Tony Fernandes: Neil Warnock is the man to blame for QPR failure THE fall-out from QPRâs relegation bears no sign of letting up, with chairman Tony Fernandes yesterday slamming former boss Neil Warnock, claiming his signings have cost the club dearly. By: Simon Yeend Published: Thu, May 2, 2013 0Comments Neil-Warnock-s-signings-have-cost-QPR-dear-says-owner-Tony-Fernandes Neil Warnock's signings have cost QPR dear says owner Tony Fernandes Fernandes took over the club in August 2011 and had just days to strengthen a squad for the Premier League following promotion. He was new to football and although he queried some of the players that were offered to the club, he said he put all his trust in Warnockâs judgment. âAt the time when we arrived we were offered a lot of players, many on free transfers,â he said. âWe questioned a few of these and it wouldnât be fair for me to name names, but we werenât long in the business and we deferred to the footballing side of things. We went with what the footballing side said. âThe game before I took over, we lost 4-0 to Bolton. The manager [Warnock] came to me afterwards and said he thought we should buy this player and that player. âThereâs no doubt â and hindsight is a wonderful thing â that some of our buys havenât worked out, but at the time we went with what the management believed in and if you believe in the management, you listen to what they are saying.â Warnock brought in Luke Young, Armand Traore, Anton Ferdinand, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton in that final week of August. All of them were given lucrative long-term contracts. We questioned a few of these and it wouldnât be fair for me to name names, but we werenât long in the business and we deferred to the footballing side of things. We went with what the footballing side said Barton is now on loan at Marseille after serving a 12-match ban for his violent conduct in the final game of last season at Manchester City, when QPR narrowly survived relegation. Ferdinand is also on loan, at Bursaspor, while Young has not played a single game this season. Wright-Phillips has scored only one league goal in two seasons â albeit the winner at Chelsea â while Traore has also been in and out of the side. New recruits kept arriving when Mark Hughes succeeded Warnock, with Bobby Zamora, Djibril Cisse and Nedum Onuoha joining in January last year. QPRâs wage bill doubled in that first season from £27.6million to £58.5m and the club made a loss of £22.6m. The wage bill has continued to spiral with even more arrivals and in all, Fernandes has spent more than £50m on players, including £20m alone this January on Chris Samba and Loic Remy, as new manager Harry Redknapp hoped the arrival of a commanding defender and a goalscorer would keep Rangers up. They could not, and QPR were relegated last weekend after winning just four games all season. Finding buyers for many of the signings will not be easy, given the contracts they are on with no clauses for a drop in salary in the event of relegation. Redknapp, however, has pledged to stay to help the team make an instant return to the Premier League. âWeâve been through who Harry wants to keep and who he is happy to let go,â said Fernandes. The transfer policy is in place now for next season and beyond. âEvery club in England have players that the manager would rather were not there. I donât think weâre going to be in a bad position from that. Weâll come out OK.â Fernandes believes the development of the squad since his arrival means the club are now in a far stronger position when it comes to the transfer market. âA lot of our investment has gone into building up the squad,â he added. âNow weâre in a position where we can trade. We werenât able to do that before â we were just buying, buying and buying.â They will almost certainly have to make that attempt at instant promotion without Remy though. The striker wants to stay in the Premier League, has a release clause in his contract and is likely to attract offers after scoring five goals in 11 games. Barton is adamant he wants a permanent move to Marseille, although Fernandes said: âThat has to be a financial deal which would have to be worked out if he wants to go, but as far as I am concerned he is a QPR player and in the summer will come back.â
I seem to recall a few posters stating that Warnock was like a kid in the candy shop who'd been given a fiver to spend. All very well with hindsight as Tony concedes.
Expect a mother of all backlashes from Neil Warnock. He won't sit idly by and see his name smeared like this. Think Fernandes is out of order trying to shift blame like this after our relegation. The buys made by Hughes where worse, and by that time Fernandes should have learned his lesson judging by his own quotes.
Can't put it all down to warnock as he had very little time at which to make these signings due the goons not parting with money, i think some of those signings wouldn't have been made & was made in panic, i felt sorry for neil & i'm sure he will have something to say about that, i think TF is just covering up there mistakes, to me hughes take the majority of the blame with his signings & some of the players he got rid of.
I agree that NW started this all off IMO ... I mean STOP and just think and ponder ... He brought Joey Barton just repeat that in your mind: He brought Joey Barton He brought Joey Barton He brought Joey Barton He brought Joey Barton He brought Joey Barton He brought Joey Barton He brought Joey Barton He brought Joey Barton It's all water now . NW did brilliantly to build a team but he is a never ever a premiership manager ... He is a dinosaur. I do not want to watch QPR football or any football with Barton in a team. I love skill and flair and the right sort of grit
I like Tony a lot, but bollocks to this load of tripe! When we sacked Warnock, who had got us promotion under the quite pathetic ownership of Bernie and Flavio (see four year plan!), he had us at 17th. Yeah we'd had a poor run, but who doesn't have a poor run in a season? 3 of the 8 games not won were against United, Arsenal and Liverpool! It's not like he had an unhindered summer post-promotion in which to plan and sign key players. He couldn't get Graham or Williams from Swansea as Flavio would not release funds. He had about a week after the Fernandes takeover which left him very short of time. In fact, he had no 'real' transfer window to improve the squad as he didn't get January either. Mark Hughes ruined our club, not Warnock. 'Arry did not do better than Warnock would have done either. TF made a huge mistake sacking Warnock and he should realise that.
You can't blame warnock for what he did. I am pretty sure at the time Neil was saying tony wanted all sorts of players at the club joey being one of them.
You may be right but I am more interested in who is going to save it rather than who ruined it. I know history is important, learn from mistakes etc.
Raving's post pretty much sums it up for me. Warnock was severely hampered, yet his successors did not even achieve a higher league position despite spending so lavishly.
Morning 9's. Seems to me that are two ways of loking at that statement. Either that what happened post Warnock was crap - most of us believe that. The alternative view is that it demonstrates the wide gulf there was between the QPR prmotion team and even a half decent PL side since all that spending did not achieve a half decent PL side. The future is the key and it is still Blue and White Hooped - for the moment anyway!
No point pointing the finger - its happened - move on. New start, new pitch, yahoo. Lets get promoted passing the opposition into surrender. First signing crouch. Long ball from kick off that should fox em
Totally agree Raving! Colin did a far better than the idiot TF sacked him for, and better than Harry has, especially when you look behind the results and consider the far more limited resources Colin had available, and the background of his pre-season. TF (and Harrry) need to stop shifting blame back to Colin, and Hughes for that matter now, and look far more closely at what Harry is doing (he's been in the job close to half a year) and how we are going to get back up again next season.
Hughes ruined the club but NW started the rot by bringing in high earning wasters in Barton and SWP. Warnock deserved to be sacked, the players had given up on him, we had become a joke at that point.
I don't see anything in actual quotes where TF 'slams' Warnock. He simply points out that he had no choice but to trust the manager's judgement. Presumably this is about the nature of the contracts themselves (no relegation clauses) rather than the success or otherwise of the individual players. On the latter criteria (and setting aside the Barton case) both Hughes and, to a lesser extent, Redknapp have fared no better that Warnock. I agree with TF's assessment that Warnock was unexpectedly naive about his dealings with PL players and their agents.
That's pretty rough on Warnock considering he had no time to get players in and all our main targets had signed elsewhere due to Tango & Cash refusing to spend any money.
