Q.P.R. and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone must have been really desperate to get rid of manager Paulo Sousa. The excuse they used to sack the former Portuguese international was so daft and so pathetic that I thought it was a joke.
Sousa was fired for divulging secret and sensitive information. Woaahhhhhhhh. Paulo, WTF man? You leaked the clubs finances to the press? No? You told the fans that the club was being moved to Scotland? No? You found out about the underground missile base hiding below the 'school end' at Loftus Rd? No? Then why did they give you the boot? Oh...You complained that you didn't know anything about Dexter Blackstock's loan move to Nottingham Forest! Oh, that will do it alrigh...wait!
It is a decision for the board and only they can answer it. I'm not frustrated, I said from the first day I have to adapt and try to do my best with the players I have. - Paulo Sousa after Q.P.R.'s draw with Palace last Saturday.
What a sack-less bunch the Q.P.R. board must be. They are technically the richest team in the country and they look for lame arse excuses to fire the coach. Ecclestone should have just manned up, admitted he was after instant success and fired the guy because the team were not doing the business on the pitch. But that would have meant paying Sousa money. The remainder of his contract. This lowdown move is nothing short of disgusting and disrespectful. If talking about the players and the board to the press is a sackable offence then managers would be fired daily. Rafa would have been fired long ago. Sousa was basically just telling the truth. Maybe he shouldn't have but football managers often speak out of turn and say what they mean. They are not geniuses.
Q.P.R.'s results haven't been great recently. They are currently 10th in the Colaship, 9 points from the playoffs. When Sousa was handed the reigns just 4 months ago he was told that he was expected to build a team. How he was supposed to do that and achieve success in just 26 games is just beyond me. Not as if they were struggling near the bottom is it?
Sousa is the 4th guy to get the chop at Loftus Rd since F1 a-hole, I mean Warhol-lookalike Ecclestone and his mate Flavio Briatore took over in September 2007.
One thing is for sure, managers are out the Q.P.R. door faster than Ecclestone's Renault Formula 1 cars. His racing team are currently 4th in the standings, a whopping 21 points off the top of the constructors table and rivals Brawn-Mercedes.
-Bigus
Friday, April 10, 2009
Pau-lo Can You Go.
Monday, December 22, 2008
UF Monday MarketPlace
Welcome to the Christmas Congestion edition of the UF Monday MarketPlace. We’re back from a week’s hiatus and hoping your portfolio has not suffered in our absence. In any case, let’s get straight down to it.
BUY! BUY ! BUY!
...until we freak out on national television and tell you to sell the kids for food.
Buy Arsenal— Ughh… this is painful to write. But let’s be fair, Arsenal are about the surest bet in English football these days. The relegation zone is like an off campus bar at midnight, one in, one out. Top of the league is a mess. No one wants it. For reliable returns, pick up stock in the Gunners. They’ve tied Liverpool and beat Chelsea, lost to Stoke and Fulham… they’ll beat Villa next week, then lose home to Pompey a couple days later. And you know what? They’ll still be in 4th/5th place. Deny this, you scum, I dare you.
Buy Fulham— Here’s one the MarketPlace got right a couple weeks ago. Number Eight with a bullet, some decent holiday results and the prospect of European football at the Cottage becomes entirely viable. If they can nab 2 or 3 points from their next two (at Spurs, home for Chelsea) and hold on to Bullard through January’s silly season, I’d say Seventh is theirs to lose.
Buy English teams with financial troubles and troubled assets— hold the line just another ten days lads, Juande Ramos is coming to bail you out. Lassana Diarra for £20 million and Portsmouth are considerably better off than a week ago. There’s still blood lingering in the water, but not like we thought. As for the other rumors—too many to list—let’s just say, for me at least, if they want to pay a cent for Roman Pavlyunchenko, Levy should cover the shipping costs.
Buy The New Manager Effect— Ricky Sbragia… Big Sam… Redknapp and Kinnear a bit earlier… It’s happy hunting for new EPL managers this year. So get ready for Man City to explode in late January. Hughes will be out. Three or four high priced international stars in. David Pleat’s postman could pull these guys out of the relegation zone.
Buy Spanish clubs in the Champs League— Villareal get Panathinaikos, Atletico get Porto, Barcelona get Lyon, and Juande gets Liverpool. At least three of the four go through, the latter being the most in doubt.
Sell! For Chrissakes, Sell it all! Light it on fire, just be done with it!!
...until next week, when everything bounces back but your checking account. Sawwrry.
Sell the Beckham-MLS marriage— The end is nigh. He’ll come back from Milan in the spring, but the next trip out will be the last. With all the talk of building the American game, Youth Academies, etc… it comes down to this: the decision to leave Europe was made in haste. About four years too early. Becks thought he was through for England and Madrid, and so he made his move. But a funny thing happened about five minutes after signing up with Alexi Lalas (Lalas!) McClaren couldn’t qualify for the Euros and Capello was forced to put him back in the lineup. Beckham was caught like Juliet standing over dead Romeo.
Sell Mark Hughes— Captain Obvious says: Unless you’re in this for the long haul, it’s time to make the move. Vote of confidence or not. Only a couple days left now…
Sell The Club World Cup— Not good for business when the highlight of your tournament is a split decision between a Fergie press conference and Carlos Tevez’s touchline tantrum. It’s nice for the Asian and South American clubs, but for our Anglo-centric purposes, a complete bummer.
Sell Leeds and Forest returning to the top flight anytime soon— Leeds may be due for some NME now that Gary Mac’s been told to pack, but automatic promotion is out of the question and who-fuckin-knows with a League 1 playoff. Forest are rooted to the near-bottom of the Colaship. Glory days are far off.
Sell English tabloid rumor-mongering / the January transfer window— Some rags are better than others, but there’s reason to expect this January will be any different than the last. No big players or teams make moves of real consequence as anyone of value is cup-tied. For entertainment’s sake, Citeh will do it’s best to nut money on anyone who’ll take it and Juande should be counted on to do some arse-backward stuff with his Real riches.
Sell Gareth Southgate— Nothing to do with this week. Middlesbrough haven’t been terrible. It goes back to the Woody Allen thing about dead sharks.
Sell yer (new) laptops, Ipswich!-- Norwich is just gonna send more Cubans to steal them anyway...
Wait! Hold Still! Do Nothing! Freeze Up! We're confounded...
Hold on Liverpool— The second half at the Emirates was an exercise in waste. Arsenal lose Cesc and Adebayor in ten minutes playing time and how do the league leaders respond? By playing on their heels and leaving Ryan Babel on the bench until the 87th minute, is how. This would be an easy Sell if not for the profligate Chelsea and stuck-in-the-mud United. For the Kop’s sake, Torres better get back soon.
Hold on QPR— Read this quickie from the Beebs: Experiencing boutique football at QPR… The set-up doesn’t seem as unhealthy as the headline might imply. The new manager seems to have an idea of what’s up. The dedication, and better, the cash seem to be there. And still, it all seems kind of sheisty. Or so it seems.
Hold on Djibril Cisse— Buy the form, sell the hair, Bigus says. I’d have to agree. Of course, neither is permanent, so take your chances.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Why can't Iain Dowie keep a job?
The news has filtered out today that Iain Dowie has been sacked as boss of Queen's Park Rangers after barely five months on the job. It's the third job Dowie has lost since lying his way out of a successful stint at Crystal Palace. Why is Dowie having such a hard time keeping a job lately?
Interestingly, his stint in charge of QPR lasted just as long as his time in charge of Charlton in 2006--15 games. However, where Dowie was pretty bad at Charlton--17 points in those 15 games--at QPR he totaled 28 points in his tenure. In between, Dowie toiled at Coventry City for just under a year. There he earned 68 points in 49 games. (All totals include cup ties which have been given the standard three points for a win and 1 point for a draw)
So, is he a toxic personality? His sacking at Charlton was pretty much a given. The team was struggling early to stay up in the Prem, a goal it eventually failed to reach. At Coventry City, he was able to light an early fire under a poorly-positioned squad, but was eventually released due to differences of opinion between the board and Dowie. Which, if I remember my Queen's to American English translation correctly, means that he's a dick.
As for the QPR job, well, Dowie did not have a playoff place (at the very least) standing. As Bigus pointed out in his season preview, this was a team that was looking to buy its way back into the Premiership. Being in ninth place at the quarter-season pole did not make the bosses happy. Bigus should also be congratulated for stating the obvious--that Dowie is overrated as a manager and has done nothing to keep getting hired.
So, to summarize for the tl;dr crowd: Dowie is shit as a manger, and possibly an ass to boot. Also, he will have a new job by Christmas. The man must give a great interview to overcome that CV.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
FA Cup of British Rock - Quarterfinals - Match #1
These are the ground rules: 16 8 teams, each represented by a musician or band who happens to be a supporter. You, our fair reader, vote on who advances. Use whatever criteria you wish: favorite team, favorite band, prettiest uniforms (looking at you Elton), etc. Ballot stuffing is not encouraged, but will be tolerated, because we’re just as corrupt as the real FA. Voting closes this Sunday, July 27.
Round 2 of the FA Cup of Rock kicks off with a bit of a different look. In one match we're going to the bench, and in the other, well, simply using history as our guide will give the opponent a bit of a new threat up top. Who will prevail? That's for you to decide and for us to overturn if you decide incorrectly. Hey, we're trying to get into an African spirit here at UF in preparation for the next World Cup.
The Clash and Queens Park Rangers
~versus~
Black Sabbath and Aston Villa
With apologies to Pete Doherty, were going to use our managerial powers for this match. And why not? The whole point of making a sub is to try to gain an advantage in a match where the outcome is still in question. But as we look down the QPR bench, we'll take a pass on Robert Smith and Andrew Ridgely and instead start warming up Mick Jones. And when your choice is between an increasingly pudgy gother and the other gay guy in Wham! it's not even a tough decision. Strummer is gone. Topper is now like a chiropractor or something. But Jones is still making music. Okay, nothing Carbon/Silicon does will ever touch what Mick Jones accomplished with The Clash, but lightning never strikes twice. Just be thankful that lightning made five albums (sorry, not going to count Cut the Crap, especially here considering that it didn't even include Jones). Where punk was always a self-defeating proposition—eventually, you're going to become somewhat skilled with your instruments—the Clash moved beyond both being angry simply for the sake of being angry and being shitty simply for the sake of being shitty. And they made London Calling.
There is no such relief coming from the bench for Black Sabbath and Aston Villa. And why would they need it? They are working on 40 years of ear-bleddingly big, if gloriously dumb, riffage. So what's a couple of more rounds in a made up tournament (hey, at least we're not asking you which band is more "Now")? But should progression through the FA Cup of Rock rounds mirror progressions through the band's career? If so, then we're into Sabbath's Dio years. And before you slam the Man on the Silver Mountain, remember it was Heaven and Hell, Dio's debut album with Black Sabbath, that helped bring the band back from increasing irrelevance. Don't believe it? Everyone with a copy of Never Say Die! raise your hand. Thought so. Sure, Dio's maybe 5'1" (5'6" with the hair) and also American (shhh... don't tell the people in charge), but, like the cosmic white dwarf material itself, there's a lot of heavy rock crammed into that small package.
So does Sabbath see the next round and a chance to return to the glory of their latter Ozzfest years? Or does sanity, reason, and taste prevail so that Clash City is rocking a semi-final?
Friday, July 18, 2008
FA Cup of British Rock / Round of 16 - Match #8
Again... the ground rules: 16 teams, each represented by a musician or band who happens to be a supporter. You, our fair reader, vote on who advances. Use whatever criteria you wish: favorite team, favorite band, prettiest faces (sorry, Pete) etc. Ballot stuffing is not encouraged, but will be tolerated, because we’re just as corrupt as the real FA. Voting for the Round of Sixteen will close on Sunday, July 20.
Today concludes the first round, but remember that you can keep voting on all of the matches until Sunday... at which point we'll announce the winners and get ready for the quarterfinal draw!
Today’s contestants are:
The founders of "Rockney," they're as diverse, clever and fun as the club they so vocally support-- and occasionally as frustrating and stupid... the team is Tottenham and their representatives at the 2008 FA Cup of British Rock are Chas 'n' Dave! Rabbit on! (note: after tense eleventh-hour negotiations, Jeff Beck ceded his spot in the team. He is content with his place as most underrated former Yardbird and thought it was time for C & D to get their props.)
-versus
A man who names ol' Chas 'n' Dave as one of his inspirations, but has himself done more to re-invent British rock than any other individual since the days of Cool Brittania. Drug addict? Yes. Publicity whore? Of course. He's Pete Doherty, the crackerjack poetic mind behind the Libertines and Babyshambles, and a boyhood QPR fan... even starting a fanzine about the club as a kid.
Make your voice heard and clicks count, after the jump...
The Likely Lad, his biases cancelled out here as Spurs and the Libertines, within their respective spheres, carry a heavy weight, will spare you dear reader the pain of my amateur analysis.
Doherty and C&D are both very cool, but for very different reasons. That the twang and wit of the older duo were studied and enjoyed so much by a young Pete is certainly worth noting. So too is the fact that the Libertines created something so simply their own, so honest and fun-- a true monument to the fleeting magic of great pop music.
Enough from me then... let's go to the videotape.
Chas 'n' Dave, with Spurs, on their way to Wembley:
and Pete, w/ Carl and the lads:
Alas, have your say. You can't go wrong (or right)...
Monday, March 3, 2008
Spray tan comes to Loftus Road
Would you buy a car from this guy?
What is it with Italians named de Canio and salutes?
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