Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

QPR's new manager Neil Warnock is well-known for his frank talk and honest assessments of the game, though plenty of linesmen and referees probably wished he kept some of his opinions to himself over the years.

But Warnock, picutred above at previous club Crystal Palace, showed today that he can be as equally forthright when it comes to discussing himself. Speaking to Rangers' website, Warnock acknowledged that for many, he is football's answer to Marmite.

"I know fans either love me or hate me, but all I ask of the QPR fanbase is that you get behind me and the team and make Loftus Road a fortress again," he said.

"The support of the Super Hoops will play a massive role in my time here."

Many Rangers' supporters have grown increasingly disheartened with the club over the course of this season and there have been numerous voicings of their disapproval.

Previous QPR manager, Paul Hart, who took the vacant position left by Warnock at Palace this week, was booed by the Loftus Road crowd after just two games in charge due to a frustratingly negative performance against Bristol City.

Fan power could also have contributed to QPR's last chairman, Flavio Briatore, deciding to take a back-seat at the club and cede his position to Ishan Saksena.

Flavio's last two games as chairman were marred by boos and chants towards the director's box, with several hundred supporters congregating outside the stadium following a 1-0 defeat against Scunthorpe in January to call for his resignation.

So Warnock is smart in looking to win over the home crowd as soon as possible. Of course, the easiest way to win the adulation of QPR's fans will be to turn around the club's woeful form and ensure that they play Championship football next season.

Rangers are still just three points off the relegation places and the new manager doesn't have the luxury of any easy games as he settles into the job, with second-placed West Bromwich Albion visiting on Saturday and a trip to another of his previous clubs, Sheffield United, within the next two weeks.

One manager, Graham Taylor, has even questioned the thinking behind Warnock's switch from Palace to Rangers in his Daily Express column.

"Why join QPR at 61?" Taylor asked.

"Obviously his position at Palace had to be under threat due to the club being placed in administration.

"But he seems to have jumped out of one fire and straight into another."

Taylor certainly backs up Warnock's self-assessment by claiming that he was always top of his list of 'Opposing Managers To Avoid' on a match-day.

The Rangers' crowd will get their first taste of his own peculiar brand of charm this weekend.

Things are never entirely simple when it comes to QPR.

Following an announcement on QPR's website last night, it was taken as certain that Neil Warnock was signing on as the Hoops' new manager.

However, Warnock's former club Crystal Palace threw a slight spanner in the works today by revealing that no compensation deal had been finalised and the deal was far from done.

Whether that was posturing on their part is unclear but Rangers' fans can finally breathe easily.

Neil Warnock is definitely in place, compensation has been arranged and the new boss has even lined up his back-room staff with Mick Jones, who worked with Warnock at Notts County, Huddersfield, Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield United and then Palace set to be assistant manager and another Palace boy, Keith Curle, signing on as first-team coach.

To add to the confusion, Palace have quickly moved into the managerial market themselves to appoint Paul Hart - who was the QPR boss just two months ago.

Hart famously lasted just five games at Loftus Road but is now charged with an even tougher job to keep Palace in the Championship after the club was docked ten points following their administration.

For all the noises coming out of Selhurst Park today, Warnock was pretty certain of his intended destination in his column for The Independent, which read as a love letter to the Palace supporters.

"Leaving a club in administration for one with huge potential must look like an easy decision but it has been one of the most difficult of my career, and there's been a few" said Warnock.

"The reason I am sad, as well as excited, is that of all the clubs I have been at the fans at Crystal Palace have been the best.

"It's easy to say, but I'm not just saying it because I'm leaving.

"The support they have given me and the players during a very difficult few months, and beforehand, has been fantastic and is something I will never forget."

Volz Under The Microscope Once More

Whilst getting to grip with a whole new squad, the new boss will also have to give the once-over to a player who has been regularly linked with QPR in recent weeks.

Former Fulham and Arsenal full-back Moritz Volz has been training with QPR since the turn of the year as he attempts to recover from a series of injuries which have kept him out of competitive football since last season.

His latest outing on the QPR reserves roadshow comes tonight when Rangers' second string line up against Millwall Reserves at Dartford Football Club.

Angelo Balanta and Gary Borrowdale are also expected to feature.

The best kept-secret in football is now out.

Weeks of speculation about the future identity of QPR's manager are at an end as Crystal Palace's Neil Warnock finally signed on the dotted line yesterday after a compensation deal was hammered out between the two clubs.

The Hoops have been on the look-out for a new boss since Paul Hart left at the turn of the year, with caretaker manager Mick Harford freely admitting that he was there only to look after the club in the interim. Warnock's name was closely linked with the QPR position, especially after his former club Crystal Palace went into administration and were docked ten points. It left him in an unenviably insecure position at the club and more receptive to offers from elsewhere.

Those offers came quick and fast from west London and the two clubs agreed a deal yesterday, which is reportedly set to improve Palace's coffers by £500,000. There were rumours of a £1 million release clause in Warnock's Palace contract, so with that club in administration, it may have been a question of QPR haggling down their London rivals over the last few days.

Despite Rangers' precarious league position, just three points off the relegation spots, Warnock was adamant that he was making the right decision.

"I am delighted to be joining a club with the history that QPR has," he said.

"As a manager, Loftus Road is always a place I loved because of the fantastic atmosphere there. Looking from afar, I believe this is the perfect time to come in, with the new structure and chairman in place."

Signing a manager of Warnock's calibre is certainly a considerable achievement for QPR's new chairman Ishan Saksena and his financial backers Lakshmi Mittal and Amit Bhatia. For all his characterisations as a serial moaner and hot-head, Warnock has bags of experience in the Football League at clubs including Huddersfield Town, Plymouth Argyle and most notably at Sheffield United who he took into the Premiership and to the FA Cup semi-finals.

The degree to which Warnock forges an easy working relationship with Saksena could have great bearing both on his future with the club and QPR's potential. Recent managerial appointments have been blighted by interference from previous chairman Flavio Briatore which meant that few lasted any great length of time. Though he will not be able to go into the transfer market before the end of this season, it will also be interesting to see if he recieves significant financial backing from the club, beyond investment in loan signings and free transfers.

Saksena said: "Neil was always our number one target so we are delighted to announce him as our manager.

"He has great experience in English football and a phenomenal track record. I believe he is the right man to help QPR achieve its ambitions."

He faces a formidable test in his first game in charge though as QPR welcome promotion-chasing WBA this weekend.

QPR managed to have only the miniest of mini-revivals and returned to losing ways this weekend with a 2-0 defeat against Gordon Strachan's Middlesbrough, which meant the North East club completed a double over Rangers for the first time in their history.

After finally winning a game, against Doncaster Rovers, the weekend previously, it was always a tall order for QPR to maintain that form against a Boro side, who for all their fluctuations in form, remain promotion candidates. That said, opting for a 4-5-1 formation, with Jay Simpson on the right wing and youngster Antonio German leading the line alone, quickly established that Rangers' ambitions were not far-reaching. When you add the usual calamitous defending into the mix, which led to two successfully taken penalties for Boro, it is unsurprising that the Hoops returned to west London pointless.

1 - "We made silly mistakes and got punished for them". No truer words have been spoken than manager Mick Harford's following the game. A compilation of QPR's defending this season would be X-rated stuff and not for the squeamish and it continues to amaze me that a side which had one of the meanest defences last season has become so flaky at the back.

Kaspars Gorkss, in my opinion, has been one of the better signings of the Briatore era, a player who already had experience at the Championship level and who, after a shaky start to his QPR career, grew in confidence and stature last season. His form hasn't been helped by the team's in general this time round but when a normally reliable player starts to commit defensive howlers, it's hard to see how Rangers will ever get another clean-sheet. His foolish lunge at Leroy Lita which led to Boro's second penalty effectively killed the game before half-time.

Similarly, I've never been in the Peter Ramage-bashing brigade and have found it hard to understand why players are often played out of position at right-back whilst Ramage sits on the bench.  I suppose he gave one indication on Saturday though. Natural pace is not his strong card but it was still far too easy for Jeremie Aliadiere to round him and he compounded his error by going to ground and drawing the penalty.

2 - The manager is right in another sense as well. Mick Harford has repeatedly said the club needs a manager to come in. Without being harsh, it makes you question what he is then - is he not a manager himself? - though I think in fairness he is pointing to the need for stability at the club, for someone who could be at Loftus Road for a number of years and could start to rebuild the team.

Co-owner Amit Bhatia said similar things last week and at the time, I took that as potentially a vote of confidence for Harford but I don't know how right that was and all the reports suggest Boro was his last game, with Palace's Neil Warnock still the most likely replacement.

The results under Harford certainly haven't been good enough for him to take the job long-term, something which again he bravely acknowledges. But as I've said for the last few weeks, a decision needs to be made really quickly.

3 - QPR have been poor. But some teams are poorer. The one saving grace of this season could be that there are just enough teams in this league worse off than Rangers, in terms of playing staff and their respective talents, for them to avoid the drop.

Their own efforts barely merit Championship football next season but when sides such as Sheffield Wednesday are being comprehensively routed by five goals against fellow relegation candidates Reading, you know that something is wrong. Plymouth as well, for all their best efforts, seem unable to pull themselves closer to safety and along with Peterborough still look like more than a good bet to go down. That leaves one place and though QPR shouldn't rely on other results, they are at least getting some help from the teams around them right now.

4 - Faith in youth can only extend so far as well. The enthusiastic and ambitious play of Jay Simpson and full debutant Antonio German against Doncaster was one of the main reasons that Rangers broke their winless run last weekend but it is hard to expect players of their inexperience, particularly German, to recreate that form week in, week out.

Playing German as a lone striker could be taken as a massive vote of confidence from Mick Harford and the player will never shirk the hard work needed to perform that role, but against David Wheater, the youngster failed to strongly influence the game.

Sadly, QPR's youthful options took another knock this weekend as highly-rated 15-year-old striker Raheem Sterling finally left the club for Liverpool, for a reported fee of £500,000. I've not seen Sterling play but if he is as good as some say, it was clear that he would eventually leave and it could have been detrimental to his ambitions to force him to stay at the club. That Liverpool, Arsenal and Man United were all after him suggests he could be a sensational talent and it seems that Liverpool's Academy set-up won out.

When QPR do bring in a new manager though, he needs to look into QPR's own youth set-up though, to ensure that the club can continue to develop talents such as Sterling, if only for the financial benefits they can provide.

Middlesbrough - Coyne, Pogatetz (Taylor, 78), Lita (Arca, 83), Aliadiere (Franks, 65), Killen, Flood, O'Neil, Robson, McManus, Wheater, Naughton

Subs not used - Jones, Hoyte, Miller, Grounds

Goals - Robson 38 (pen), 44 (pen)

Bookings - Killen

QPR - Ikeme, Ramage, Stewart, Leigertwood, Buzsaky, Gorkss, Cook, Faurlin (Taarabt, 69), Hill (Borrowdale, 54), Simpson, German (Bent, 54)

Subs not used - Cerny, Vine, Balanta, Ephraim

Bookings - Gorkss

Referee - K Woolmer

Attendance - 17,568 (523 QPR)