QPR ARE torn over whether to cough up a whopping £2million to bring Neil Warnock to the club as their new manager - or go for a much cheaper option.

The Crystal Palace boss has jumped to the head of the queue after Rangers cooled over moves to reunite Luigi Di Canio with caretaker boss Gareth Ainsworth.

Fans' favourite Ainsworth will be retained in some coaching capacity, but Rs have dropped interest in their former Italian manager, who left the club last summer.

However, Warnock openly praised the set-up he found at Rangers when he visited for the 0-0 draw between Hoops and Palace at the beginning of the month.

He has friends on the Rs board - but the fly in the ointment is around £1m in compensation the Eagles will ask for the much-travelled coach as well as Warnock's own wage demands.

Your favourite local paper has learned owner Flavio Briatore is warming to the idea of the 60-year-old taking over, even though he knows he will get a larger than life character that regularly hits the headlines for better or worse.

The QPR chairman is in no hurry to appoint, however, while he mulls over 20-plus applications from a host of top names. Luiz Felipe Scolari, Sven Goran-Eriksson and Roy Keane are three of the latest to be linked with the job - none are likely to be interviewed.

* QPR WILL make around £100,000 from a five-day tour to Bahrain at the end of the season as part of their sponsored tie-in with Gulf Air.

The Hoops fly out just two days after their final game of the season

at Preston, with one or two grumbling over cancelled private holiday arrangements. However, even the walking wounded will be the club's ambassadors on the tour that sees them take on the Bahrain national team on May 7.