NEIL WARNOCK SACKING ISN’T TWEET NEWS Wednesday January 11,2012 By Matthew Dunn THE timing of Neil Warnock’s sacking by QPR may have come as a shock to many but not to the genuine Twitterati, it seems. Club chairman Tony Fernandes is a keen user of the social medium with its short public messages and, perhaps crucially, the facility to exchange private information with other users via direct messages. Entirely coincidentally, QPR’s star player Joey Barton is also an avid user of Twitter. Or, in a training ground bust-up on Friday, was Barton simply demonstrating the gift of clairvoyance to his self-confessed ability to be anything from a philosopher to a Catholic priest? When the numbers were odd for the final training session ahead of the FA Cup tie with MK Dons, Barton, who was suspended, was asked to sit out and do some fitness work with conditioning coach Carl Serrant. Barton was less than delighted with the prospect but eventually was persuaded to head off. However, his final prescient comment to the coaching staff was: “You lot are not going to be here much longer.” That comment proved a lot closer to the mark than QPR’s official statement on Mark Hughes’ appointment, bizarrely marked “exclusive”, released at 1.16pm. It concluded with the vow: “The Club will be making no further comment.” Number of tweets and retweets by Fernandes before logging off three hours later? 32. http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/294923/Neil-Warnock-sacking-isn-t-Tweet-news? If true, that boy must be a joy to have around the training field. First order of the day for Mark Hughes must be to put him in his place.
I still reckon that they knew about this (Warnock, Fernandes, players and backroom staff) for a couple of weeks. It might have been more difficult for TF had NW managed 6 points out of 9, but he didn't. I also think that we give the egocentric **** Barton too much credit for what may or may not have been going on behind the scenes. He is nowhere near as clever or influential as he would like us to believe. The old adage "Empty vessels make the most noise" is very appropriate in his case.
will someone let me know when Barton starts to play football for QPR (and starts to earn his salary) rather than tweet all the bloody time
I'm going to stick my neck out here but I don't think he has played as bad as many of you seem to think, what you got to get over is the FACT we signed him on a free transfer so he will have inflated wages like many players before him and many after him will if signed this way. It's not like we paid 3 million for him and he is being paid the 80k a week as reported because if we did pay a transfer fee then he would be on a lot less money than he is now. In his last 3 games I thought he was one of the better players for us on the pitch and should start getting some credit.
As I've said before, NW afforded Barton too much respect. If Hughes doesn't sit on the little bugger, we'll have Joey running the club...
My first reaction to JB joining our club was of disbelief that we were going to have this down market little so in so that is trouble in every shape and form I was dead against it. However as time went by I mellowed and started to even sing his praises as maybe my first impression had somewhat been clouded over by his past and actually he was going top be an asset to the club. I should have stuck with my first impression because I really feel he has a evil undercurrent and is not happy unless he is damageing someone else, this has come about like I say before he joined but particularily in the past few weeks I really do not like this guy, he has not put in the captains performances that I think he should and if he doesn't play better and earn his wages he should be given the Spanish elbow as Cerny would say.
He's still there. Warnock isn't. There's something to be read into that, and it's probably less sinister than you all reckon. It's basically "Barton is someone who can directly influence our survival. Warnock wasn't demonstrating that he could be so described."
Far cheaper to get rid of Warnock than Barton! You could say that "Rowlands is still here and Warnock isn't." There is not necessarily a correlation between the two.
The problem with Barton is that although he's a strong character, often it's strong/negative not strong/positive. I can see potential difficulties there for Hughes if Barton undermines the confidence of other players, and/or heads a player's union to interface with management.
Flanman, that is very well put. Think we have been in the same boat on this one. I started to really take to him, even cut my hair like him! Crazy, i know. Haven't given up on him yet though, but there are some vicious flaws coming to the surface of late that worry me. Guess we'll know soon enough how this will turn after Sparky has had his talk with him, no middle way with Joey, either he rolls up his sleeves or he's out the door. Who can forget this though? [video]http://h4.abload.de/img/barton7omc.gif[/video]
I agree. Some people energise those around them and some drain energy. The impression is very much that Barton is one of the latter.
Before the Norwich game Barton made an ostentatious point of geeing up Taarabt before the kick off. To my mind this was specifically in response to the criticism that his approach had had a negative effect on some of the players but within minutes of the start of the game he was fist shaking at the Morroccan when moves broke down. His next actions as captain were to score our goal of the season shortly followed up by being sent off for a stupid reaction to some physical stuff. The bottom line is that Barton is a high risk option and while he might start off with good intentions he cannot control his darker side. With Faurlin out indefinitely and assuming Hughes cannot replace the entire midfield his actions will be central to our survival but TBH I fear the worst from what we have seen so far.
