Coppell and Curbishley in frame after QPR suspends Magilton
STEVE Coppell and Alan Curbishley have moved into pole position to become QPR's ninth manager in three years after Jim Magilton was sensationally suspended.
QPR bosses were hoping Akos Buzsaky would have accepted an apology from Jim Magilton at least until after the away trip to WBA on Monday night - but the club have acted anyway to stop the rot of a lost dressing room.
The Hungarian winger discussed things with his agent after allegedly being headbutted by the Irishman in the furore that is the fall-out from the extraordinary scenes after the 3-1 defeat at Watford on Monday.
However, former Reading boss Coppell has already been lined-up as replacement, with Curbishley also in the running having settled his pay-off with West Ham.
Both were sounded out in the summer before Magilton got the job.
Chairman Flavio Briatore and his staff were more concerned the former Ipswich Town boss had lost the faith of players as well as Buzsaky, whose agent spent three hours on the phone to the Hoops’ hierarchy discussing his client’s situation.
The choice of substitutes, the lack of fight as Rs surrendered to the Hornets having going ahead, and goalscorer Patrick Agyemang’s non-celebration of a goal that put his side ahead, were all on the agenda as Briatore returned from abroad.
The club’s supremo has been kept appraised of the situation almost on an hourly basis, and watched the defeat on TV – the second in two days with QPR shipping eight goals in the process.
Buzsaky came out of the dressing room, humiliated and forced to wander the stand among reporters and Watford staff for 30 minutes before assistant boss John Gorman came out to usher his player back inside.
Players were banned from speaking to the media as they emerged an hour after a shouting match that’s understood to have some of the squad including Agyemang not only shouting back at Magilton - but squaring up to him as well.
A senior player said: "It was a right barney in there. This sort of thing happens from time to time at a club – but this is the second time in three matches – with the first at Doncaster a couple of weeks back. After a bit, it loses its effect."
The players and Magilton had the day off on Tuesday, and the frosty atmosphere at the training ground yesterday only heightened the need to suspend Magilton, with Gorman's future uncertain.
The irony is that Magilton's departure before the televised game at WBA on Monday comes just over two years since John Gregory was sacked following the farce of a 5-1 defeat at none other than the same club.
