TAXMAN PUTS THE BRAKE ON QPR TRANSFERS

from the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle 21st October 2004

by Paul Warburton

QPR have been banned from buying new players by the taxman.

Far from the current squad being rewarded as hoped by Ian Holloway this week, Her Majesty's government made sure the manager's threadbare team will have to cope, as Olly makes do with on-loan signings from now until the end of the season.

Paying the bills

The club were forced to cough up a massive £800,000 for both tax and VAT on Friday after the club failed to keep earlier payment promises. In effect, tax debts now control the ins-and-outs at a club despite it having half an eye on the Premiership as chief executive Mark Devlin explained.

He said: "There were hints from the tax people about seven-day winding-up orders.

"They can't stop us from buying players, but after the previous regime failed to keep promises over payments to them, the taxment could get very difficult.

"If they see us buy somebody for, say, £200,000, they could land on us demanding the reminder of the debt or else."

Olly is desperate to augment a squad which saw Danny Shittu and Jamie Cureton definitely ruled out for a month as well as Georges Santos and Matthew Rose rising from their sick beds for the 2-1 defeat at Preston on Tuesday night.

However, Devlin made it clear that more of the likes of Frankie Simek, who made his debut at Deepdale, is the R's only way of bringing in new faces. He said: "Ian is very keen to have somebody new who can give Paul Furlong a rest. But I'm only glad we signed Lee Cook for £150,000 in the summer because that deal would not have been allowed to go ahead now."

Earlier target Rob Hulse will not be signing for the Rs in the immediate future. The West Brom striker was injured in a reserve outing for the Baggies last week and will be out for a month.