Warnock said he believed he had fallen victim to outside influences. -Photo by Reuters

LONDON: Former QPR manager Neil Warnock claimed Thursday he had virtually been sacked by text and accused his enemies of “slowly poisoning” club owner Tony Fernandes against him.

Warnock lost his job at Loftus Road on January 8 after a poor run of form which left the team just a point off the Premier League relegation zone. He has since been replaced by Mark Hughes.

“I received a text saying the owners had been talking long into the night and Phil Beard, the new chief executive, asked if he could come and see me. So I told him to come to our house and I think when I saw him I felt sorry for him and said 'don't worry it's nothing to do with you, this',” said Warnock.

“I think you get used to a certain way of doing things but he (Fernandes) is so far away, all over the world. I'm not a communicator by tweet I'm afraid so I was always going to be the last to know.”

Warnock said he believed he had fallen victim to outside influences.

“Even the owner Tony, I know the influence he'll have had from certain people over the past few weeks,” he told BBC Sport.

“It would have been difficult to resist because people get on the phone and tweet and it's almost like slowly poisoning somebody from outside the club and, no doubt, from within the club as well.

“It's a dangerous precedent. If you let players talk to the chairman but, you know, you can't stop tweeting.”