Newcastle je obicna rupa od kluba... koliko su love potrosili zadnjih 10 godina NA NISTA, a mogli su s njom nahranit pol Afrike i otplatit dugove bar jedno 20 zemalja... trebalo bi ih zbog toga dobro istamburat...

slazem se za Alardyicea, kad je bio u Boltonu imao je dobre rezultate, ali je posle remija 2:2 na Stamford Bridge prosle sezone protiv Chelskija odlucio da podnese ostavku, jer navodno klub nije dovoljno ambiciozan, a njemu treba neki veci klub sa vise novca. Sad je dobio klub sa vise para i evo kako je prosao, bas kao i Alan Curbishley koji je napustio posle deceniju i po Charlton, pa zavrsio u West Hamu i tu dokazuje sve svoje neznanje, jer uprkos milionskim ulaganjima ne uspeva da podigne ekipu vise od desetog mesta na tabeli

QPR tycoons hesitate on spending spree

For a club just two hours from going bust, the transformation in the financial fortunes of Queens Park Rangers is one of the most amazing stories seen in English football since Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003.

But for those QPR fans hoping that new investor Lakshmi Mittal has joined forces with Formula One tycoons Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore to bankroll an Abramovich-style spending spree at Loftus Road, there is likely to be disappointment.

	The money-men: Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal have both bought a share in Queens Park Rangers

Despite being worth around £19.25 billion, Britain's richest resident has spent only £200,000 on acquiring his 20 per cent stake in the club from flamboyant Team Renault boss Briatore. He has also pledged £1 million to help cover debts and buy new players. To put that figure into context, Mittal spent £30 million on his daughter Vanisha's lavish 2004 wedding in Paris.

All of which begs the question why the Indian steel magnate, an entrepreneur with more than enough money to buy every club in the Premier League and still have change, chose to spend a relatively tiny sum to buy into QPR, a club languishing at the wrong end of the Championship.

Although Mittal has access to an executive box at Chelsea and went to the 2006 World Cup final between France and Italy, he is not a big fan of the game.

A clue to the reason for his interest may be found in the involvement of his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, himself a wealthy investment banker from a rich Delhi family. Bhatia is to take up a place on the QPR board and is said to be the one with a keen enthusiasm for football.

Bhatia was also the driving force behind the foundation of the Mittal Champions Trust, a £4.5 million funding programme set up to boost India's Olympic team in time for the London 2012 Games.

Vinod Mehta, editor of Indian magazine Outlook, said: "Although he is very rich, Lakshmi Mitall is a very simple man. He is not a man of extravagant taste. He is not star-struck, so buying into this is not to get publicity or to elevate his status. I suspect this is just for the benefit of his son-in-law."

Ecclestone explains Mittal's involvement in more simple terms. "I told him he should come on board and he took my advice," he said last month. The two became close after Ecclestone sold his house in Kensington Palace Gardens to Mittal for £70 million in 2003.

Mittal is understood to be happy to remain a silent investor in the project, leaving Briatore and Ecclestone to drive the push for the Premier League.

"It would be wrong to give your readers the impression that Mittal is about to become another Abramovich," said one source.

But even if Mittal decides not to dent his considerable fortune, these are still heady times for long-suffering QPR supporters. Briatore, worth £110 million, and Ecclestone, worth £2.25 billion, have pledged to turn the club into a Premier League force within the next three years.

The pair completed their £14 million takeover in November, spending £690,000 to acquire their 69 per cent majority stake in the club. Ecclestone spent £150,000 on his 15 per cent, while Briatore, through his British Virgin Islands registered company, Sarita Capital, bought 54 per cent for £540,000. He has since sold on 20 per cent of his stake to Mittal.

Another 31 per cent of smaller shareholders turned down the Briatore and Ecclestone offer of 1p a share, choosing to hold on to their stake, perhaps sensing even greater profits in the future. Briatore and Ecclestone have also pledged another £5 million in convertible loan facilities to help buy players and have covered £13 million of debt, taking their total commitment to nearer £20 million.

But so far they have made no attempt to pay off a £10 million loan to the ABC Corporation which carries a punitive £1 million annual interest charge - a massive burden on a team with an annual turnover of £10 million-£15 million a year. Another £2 million is owed to former director and major shareholder Antonio Caliendo who waived £4.5 million of loans he was owed when he sold out to Briatore and Ecclestone.

Although the former football agent Gianni Paladini has been retained as chairman of the football club board for the time being, the business is now being overseen by the QPR Holdings chairman Alejandro Agag.

Married to the daughter of Spain's former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, he has close links to the F1 business and is one of the most powerful men in his country.

Despite talk of a property plan which would see the new owners sell Loftus Road for redevelopment and move to a new ground - perhaps on a BBC-owned site at White City - he has assured fans they have no immediate plans.

He maintains the strategy is to build the club up slowly ahead of funding a major push for the Premier League next season. They have also vowed to refurbish the existing home and use their F1 experience to increase sponsorship revenues. A new chief executive is expected in the next few weeks.

The owners have wasted no time in matching their words with action in the transfer market, signing five players since the window opened 10 days ago, including the £800,000 capture of Hogan Ephraim from West Ham and the £350,000 signing of Preston's Patrick Agyemang. More signings are said to be imminent.

The question now is whether Mittal, Ecclestone and Briatore are prepared to up their investment to put the club on the same level as their Russian-owned neighbours.

Some might call it the Curse of Kevin Keegan.

What is undeniable is that managing Newcastle United is one of the most demanding, formidable and fractious jobs in the business. In fact, it’s almost unmanageable.

When Keegan was England boss, he asked a few of us whether we thought his time at St James’ Park had been a success. I told him it hadn’t because of the simple fact the club had not won anything during his time on Tyneside.

This surprised him. He replied: “But what about the football we played? Isn’t that what it’s all about? On that score, I reckon it was a tremendous success. You’re being a bit harsh.”

He was right. Newcastle may not have won the title for 80 years. They may not have won the FA Cup since the glory days of Jackie Milburn in the 50s.

Their last piece of relevant silverware may have been the European Fairs Cup in 1969.

But Geordie fans still judge every manager on what Keegan brought to Newcastle in the mid-90s.

Yes, they blew a 12-point lead at the top of the table in 1995-96 to let Manchester United back in.

But Newcastle supporters loved the style. They loved players like Peter Beardsley, David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, Alan Shearer and Philippe Albert.

Embedded in their memories is the outrageous chip by Albert that concluded the 5-0 demolition of Manchester United at St James’ in October 1996.

But that was as good as it got. Keegan left after falling out with the board and it has never really been the same since. That magic has never been recaptured.

No, they never did win anything but the memories are still vibrant with the team playing football the way Newcastle United supporters liked their football to be played. In fact, it was the way EVERY football fan wanted their team to perform.

And that, for many of us, has appeared to be the root of the problem at Newcastle.

In that all-too-brief spell under Keegan, the people of Tyneside were treated to a mesmeric, mind-blowing drug.

Their club were up there with the very best — at many times, they WERE the very best.

Yet the owners of the club — the people least-well equipped to deal with success because they had no experience of the years of famine — took the Keegan era for granted.

In their minds, it would continue. They became arrogant, full of themselves, thinking it was they who wielded the magic wand.

The Halls and Freddy Shepherd strode about the town — and elsewhere — imagining they had unlocked the door to success.

That it was all down to them. That whoever they appointed, the glorious dawn created by Keegan would continue — and they would bathe in the magnificent rays of summer that would follow.

After Keegan, well, just go for another big name. Except Kenny Dalglish, fortunate to inherit a powerhouse at Liverpool, was found out on Tyneside.

Ruud Gullit and sexy football? That didn’t last long, either. It was all heading in the opposite direction.

The men who ran Newcastle were discovering that sexy names — big footballing stars who they hoped would make them look good — did not work.

And then they went back to their roots. Bobby Robson was a Geordie, here was a man who knew and understood the locality, a man of enormous character and pedigree, a man who would weld together the club and the fans.

And he did. Three top-five finishes. Champions League football — and still it wasn’t enough.

Still Shepherd wanted more. But what did he want more of?

He and the Halls had made untold millions out of the club. You got the feeling that now that was all they were interested in.

And so it was Graeme Souness, Glenn Roeder and now, the final casualty, Sam Allardyce. Shepherd sacked Robson and, in his final act, appointed Allardyce. What a legacy. Having made £40million or so, why should he care?

And so we come to Mike Ashley. A man known best of all in the City for his reticence, he suddenly became a man of the people, a co-traveller with the Toon Army in his black and white jersey.

Along the way, he heard all the gripes and moans. Novice that he is, he believed them.

And so he came to the knee-jerk decision to sack the manager. Because, like so many chairmen before him, he thought that would make him one of them — by doing what the fans wanted.

Newcastle supporters, though, are living a very old dream.

Keegan made them believe they were one of the elite and yet their record over the last 50 years suggests exactly the opposite.

The 50,000 who pour into St James’ every other week may find this unpalatable.

But the last decade is not so much under-performance as par for the course.

It’s time to wake up.

a ja tebi amaterskog kirurga!