QPR’s pre-season steps up several notches this week as the club embarks on a tour of Italy, a country that holds mixed memories for the R’s in recent times.
Having spent a small fortune carting my brother and I off to Disney Land in Florida and all of the usual popular holiday destinations for kids when we were younger, it’s much to my mum’s continued disgust that we both name our best ever holiday as the QPR tour of Italy in 2006.
I can honestly say I’ve never laughed so much in a week as I did out in Sorrento back in the days when Lee Cook was God and Gary Waddock was manager. The trip started in farce and went steadily downhill from there. Tracey and myself woke up at opposite ends of the country very hungover from a prior night of excess, both saw the same story about it being the “last chance to book” on the official package tour and decided to fork out the money and go there and then. Once arrived we had the mental tour guide who would arrive each day hanging out of the window of the bus with a QPR flag draped round her screaming “QUEER POWER RANGER”, the infamous LoftforWords interview with Lee Cook where he turned up wearing only a small bath towel and a night of karaoke from Polish Paul so bad that it actually closed Sorrento’s “premier live music venue” early.
Of course on the pitch things weren’t so good. When a tour of that part of the world was announced we dared to dream about a match with Napoli. Gianni Paladini told the official website that he and Gary Waddock had been to the area and seen the ‘world class’ facilities for themselves. It seemed strange therefore that for the first game against mighty Serie D opponents Sorrento, Rangers lined up with assistant manager Alan McDonald in defence and goalkeeping coach Tony Roberts up front owing to fears about the players’ fitness on the home team’s rudimentary artificial surface. The R’s were beaten 5-1 that night.
Later in the week we did go to Napoli, but only for a match against a non-league team from a particularly nasty suburb of the notorious city where even the stray dogs were walking around tooled up. It turned out that the ‘world class’ facilities Rangers had used for training was actually the ramshackle, overgrown home ground of San Antonio, where the tannoy system spent three quarters of an hour before our 4-0 win there playing Jennifer Rush on a loop.
Football wise it was a farce, and QPR are still prone to that five years later despite the huge changes that the club has undergone in the meantime. The cock ups are much more high profile these days, and tend to cost us a lot more in fines than they ever used to. On the upside the ownership of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, coupled with promotion to the Premiership, means the quality of opposition has certainly improved on these trips. As well as a week of training Rangers will face Serie A sides Cesena and Atalanta and last year’s losing Europa League finalists Braga while they’re in Italy this week – by far and away the toughest tests they will face before the start of the Premiership season. Although the hastily arranged date with Luton at the start of August will be trying for different reasons.
You may recall that in 2006 there was some controversy over players left behind. Gary Waddock had signalled his intention to depart from Ian Holloway’s previous playing style and transfer listed the likes of Marc Bircham, Steve Lomas and Ian Evatt. They were left to play reserve fixtures in England along with new signing Damion Stewart who had passport issues (those have recurred this summer interestingly, he hasn’t been able to go abroad with Bristol City either) and Danny Shittu who had just signed for Watford for £1.6m. Waddock would ultimately undermine his whole term with these actions because he came to rely on the likes of Lomas and Bircham when his own signings (or the ones presented to him) like Egutu Oliseh and Adam Czerkas couldn’t cut it.
There are striking similarities this summer, although on a much grander scale. We may now be a Premiership side but the discussion still centres around who is making this trip and who isn’t. Adel Taarabt looked like he might be fulfilling the Shittu role this time before the weekend’s events but he will now be on the plane. Staying at home however – Radek Cerny, Peter Ramage and Shittu once more, who have all signed one year contract extensions this summer but are not included in the 21 man touring party. Lee Cook and Martin Rowlands are also left behind, which is to be expected given Warnock’s attitude towards them so far in his QPR tenure, but Rob Hulse is a surprise omission. His stock continues to fall. Three trialists are included – centre back Bruno Perone, striker Danny Webber, and goalkeeper Brian Murphy who will sign a two year contract when the team returns to base next week.
I can understand the desire to have another look at the three lads before committing to signing them, and not wanting to take too many players out there for just three matches, but as this is our one chance this summer to play some decent sides it seems strange to be leaving people like Shittu at home when they’re sure to be involved at some point this season.
Still, even though I’ve spent all summer saying I don’t think he’ll go anywhere, how good does it feel to see Taarabt’s name on that squad list?
QPR travelling party: Agyemang, Bothroyd, Buzsaky, Connolly, Derry, Dyer, Ephraim, Faurlin, Gabbidon, Gorkss, Hall, Helguson, Hill, Kenny, Murphy, Orr, Perone, Smith, Taarabt, Vaagan Moen, Webber.
Cesena v QPR >>>Pre Season Friendly >>> Wednesday July 27 >>> Kick Off 7.30pm GMT >>> Stadio Serravalle in Repubblica, San Marino
The romantic image most Brits of a certain age have of Italian football would be shattered by a trip to a Serie A game these days. The mere thought of Italy 's top flight conjures memories of the 1990 World Cup, that great AC Milan team, and Saturday morning spent with James Richardson translating the stories from pink broadsheets from behind an ice-cream sundae. That was a time when Serie A was the be-all and end-all. The world's best players all went and played there – from Maradona to Ruud Gullit. The best British players did likewise – David Platt, Paul Gascoigne, Des Walker and others. And the Italian players coming through the system had to be seen to be believed – Roberto Baggio, sadly, never did quite get round to signing for QPR despite the Evening Standard saying otherwise.
Serie A, and Italian football in general, is now a pale shadow of its former self. Financial wrangling, a host of corruption scandals, match fixing, referee bribing and more has damaged the reputation of the sport in Italy beyond repair. The result of a television deal where every match can now be seen has created a situation where the only people that actually go to the games go there to fight. Huge stadiums sit empty, attendances outside the big five or six clubs in Serie A are at a League Two level.
Coverage in Britain is now minimal. ESPN show live games but it has been bumped around Channel 5, Bravo and others and as it clashes with action from Spain and the UK few people actually watch it. Which means few will be familiar with Cesena, who QPR kick off their Italian tour against on Wednesday night.
A Serie A team, but apart from a brief high point in the 1970s when they finished fifth and played UEFA Cup Football, a club that has mostly spent its time kicking around in the lower divisions. The forthcoming season will be just the eleventh time they have competed in Italy 's top flight, last season they finished fifteenth after achieving consecutive promotions from the third tier to the first.
The two strikers they will hope are about to fire them into further top flight consolidation will be very familiar to QPR fans for different reasons. Well known coke-head Adrian Mutu will need no introductions after his highly controversial spell with our near neighbours Chelsea. More recently he has been with Fiorentina, although he received a six month ban for failing yet another drug test there in January 2010 and was suspended by the club upon his return for, well, not returning and going absent without leave. No surprise to see him moving on again this summer then and Cesena are the latest of nine clubs to overlook his many deep flaws in the hope that his superb talent will help them on the pitch. Now aged 32, has he got another scandal in him? I would think there's a fair chance.
Alongside him, veteran Albanian striker Erjon Bogdani who played against Rangers at Loftus Road for Chievo during Iain Dowie's pre-season campaign and has been repeatedly linked with a move to QPR in recent years. He was superb the last time we played against him, but he's advancing in years now and we'll face much better in the Premiership this season so need to be able to cope with him.
If Mutu and Bogdani play, it will give Warnock a great indication of just how good trialist Bruno Perone really is.
Three years at the mercy of Flavio Briatore has taught us all about the Italian approach to manager retention. It was suggested when the takeover first occurred at Loftus Road that Briatore would look to appoint a manager with a track record of survival to keep us up (Luigi De Canio), a manager with a promotion from the second tier on his CV (Iain Dowie) and then a guy adept at helping promoted clubs survive at a new level… That sort of went awry when his trigger finger became a little itchy but the model he desired is shown perfectly at Cesena.
Despite their second consecutive promotion in 2009/10, from B to A, they replaced the coach with Massimo Ficcadenti whose career in Italy is formed of spells with a variety of these yo-yo type clubs – Verona , Reggina and Piacenza among others. Last season Ficcadenti was seen as an overwhelming success as Cesena survived by a healthy seven points. Naturally, his contract was not renewed at the end of the season and he was released. QPR now find Swiss born Marco Giampaolo feeling his way in a new job. His longest spell with any club was 18 months with Ascoli seven years ago and he lasted less than half of last season with Catania before getting the sack.
Cesena are likely to be among the favourites for relegation from Serie A this season.
It's worth pointing out that Cesena 's regular home ground, the 23,000 capacity Stadio Dino Manuzzi which is not unlike Loftus Road in style and appearance, will not be the venue for Wednesday night's game. In fact the match will be played 30 miles south down the E55 motorway at the Stadio Serravalle in Repubblica in San Marino , the stadium for the San Marino national team no less.
It's also being screened on Italian TV so myp2p may be able to offer some live streaming, and the first sight of one of QPR's new strips for the 2011/12 season - long overdue. We're in the big time now.
And while it's the venue for the Cesena game that has caused one or two issues, the entire format of the second match with Atalanta that has been an issue. You may be thinking, possibly because LFW announced it, that earlier this summer there was a suggestion that Parma were to come to Loftus Road and fill the gaping hole in our pre-season schedule that exists one week before the start of the season and is crying out to be filled by a big name, quality opponent in W12. Parma even announced the game on their official website, as part of a UK tour that will also include matches with Cardiff , Norwich and Stevenage.
Alas within a day the QPR official site had sprung into action, stating categorically that there would be no such friendly with Parma at Loftus Road . QPR have form for this -you may recall once upon a time the official site's insistence that there would be no friendly with a Chinese national side at Loftus Road which turned out to be a disingenuous piece of hair-splitting because QPR were in fact playing the Chinese, but the game was actually at the Harlington training ground. We found this out because it descended into a 22 man brawl after which assistant manager Richard Hill was suspended and ultimately released for his conduct.
Nevertheless the QPR media boys delivered a rebuke to those who had believed the Parma official site, reminding us that we should never trust any information about QPR until it has appeared on qpr.co.uk. Very naughty LFW.
Within days however some good news, Serie A opposition after all – Atalanta in fact, in Italy, in a prestigious tournament no less. The Trofeo Bartolotti Tournament, described by the official site as "a highly regarded competition that marks the end of Atalanta's pre-season campaign each year" would feature the Hoops and newly promoted Atalanta as a conclusion of some sort of festival we were told. This tournament was not highly regarded enough, at that point, to warrant any mention on the Atalanta website it should be said but fear not.
The lack of a mention at the Italian end was because this wasn't actually a full friendly, or tournament game, at all. In fact it would only be a 45 minute match, preceded by another 45 minutes against another team after which they would take turns to play Atalanta. This only transpired ten days later but, remember, it's official once it's been on qpr.co.uk so keep them pealed.
Atalanta are in a similar position to ourselves this summer in the sense that they have just been promoted as Serie B champions and will play top flight football again in 2011/12. They haven't had to wait nearly as long for Serie A football as we have Premiership though. In fact the yo-yo nature of their recent history would put Palace and West Brom to shame. They have been relegated from Serie A in 1987, 1994, 1998, 2003, 2005 and 2010 and made an immediate return on the last two occasions.
Like us they have one solitary cup to show for their efforts – the 1963 Coppa Italia, with only semi-impressive runs in the 1988 Cup Winners Cup and 1991 UEFA Cup to keep them warm in the meantime. They have rejected the temptation to get rid of the coach that got them promoted - Stefano Colantuono is used to moving around having played for 14 clubs and managed nine but he will be in charge of Atalanta upon their return to Serie A this season. This is his second spell in charge of the club – in his first from 2005 to 2007, he took them out of Serie B at the first attempt and then guided them to seventh in Serie A which is an achievement the club will be hoping he repeats this time around.
In 2007 he used his achievements to attract interest from elsewhere, and headed for Palermo to replace Francesco Guidolin, who himself almost became the QPR boss on a couple of occasions in recent times.
Braga v QPR >>> Trofeo Bortolotti.>>> Saturday July 30 >>> 8pm GMT >>> Stadio Atleti Azzurri
The third team involved in this prestigious tournament is SC Braga, a Portuguese side that lost in the final of the Europa League in Dublin back in may. They were beaten that night by Porto, another side from Portugal of course, so is this some sort of resurgence for the Portuguese football league we’re seeing here? After all the national team has impressed at tournaments over the last decade, the man widely recognised as the best manager in the European game came from there and coached Porto to Champions League glory, arguably the best player in the world is Portuguese and now a major European final has been contested between two teams from there.
Or is it just that the Europa League is a bit of an unloved joke? Starting ridiculously early with seemingly endless qualifying rounds where the likes of Fulham are forced to play little more than park teams from the Faroe Islands over two ball acheing legs, followed by a five team group stage from which all but the whipping boys qualify followed by a sudden influx of teams that weren’t the champions of their country but got admitted to the Champions League anyway and have since been eliminated but are for some reason given this second chance etc etc etc. A competition you can qualify for by picking up the least amount of yellow cards is a competition not worth being in. A competition you can qualify for by picking up the least yellow cards apart from four other sides who all qualified for Europe properly is a farce and that’s exactly what the Europa League is. Premiership clubs like Spurs and Villa talk all year about getting into the European places, and the managers are immediately under pressure when they don’t, but whenever they end up in that particular competition they cannot get out of it soon enough.
Still, Braga seem to enjoy it and have claimed some notable scalps in recent years. This club from the northern city of Braga in Portugal has successfully disrupted the monopoly held in Portuguese football by Benfica, Sporting Lisbon and Porto. They have dabbled in the Champions League, beating Arsenal last season before being parachuted down into the Europa League. Their ground became the most iconic venue of the European Championships held in the country in 2004 with two enormous side stands and a pitch, carved into a cliff side in an old quarry with a sheer rock face behind one of the goals. They finished second in 2009/10, as close as they’ve ever come to the Portuguese title, and fourth last season.
They count among their number Hugo Viana, who Newcastle once spent £12m on. This was around the time that the Portuguese national side and youth teams were really starting to make an impression and Tottenham also dabbled with a big money move for Helder Postiga. Neither made any impact at all in English football and Viana endured a similarly unsuccessful time with Valencia and several other Spanish clubs on loan before signing for Braga in 2010. Another star of those Portuguese sides from a decade ago, Nuno Gomes, is also in the squad now aged 35. He has signed this summer on a free transfer as he comes towards the end of a career that has brought him 163 club goals for Benfica, Boavista and Fiorentina and 29 goals for his country.
Like Cesena, in Braga we find ourselves facing a team under new management. Despite the decline from second to fourth in the league, the run to the Europa League final attracted the traditional big boys of Portuguese football to Braga when managerial vacancies appeared this summer. Sporting, third in the league last year, appointed Domingos Paciência as their new gaffer earlier this summer. In his place comes Leonardo Jardim who was last with Beira-Mar. You may remember them as the team briefly managed by Englishman Mick Wadsworth who took Port Vale’s Stephen McPhee and our own Paul Murray to Portugal but quickly found himself out of a job. In 2009/10 Jardim promoted Beira-Mar into the top flight in Portugal but was sacked in the middle of last season as results faltered. They did, eventually, stay up and the work he’d done previously was enough to attract Braga to him. It’s by far the biggest appointment of his career having previously managed, reasonably successfully to be fair to him, lower division outfits Chaves and Camacha. He had no professional playing career to speak of and started managing at just 27, he is now 36. Is the world ready for another plucky young Portuguese manager? We shall begin to find out for ourselves on Saturday night.
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