QPR'S ITALIAN JOB LOOKS TO BE NEIL WARNOCK'S LAST TASK QPR manager Neil Warnock has spent only £3.5m on 12 players since taking over last March Sunday July 24,2011 By Colin Mafham Have your say(2) NEIL WARNOCK takes his budget team on a two-match trip to Italy tomorrow not knowing whether heâll still have a job when he flies home next Friday. For despite being a promotion hero just two months ago he now faces a bizarre fight for his future. The QPR manager they dubbed the miracle worker of Loftus Road after he steered them into the Premier League on a shoestring last season is in real danger of becoming the latest victim of trigger-happy co-owner Flavio Briatore. The volatile Italian billionaire, who has already gone through nine managers since taking over the club less than four years ago, looks to be oiling the exit door again despite Warnockâs incredible achievements. Briatore sacked most of the others, but this time he is applying a Scroogelike squeeze that is denying the most successful manager he has had the funds to bring QPRâs squad up to Premier League standard. QPR manager Neil Warnock has spent only £3.5m on 12 players since taking over last March He was also believed to be negotiating the sale of Rangers top performer last season, Adel Taraabt, although yesterday the club denied their main asset was for sale. While he refuses to give his manager hardly any of the £40million pot QPR pocketed for winning promotion â plus the cash from a whopping 40 per cent increase in season ticket prices â fellow Italians Claudio Ranieri and Marco Lippi wait in the wings as Briatoreâs latest choices for his poisoned chalice. Publicly the Formula 1 tycoon insists he trusts Warnock. Privately he has blocked all moves so far to spend money on any players with the managerâs attempts to sign Danny Graham from Watford faltering at the final hurdle and DJ Campbell from Blackpool now also looking off. SEARCH FOOTBALL for: The only reinforcements Warnock has managed to recruit have been free transfer signings Keiron Dyer, the injury-plagued former West Ham midfielder, and the unpredictable Jay Bothroyd, who was freed by Cardiff. Free agents Danny Gabbidon, Danny Webber and Brian Murphy also went with Warnock on a tour of Cornwall last week. Warnock, who has spent only £3.5m on 12 players since taking over last March, admitted last night that he is not sure if he will keep his job â one of the reasons he lost out on a bid to sign 35-goal Craig Mackail-Smith from Peterborough. And reports also suggest that Briatore and fellow owner Bernie Ecclestone would also be prepared to jump ship and sell up following a fued with their former partner, Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. Warnock is putting on a brave face, determined to resist all attempts to force him out of a contract that still has two and a half years to run. âTheyâve made it clear to me weâve got to try and get value for money and not to spend transfer fees,â he said. âI thought Iâd have a few millions and Iâm disappointed. But itâs not the end of the world. Itâs just another one of those things in my career where I have to show what I can do. âI look at Bothroyd and Dyer and if I can get three or four more of that quality, Iâll be more than happy. âFlavio is dealing with all the transfers,â he revealed. âWe have just got to look for Bosmans and shrewd acquisitions and loan players.â ========================================== ADEL TAARABT STAYING AT QPR TO BOOST CASH-STRAPPED NEIL WARNOCK ABOVE: Adel Taarabt will not leave QPR during the summer transfer window Adel Taarabt will not leave QPR during the summer transfer window 24th July 2011 By Tony Stenson QPR moneymen Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore have revealed that captain Adel Taarabt will not leave the club during the summer transfer window. The Moroccan playmaker, 22, was a key figure in Rangersâ Championship triumph last season and picked up the Football League Player of the Year award. Speculation had linked him with a host of elite European clubs and Paris St Germain were thought to be close to landing him. WIN £50,000: PLAY DAILY STAR FANTASY FOOTBALL NOW! But Rangers yesterday announced that Taarabt will stick around to help preserve their Premier League status. âWe are pleased to confirm that Adel Taarabt will be staying at QPR this summer,â said a club statement released on behalf of Ecclestone and Briatore. The news will come as a relief to miracle-worker boss Neil Warnock, 62, whose future has been in doubt due to a lack of funds. A recent vote of confidence from the board was not matched by much-needed cash after Warnock turned a relegation-bound side into title winners â the seventh promotion of his career. Fans fear he could become another victim of trigger-happy Briatore who has gone through nine managers since taking over the club less than four years ago. Warnock has so far only been able to bring in free agents Jay Bothroyd and Kieron Dyer and lost out on signing Peterborough striker Craig Mackail-Smith. He has been given permission to make a £1.25million move for Blackpool striker DJ Campbell but he expects that to be his only outlay this summer. Warnock said: âTheyâve made it clear to me weâve got to try and get value for money and not to spend transfer fees. âTheyâve agreed to buy Campbell but I canât see any other money changing hands. âI thought Iâd have a few million but it's just another point in my career where I have to show what I can do. âI look at the players Iâve brought in, Bothroyd and Dyer, and if I can get three or four more players of that quality, Iâll be more than happy. âIâm not despondent. Iâd love money, every manager wants money, but itâs not all doom and gloom.â ============================================
Neil Warnock vows to enjoy QPR Premier League return Published 23:00 23/07/11 By Mirror Football Recommend Neil Warnock will savour every second of QPR’s Premier League return after revealing he will swap the dug-out for a deck*chair at the end of his Loftus Road reign. Warnock has yearned for one last shot at the big time since the heartache of being controversially relegated with his beloved Sheffield United in 2007. “Managing in the Premier League is the pinnacle,” he said. “When I left Sheffield United I thought ‘I want another go before I come down to live in Cornwall permanently.’ “I have said so many times ‘this is going to be my last job’. I was going to pack in at 55 and then I was talked into going to Crystal Palace. I absolutely love London and I don’t think I will be working anywhere else after this.” Despite being backed by two of the wealthiest men in the game in Bernie *Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, Warnock has not been given megabucks to help Rangers’ stay in the top flight after a 14-year absence. But Warnock, whose only major signings so far are free agents Kieron Dyer and Jay Bothroyd, said: “I’m sure we can ruffle a few feathers. “If we don’t spend any money, which it does not look like we are going to, staying up would be a massive achievement. “I would love to have had a few million to spend but we will still be okay. I have got to get more out of players and work harder to stay up. Money is not the be-all and end-all.” Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/new...his-last-job-article775069.html#ixzz1T0X6BKC3 Sign up for MirrorFootball's Morning Spy newsletter Register here ============================================== QPR say Adel Taarabt will be staying at the club despite interest from Paris St-Germain Queens Park Rangers have announced that they will not be selling playmaker Adel Taarabt, and that the player is "fully commited" to the club. Star man: Adel Taarabt took the Championship by storm last season Photo: PA By Thom Gibbs12:20PM BST 23 Jul 20111 Comment Taarabt was the standout performer for QPR during their run to the Championship title last season, but has been strongly linked with a move to Paris St-Germain this summer. The player had said that a move was "very close", with QPR manager Neil Warnock also stating that he did not expect to be given any of a reported £12m fee for re-investment in his squad, but the club has now stated that Taarabt will start the Premier League season in west London. A statement on QPR's official website said: "We are pleased to confirm that Adel Taarabt will be staying at QPR this summer. "Despite receiving a substantial bid for our Moroccan international, we rebuffed all approaches and indeed, we are keen to build for the future in the Barclays Premier League, and not sell one of our prized assets. "Should we have decided to sell Taarabt this summer, we made it clear to Neil Warnock that we would reinvest funds into the squad. RELATED ARTICLES QPR complete Kieron Dyer signing 13 Jul 2011 QPR capture Jay Bothroyd 13 Jul 2011 The summer's big transfers 09 Jun 2011 Warnock urges Taarabt to stay with QPR 05 Jul 2011 QPR dismiss Warnock quit talk 30 Jun 2011 QPR: Fixtures 2011-2012 17 Jun 2011 "Taarabt is fully committed to the Club and is looking forward to proving his undoubted star quality for QPR in the Barclays Premier League." Club owners Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore have attracted critism from QPR fans after not spending any transfer fees so far in the off-season, but have stated that they will continue to support Neil Warnock in the transfer market after securing free transfers Jay Bothroyd and Kieron Dyer. "Our decision not to sell him only serves to reiterate the ambition and commitment we have both shown to QPR since we arrived here," said the statement. "We saved the Club when it was close to relegation from the Championship and just one week from liquidation. "At this time, Flavio Briatore outlined a four year plan to reach the Premier League, which was achieved. "We have always owned approximately 70 per-cent of the shareholding at the Club and have been the major benefactors since our arrival. "We have backed Neil Warnock in bringing in his two top targets, Jay Bothroyd and Kieron Dyer, and we are working hard to try and pursue a couple of other targets the coach has identified. "Welsh international Danny Gabbidon has impressed the coach whilst on trial and we are aiming to add him, as well as at least one or two other players to our squad in the near future. "We are aware of some issues that have been raised in the press by the coach, but we have discussed these with him internally and he has agreed to be more reserved in terms of what he discusses in the future."
