Mirror """" By Martin Lipton Comments 'Fernandes has no experience': Neil Warnock hits back at QPR owner for blaming him for relegation 2 May 2013 22:30 'When things go wrong, everybody starts throwing things and unfortunately itâs my turn to be hit now' says former boss Scapegoat? Warnock feels Fernandes' comments were harsh Matthew Lewis Angry Neil Warnock last night hit back at QPR owner Tony Fernandes after being blamed for the Hoops â relegation. Some 16 months after Warnock was sacked, Fernandes suggested the seeds of Rangersâ debacle were sewn by the former manager in the summer after promotion. But the Yorkshireman put the Loftus Road chief in his place as he lashed out at the inexperienced men, including Fernandes, who he thinks must take responsibility for what happened. Warnock, who was succeeded by Mark Hughes and then Harry Redknapp, said: âI see what Tony is saying about what happened and they are good people. âBut the fact is that, because of the takeover, we couldnât sign any player that summer until the last few days of August. âI agree with him in some respects in that we had to sign players we probably wouldnât have signed if things had happened weeks before.â âBut we were left having to sign players because if we hadnât gone out and got four or five players then, weâd have been relegated before Christmas. âWe wanted to sign people like Wayne Routledge and Danny Graham, Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy but the club wasnât stable so we had to fall back on second choice players. âHarry let us down with Seb Bassong so we went for Anton Ferdinand but if you look at the squad this season, the others we signed couldnât have been that bad because theyâve been playing. Sinking feeling: Fernandes has hit out at former manager and players for relegation Scott Heavey âBut I think if we had signed the players I wanted to sign at Christmas we would have consolidated. We would have built like Swansea and Norwich to some extent, thatâs the disappointment.â Warnock opted out of another full-frontal attack on Hughes or Redknapp, saving his comments for the Loftus Road executives. The former Leeds boss, who quit Elland Road a month ago, added: âTony Fernandes came in with no experience. They brought in Phil Beard with no experience either and Mark Hughes brought in Mike Rigg. âThereâs nobody in between the ownership and the manager. When things go wrong, everybody starts throwing things and unfortunately itâs my turn to be hit now. âBut I still think that if weâd been able to get the players we wanted weâd have been all right. âSurely I canât be blamed for Joey Barton being sent off at Manchester City at the end of last season and getting a 12-game ban but Barton is the type of player theyâve missed this season. âI know there have been extenuating circumstances but you canât tell me Luke Young isnât a better player than Jose Bosingwa. I donât think Tony really believes that Iâm to blame.â Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/neil-warnock-hits-back-qpr-1865895?#ixzz2SAvKGizj Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook """"""""
Meanwhile, on SSN, Fernandes has said Warnock is blameless, and he himself should take any blame. "He was only here for 4 months, how could he be blamed" or words to that effect. Storm in a teacup, but keeps both us and Warnock in the news, which is what both parties want (attention whore, our Colin). Wouldn't be surprised if they cooked this up between them.
Angry? and Lashed out? The two descriptions above are untrue. I saw/heard the Warnock interview on SSN and he was/did neither of these. In fact he remained quite calm and controlled throughout.
He has a book coming out next month. June 4th I think. During the interview he said that QPR fans will love reading it. Plug plug.
The first half of that is exactly my take on things. We have been plugging gaps due to the late takeover and the negotiations that preceded it. Everything else has been reaction IMO.
