There is an increasing clamour for the sacking of Mark Hughes as manager of rock bottom Queens Park Rangers. Exactly the opposite, in fact is what is needed, and QPR need to stabilise and stick with their man.
There has been a revolving door to the manager’s office at Loftus Road in recent years, with Hughes being the 13th manager to occupy the hot seat since the departure of Ian Holloway in February 2006.
This is an incredible, and frankly ludicrous state of affairs, and something which hoops fans will have hoped to have come to an end when Hughes signed his contract in January following the controversial dismissal of Neil Warnock.
There is no doubting that despite their last day survival, and admittedly woeful start to the season, QPR now have the players to comfortably stay up. Whether an assault on Europe, which their chairman Tony Fernandes was looking for is an entirely different question but the foundations are now in place for some very good players to start working their way up the table.
There was always going to be a large player turnover during the summer, and while QPR were linked with pretty much every player who was looking to move, their squad now has more than enough talent to make progress.
The fact that they won the race for the highly sought after Junior Hoilett, and seasoned professionals such as Park Ji-Sung, Julio Cesar and Jose Bosingwa made the move to W12 shows that the structure and belief is there that this season they will not be basement dwellers for long.
Bringing in so many new players is always going to take time, and one good performance should kick start their stuttering season. It is fair to say that performances have not been acceptable, but very few would have forecast the shambolic debut from England international and normally reliable pair of hands Rob Green.
Hughes would have been encouraged by the spirited draw against Champions Chelsea, and the slightly unfortunate defeat to Tottenham, but the lacklustre loss at home to newly promoted West Ham on Monday night will have been a real worry, and the real catalyst to the Hughes out calls.
Tony Fernandes and the Mittal family have to stick to their guns this time though. A knee jerk reaction is not what is needed, and as much as Fernandes loves the publicity, he needs to stick with his man and let the results come. If he does this, then QPR will soon find themselves sitting comfortably outside the relegation zone and looking to cement a mid table spot.
Hughes is starting to put into place his philosophy which worked well with Blackburn, Manchester City and Fulham, and he needs the backing of all those around him to continue. If they are still rooted to the bottom of the table around Christmas, then he will know his time is up, but he should be given up until then at least.
A mass upheaval will not help, and the players brought in want to play for him. For once in their recent history, QPR need to stick with what they have and ride out the rough times. Besides, who else could they possibly call on to do yet another mid season repair job?
image: © simonw92
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