Championship - Sousa named QPR boss
Eurosport - Thu, 20 Nov 15:16:00 2008
Queens Park Rangers have named Portuguese legend Paulo Sousa as their new manager.
Sousa, who earned 51 caps for his country and won the Champions League twice, signed a two-and-a-half year contract at Loftus Road.
He was assistant to Chelsea manager Luis Felipe Scolari in the Portugal set-up for five years after injury curtailed his playing career.
"It is an honour to be part of this project," Sousa said. "I have always wanted to work for a big club and I am very excited about the opportunity to work for Queens Park Rangers.
"I have great belief in my ideas and my coaching ability and I firmly believe I can achieve the objectives set by the management."
The former Benfica, Juventus, Internazionale and Borussia Dortmund midfielder said he would bring an attacking brand of football to the Hoops this season.
"I believe in playing positive, attacking football," he said. "To achieve positive results you have to maintain a focused outlook and my team will aim to do this, both for ourselves and for the fans.
"I am looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead."
Rangers caretaker manager Gareth Ainsworth has been retained on the backroom staff and will be in charge for the Championship match against Watford on Saturday.
QPR chairman Flavio Briatore revealed the work that had gone into identifying Sousa as the chief candidate.
"Paulo is a very good appointment for this football club," he said. "I have been keeping track of his work for the last few months and he is the right man for our project.
"He has great experience after working with the Portuguese national team and he is part of the new generation of coaches.
"He has worked with some of the world's best players and we are excited about having him.
"His football career was highly impressive and he has great knowledge of the game. After five years with Portugal, he is ready for a new challenge and I am delighted he has agreed to join us.
"I would like to thank Gareth Ainsworth for his contribution as caretaker manager and confirm that he still has a very important role to play at this club.
"He is QPR through and through and will work very closely with Paulo as we build for a successful future."
Sousa captained Juve to the Champions League title in 1995-96 and repeated the success with Dortmund in 1996-97.
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Comment 1 - 20 of 20
Great! If he can be as good as he was as a player, QPR will made the best choice for their team. GOOD LUCK PAUL SOUSA we are sure you will make as proud once again this time as a manager . We love you. Joel Da Naia from Canada
Omg where did he come out from?! Completely forgot about him but what a player he was!!!
he was one of last generation portugese great players along with louis figo, rui costa, and pauleta...etc, they gave us memory of fantastic attacking football with beautiful skills. can't remember which year exactly but should have been early 90's, the under 21s' portugese were really really amazing!!! good luck Sousa!!
Ah theres a name i aint heard in Years!!!
if u aint heard of him ever mate your footy knowledge is well... lets say limited!
Paulo Sousa ...anybody remember playing champ manager and buying him from benifca he was amazing just like real life..im sure man utd tried and failed to buy him!
Dunno what he will be like as a manager tho.
Allen H - you W@nQuer!!!
good luck to sousa as a fan who remembers hoops playing at the White city stadium and winning and losing in wembley finals(not bad for team thats never been big)I'm looking forward to a new attacking brand of football at Loftus Road,only concern is you can attack all day long but somebody has to have the ability to score and that is lacking at the moment but lets be optimistic and see what the transfer window brings us could still be a merry christmas and a happy new year
well at least he is bigger than the poisen dwarf
Well I like his attacking philosphy... but can he kick out the lazy 'sit back' culture of QPR that we've had for years as soon as we score?
To be fair to darronblackmore, I appreciate that an english manager may not always be the answer but let's be honest, the english managers you had hardly "failed", the issue was that it IS hard to attract top players to a club like QPR whether they've got money or not and they were never a big club in the top flight! I really hope they do well and maybe that'll be with Sousa, I think the real problem though is that they will be left behind by Championship clubs who are prepared to invest big straight away to get in the premier league and it seems that even though you have the money now, the moneymen are not prepared to sign the best players and the best players probably wouldn't sign for QPR money or no money!
Post 7 and 5 oh, and 1. Nice positive sportsmanship being displayed in those comments. Thanks chaps, come again :-/
Are Queens Park Rangers by royal appointment?
Who are QPR? are they in one of the Scottish leagues,
Who the cluck is he?
I noticed none of pessimistic commentators mentioned what clubs they support,sound`s like jealously to me,British football is full of so called foreign appointees ie Arsenal,Chelsea, in our heyday QPR were a quality side those days are coming again sooner rather than later but they are coming. Come on you R`sssssss
Good luck to QPR, suppose he will soon have them tuned up and marching up the table
Bring back attractive,attacking football? Since when have QPR played good football? Every football fan expects good football but it doesn't happen.I'd rather win every game 1-0.A small club they have always been and always will be.Get over it..
Allen H, obviously you are not a QPR fan as you would know that all of our problems started when a certain English coach by the name of Ray Wilkins became Manager. He blew the £6m received for Les Ferdinand on such esteemed talent as Ned Zelic ?! (signed for £1m and then back to German football after about 12 games for nothing). We also had other British Managers such as Stewart Houston (failure), Ray Harford (failure), John Gregory (failure) and recently Iain Dowie. QPR fans don't expect trophies (good job)but they do expect decent football and the chance of getting back into the top league. None of these managers have provided either. I don't care where the manager is from as long as long as he does the job. As for paying extortionate money, there are many clubs in the Championship who have signed a lot more players on much higher wages than we have (even though we have the money)and Briatore has stated that he wants to build a club for the future through proper management of the business rather than simply throwing money at it. We are not another Chelski. Good luck Sousa, bring back attractive attacking football to Loftus Road and the fans will support you.
He states "I have always wanted to work for a big club and I am very excited about the opportunity to work for Queens Park Rangers." so why join QPR because as far as i am aware they are not a big club.Never have been, never will be.
nice to see someone in who wants to play attacking football after gigi... dowie wasnt playing the rite stuff and wasnt get results either.. i mean 4-5-1 at home!? wild thing has done a good job but im optomistic with sousa in charge... will be interesting to see what happens.
Another foreign appointee who knows next to nothing about life in the championship. When are teasm going to go for British coachs and stop paying extortionate money for a fancy foreign coach. I hope QPR fail and drop down the league.
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