Revenge has to wait

I've been keeping track of developments at Queens Park Rangers, because my friend James is a lifelong supporter of the Rs. Financial salvation has come to Loftus Road in the form of an investor group led by the owners of the Renault Formula One team. In addition to promising new funds for players, the new owners have brought in an Italian manager, Luigi De Canio (the first time I saw his name, I thought for sure that it was misspelled and should be Di Canio, like Upton Park hero Paolo Di Canio, but no, it's right...). I make it a habit to check the fixture list each week of the league season to find out the opponent for QPR. Saturday, their opponent was Crystal Palace in a London derby. That led me to send James this email last week:

James,

I just saw the fixture list for Saturday. Good luck to QPR against Palace. I never paid any attention to Palace before, but they went and hired that whinger Neil Warnock, so now I wish them relegation -- so long as the team at Bramall Lane goes down with them.

Heh.

Sadly, Palace nicked a point with a late equaliser. Both QPR and Palace sit in the relegation zone for now, but QPR has been coming on, with 12 points in their last seven matches (three wins, three draws, one loss).