Controversial former QPR chairman Gianni Paladini has insisted he was misrepresented in the popular behind-the-scenes film The Four Year Plan. In an interview with The Sun, he says the film made him look like âa madmanâ and that a number of scenes â including Flavio Briatore kicking him â were left out. It is claimed Paladini spent millions of his own money in order to save Rangers from bankruptcy and persuaded Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone to buy the club. Paladini was at QPR for seven years. Paladini said: âI have worked in football for many years and I am one of the longest-serving chairmen at QPR. It would not be possible to have achieved that had I behaved like that. âSure I am a passionate man and I was passionate about QPR. I spent millions and millions of pounds to save them from administration many times and to help take them from League One to the Premier League. âIf it wasnât for me there would have been no Flavio, Bernie, the Mittal family, Tony Fernandes or the Premier League. âI helped make all of that possible but the film did not recognise that. It made me look like an inbetweener â the man who Flavio sent to sack the managers.
Millions!!! I doubt that he ever had that sort of money to spend. I have severe difficulty in believing anything that man ever said. If he could just be honest history could look back more favourably on him. He put money into the club when it was desperately needed and did set us on the path to having Fernandes and Bhatia, but not by his design. Paladini as an inbetweener ! That is not a good image!
I posted previously that I think we do owe Paladini some debt of gratitude. I think he did bring passion for the club but in a chaotic Italian sort of way.
Good morning Rangers till I die, I do agree with you as say, it was him that started the ball rolling did he not? Yes he was a jack the lad but his heart was in the right place so lets give him credit for what he did for the club!!
He should be grateful to the film-makers for both recognising his otherwise improbable existance as a football money-man; and for what many regard as a relatively sympathetic portrayal. Sure he comes across as a weepy ineffectual stooge but that's a lot better than the incompetent bullish moron he was pre-Briatore and the incompetent bullied moron he became thereafter. The fact remains that the film pulled its punches in avoiding his role in a nightmare scenario that so nearly destroyed our finest hour. It also neglected to mention both his obvious culpability in the Faulingate episode and the boos that echoed around the ground when his name was called on judgement day. Man's an arse of the highest order.
