The chief executive for the last four years was given the shove because the expected windfall from American football club owner Tim Krause failed to materialise as well as other efforts to raise revenue that disappeared without trace.

David Davies

There was also a bleak future predicted for chairman Nick Blackburn and director Ross Jones.

An Rs insider confided that getting rid of all vestiges of the old Chris Wright regime was a must.

The source said: "When you bring in new money, you expect to have a say in how it's spent. It's no surprise there are changes at the top."

This is a reference to Italian agent Gianni Paladini who has bought a 22.1 per cent stake in the club with an option to buy a further 29 per cent.

The remaining members of the board, Bill Power and Kevin McGrath, are expected to stay, but it appears an eventual alliance with the Paladini camp was the death knell for Davies, with Blackburn and Jones set to follow.

QPR's official website referred to a "restructuring" at the club, which is likely to mean a conversion from QPR Holdings plc into a private company.

The original company was launched by Wright, but thousands of supporters bought shares and saw their investment savaged as football club plc's in general took a caning on the Stock Exchange.

Davies oversaw the tricky period when QPR were forced to go into administration for a year up until April 2003. During that period he fended off the "men of straw", as he described bogus would-be investors, who all claimed to be potential saviours of a club playing Premiership football just seven years ago.

There was even an enquiry from the Moonies sect, but it was Davies' dependence on the Krause bid and a previous courting of Australian businessman David Thorne, which also failed to bear fruit, that was his eventual downfall.