Kevin Gallen has revealed he was lied to during his time as an academy coach at QPR and admits he was âalways watching his backâ at Loftus Road. The former Loftus Road strike star left the west London club in mid-August, when he was sacked by email by former technical director Mike Rigg, and confesses it was not a pleasant environment under the management regime of Mark Hughes. Neil Warnock told talkSPORT earlier this week he hoped Hughes would succeed him at Leeds so he could âdestroy another of my teamsâ, and Gallen has now added his own damning assessment of the Welshmanâs time in charge. He said: âWhen I was at the club, we had a meeting about the academy and [technical director] Mike Rigg came in and said to us our transfer policy is going to be a lot different , weâre going to sign young players with a lot of sell on value, something the previous management team had not done. âAnd then the next month we signed Ji Sung Park, Julio Cesar, Jose Bosingwa, Ryan Nelsen and Andy Johnson. âIâve been in football a long time and there are a lot of people who tell a lot of porky pies and can con a lot of people. But I believed him.â It wasnât a nice place to work. You were always watching your back â Kevin Gallen Gallen also claims Rigg was the man in control of football affairs at Loftus Road. âI was there until mid-August [2012] and he was running the club,â he added in an interview with QPR podcast âOpen All Rs. âPlayers like Joey Barton, Luke Young, DJ Campbell and Jay Bothroyd were all told by Mike Rigg, âyouâve got to train at 9 oâclock and then come back at 4 oâclockâ, because they wanted them out. âThatâs fair enough, but canât you just say, âyouâre not going to play, try to find another clubâ. âBut if you are made to come in before the first-team and then leave before they arrive at 11 oâclock, and then come back at 4 oâclock and do half an hour just to annoy you, players are going to dig their heels in and say, âIâm staying where I amâ. âAnd that culture went through the staff. It wasnât a nice place to work. You were always watching your back.â Just when you thought he couldnt be a bigger prick!
I presume you mean Hughes rather than Gallen? All very sad. It feels like Hughes was given the chance to buy a high end motor and ended up buying a 4 yr old Mondeo and then joy driving it around town.
Gallen has always been straight down the line in my opinion therefore it makes me a little sad and annoyed reading this.
Of course, I never thought Gallen was a prick in the first place. I was also told all was not well which is why Ive generally been pretty negative this season.
Hughes was a huge mistake by TF - he had a proven record of being a slow starter which nearly got us relegated last season, and probably has this. But why is this coming out now - much better if Gallen or whoever is peddling this now (no source is given!) had made this public last August, when most on here and at QPR seemed to think Hughes and TF were the f*kkin sugar fairy Queens, as they ran around bringing in Park and a few other has beens for a lot of money. It seems like he was too lilly livered to say it then when Hughes was popular, but comes out with this now when Hughes name is sh*t, hiding behind Colin's coat tails.
However psychotic he was, Paladini loved us, and I loved him for it, he put in his all for us in his manic way, and he helped NW bring us back up. So I can't knock the Italians completely, as we were able to be back in the Prem thanks to them, no matter how messy it all seemed at the time.
I suspect there will be many more complainants to come out of the woodwork as contracts and other legal restraints around the Hughes era come to an end. You can't expect people to risk their livelihood to be a whistle-blower. I doubt the man himself is listening anyway: he is probably still convinced his dogmatic methods can be applied universally and along with that he fully expects not to make many friends.
