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There's been much talk of Flavio Briatore, the owner of the Renault formula one team, taking over with a group of friends but the Italian has said he will not go crazy to buy the club. Not only that, he says it will be like buying a restaurant where you only eat there occasionally, that he will only occasionally take in a QPR game. The current directors resigned earlier in the week to clear the way for this takeover but today a statement has suggested there are other potential buyers.
It is all beginning to sound a bit suspicious and there's little likelihood of the fans embracing it all at the moment, particularly with news that Gianni Paladini is to continue as chairman of the club should there be new owners.
On the playing side they ended last season with five wins in their last nine games to climb to eighteenth in the table and manager John Gregory set about strengthening the squad he'd inherited for the new challenge.
A whole host of players have either been sold or released, and without doubt the biggest sale was that of Lee Cook who finally joined Fulham for a fee believed to be around £2.5 million. The list of departures, which totals no fewer than fourteen players, also includes he likes of Steve Lomas, goalkeeper Paul Jones, Mauro Milanese, Ian Evatt, Paul Furlong and Kevin Gallen.
That meant there had to be new signings and so far there have been nine, six of them permanent singings and three on loan. They include former Manchester United forward Daniel Nardiello, who turned down a new contract offer at Barnsley, ex-Blackburn full back John Curtis along with Michael Mancienne who has returned to Loftus Road on loan from Chelsea following a successful time there last season. The signings have been as follows:
Daniel Nardiello from Barnsley
John Curtis from Nottingham Forest
Ed de Goey from Stoke
Lee Camp from Derby
Simon Walton from Charlton
Michael Mancienne from Chelsea (loan)
Ben Sahar from Hapoel Tel Aviv (loan)
Hogan Ephraim from West Ham
The new season hasn't started as well as they would have hoped. The opening day was good enough, twice coming from behind to earn a point away from home against newly promoted Bristol City, but two home defeats have followed, in the Carling Cup against Leyton Orient and a league game against Cardiff.
League tables are meaningless at this time, but they will be looking for their first win in six games, since they beat Cardiff at Loftus Road last April.
One of the summer recruits for QPR was John Curtis. For the 28-year-old Nuneaton born defender this is his ninth club after starting his career as an apprentice with Manchester United.
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A Premiership debut was only a couple of weeks away and this was one to remember. He lined up in a side that included Peter Schmeichel, David Beckham and Karel Poborsky as Manchester United went to town with a 7-0 win over Barnsley at Old Trafford.
Trying to establish himself in the Manchester United squad proved difficult and in November 1999 he went on loan to Barnsley, the team he'd made his league debut against, for the rest of the season. They wanted to take him permanently but instead he moved to Blackburn. Graeme Souness paid £1.5 million for him, the only time he's been involved in a move with a transfer fee, and he was a regular in his first season.
Injury cost him his place and he struggled to win it back. A loan move to Sheffield United at for the last two months of the 2002/03 came before he was released at Ewood and from there he signed for Leicester.
The next eighteen months proved to be a struggle as he failed to establish himself at Leicester and then Portsmouth, after another free transfer. His best first team run came during a loan at Preston. Then in February 2005 he moved to Nottingham Forest and for the next two and a half years he was first choice for them.
It was something of a surprise when he moved on again this summer, but move he did and he became John Gregory's third signing of the summer. He is expected to play left back for QPR tomorrow.
John Gregory will be able to call on summer signing Chris Barker for the first time at Turf Moor. Barker was sent off on the weekend in April last season playing for Colchester at Stoke. It was his second red card of the season and gave him a four match ban. With only one match served before the season's end he has missed the first three this season.
He'll step in at left back with fellow new signing John Curtis, as suggested above, moving over to the right back position in place of Zesh Rehman who is likely to be amongst those chasing a place on the subs bench.
Loan signing Ben Sahar has returned to training after having had an appendix operation, but he won't be fit enough to play whilst broken leg victims Gareth Ainsworth and Simon Walton are both ruled out as are Pat Kanyuka (thigh) and Ray Jones (ankle).
QPR's likely side is: Lee Camp, John Curtis, Damion Stewart, Michael Mancienne, Chris Barker, Stefan Moore, Martin Rowlands, Adam Bolder, Hogan Ephraim, Daniel Nardiello, Dexter Blackstock. Subs from: Jake Cole, Zesh Rehman, Marcus Bignot, Danny Cullip, Nick Ward, Marc Nygaard.
Brian Jensen could be set for his first league appearance of the season with Gabor Kiraly doubtful after suffering a dead leg at Scunthorpe last Saturday. Not as though Jensen isn't in the wars, he's suffering with a black eye following a collision with a Manchester City player in the reserve game in midweek.
The only other doubt for the Clarets is captain Steven Caldwell who limped off during the first half of our opening game two weeks ago against West Brom with a hamstring injury. Caldwell himself thinks he could make it but there remains some doubt and the likelihood is he won't play.
Other than that the question is whether Steve Cotterill will make changes, particularly to the midfield which has hardly been on top of its game so far. I'd certainly like to see James O'Connor back in there and I'm not convinced of the idea of playing Jon Harley on the left hand side of midfield, particularly when we have other options there such as Besart Berisha, Steve Jones and Kyle Lafferty. I would suspect Lafferty could be the most likely to play there given his performance on the left against West Brom after he came on as a sub.
The team could be: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, David Unsworth, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Robbie Blake, Andy Gray. Subs from: Jon Harley, Joey Gudjonsson, John Spicer, Alan Mahon, Steve Jones, Besart Berisha, Ade Akinbiyi.
When a new season gets underway, above anything you want to get off to a winning start and that's just what we did a year ago when we beat Queens Park Rangers 2-0 at the Turf.
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The first half was hardly riveting stuff and the visitors probably came the closest to scoring. Twice Australian Nick Ward missed opportunities whilst at the other end our best chance was nothing more than a half chance for Kyle Lafferty following a superb through ball from Alan Mahon.
The second half saw a big change, a much better performance, and we finally got our noses in front. Mahon's ball was too far in front of the forwards but Andy Gray forced veteran keeper Paul Jones into an error and as the ball fell loose Jones was onto it very quickly to hit home into the empty net.
We switched things round, Micah Hyde and Wade Elliott came on, and almost immediately we doubled our lead. Jones collected the ball from Frank Sinclair, moved across the pitch some twenty-five yards out before unleashing a screamer into the corner that Jones could do nothing about.
Mahon's free kick missed the target by inches, Jones saved brilliantly from Hyde as the Clarets took total command and the only surprise was that we didn't add to the score. A 2-0 win on the opening day was without doubt good enough, it was the biggest win of the day and left us top of the league on alphabetical order from Luton and West Brom.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Steve Jones, James O'Connor (Wade Elliott 62), Chris McCann, Alan Mahon (Garreth O'Connor 89), Andy Gray, Kyle Lafferty (Micah Hyde 62). Subs not used: Stephen Foster, John McGreal.
QPR: Paul Jones, Marcus Bignot, Matthew Rose, Damion Stewart, Mauro Milanese, Steve Lomas (Ray Jones 66), Gareth Ainsworth, Martin Rowlands (Scott Donnelly 79), Nick Ward, Lee Cook, Adam Czerkas (Marc Bircham 71). Subs not used: Jake Cole, Patrick Kanyuka.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 1-0 | 11,427 | Mullin |
| . | . | h | 2-1 | 14,018 | Smith Taylor |
2004/05 | C | a | 0-3 | 15,638 | . |
. | . | h | 2-0 | 10,396 | Akinbiyi(2) |
2005/06 | C | a | 1-1 | 12,565 | McCann |
| . | . | h | 1-0 | 11,247 | Gray |
2006/07 | C | h | 2-0 | 12,190 | Jones(2) |
. | . | a | 1-3 | 10,811 | McCann |