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Warnock blames texts, Twitter for QPR sacking

Comment: 0 January 20th, 2012 by: admin

A frustrated former Neil Warnock insisted that comments from the club’s players via phone and Twitter influenced Queens Park Rangers owner Tony Fernandes into booting him out of the manager position.

Warnock, who was let go just last week, insisted that his reputation was being gradually tarnished as the players continually expressed negative comments, eventually leading to his dismissal.

He also pointed to what he described was a “lack of football experience” as another reason for him being given the axe.

“I know the experience [Tony] had from certain people over the past few weeks,” hinted Warnock.

“It would have been difficult to resist because people get on the phone and tweet and it’s almost like slowly poisoning somebody from outside the club and no doubt from within the club as well.

“It’s a dangerous precedent if you let players talk to the chairman but, you know, you can’t stop tweeting.  My chairman tweets a lot and some of my players tweet.

“Players only look after themselves,” the Sun quoted Warnock, “so it’s quite easy to start rumours with this new modern media and I don’t think it helps anybody.”

Warnock recalled how the sacking took him by surprise, despite the club’s poor performance.

“I received a text saying the owners had been talking long into the night, and Phil Beard, the new chief executive, asked if he could come and see me,” the former manager recalled.  “The disappointment for me was that if you’re going to sack somebody, you should tell them to his face.  That’s how I’ve been brought up.

“You get used to a certain way of doing things, but he is so far away, all over the world.  I’m not a communicator by tweet, so I was always going to be the last to know.

“I don’t think Tony will mind me saying [that the board] are not football people as such.  I look at Bolton and Wigan, Phil Gartside and Dave Whelan, and they’re football people.  You don’t panic when you’re like that.”

Warnock also threw a sideways hit at QPR captain Joey Barton, who he refused to talk about when asked.

“I don’t want to get into talking about Joey Barton,” he said.  “Joey talks about himself enough.  I just want to talk about positive things about the club.”

He had well wishes for new coach Mark Hughes, however.

“I want Mark to do well, he’s got a good agent too, and between them they’ll bring some good players into the club.  Some of the players they’re going to get in are the ones I wanted anyhow.”

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