Walking out of Warnock wonderland?

In the football world, a certain phrase generally seems to carry a meaning that is the opposite of the sum of its parts - vote of confidence.

Very often, if there is widespread media speculation about the future of a football manager, his club will issue, in some shape or form, a vote of confidence. In reality, while the club is stressing its complete faith in the incumbent gaffer, the search is already underway for his replacement. This is not much of a ruse - it might have been a cunning plan the first few times it was used, but it now seems woefully transparent.

So what are we to make of this week's statement from QPR? Sure, it's not a classically worded vote of confidence, but should Rangers fans be worried that the club feels it's necessary to deny rumours of Neil Warnock's resignation? The statement popped up on the club's website on Thursday.

David McIntrye, who has reported on QPR since 1999, strongly suggested, also on Thursday, that there does exist a worrying gulf between the Warnock and the club.

McIntyre claims that the Rangers manager told him last season that he expected to be encouraged to consider signing a number of Italian players this summer, despite the gaffer's own preference being for targets based in England.

This is a worry. Italian signings in the Paladini/Briatore/Ecclestone era have not been successful. Consider the cases of Alessandro Pellicori and Matteo Alberti. The former is a woefully awkward and immobile 'striker', signed by QPR in July 2009. He failed to score a league goal in his eight league appearances and I struggle to recall seeing many more horribly inadequate looking players in a hooped shirt. While scanning the club's official website this morning, I note that Pellicori has returned from his long loan spells at Mantova and Torino back in his native land. Surely he won't be considered as a meaningful challenger for a place in next season's Superhoops squad.

Also back from his loan spell is Alberti, who has been plying his trade in the third tier of Italian football. I don't remember Alberti being quite as poor a player as Pellicori, but you'd have to assume his time away at Lega Pro Prima Divisione A side Lumezzane will not have improved his game to the point where he'll be a strong contender for a place in a side about to embark on a Premier League campaign.

In this context, you can see why Neil Warnock would be reluctant to be pushed towards Italian signings. Moreover, according to McIntyre, Warnock's contract gives him full control over transfers. That would certainly explain the shift away from signing the likes of Pellicori and towards signing hard-working players with a proven track record in the English game, a policy that led to the club's promotion back to the top tier after an absence of fifteen years. Kenny, Orr, Derry, Hill: as much as the dazzle of the talismanic Adel Taarabt, these Warnock signings combined to make QPR an efficient and resilient side whose promotion rarely looked to be in doubt - until the rank stupidity of Gianni "dodgy paperwork" Paladini threatened for a while to derail the campaign and undo the hard work of the manager and his players.

McIntytre writes that according to some inside the club, there is now a feeling that this clause which gives the manager full control over player acquisition may now have been breached, apparently entitling Warnock "to a full pay-off were he to walk away."

McIntyre alseo alleges that "the situation has reached a critical stage and is...being monitored by the League Managers’ Association, which is a very significant development."

Even without such doubts over the future of QPR's excellent incumbent manager, I am already massively displeased with the way with club is being run, reserving the most withering criticism for the scandalously over-the-top increases in ticket prices. Warnock being ousted would be too much to deal with. The various Rangers message boards are currently peppered with comments to the effect that losing the popular manager could lead to a serious escalation in expressions of supporter discontent. 

The Spoiler yesterday made the case for why the club would be very unwise to push Warnock out or create the conditions that might cause him to leave under his own steam, noting that cases of newly-promoted sides changing manager and managing to stay up are "the exception rather than the rule."

QPR, then, would be best advised to leave the business of signing and picking players to their seasoned manager, who is an old, old hand at these vital tasks. The owners, let's not forget, have no track record in the game and Rangers fans know very well that having Mr. Briatore take too active a role has thus far been a recipe for chaos.