Assessment on Paladini from Clive Whittingham /merged thread/

[The Merry Ploughboy]

re;Gianni, especially Clives post on page 2. An excellent read,sums up the man and his role in a nutshell(dont know if Mods allow links to other sites, so didnt post up)

[W12_Ranger]

An Assessment on Paladini from Clive Whittingham (LFW)

An interesting assessment which should be read by all, very few posters (if any) across all QPR MB's command the level of respect as Clive Whittingham IMO.


I've often resisted the urge the comment on GP because since interviewing him there has always been this perception that I'm on his side or biased in some way so I've often stayed out of it. In his favour I would say he is a very charming man, very good to talk to, very likeable guy, loves his football and I genuinely believe has success for QPR at heart. I thought he did very well to keep a team together capable of staying in this league, and keep it paid every month, when the club was losing money hand over fist and yes in the end we were on the cusp of administration again but I thought he did well to make it last as long as he did with no real rich backer behind the club, interest payments on the loan he inherited and low attendances.

Now however I would suggest he is doing more harm than good. For every good signing we have made (Routledge, Connolly, Gorkss) I can name two bad ones since the takeover (Agyemang, Miller, Hall, Pellicori, Alberti, Helguson) and you would think this being the case that people like ecclestone, briatore, mittal would wield the axe. They haven't been shy of doing that with anybody else at the club and I'm puzzled as to why a succession of managers have been punished for poor results, while the guy bringing in the players achieving those results escapes attention. After initially doing very well I would say we have wasted the last three transfer windows signing players that were really no better than what we already have on massive contracts. We're really, in my opinion, no better or further along than we were just under two years ago when the first batch of players were in and de canio was in charge. We were a half decent mid table side then and we are now, for considerable outlay. The squad is layer upon layer of transfer activity conducted under different managers, most of which is impossible to shift because you get a three year contract shoved under your nose as soon as you walk in the door at Loftus Road these days.

I think the way he tries to curry favour with select fans who can then spin his line on things is a disgrace and has cost us a very good manager in Paulo Sousa - at derby last season paladini was speaking to fans in the car park who all heard him describe sousa as a 'cnt' - that's a sackable offence right there. The undermining of sousa from within the club and by people who carry paladini's message forwards was disgraceful, and look at sousa go now with a swansea squad much worse than our own IMO and shorn of it's three best players this season bodde, scotland and gomez. Whether these people realise they are peddling paladini's line or not I don't know. I don't think it's as obvious as him ringing people saying "say this, tell them that" it's more subtle than that. He's a very engaging guy to talk to, and you do come away believing what he's told you. I remember after I had interviewed him and met him a few times I would get little bits of inside info about a potential signing, or that a story that had been published was nonsense. Not from him, but from his friends and hangers on. As people who speak to me and e-mail me know I never put anything I hear on here so that dried up soon and then lo and behold WATRB starts up. Maybe it was a coincidence. I did feel at the time, and still do now, that he wanted to use rivals as a sort of alternative mouthpiece, to defend himself against the stuff appearing in the standard etc and I think that's how WATRB is used as well. I remember on the day of the interview he told me the players we were looking at signing that summer, including ward and tchakounte, and even showed me nicky ward's contract (which wasn't for much money at all BTW). One of these players was a "french target man" who was going to be brilliant and exactly what we needed etc. Couldn't tell me a name but really high hopes etc etc. Couple of hours later mobile phone call, angry exchange, and then "ahhhh don't put that in the interview about the french striker, he's going to crystal palace on trial instead." Two hours before he was telling me he'd signed - and I see a lot of that in posts from pete, scott etc. Might be wrong.

His biggest failing at QPR always has been worrying too much about what us, the fans, think of him. Sadly our chairman is completely the other way. We could do with a happy medium really.

At the end of the day in my opinion the sporting director role at our club is now doing more harm than good. what we need is stability, one voice. a manager that we build the whole set up around. money no object get the absolute best that we can. let him make the signings and run the whole operation. give him a three year contract and say "right after six months we want to be here, after 12 we want to be here, after 18 we want to be here and if we're not then I'm afraid that's it. if we are then after 24 months we want to be here and so on." For that to happen, a sporting director is not necessary so even if he had done a good job, which I don't think he has since the first transfer window after the takeover, it's thank you and good bye.

I've often said that he would be my first guest at a dinner party, and the last person I'd want running my corner shop.

[The Merry Ploughboy]

posted the same just now W12, GREAT MINDS an all that

[qblockpete]

This is going to go down like a lead balloon, but he also suggested Sousa was not very good in his latter reports.

Everyone entitled to opinions and all that and I can understand where he is coming from. Any good jounalist will use fans feelings at the time of writing. I just wish he wouldn't bang on about Sousa being a good manager, because from his reports he didn't like him either.

As for comments on GP, fair enough thats his opinion.

[Captain Clunge]

An excellent post.

Any of that ring any bells Pete?

Deflecting the argument onto Sousa wont work either.

[W12_Ranger]

I have been waiting to see something like this posted in the public forum for a while now, I nearly fell of my chair reading it. No one can ever excuse Clive Whittingham of having an agenda, being part of clique, his reports are ledgendary and assessments of the game are read by all of us with gratitude.

[qblockpete]

By the way, I never moved the post.

just for the record

[The Merry Ploughboy]

This is going to go down like a lead balloon, but he also suggested Sousa was not very good in his latter reports.

Everyone entitled to opinions and all that and I can understand where he is coming from. Any good jounalist will use fans feelings at the time of writing. I just wish he wouldn't bang on about Sousa being a good manager, because from his reports he didn't like him either.

As for comments on GP, fair enough thats his opinion.

and the opinion of the majority of posters across the QPR MBs would you not concur Peter???

[qblockpete]

Yes it is..

but then again, when you have posters everywhere going from board to board to express negativity, what do you expect?

Still bugs me about Sousa, because I can read and it was obvious at the time he wanted him to go, now all of a sudden "what a great manager he was", keeping people onside is what I would call it.

[jjranger]

This is going to go down like a lead balloon, but he also suggested Sousa was not very good in his latter reports.

Everyone entitled to opinions and all that and I can understand where he is coming from. Any good jounalist will use fans feelings at the time of writing. I just wish he wouldn't bang on about Sousa being a good manager, because from his reports he didn't like him either.

As for comments on GP, fair enough thats his opinion.

Sorry Pete but if you go back and read his reports on the Sousa games he might of said a boring game but never said he was a bad manager,and yes they are 2 different things.It is a very good post and I believe its what most people think.

[dooperhoop]

tick tock................

[qblockpete]

I've read them and I can draw my own conclusion.

cheers

[kingo]

Sorry Pete but if you go back and read his reports on the Sousa games he might of said a boring game but never said he was a bad manager,and yes they are 2 different things.It is a very good post and I believe its what most people think.

It may be the view of many of those on message boards but mb's are not representative of the bulk of those that go to games. It surprises me that most people at games don't read any mb's. What they want is for QPR to do well and most believe to do that we need a few quality players. The majority are not into all this infighting that is going on at the moment.

[qblockpete]

I've not even got onto the meaty stuff yet.

When, I was saying it, it became an agenda !!

after Doncaster

The lack of confidence was clearly shown in the performance of Wayne Routledge who has gone from a tricky and potent threat to a kick and rush footballer with most of the kicks going into touch and most of the rushing therefore utterly pointless.

Sousa must shoulder some of the blame for both problems. He has had players in form this year and either dropped them

as he did with Blackstock and Helguson, or chopped and changed their role in the team to the point of distraction

[AndyB]

Did he say Sousa was "not very good"? Or just have a whinge about the football being played?
I think most of us were "bored" by it - but isn't this just symptomatic of the "now, now, now" attitude that us spolit fans have with the rich owners? Indeed, an attitude that you and Conners keep lambasting the rest of us for.

Sousa got the team solid - a foundation from which to improve.
Clough did it, Graham did it, Paisley did it even Alex Ferguson.

Don't lose. Stabilise. Gain confidence. Introduce flair.
Is Sousa not doing exactly that at Swansea? Started slowly but hard to beat - now getting plaudits from all over about style of footy.

All takes patience though.

Not a lot of that at board level though is there?