Fernandes reveals QPR plans

Fernandes reveals QPR plans

Published Aug. 21, 2011 9:15 a.m. ET

The Malaysian business tycoon completed his takeover of the west London club this week after buying out previous majority shareholders Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone. Warnock led Rangers to a 1-0 win at Everton on Saturday in their first game since the takeover. "His passion and his enthusiasm is very infectious," Fernandes said on Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme. "He's a new man now because he can look at a lot of different options which he didn't have before. "Neil's the kind of guy that can motivate the team to perform as they did (against Everton) and I think he's a special guy. He's a good guy and we're very happy with him." He added: "I think at QPR in time we can build something quite special. It's going to take time. "I'm not someone who's going to make big predictions or say 'we're going to do this and that'. Let the results speak for themselves and let's step by step build something and the next step is to stay up. "We're not a Manchester United or a Manchester City or a Chelsea. I think its important not just to throw money at the game, some of that money should go into the development side and that is key for me, to build a good academy and good scouting system and really get the grass roots right." Fernandes revealed he was looking at the possibility of moving away from Loftus Road to a bigger stadium. "Definitely we would like a bigger stadium and a nicer stadium," he said. "We have to try and stay around the area because I think that's very important and there were some options which were put forward by the last owners. "A lot will depend on how the council sees it , but definitely that's something I would like to do at some stage. "I think it's tough to develop Loftus Road. There's stuff around here which potentially may work and which has been discussed by the previous owners and the Mittal family with the council so that would be my top choice." Fernandes revealed an announcement would be made over ticket prices over the next day or two. Fernandes attempted to buy West Ham before QPR, a proposed deal which he said went "spectacularly wrong". "I had a couple of goes and it went pretty spectacularly wrong," he said. "The first time we wanted to own 100% of the club and Straumur wanted to keep 50%. They were the bank that took over from the Icelandic owners." On current owners David Sullivan and David Gold, he said: "They pipped me the first time and then the second time we tried to do something together and that went pretty wrong."

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