The Mr Fix-it winning the power games at QPR

Since buying a stake in Queens Park Rangers last May, Gianni Paladini has become the most influential figure at the club. Over the last seven months, all major decisions involving finance, investment and staff have not been made without his say-so. Yet little is known about the dapper Italian who handed in his football agent licence earlier this year to pursue his dream of buying into an English football club. Paladini has invested £600,000 but QPR was not his first choice.

"I didn't go to them. They came to me," he revealed at his favourite Italian restaurant in Ealing. "Nick Blackburn [former chairman] contacted my legal people and asked if I was interested.

"I was fed up of being an agent. I wanted to be involved with a football club. I had tried to take over Port Vale and Derby but that came to nothing."

To say Paladini had crucial differences of opinion at board level with Blackburn and former chief executive David Davies is something of an understatement.

"After I had been at QPR for three days, Nick Blackburn wanted me out because I was asking too many questions," he said.

"Nick Blackburn and David Davies didn't put a penny in the club. Unless you put money in yourself, it is difficult to run a business." The resignations of Blackburn and Davies in the summer have been followed by a very public disagreement over the club's financial problems.

The biggest bone of contention between the Rangers board and the old regime is the £10million loan, with an interest rate of £1m per year, that the club took out to help them out of administration.

Blackburn says the club had a "gun to our heads" but Paladini, who becomes indignant at the mere mention of the loan, argues that it was unnecessary.

"Why did we have to borrow £10m at such a high interest rate? The Football League never told us to borrow £10m. We were just told to put our house in order."

Then there is the equally inflammatory issue of how the money was used.

"The bulk of the money went to [ former owner] Chris Wright. Most of the creditors got next to nothing. Everything should be in black and white but it is not," he added.

Paladini has become QPR's Mr Fixit. He introduced the board to the two Monaco-based consortiums, Wanlock and Barnaby Holdings, that have invested £1.7m in the club and helped pay off Rangers' outstanding debts.

The Italian's contacts also enabled the club to secure the PR coup of enlisting former Brazil captain Dunga on to the board of directors. But there is a view within Loftus Road that this passionate Italian has acquired too much authority.

He admits that the people at Wanlock and Barnaby "are very close to me" and "we are as one", which, coupled with his 16 per cent stake through his investment vehicle Moorband, has effectively reinforced his powerbase to 46 per cent.

For someone who has invested the relatively meagre sum of £600,000 and is not even technically a director, does he have too much influence?

Former company secretary Dave Anderson, an accountant who worked for the club for free and was forced to resign last month after falling out with Paladini, believes so.

"There is no doubt about his desire for the club to succeed but I'm not convinced about his methods," Anderson said. "He is the sort of guy who is Mr Friendly when he wants you and then he will stab you in the back. He is running the place."

Paladini does not dispute that he may had made enemies but argues: "I have put money from my own pocket into the club." That football has made Paladini, 58, a wealthy man is not in doubt.

After settling in the Midlands in 1968 with his English wife and building up a business portfolio including seven nightclubs, he became a football agent in 1980 and over two decades was involved in dozens of high profile transfers.

Paladini wants to be in the Premiership "yesterday" or, if not, "tomorrow, next season or the season after".

He added: "I love football and feel I could put my knowledge to good use at a club. I'm not here for 10 minutes. I want to be here for the rest of my life."