Fans of TF are trying to put a positive spin on everything he does but given our current situation, I find that hard to do. Agree that MH let him down badly but who gave him the power to build the club from the ground up? Who has put us in a situation where sacking him is so damn difficult? TF isn't blameless. And just because collection buckets aren't being passed around doesn't make him a saint either. All I'm saying is he's made mistakes, which he needs to rectify.
So Hughes cannot win a game as far as everyone is concerned and a caretaker manager could do no worse let alone a new manager. If we take the above statement as fact (which it still isn't quite), that leaves 3 possibilities:- 1) TF does not have the money to fire him. 2) There's an agreement (ultimatum) in place that, should a win not happen in X games then Hughes will resign. I suppose a bit like the Barton contract rewrite. Still hints towards point 1) but with a bit more hope/confidence in Hughes. 3) TF is indeed completely clueless. Unless I've missed something obvious then that is about the size of it. That said, 3 days after I personally gave Hughes the thumbs down, I would piss myself if he finally started doing the seemingly impossible.
When you've given a manager that control, that much power, free reign to do whatever he likes and backed him to the hilt, it's not that easy to do a u-turn. MH had TF by the b*lls in the job interview and here we are.
At the time that Hughes came in, he had two capacities (1) the conventional role of managing the team on and off the pitch and (2) advising on the club's infrastructure that was totally inadequate for a club of QPR's ambitions. Hughes was thus being used as a football "expert" in (2), advising the QPR board on the necessary roles and making recommendations on appointments. Those individuals subsequently appointed owe a loyalty to QPR but also to Hughes, so that now that Hughes is failing in his role in (1), it makes it difficult, but presumably not impossible, for the QPR Board to extricate Hughes cleanly, without ramification for the rest of the club's structure. This is the problem with which QPR management are currently struggling. It's resolvable with care. To blame TF for using Hughes as an expert on infrastructure is naive, in my view. It would have been extraordinary to have used Hughes as team manager, and have another football expert come in and advise on the club's structures.
