The QPR signing that summed the Flavio Briatore era up to a tee - He ended up being banned from football for 3 years | OneFootball

Italian striker Alessandro Pellicori only played ten league games for the R's

The Flavio Briatore era at Queens Park Rangers remains one of the most chaotic periods in the club's modern history, but there was one signing that summed it all up.

Considering 'The Four Year Plan' documentary was made, which was a behind-the-scenes look at the consortium's reign, it was certainly a somewhat strange period at Loftus Road.

Among the wave of Italian signings that arrived in West London, like Damiano Tommasi, Samuel Di Carmine, and Matteo Alberti - one names stands out as the ultimate R's flop, Alessandro Pellicori.

Signed on a free transfer from Serie B side Avellino in July 2009, Pellicori penned a three-year deal that ended up being terminated two years later.

Alessandro Pellicori's time at Queens Park Rangers was a disaster

In truth, the striker arrived with a reputation for being a "natural goalscorer", according to then-manager Jim Magilton upon signing, but Pellicori's time in an R’s shirt offered almost nothing.

Pellicori’s stint in W12 was really nothing short of abysmal. He made ten appearances in the Championship but was completely off the pace of English football, as he didn't score a single league goal.

The Italian's only strike came in a League Cup tie against Exeter City, and it became apparent that he was not up to standard for a team chasing promotion to the Premier League.

By January 2010, less than six months after signing, he was shipped back to Italy on loan to Mantova.

Pellicori never played for QPR again, spending the following season on loan at Torino before his contract was eventually terminated by mutual consent in October 2011. But, as mentioned earlier, the striker wasn't an isolated case.

One year before Pellicori joined the club, 19-year-old winger Matteo Alberti signed a four-year contract - but hadn't even made his full debut for Chievo, another Serie B side. So, it perhaps wasn't a surprise to learn that QPR wanted to get rid of the two Italians at the same time.

The strategy - if you can call it that - from Briatore, appeared to be throwing darts at a board of Serie B and Serie A fringe players, hoping one would stick. Damiano Tommasi was another, who became a Rangers player in 2008.

The 34-year-old midfielder was arguably the most well-known out of all these Italians, having made 351 appearances for AS Roma and winning the Serie A title in 00/01. Yet, he only played seven times in England, which was less than Pellicori.

How Alessandro Pellicori was banned from playing professional football

Less than a year after his QPR contract was torn up, Pellicori's professional career effectively came to an end. He was handed a three-year ban from football by Italian authorities in 2013, for his involvement in the Calcioscommesse match-fixing scandal.

The striker was among 51 other active players under investigation, with prosecutors looking at allegations that footballers had "collaborated with underworld gambling interests".

Although there's nothing that states specifically what Pellicori did, one player, Andrea Masiello, admitted he scored an own goal in return for tens of thousands of euros.

Aside from players, more than 20 teams themselves were informed that they'd be under investigation as well - and a lot ended up with points deductions. Atalanta, who now regularly play in the Champions League, started the 11/12 Serie A season on minus six points because of it.

Masiello avoided a jail sentence with that confession, but he was subsequently banned from football for 26 months - less than Pellicori. So, for QPR fans, it was definitely a bullet dodged that the scandal broke after he had left.