You can debate all day about whether Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink deserved to be sacked and his replacement is no guarantee of success either.
21 months on, we are still yet to get to the bottom of one of football’s great mysteries. Who was Tony Fernandes’ ‘dream manager’? When Harry Redknapp limped out of Loftus Road in February 2014, citing bad knees rather than bad results, Fernandes took to Twitter to ease the fears of the club’s increasingly disillusioned supporters. They had nothing to fear, you see. Because the ‘dream’ was about to become reality.
QPR were a Premier League team then, albeit a struggling one. Now, they’re 17th in the Championship, Derby County on one side, Burton Albion on the other, and a return to the top flight all but out of the question.
Chris Ramsey, the inside appointment, hardly fit the ‘dream manager’ visage, turning the club’s relegation from a probability to a formality. Neither did Neil Warnock, parachuted in on an interim basis and out again four games later. At least Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was given almost a year before the axe fell.
However, almost two years on, has Fernandes finally got his man? If rumours are to be believed, Tim Sherwood, ‘Tactics Tim’, is about to descend on Loftus Road 21 months after he reportedly slipped through QPR’s grasp. He remains the bookies favourite, ahead of former Derby disaster Paul Clement, former Derby disaster Nigel Pearson, and a whole host of out-of-work veterans in a rather insipid crop of candidates.
Though, for some fans, Fernandes’ ‘dream’ is their nightmare.
For some, the ‘dream’ is preferable to reality.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
