Neil Warnock appointed as QPR manager

No sooner had Flavio Briatore sloped away from the mess he left at South Africa Road than new chairman Ishan Saksena made a better decision than the Formula 1 ban-dodger managed in his entire time at Queens Park Rangers. Caretaker manager Mick Harford's reign was short-lived and a new manager brought in to right the club. And he's one of those characters who polarises opinion on many axes.

Neil Warnock is a man almost beyond parody. Throughout his managerial career he has spoken his mind, and behind the smoke and mirrors of football people in the game just don't like dirty laundry being done in public. Being one of a kind, Warnock is always a headline-maker and so we have this view of him as an aggressive, one-dimensional northerner with a vicious streak and a potty mouth.

That's a harsh judgement on his character, created jointly by the media, his rivals and the man himself.

Neil Warnock has a lot of redeeming features. He is a football man through and through, and his old-school love of the traditional game is endearing even if his chosen style of play isn't. One-dimensional he is not; Warnock's teams always enjoy a measure of success. Sheffield United returned to the Premier League under his stewardship and were unfortunate to be relegated in circumstances which rocked the League itself to its very core.

Warnock was very open in his dismay at the Premier League's failure to punish West Ham United for their blatant breach of the rules by playing Carlos Tevez amid complications English football simply wasn't prepared for, and many supporters were surprised to see him return to football with Crystal Palace. In hindsight it was probably never in question.

At Selhurst Park he once again laid the foundations of success, turning around a toiling team and dragging it to the fringes of the promotion places. But the club's situation off the field hamstrung his efforts and administration was inevitable. So too was his resulting move to Queen's Park Rangers.

Is Warnock the right man for QPR? I think he's the perfect choice to kick off a new era at Loftus Road. He won't take any crap from the new owners, and he's got all the attributes Rangers need. He plays functional but effective football which only works because he is brilliant at creating a siege mentality at a club and squeezing every last drop of talent from quite limited players. He's hugely respected by his players and all of this adds up to an ideal choice for QPR.

Palace supporters in particular will be acutely aware of the qualities Warnock possesses. The team's results since the club's administration became inevitable have been impressive, and that includes those achieved after the Football League's mandatory imposition of a 10-point penalty was applied. That is what Warnock can do. He's a master at turning teams around, at getting the best from people around him. In truth that probably isn't quite enough in the top half of the Premier League, but managers like that in the Championship are like gold dust. Within two years, QPR will be in the playoffs - of that you can be sure.

It's also a fantastic opportunity for the manager. Although he was making a good fist of his work at Selhurst Park, his position was only likely to become more and more difficult. Problems beget problems when a club is in administration, and the manager's neck is always on the line. A restrictive CVA would do him no favours, and the other exit strategy for the club - a wealthy benefactor's input - so often means that a manager is out on his ear because the new owners want to bring in a friendly face.

That the QPR job came up is somewhat fortuitous for Warnock - it's a wonderful club which deserves better than it's had during Briatore's calamitous tenure. That the job was available with a new chairman in place most likely made the move irrestistable. Palace will benefit from the compensation package agreed with Saksena given their precarious position, and this is probably a good move all round. Warnock gets a great opportunity at a fantastic club, which in turn has taken on a very experienced, very capable manager. Palace will be smarting over their loss, but the money will help and this is the first of a painful but necessary series of cost-cutting personnel changes at the club.

The next chapter of the Neil Warnock story begins.

(Pic via Crystal Palace FC)