How long has Magilton got?
Breaking news...Jim Magilton sacked. Thought I'd get that in now to save me writing it at Christmas.
The QPR messageboards are awash with sweepstakes taking a punt on which date the new boss will be fired - ranging from Aug 14 all the way to mid-December. Although one optimist suggested it would be the summer of 2011, when Jimbo will be poached by Manchester United as Sir Alex Ferguson's replacement.
Meanwhile, Dan the fan from Great Yarmouth wrote on the Daily Mail website: "This is how I see this appointment panning out..."
- July 18th Friendly: QPR 0-2 Juventus;
- July 25th Friendly: QPR 0-2 Bolton;
- Aug 1st Friendly: QPR 0-2 Celtic;
- Aug 5th Friendly: QPR 0-2 Ipswich Town Res;
- Aug 8th Friendly: QPR 0-2 Formula 1 Drivers' XI;
- Aug 11th Friendly: QPR 1-2 Shepherd's Bush under-14's;
- Aug 17th MAGILTON SACKED.
I can't say I'm overwhelmed with the appointment - in fact I'm not even whelmed. When Paulo Sousa was curiously shown the door in April, the names being bandied about by the press as his replacement included Sven-Goran Eriksson, Big Phil Scolari and, latterly, Zico (stop sniggering at the back).
In the event we get the bloke who was deemed not good enough for Ipswich, after failing to lead them into the play-offs in three attempts. And the time it took the board to appoint him was only a little less than Iain Dowie lasted in his first full season at the helm.
As one wag pointed out on a fan site: "It takes two months to appoint a manager, so should the board start the interviews around now?"
Meanwhile when Sky Sports news ran the story, they produced an alarming list of stats which showed the average tenure of a QPR manager (including caretakers) since Briatore and co took control was a whole 14 games. Sir Alex Ferguson, since you ask, has presided over 1276 at Manchester United.
Still, I'm all for giving Magsy a go - he knows the Championship inside out and you never know, he might just have all his knockers eating humble pie come May next year.
In fact I'm even prepared to do a Gareth Barry and write an open letter to our new messiah: 'Dear Jim, please can you fix it for me to be watching Premier League football at Championship prices next season? All my love, Chris'.
Incidentally, I'm still awaiting a reply to the request I sent to the other Jim back in 1977 to spend a day with Gerry Francis, Stan Bowles et al. Maybe it got lost in the post.
Whether I fork out £600 to see Magilton weave his magic in the flesh will depend on the chances of me finding the key to the padlock on my credit card which the other half has wisely squirreled away.
In the meantime I'll look on enviously as the club immediately below us in the owners' rich list compete with Real Madrid for the services of Kaka, while the only one above us snap up Gareth Barry and continue to be linked with just about every player on the planet.
Not that I'm bitter, of course. I just hope that we can improve on this assessment from another QPR fan last season - "We must be the only club in the world that have got worse since we became owned by billionaires."
I am a journalist with BBC Sport, dealing with the more offbeat stories doing the rounds. I am a QPR fan - and also quite fond of football. If our new-found wealth brings success I'll be happy to tell anyone exactly where I was when we were sh... rubbish - row J seat 139.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~13~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
bit like a championship version of wor lot newcastle, ohhhhh wait..........
Complain about this comment
Mad times at the Rs - although the situation is hardly helped by the media - look how many managers (and how unbelievable some of the names were, like Zico, Romario and Scolari) were rumoured to be coming:
http://www.sportwithoutspin.com/2009/06/04/jim-magilton-the-appointment-everyone-saw-coming/
Magilton didn't do such a terrible job at Ipswich, but he'll need to do a whole lot better to take QPR forward.
Complain about this comment
we keep hearing about our ambitious owners but however you look at
it this is not an ambitious appointment.the sooner people realise
the owners see this as an investment and that they have not got rich by giving their money away to the likes of us,at best a second rate football
club,the better.
Complain about this comment
Magilton may struggle under the weight of expectation - a similar scenario to that which undermined his time with Ipswich:
http://www.sixplusfive.co.uk/clubs/qpr/money-won%E2%80%99t-buy-you-love-magilton_261.shtml
Complain about this comment
#3
Totally agree. With the property market depressed, they are probably as we speak buying up some cheap tract of land south of Feltham. When the property market booms again, Loftus Road will be redeveloped and QPR will be relocated.
In the meantime they'll throw lumps of (not very expensive) mud at the wall hoping something will stick and you'll sneak into the Premiership, so giving them an extra dividend on their investment.
Complain about this comment
Not that I'm bitter, of course. I just hope that we can improve on this assessment from another QPR fan last season - "We must be the only club in the world that have got worse since we became owned by billionaires."
No, not the only ones. Swindon Town are now the 31st richest by owners wealth ( No, really. check out Sir Martyn Arbib. Stinking rich) and our board have spent, err nowt, and signed up Maurice - losing streak - Malpas as manager. So you 'R's', you're not alone.
STFC are as equally inept. I once read an article that said we were the 4th most stressfull club to support. Fourth!!!!! How we didn't top that poll i don't know as even when our Saviours hove into view they come not laden with gold, but laden with Marketing plans!
Complain about this comment
Yeah as statements of a lack of ambition go, they don't get much plainer than this appointment. 3 years of failing to make the playoffs with a decent club like Ipswich suggests young Jim may not know this league quite inside out, and I can't see Flavio & co splashing much cash on signings anyway.
As for sacking him by Christmas, how the hell would they find ANYONE to replace him then? Pray that I'm wrong, but reckon we should brace ourselves for a long hard season of mediocrity.
Complain about this comment
even though im a chelsea fan, i like ur blog and another good one today, im from northern ireland and i think magilton will do a gd job as long as he signs no northern irish players except for Chris brunt
Complain about this comment
Pompey fans should start preparing for something similar, if their new owner's suggestions of Eriksson et al are anything to go by!
Complain about this comment
'Still, I'm all for giving Magsy a go - he knows the Championship inside out and you never know, he might just have all his knockers eating humble pie come May next year.'
Magilton has knockers?! Did he get implants or something? And 'all his knockers' maybe implies more than the standard two eh. And they can eat?!?!
Impressed, if somewhat aghast, at this prospect. Detractors may have been the better choice of word.
In all seriousness though, I hope Magilton makes it past Christmas and in doing so means that QPR are at least in a play-off place at this point. If so, I hope they keep him till the end of the season as well - no knee-jerk reaction because the owners think the club should be top two in the league or something along those lines
Great blog as always Chris
Complain about this comment
Im guessing that Zinedine Zidane was unavailable...Again!!
I agree with the fan that stated you are the only club to have gotten worse under the control of a billionaire.
The thing is, in the Championship too you should be able to walk this league with the right signings and appointments. Briatore should keep his beak out of team selection and allow the manager to pick and sign who he sees fit.
A case of Briatore appointing a 'Yes' man me thinks. None of the big-name managers would stand for it, especially at this level.
Complain about this comment
Why doesn't Briatore just appoint himself manager and get done with it? Where Clive Woodward led the way, Flav will follow.
It reminds me of that 'Roy of the Rovers' strip where a millionaire saved a team from administration by buying the club, but only on the condition that he would be guaranteed a first team place every game.
Complain about this comment
Magilton may struggle under the weight of expectation - a similar scenario to that which undermined his time with Ipswich
http://www.nowgoal.com/22.shtml
Complain about this comment
I hadn't heard that rumour about Zico being linked with QPR. Now that is genuinely funny.
Complain about this comment
It's a surprising appointment on one hand given the supposed ambition of the board.
On the other hand, given the time normally afforded to R's managers and the rumoured involvement of Briatore in team selection & purchases perhaps it's not such a shock. I doubt any higher profile managers with a better record would seriously consider the role. It's not like the owners have dug particularly deep into their pockets on the player side of things.
Complain about this comment
briatore knows what he's on about leave him be. He knows that Dexter Blackstock belongs at forest.;)
Complain about this comment
That's a bit of a cheap blog, I reckon. Fan complains that manager is not a very famous one, even though club is rich. Fan complains that he pays lots of money to watch team so deserves famous manager and successful team. Fan complains that manager didn't even get previous team promoted to Prem in 3 seasons.
Sort yourself out, mate. Go and watch football because it's what you like to do, rather than prickling with envy at Chelsea, Arsenal etc.
Complain about this comment
i think he will be a successful manager becuase if the owners of QPR start to give him the cash he needs and give him the choise who he wants to sign then answer is yes successful man. after all he has learnt from his mistakes that he has made during the Ipswich Town manager and i think all the experience that he has so far will help QPR to get promotion back to prem. never mind what people think i think he needs at least 8 months to chage the club around. Billions need to come out of pocket. so come on bring them out please and help your club.
kammy
Complain about this comment
as long as they still sell us blackstock, i'll be happy
Complain about this comment
I'm with you on that one cheeky!
Complain about this comment
as long as you got the backing of the board room he will be succesfull.
players he should sign on loan are
Johan Djourou from arsenal
Aaron Ramsey from arsenal
Fraizer Lee Campbell from man utd
few more young guns will make QPR GOOD
Complain about this comment
I wish the best of luck to Jim Magilton - I'd always supported him as Ipswich manager in wishing for him to prove his critics wrong and turn things around during our disappointing 2008/09 season, but when things never did, I was not surprised to see him leave.
On that note however, I think Magilton is a bit of a strange appointment for Queens Park Rangers. I feel QPR are in a similar position to Ipswich with a relatively new regime, money to spend, ambition to reach the top flight but a fairly average league standing as of the end of this season. If Jim, a Town legend, was not deemed suitable to be given any more time by the club that had greatest affection for him, I see little hope for him at a club to which he has no prior attachment and which evidently has a less tolerant chairman than Marcus Evans.
If things start well for Jim - perhaps something similar to the way Ipswich started the 2007/08 season - then he may get enough time to achieve something at Loftus Road. But if there is any doubt as to his capacity to get them to at least the playoff places, he could be out by the end of October.
Complain about this comment
A song for around the beginning of Novemeber
To the tune of Jim'll Fix it
Your appointment was only the start of it,
10 games and now your departing it,
Flav's conclusion Jim Magilton won't do ooh ooh ohh
Sign a striker that's all you had to do,
The one thing that we all wanted to,
You've not done it, Jim Magilton wont do ooh ooh ooh
and
Bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah
As you can see still struggling to contain my excitement, maybe a weekend of alcohol abuse will help.
Complain about this comment
Stop nicking my jokes, Mr Charles!!
Complain about this comment
Having already shelled out my £600 for the next season, I'll be happy if we start our first game with more than one striker on the pitch and show some sort of initiative in regards to putting the ball into the back of the net.
Now the question we have to ask is was Magilton hired as they tried to get other, higher profile managers who all said a big no thanks or has the board finally worked out that what we need is a bit of stability, a manager who knows the league and a chance for something to be built, rather than bought?
Complain about this comment
We're told Magilton was the outstanding candidate for the post. Which suggests that the club spent a long time whittling down a huge number of applications. Yeah, that's the same club which has extended the 'Early Bird' season ticket offer because they've been inundated with applications.
If they'd begun the interview process by asking 'Would you be prepared for a grey haired Italian to meddle with team affairs, not allow you any say in hiring and firing, and then boot you out with a big pay off when things don't work out?' I guess the process could have been a lot quicker.
Complain about this comment
I really do feel sorry for every single QPR fan, im not taking the mick at all, It was bad times when Magilton was manager at Ipswich. Yes he was a good player for us, and most people would say he was an Ipswich Town Legend. But as a manager he was completly clueless, all he seemed to be bothered about was getting his "golf buddies" to the club and involved, starting with the staff, we had good staff at the club already, didnt need to change a thing, but no, Magilton brings in 3 or 4 of his friends "golf buddies" and things start to go down hill, then he starts to sign Irish players, getting rid of some cracking academy players and getting irish youngsters in who he had never even seen play.
thats just the start of things.
He had £12 million to spend on players and wages and he wasted it all, he played every one out of position, and fell out with most of the players at the club, he lost the dressing room completely and his management skills were/are a complete joke.
I was so glad to see the back of him, but its a shame we didnt get rid of him before, now we have Roy Keane im delighted.
I do honestly feel sorry for QPR fans, but i cant see him being there long at all, id give him til the end of the year then he will be gone, but by then it mite be too late to do anything for the season.
PS, If any one would like to have the Magilton OUT !! banner from last season your more than welcome to it
Complain about this comment
Jim Magilton will be sacked around about the same time as Phil "karaokey jokey" Brown from little Hull City, roughly late October early November.
Complain about this comment
I'm a Town fan and wish Jim all the best at QPR. He should learn from his mistakes at Town and might suprise the Loftus Rd faithful. of course he needs time which for yourselfs is an issue with your owners going through managers like Milan Mandraric at Leicester City. He will try and get your team to play a passing game. His problem at Town was he played with to many of the players and it seemed like an old pals act at times. If you remember two of Towns best performances happened at Loftus Rd resulting in 3-1 defeats for yourselfs, if he signs the right players for your sake not loads of Irish players he will get you challenging for a play off spot
Complain about this comment
Oh Christ, I feel sorry for you lot. I used to hope for the best for Jim at Portman Road and anywhere else I saw the Town, but half the time could never get excited about our games. More or less week in, week out I would become more and more frustrated and was not surprised when he got the boot. Now, I am excited as you can get we have Roy Keane and here's to good times ahead. Best of luck with Jim, but I'm not holding my breath.
Complain about this comment
QPR. Go through more managers than the Labour Party go through cabinets. Still, give him a chance. Strange choice I thought though, he never got Ipswich to the play-offs and I thought after the management turnaround of late, QPR would try and set their stall up big time as the cash kings and get a higher profile manager this time to state their ambitions to finally reach the play-offs. He may well acheive that, but right now I'll give him till mid-October....
Complain about this comment
It's all a cunning plan to wait until Coppell is ready to come back into management...
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
What is it with you Chris,are you the mysterious WUM who is always winding us up,I have followed the R's for over 50 years and have never seen so much negative press in relation to our team.Does Flavio really pick the team,I suppose the next is that he wants to be centreforward so thats what is really behind the first comment.
Is our team better since the new owners arrived,of course it is,the Ground is better this last year,we have a better team and players than the last 10 years.Plus we are not in debt!!!!!! I dont know what it is that gets into Ranagers fans who go on at the owners so much.We have such small attendances the cost must increase at times and when it did last time it was set against a reduction made when Gianni wanted to get at least someone to turn up and watch.Are we better off,anyone who does not think so must be having a laf !!!!!.
Finally the book for Jimbo's sacking,what is this all about.If he is going before he has started, which has been suggested,then why not give a 10min contract rarther than 2years.I have said elsewhere all new managers have to come from somwhere,another club here or abroad where they have either won or lost.It does not follow that they will succeed where the previous incumbent failed but also it does not mean they will not be a success.Just wait and see and give the guy a chance.I have always supported the MANAGER OF QPR,always will and I only hope that Jimbo is the right choice.
Complain about this comment
Two types of people become billionaires.
Those who live a carefree life. Take things as they come. Have a lot (LOT) of luck and genuinely want to splash some of their wealth around.
And then there are those who would p*** themselves rather than spend a penny.
Guess which you've got.
Complain about this comment
I think Magilton sould place a few bets himself about his own sacking.He might be rich in the end.By 'QPR standards' it is a rediculous appointment.Unless they are cahnging direction.No disrespect to the man.
Complain about this comment
not been on here for years lol as a wigan fan and slightly off the subject, i'd rather have big dave whealan than a snotty nosed billionaire anyday!
might not have the funds to match the bigger clubs but look how far the club has come, and he's almost backed the manager, (ok hutch got sacked but Brucey left for sunderland and jewell resigned lol) it's not always a good thing having to much money to soon (if that makes any sense lol)
anyway take care young beans lol you'll learn to love my babblings, it comes with age (slightly concerning as im 20 :L)lol
Complain about this comment
ive missed out something.. i meant "almost always backed the manager" sorry lol
Complain about this comment
Sad to say this,but i feel Magilton will almost certainly fail at QPR.He bought a right load of rubbish to Ipswich and does not have a clue about building a team,let alone a winning mentality. Thats why he.ll be hoping to take the same rubbish from Ipswich to QPR.He relied on favourtism that ruined his chances at Ipswich.
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I am a Canary and so have watched Jim closely. I think he will surprise you all. I wish him all the best, and I'm going to have a small wager on a top six finish, and maybe one on him surviving three seasons.
At the end of that time, I believe he will be recognised as a more successful manager than that fly-by-night character that replaced him at Portman Road.
Complain about this comment
i feel the last comment about going backwards is a little harsh. before these guys took over we were nearly bankrupt and looking to go back down to league one again. i look at city and laugh they throw money al over the place and that got them no where. one thing we really need is a steady ship. we cant do anything like this. one manager to have a plan and stick to it. if he wants players they should be bought for him. i hope jim is the man for us and he is given the time and support to do it. i would hate to be here again in three months time. we will get no where.
Complain about this comment
Breaking news...Jim Magilton sacked. Thought I'd get that in now to save me writing it at Christmas.
http://www.nowgoal.com/22.shtml
Complain about this comment
Well....
To quote Alan Quinn (nearing the end of Magilton's reign) "there are only so many times, as a grown man, you can take being called a c* *t"
Have fun QPR.
Complain about this comment
Dear Flav,
Now that plan A has failed - you remember, the one where Bernie told you to move the ground to new Land at the White City (and make sure you squeeze in a London grand prix circuit at the same time) - can you tell us about plan B please?
Otherwise the casual observer (and indeed the majority of QPR fans), might think that the appointment of Jim Magilton tells us you aren't that serious about winning promoton, but more about closing out a bigger business deal, or selling the club if that doesn't work...
Don't take my word for it, read Sir Les's comments around the time you bought us (legendary striker, now legendary pundit it seems)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/q/qpr/6941056.stm
Pensionerpaul - you are right - I shouldn't moan - and at the moment we are financially better off, but that wouldn't necessarily mean we would be debt free if they sold us...they might ask for their debt payments back!
Complain about this comment
I am italian,and QPR supporter since 74.When Flavio took over I was pleased because it saved the club,but knowing the man I knew he was after a good return for his investment.No quibbles with that,but he will try to achive the most with the smallest outlay possible.In todays football is a rarity.This will take time and whoever thought he will be a big spender like the sheiks was in for a surprise. He will achieve success but in his own time. The only thing I hold him up for is done matter who you appoint let him work in peace and make his own choices. Whos the right man? Gigi was but left becauese he was not a yes man. Magilton? Dont think so,hope to be proven wrong. Championship is long and hard, we need a trainer of proven experience and success and let him get on with it.Our beloved chairman and board better stick to the accounts if they want to do well.
Complain about this comment
QPR are long overdue for the success they so warrant. As a London team I remember growing up watching them compete with the best. I think good things are on the horizon now that the the new owners are showing a little commitment. Fiona
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS