwich's Bradley Johnson was the fact that QPR had been defeated again. The last time QPR won was on 19 November when Stoke City were beaten 3-2, a dire record observed by Fernandes and Amit Bhatia, the vice‑chairman, as they plotted their winter transfer window strategy.
While Warnock's outrage at Barton's sending off was understandable, when quizzed about the defeat by Norwich he fell back on the old managerial standby of bad luck and other dodgy refereeing decisions he believed have peppered their season. Then he spent the rest of the week railing at the match officials and the Football Association when his captain's red card was not rescinded.
Here was a deepening sense of a manager losing his focus and forgetting the only real measure of his stock: results. On Thursday, before the trip to Milton Keynes, Warnock failed to send the correct message to his players, again pointing his energies at the failed appeal against Barton's red card describing the FA's decision as "scandalous". He may well have had a point, but Warnock was missing the main one: the need to inform his players in strident terms of the requirement to return to winning ways at MK Dons ahead of league outings against Newcastle United and Wigan Athletic.
Regarding the board's concerns over Warnock's recruitment policy a glance at his business in the last window suggests their genesis. Joey Barton is the headline case: he may be the captain and the club's highest earner but the scouser has yet to win a game for QPR and his preoccupation with Twitter should have become an embarrassment to him when the team's results started going south.
Of the rest of Warnock's summer shopping spree, Kieron Dyer is injured (yet again), Shaun Wright-Phillips is inconsistent, Jay Bothoyd overtaken by the 33-year-old Helguson, Danny Gabbidon sluggish, DJ Campbell unconvincing and Armand Traoré has faded, while Anton Ferdinand is steady enough and Bruno Perone and Brian Murphy have madetwo appearances between them.
Warnock also said on Saturday: "This next seven days are vital because we need two or three players in by the Newcastle game. I spoke to Tony and the rest of the owners six or seven weeks ago and told them exactly why we needed players and where we needed them. Our main aim is to stay up, and to stay up we need four or five players."
Except that now Warnock will not pilot this drive for survival. With Kia Joorabchian, Hughes's representative, returning from Brazil on Monday and Fernandes in Singapore, the midweek board meeting may be when the Welshman is handed the challenge of maintaining QPR's status.
Guardian/David Hytner
Neil Warnock set to be replaced by Mark Hughes after leaving QPR
• Manager fell out with owner Tony Fernandes over transfers
• Team had taken two points from last eight league games
Neil Warnock has parted company with Queens Park Rangers and Mark Hughes is set to complete a surprise return to west London, having walked away from Fulham in the summer. Warnock has paid the price for the team's run of dismal results and his failure to see eye to eye with the owner, Tony Fernandes, over squad strengthening.
There would be some irony in Hughes taking over. When he left Craven Cottage in the summer amid great acrimony, it was with the ambition of competing higher up the table. Hughes felt that he was primed in June to succeed Gérard Houllier at Aston Villa, only for the move to break down.
The final act for Warnock came in Milton Keynes on Saturday, when QPR needed an 89th‑minute equaliser from Heidar Helguson to salvage a fortunate 1-1 FA Cup third‑round draw with the League One side MK Dons. Fernandes had travelled with 5,000 Rangers supporters; he was deeply unimpressed and he saw the need to take decisive action. Only last week he had suggested, in a tweet, that nobody's job at the club was safe.
But it was not a snap decision, with tensions having built for some weeks, and there was the sense that both parties had agreed the separation was necessary. There was even the suggestion that it was Warnock who jumped before he was pushed, as he had become so frustrated over January transfer targets. He had spoken for some weeks about the need for at least "three or four" new faces and he wanted to add them on the opening of the window or as close to it as possible.
So far QPR have signed only the striker Federico Macheda on loan from Manchester United. Warnock was at loggerheads with Fernandes over several targets, chief among them the Blackburn Rovers striker Yakubu Ayegbeni, whom he wanted but Fernandes did not. The pair had met at the end of last week to discuss transfer business. Warnock left the meeting feeling that his position had become untenable.
Fernandes became the club's majority shareholder on 18 August, when he bought Bernie Ecclestone's 66% stake. Perversely it was a source of frustration to Warnock that the Malaysian businessman had not gained control sooner in order to allow him a better shot during the summer transfer market.
"My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League," Warnock said on Sunday night.
Warnock succeeded in lifting QPR back to the Premier League after a 15-year absence – they were promoted as Championship champions last May – and he has left with happy memories, even if irritation is vying for prominence. "Obviously I'm very disappointed but, having achieved so much, I leave the club with a great sense of pride. I have enjoyed my time here more than anywhere else and the QPR fans have been brilliant with me. They deserve success.
"The board at QPR are hugely ambitious and I wish them every success for the future. I've been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move."
Warnock, ultimately, fell because of his results. Never mind the near humiliation in Milton Keynes – where Alejandro Faurlín ruptured his knee ligament and will be out for the rest of the season – his team had taken only two points in the league from an available 24. They sit 17th in the table, one point above the relegation cut-off. The club said, in a statement, that fears over relegation had motivated the decision to part company. Warnock's assistants Mick Jones and Keith Curle have also left the club.
"This decision has been made in the best interests of the club," Fernandes said, "and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that was made lightly. Sadly our recent run of poor form has seen us slip alarmingly down the table and the board felt it was the right time to make a change. Neil has acted with honesty, professionalism and integrity throughout his time at the club and I would personally like to thank him for his significant contribution to QPR over the last 22 months. I genuinely wish him all the very best for the future and he will always be welcome back at Loftus Road."
Fernandes later added on Twitter: "Trust me in 47 years of life I have never had to make such a tough decision. There is no doubt Neil was a good man. A great man. I and the board had to do what we felt was good for the club."
1 Mar 2010 Neil Warnock takes over at QPR after leaving Crystal Palace
7 Mar QPR beat West Bromwich 3-1 in Warnock's first game in charge
2 May Club avoid relegation easily, finishing 13th in the Championship
30 Apr 2011 Promoted as champions to the Premier League after a 2-0 win at Watford
13 Aug Lose first Premier League game 4-0 at home to Bolton
18 Aug Tony Fernandes completes takeover of QPR
20 Aug QPR pick up first win of the season with 1-0 win at Everton
30 Aug Warnock bolsters his squad with Luke Young, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand and Armand Traoré
23 Oct QPR beat Chelsea 1-0 at Loftus Road – their only home win of the season so far
19 Nov QPR win 3-2 away to Stoke City – their last victory before Warnock's sacking
6 Jan 2012 Fernandes statement warns that no job at the club is safe
8 Jan Warnock is sacked with QPR in 17th place, one point above the bottom three Jacob Steinberg
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jan/08/neil-warnock-mark-hughes-qpr
ndependent
Neil Warnock was unexpectedly fired last night as manager of Queen's Park Rangers. Owner Tony Fernandes, who only bought the club in August, sacked the veteran manager a day after watching Rangers snatch a late draw at League One MK Dons in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.
Mark Hughes is favourite to take over as Fernandes wants a big name and his advisor, Kia Joorabchian, was due to fly back from Brazil with a view to speaking to Fernandes. A somewhat surprising partnership of Gianfranco Zola and Ray Wilkins, who managed QPR in 1994-96, is also being discussed.
In a statement, Rangers said after a run of poor form which had "seen us slip alarmingly" they had acted as part of a "commitment to retain their Premier League status."
An eight-match winless League run, in which one point has been taken from the last 18, has seen Rangers drop to 17th in the table, one place and one point above the relegation zone.
However, those six matches included 1-0 defeats at Arsenal and Liverpool and a 2-0 reverse at home to Manchester United. At no stage this season have QPR been in the relegation zone and there have been no calls for Warnock's head from Rangers' fans despite just one win this season at Loftus Road.
Warnock said last night: "I'm disappointed because I think we've been playing well, but a lot of things haven't gone our way in recent games."
"I'd like to have had to chance to strengthen the team in the transfer window and show what I can do with a few new players."
Warnock has had to operate for the opening half of the season with last season's Championship winners plus a few recruits added in great haste after the takeover in the final days of the August transfer window. Chief among those was Joey Barton, but the troubled former England midfielder has been a mixed success, as exemplified by his last match, when he scored the opening goal against Norwich but was then sent off for an alleged head butt.
Warnock added he left QPR with "a great sense of pride". He arrived 22 months ago with the club embroiled in a fight to avoid relegation to League One. Having evaded the drop, he reshaped the side in the summer of 2010 and won the Championship, returning QPR to the top flight for the first time since 1996.
However, the ownership of Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore did not permit much investment during the summer and QPR began the season with a 4-0 home defeat to Bolton.
The owners then sold to another Formula One magnate, Fernandes, enabling Warnock to bring in Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young and Armand Traoré.
Fernandes is understood to be unhappy with their quality, which has made him reluctant to give Warnock more funds, but there were few alternatives at the time.
Warnock was told of the decision to sack him by chief executive Phil Beard, not Fernandes, who did not speak to Warnock at Milton Keynes during or after Saturday's FA Cup tie. The chairmen spends most of his time in Malaysia, where he owns two airlines.
QPR was the 63-year-old Warnock's 10th job in management, having begun at Gainsborough Trinity in 1980. Last season's promotion was his seventh, but his two previous years in the top-flight, with similarly under-funded clubs, Notts County and Sheffield United, ended in relegation. While his promotion record means Warnock will not be short of offers from ambitious Championship clubs, there is a possibility he may now concentrate on media work – including a column in The Independent. He has two children of school age and a home in Cornwall.
www.independent.co.uk/sport/footb....g-6286962 .html
INDEPENDENT
Victim of trying to buy quality without cash
GLENN MOORE MONDAY 09 JANUARY 2012
The QPR chairman, Tony Fernandes, a keen user of new media, pleaded on Twitter last night for fans critical of his decision to fire Neil Warnock to "be patient" and to "give us time". These are not concepts he allowed his manager.
Fernandes and Warnock worked together for less than five months following the Malaysian's August acquisition of the club from Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore. Much of that time the owner was either in Malaysia, where his business interests include two airlines, or on the Formula One circuit with Team Lotus (now Caterham).
When he did see QPR play they rarely won, and the performance at Milton Keynes on Saturday, when Rangers scraped a late draw against League One MK Dons, seems to have been the final straw.
On Twitter, again, he wrote: "Driving back to London. Lots to think about." That followed his pre-match tweet: "This is a journey not a sprint. Along the way we learn. But we continue to develop and along the way hard decisions need to be made ... It's important to note that no one's job is safe."
The timing of Warnock's sacking can be explained by the club's nine-match winless run, and the arrival of the transfer window. Fernandes is understood to be less than impressed with the quality of the recruits Warnock made under him in the last days of the August window, and therefore reluctant to let him invest in this one.
This is hardly surprising given the collective performances of Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Luke Young and Armand Traoré, but, as Warnock's replacement may find this month, that is the inevitable consequence of trying to bring players into a promoted team with limited time and funds. Fernandes, new to the sport and managing remotely, appears to have shown a lack of understanding of the circumstances.
Warnock himself said: "My biggest regret is that the takeover didn't happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I'd pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League."
Chief among those were Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy, who was QPR-bound before Liverpool intervened. Warnock was also close to signing the Footballer of the Year before Tottenham decided to meet West Ham's fee and Parker's terms. Instead Warnock signed Barton, but while his name helped to attract others the troubled former England midfielder has been high-maintenance off the pitch and a mixed success on it. This was exemplified by his last match when he scored the opening goal against Norwich, then was sent off for a headbutt.
While Barton was silly to get involved with Bradley Johnson and the dismissal was widely regarded as harsh, but it has been Rangers' fate recently to be on the wrong side of decisions. They led that match when Barton was dismissed, just as they led West Bromwich when Wright-Phillips had a second goal wrongly chalked off for offside. QPR took one point from those games. Injuries, particularly to central defenders, have also contributed to the team's problems.
Warnock moved for Parker after Fernandes arrived. So tight had been budgetary constraints under Ecclestone that he could not even compete with the clubs promoted behind Rangers last season. Swansea beat him to Danny Graham and Wayne Routledge, and Norwich to the Tottenham loanee Kyle Naughton. Shane Long went to West Bromwich. Warnock had to make do with Danny Gabbidon, Kieron Dyer and Jay Bothroyd on frees, and D J Campbell for £1.25m.
How much money Fernandes is prepared to commit remains to be seen but Warnock will be bitterly disappointed if his successor is able to spend heavily. This was his third crack at the top flight and, having been relegated with underfunded Notts County (1991-92) and Sheffield United (2006-07), he was looking forward to realising Fernandes' ambitions.
Last season's promotion was Warnock's seventh. During his time at QPR he had to work with Briatore, endure the Alejandro Faurlin contract inquiry, and try to build a Premier League team on minimal funds, and it has been the most draining stint of his career. Then again, after more than three decades in management, and a career which has gone from Sunday League Todwick to, for the last dozen years, the Championship or higher, the 63-year-old dearly wants to bow out as an established top-flight manager. His future may well depend just what offers are made.
www.independent.co.uk/sport/footb....h-6287098.ht ml
TELEGRAPH/Jason Burt
Mark Hughes favourite to be installed as new manager of Queens Park Rangers following Neil Warnock's sacking
As revealed by Telegraph Sport, Rangers’ new owner Tony Fernandes had lost faith in Warnock’s ability to save the club from Premier League relegation and decided he had to dismiss him.
Fernandes will have to persuade Hughes, who left Fulham last summer, that he has the substantial funds and ambition to match that of the
48-year-old Welshman who will also want to bring his own backroom staff with him to Loftus Road. Hughes is top of the wanted list and was last night installed as the odds-on favourite by bookmakers.
Hughes left Fulham last summer, activating a release clause after just one season, believing he had taken the club as far as he could without significant investment.
The Welshman made it clear that he wanted a club with ambition and it is believed he could be interested in the Queens Park Rangers project and the plans that are in place.
Fernandes, and his Asian backers, want to invest heavily in this transfer window and then again in the summer and there were serious concerns as to whether Warnock could attract the right calibre of player.
Hughes would help them achieve that aim, they believe, and could persuade the likes of Chelsea’s Alex and Christopher Samba — who he signed for Blackburn Rovers — to join him, along with other high-profile targets.
Given Warnock is also 63 and has stated that Rangers will be his last job as a manager, Fernandes may have also decided that he wanted a more long-term manager to fit into his plans.
The Malaysian entrepreneur is hoping to build a new 30,000-capacity stadium in west London but that project would be shelved if Rangers are relegated.
Another problem for Warnock is that despite the backing he has received he was not appointed by Fernandes.
Warnock’s departure came just a day after Rangers almost suffered an embarrassing FA Cup exit at MK Dons.
The League One side were a minute from beating QPR before Heidar Helguson stole a late equalizer.
And in the league, Warnock has gained just two points from the last eight matches with Rangers sitting in 17th place with 17 points from their first 20 matches.
He was given funds to spend immediately after Fernandes took over in late August, gaining control from the former owner Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore.
It is understood another reason behind his departure might have been the friction over Warnock’s buying — he acquired Anton Ferdinand and Armand Traoré, for example, but the club are back in the market to acquire more defenders.
The high wages being paid to some of his other signings, predating Fernandes’ arrival, such as Jay Bothroyd have also caused alarm.
At the same time there appears to have been disagreements over some transfer targets with Warnock keen to acquire Fulham striker Andy Johnson and Manchester City defender Wayne Bridge, but with the club’s hierarchy unsure.
The irony for Warnock, who leaves after just under two years in charge, is that he gained promotion for Rangers and provided much needed stability at a time when the club was in some disarray behind the scenes.
Last night Rangers issued a statement confirming his departure and the expectation within the game is that Warnock might now decide to retire from the game.
The statement added: “The board’s commitment to retaining our Premier League status ultimately led to this decision.”
Fernandes added: “This decision has been made in the best interests of the club and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that was made lightly.
“Sadly our recent run of poor form has seen us slip alarmingly down the table and the board felt it was the right time to make a change.
"Neil has acted with honesty, professionalism and integrity throughout his time at the club and I would like to thank him for his significant contribution to QPR over the last 22 months.”
Warnock said: “My biggest regret is that the takeover didn’t happen earlier, because that would have given me the opportunity to bring in the targets I’d pinpointed all last summer and probably given us a better chance to succeed in the Premier League.
"I’ve been involved in the game a long time and I will be spending the immediate future with my family and friends before deciding my next career move.”
Rangers have also sacked Warnock’s assistant, Mick Jones, and first-team coach Keith Curle.
If Hughes is appointed he will bring with him his coaching team which includes Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki.
Fernandes took to the social network site Twitter to insist he had not made a “knee-jerk” reaction and said that “soon the future will be unveiled”.
He is hoping that future will include Mark Hughes.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footbal....ks-sacking.html
qprreport.blogspot.com/2012/01/qpr-report-monday-warnock-axing.html
