I don't believe Cifuentes, or his apologists, are justified in using poor signings as an excuse for his lack of achievement. The left-back situation was baffling, but I'd say that overall Nourry's signings have been much more good than bad. Good - Nardi, Morrison, Varane, Morgan, Edwards, Saito. Bad - Madsen, Celar, Ashby. There are also those we haven't seen yet - Vale could be a top signing if recovering well from injury, Pearman is very highly-rated, and Esquerdinha might turn out to be a stroke of genius. In Nourry, I trust.
Yes but then you don't seem to think that an appalling run of injuries in any way excuses a failure to achieve anything more this season. I can't help thinking if it had happened under anyone other than Cifuentes you would have been a bit more tolerant. Is the inability to get our players match fit down to him as well or to Nourry's man in Dubai Before you lump me in as an apologist, let me be absolutely clear. We've been ****e a number of times this season. We have also been excellent . El Cif may not be the Messiah but it is no coincidence that the good times have coincided with the one period of the season when he had most of the squad fit and raring to go. As for the Burnley game have none of his many critics seen what happens at the end of a season when a team down on its luck but mathematically safe plays a team playing to win the title? If not , I'm surprised. You are older than me. Not many on here are!
I'm neither here nor there when it comes to marti leaving or even staying. We have been really poor to watch this season, even when we went on that fine run, the football was pretty average at best. I do, however, believe the standard of players we have don't suit the game model that is attempting to be implemented by the club. Varane (in my opinion) has been the stand out signing. Morrison has been decent also. I'm not really interested in how the loan players did. I also don't blame Madsen for being crap, he didn't make the club pay this much for him. I totally understand the 'model' the club is attempting . Without knowing what the ambition/end game is, it's difficult to claim it as success or failure.
You seem to be suggesting that I'm being harsh on Cifuentes because I don't like him. Actually, I do quite like him, but I just don't think he's very good. We have had a lot of injuries, but don't most clubs? The fact that director of performance Ben Williams oversees the club's sports science, medical, physio and nutrition departments remotely from Dubai does seem daft, but I don't think this is likely to have contributed to the number of injuries. Sometimes, you're just unlucky. I certainly wouldn't blame Cifuentes for the level of injuries, but didn't he start Lloyd recently against medical advice, only for him to break down after half an hour? My main beef with Cifuentes, though, is his deadly boring style of play. You say we've been excellent at times, but I struggle to remember coming away from a game this season excited about how we played. By the way, there was no need to bring my age into this!
I can see there are a lot of people on here who don't care too much for Marty. From my side, i tend to have an impression of someone when they first appear on the scene, give them time to back up or disprove my impression and then stay with that for the longer term (unless something dramatically changes). As regards Marty, he gave me a positive first impression - the way he spoke, the way he handled himself, his humbleness - and then he followed it up by rescuing us from relegation. Clearly there were differences during last Summer and he was told to deal with the players Nourry had brought in. Understandably, these new players took a while to adapt and settle in - hence the poor start. He then managed to get them to gel and steer us to survival. The recent run of poor form is quite possibly down to injuries but more likely to having a demotivated manager at the helm. However, i for one think Marty is a great manager and we will be sorry to see him go. I even think he will manage in one of the top European leagues one of these days - you heard it here first
I think he’s a good manager. Not a great one. If we had a board you could be confident of finding its arse with its own hands I’d be less reluctant to see him go.
It would have been good to see him get a shot at the league without injuries and with settled players. I do prefer managers to have time to show what they can do. I have a feeling he might stay. In that interview it sounded like he'd planned how he was going to approach his end of season review. Time will tell.
Bristol City had EVERYTHING to play for last night ( plus two of the finest footballers the world has ever seen... Dickie and Armstrong) and they got tonked by Leeds. Yes Saturday was awful...but Burnley had to win that...and half the team were on the beach the other half didn't want to get injured.. We are all getting a bit over excited.
I'm heading to Sunderland on Saturday and just hoping that at least some of the players feel that one last whole hearted effort for this season is warranted Also hoping that Sunderland decide to rest their key players ahead of the play offs I'll probably be proven wrong on both counts Let's see how quickly after the game Marti's position is clarified. There's a significant job to do to rebuild the squad and whoever will be in place as manager at the start of the season will need all the time they can get
This last 15 years or so we have a terrible habit of getting rid of our best Managers, Warnock, Warburton and now it seems MC. We got worse after the two W's were moved on and I expect the same again if MC goes. Why are the Club and so many on here it seems so unwilling to give Managers who have done well so little time to build something?
I’ve been told that the Sunderland squad is taking a little break in the sun….in Portugal. So their week hasn’t gone as planned already. Imagine a modern footballer without access to social media for a few hours, they’ll all have PTSD. Massive respect for going up there.
Cifuentes is one of the longest serving managers in the championship, bizarrely. Rumour is that he’s agreed terms with West Brom. If true he’s leaving, not being ‘got rid of’.
I quite like Marti, he always seems genuine in his interviews and as far as I'm aware has never tried to blame anyone else for the poor run of form. For me the big question is that if he leaves or is let go, will we get anyone better? Personally I suspect not.
I think the game has changed so much over the last decade that it's not even about the managers/coaches having time to build something. As in our case, it's the club building something and getting a guy in to fit. He does crap he goes, he does well he goes and now if he does ok he goes.
Sunderland can't go up a place, nor can they be caught so hopefully they will rest their better players. We live in hope as QPR fans.
Martí Cifuentes has been placed on gardening leave. Assistant coaches Kevin Betsy and Xavi Calm will take charge of first-team affairs on an interim basis and prepare the squad for our final fixture of the 2024/25 campaign against Sunderland. CEO Christian Nourry said: “This is naturally a disappointing situation for everyone concerned. “I fully understand and appreciate supporters’ frustrations at this time. “As a club, we are working to ensure this matter is resolved as swiftly as possible so we can start preparations in earnest for the future.”
