QPR will not sack Mark Hughes even if the club are involved in a relegation battle for the rest of the season. QPR slumped to another defeat on Saturday, losing 3-2 away to West Bromwich Albion, which left them rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table with just two points from seven matches and still in search of their first victory. In an interview with *The Sunday Telegraph*, QPR chairman Tony Fernandes said emphatically: “My faith in Mark has not wavered. Not at all. I’m 1,000 per cent behind him. I love him. He’s honest, hard-working, ambitious and he’s a friend.” Fernandes, who sacked Neil Warnock last January before appointing Hughes, said that success this season - given all the changes at the club with 17 players leaving and 12 signed and a host of injuries - would constitute finishing “one position above last season, then that’s progress. There’s a rough diamond in the making here”. Last season QPR finished just above the relegation places, on a dramatic final day, during a difficult campaign and Fernandes said: “We changed the manager before and I did that because I didn’t feel Neil was the guy to take us forward for the next 10 years. I believe that Mark can. “We get on very well, he’s had success in every club he’s been at. We’ve been incredibly unlucky - look at last season with the number of sendings off we had, goals disallowed, over the line at Bolton. All kinds of things. “I can tell you all the players are impressed by Mark. He’s a proven product and I do think the criticism is crazy. When I came in I thought Neil would be here for a long time but unfortunately I then felt we had to make a change. I’ve learnt and we’ve up-graded.” Fernandes said he knew that QPR would have a difficult start to this season. “I knew it would be tough. If you look at all my comments at the beginning of the season I knew our season wouldn’t really start until December. Why do I say that? We virtually bought a new team here and like anything it takes time.” The Malaysian entrepreneur added: “My model is Arsenal - where you have a stable manager and coaching squad. That’s what I believe in. If you look at all my companies that is how I operate. Stability is the key. “We’ve also had a lot of injuries. I don’t care whether you are the greatest manager in the world - but if you suddenly have to play four centre-backs in the defence it is going to affect you. But the squad is good. The manager and coaching staff are excellent. Spirit is good. “There are going to be ups and downs, we will learn from it and get stronger but I’m not panicking. I’m here for the long term and am here to put something good together. We are under the public eye. You have to be a big boy and deal with the criticism. It doesn’t change my feelings at all. People want to win, they want results and they want to criticize.” --- I think that means ha simply cant afford to do it.
Well he should be sacked if as I said in november things havent improved. We cannot afford to go down.
Assuming that is true, even relegation then would / should not be the end of the world. It happened to Newcastle and look at them now! Assuming it is true of course.
FFS! Sounds like he is digging himself a huge hole if he is going to sack Hughes. If not he is digging a huge one for the Club. Finishing one place off the bottom 3 is a target that with the smallest event can end in relegation as we saw last season.
Fair play to TF.He is 100% right, and as for "we cant afford to go down" surely TF will be the best judge of that.There were times today when the shape of the team looked good but then M,bia went off and they scored a third.Having seen every game this season I am convinced MH will get it right ,be it in November or December or January but it will come.
Has a familiar sound to what was happening at Blackburn last season regarding Steve kean. All the best if your club does decide to stick
I agree TF is right to say that. If he was slient then rumours would begin to surface even more than now - at least him saying that reduces some of the pressure on MH.
I think it was Gordon Gekko that said that a fool and his money are lucky to get together in the first place. Fernandes appears to wear his heart on his sleeve and is prone to impetuous outbursts (like the rest of us). I hope he is no fool.
Next 3: Everton H Arsenal A Reading H I personally wouldn't be able to stomach Reading beating us at Loftus Road twice in a season. TF's next game is Arsenal. If he saw a poor performance there, then we were to lose to Reading...i'm not sure how long those promises would last. Still reckon with a full strength side we might beat Everton though
He compared us to Arse......... Just doing pure accounting maths. Just to equal the ticket receipts of Arse when they were at Highbury, we would have had to increase the ticket prices by double, Highbury was almost twice as big as us. And they barely ever flirted with relegation or the bottom of the table like this, with the worst start to one of their league campaigns like this, with much, much better players than the previous season, like this. Wenger has had the wherewithall to always be able to motivate and put his teams together. How is TF making money enough to pay for this current season, besides his own cash? Is he saying he is willing to keep pumping money into the team to bring us back up if we do get relegated this season? And if we do get relegated, does he not realize that half the squad will leave? And come right back up? That's no guarantee, TF, and you know that! So why not make the change now? MH is a friend? Or do the agents have your nuts in a sling? I think TF's been hypnotized. Or he can't accept himself backing down from the decision to hire MH in the first place and is letting his pride get in the way. 26 games, no away wins. Never been above 17 since MH came in. We have a much stronger squad now than we did last year this time (supposedly) and we can't get it together? 4 centre backs? So? It almost sounds like you're telling the team that it's OK, it's going to work out, don't worry, just play, it'll all be OK when everybody's back, so in the meantime, do your best but don't worry so much, don't stress - and the team looks like they're playing that way, waiting for it all to be all OK again, just waiting! Please wake up, TF!
I really don't want us to keep changing managers and would like to see one stay at QPR for years. I felt optimistic when we played Spurs of the park but we still didn't win. On the downside I am really worried that certain players, like Wright-Philips are chosen week in week out when we have better on the bench. My West Ham friend said how bad he thought Wright-Philips was when we played West Ham, but I thought that was one of his best matches for us. He must be worse than I thought. Also I have heard how Hughes isolated players he no longer wants like Helguson and Campbell. This was also conformed in the paper by Hulse this week. If true I don't think players like Helguson should be treated in this fashion. If you don't give respect how can you expect it.
That isolation of players is a big problem, Traore look really ****ed off with Hughes earlier in the season and as for Adel's celebration last week I said at the time I thought there was more to it than meets the eye.
Reading has to be the gamr to watch. The cup game may have been disappointing, but does not affect the whole league season. Losing to Everton and Arsenal is no shame. A defeat to Reading as well would be a disaster.
I agree I sense MH new rules may of made a big example of the two of them. The team has to be bigger than the parts IMO I love Taarabt but this is a club being built up from the ground and maybe just maybe there has been something. Still Adel two great goals in two games looks like good management to me Taarabt at times today looked world class ... Even Messi disappears in games . I stress again we have to stick at it ... I would love to see a poll from other teams fans .. Most expect us to click
Well last week Adel had his "I love Allah" vest and of course “Allah surely loves those who are the patient.”
So would I but Hughes was never the right man for us in the 1st place. Hes just a PL version of Magilton. A very hard man to like and not very good at managing at all.
I said a few weeks ago. We Perhaps have to accept changing a fair few times before finding the right man at this level. That's what happened with Warnock. It's happened to other clubs to. Perhaps we need to embrace change until stability breaks out.
