As the QPR board meets in Malaysia (of course) to discuss who will be the club's next manager, LFW assesses the runners and riders.

What follows comes with the caveat that, as I may have written a time or two before, the current Queens Park Rangers Football Club is set up to fail and has already proved beyond the three most recent managers, two of whom are as experienced at the top level as they come in this country. It will be incredibly difficult for a manager to come in here and succeed.

But it's got to be somebody, no use just throwing our hands up and saying nobody will ever do any good. So, here are the runners and riders in the order they appear in the odds this morning…

Nigel Pearson 6/5 Fav

Age — 52 >>> Current club — Unattached >>> Previously Managed — Carlisle, Southampton, Leicester, Hull, Leicester

Pros:
- Has a very decent record at just about every club he's been at, rescuing Carlisle and Southampton from seemingly certain relegations early in his career, promoting Leicester from League One in his first spell and the Championship in his second. Also coached extensively at West Brom, Newcastle and in the England set up before stepping up to number one positions.
- Has built arguably the best, or certainly most effective, Championship team for years. Hard work, relentless pressing, fast wingers — the sort of thing that goes well at QPR.
- Discovered Jamie Vardy.
- Built a fantastic back room set up and training regime at Leicester, embracing state of the art injury treatment and prevention techniques. More details of this here in a previous LFW feature on him but it's all exactly what QPR have been missing.
- Showed at Leicester he's not only capable of promoting a team from this level, but also keeping it in the Premier League against the odds when it gets there.
- Quite difficult to sack. Leicester tried several times before finally succeeding. Big plus for a QPR manager.
- Was once attacked by a pack of wild dogs in Romania and won. Useful experience in the QPR dressing room.

Cons:
- Went a bit loopy last season.
- Although our current (seemingly excellent) CEO Lee Hoos was involved with his appointment at Leicester, the pair subsequently fell out.
- Pearson also fell out with Leicester's Thai owners who, reportedly, are close with Tony Fernandes and the QPR board.
- Even if they're not close, the circumstances preceding his departure from Leicester following the sacking of his son is unlikely to stand him in good stead with Far Eastern owners.
- This pattern of losing the plot a bit under pressure and media scrutiny, falling out with board members, telling supporters to "fuck off and die" during matches, holding Crystal Palace players down by the throat, doesn't really make him sound ideal for a job at a club as ludicrous and stressful as our own beloved shambles.
- The kind of manager that could win the Most Boring Man of the Year award, then beat the presenter to death with the trophy.
- Took 18 months to get Leicester ready for promotion, including winning just three of his final 18 games the season immediately before — do QPR (board, fans) have the patience to go through a similar spell?
- Despite his achievements at Leicester, nobody has had a sniff since he left. Do you get the impression there’s stuff we don’t know?
- Not a fan of ostriches.

Neil Warnock 4/1 (Shaun Derry 25/1)

Age — 66 (37) >>> Current Club — QPR (unattached) >>> Previously Managed — Gainsborough, Scarborough, Burton, Notts County, Torquay, Huddersfield, Plymouth, Oldham, Bury, Sheff Utd, Palace, QPR, Leeds, Palace (Notts County)

Pros:
- Been here, seen it, done it. Knows how QPR work, knows all about the lack of infrastructure, knows the problems and will come in with his eyes wide open. Achieved success here last time despite it all.
- I've included mention of Shaun Derry in here because, from what we hear, it's likely the pair would come together, potentially with Warnock in a director of football role with Derry as head coach. The pair have plenty of credit with QPR fans, will get more time than an outsider to turn things around, and improve the fairly toxic atmosphere around the place in the short term.
- Although Shaun Derry was sacked by Notts County, he does have the experience of running a club with many of the same farcical circumstances as QPR. He did get County going for a while too, climbing up into the League One promotion picture before falling away dramatically — that's more than any of their other clutch of recent managers has managed.
- Warnock has been around the club for the best part of a month now and already knows what he has to work with. Derry, too, has been attending matches and training sessions, and analysing the club and the team all season. A potentially tricky handover period where new managers talk about "getting to know the players" would be shortened significantly.
- Potentially a sound, experienced hand on the tiller for the rest of this season just to steady things down and ensure we don't start free falling through this division.

Cons:
- Warnock failed recently with a similar second coming at Crystal Palace, and prior to that at Leeds.
- Shaun Derry is far less experienced than Chris Ramsey — which I presume is an issue as Ramsey used to be pilloried for it.
- If it doesn't got well — and there's a really good chance it won't looking at the state of the club and the team — it risks tarnishing the reputation and legacy of one or two people who are held in very high esteem after their first spell.
- While it's nice to get nostalgic sometimes, and both earned their right to be considered for this job with the work they did last time, would any other club at our level honestly be considering a Warnock and Derry axis these days? Especially one with apparent designs on promotion.
- If he is eyeing a director of football position with Derry beneath him, it makes Les Ferdinand's job redundant. While some, unkind and impatient, people would see that as a good thing the whole idea of having a director of football set up is to create continuity of policy, ethos and thinking even if managers are coming and going. You're not meant to chuck the director of football out with the bath water, it renders the whole idea pointless.
- Worked well with Amit Bhatia and Ishan Saksena in his last spell, and they’re no longer involved.
- Seemingly, another very short term appointment.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink 7/1

Age — 43 >>> Current Club — Burton Albion >>> Previously Managed — Royal Antwerp, Burton Albion

Pros:
- A younger, hungry manager who has learnt his trade at lower levels and would see QPR as a significant step forward in his career.
- Has been used to working with a very small playing budget, getting the best out of his players through coaching and tactics, and scouting intelligently for bargains — skills QPR have been crying out for.
- Already has experience managing in Europe, so will know the transfer market and potential bargains there better than many candidates.
- A strong character and big personality, vital for a challenging job and club that has proven too much for others to make a success of.
- Good connections in the game for a manager of his age.

Cons:
- The Chelsea connection. Small-minded maybe, but don't underestimate its importance. If this team isn't to be turned into a promotion contender simply by changing the manager (highly likely to be the case in my opinion) there's a good few months, possibly years, of mediocrity to trudge through before things get better. Hasselbaink's Chelsea past means he'll get even less time with supporters than other contenders if it doesn't go well quickly.
- Lack of experience, both generally and specifically at Championship level.
- It's not clear what extent of Hasselbaink’s Burton success is built on the fine work done by his predecessor Gary Rowett. Given the fantastic job Rowett has subsequently done at Birmingham, while hacking into costs at the same time, be wary of giving Hasselbaink too much credit.
- Not only did Hasselbaink inherit Rowett's team, but he also walked into a club that was already overachieving and therefore has no grand expectations to be met. The fan base was already content with their league position, the chairman is a vastly experienced and very shrewd football man who has built the club up over decades, the stadium is brand new and they train at St George's Park which is one of the best facilities in the country. He would find the complete opposite of all of this at QPR.

Alex McLeish 8/1

Age — 56 >>> Current Club — Unattached >>> Previously Managed — Motherwell, Hibs, Rangers, Scotland, Birmingham, Villa, Forest, Genk

Pros:
- Mel Huckridge likes to talk to him in the Crown.
- People from Glasgow have made excellent football managers in the past.
- Has previously managed a club called Rangers.

Cons:
- Literally everything else. Has proven several times since leaving the fish in a barrel shooting match at Rangers that he's a poor manager. Got Birmingham promoted from this level, but only after relegating them in the first place and subsequently got them relegated again.
- When plunged into a similar situation at Forest - naïve foreign owners, high expectations, money sloshing around, restless supporters — he failed so miserably he lasted barely a month.
- Comes with Richard Keys’ endorsement.
- Not a very good football manager.

Tactical Tim Sherwood 8/1

Age — 46 >>> Current Club — Unattached >>> Previously Managed — Spurs, Villa

Pros:
- Has shown at Spurs, notably with Harry Kane, and Villa, likewise with Jack Grealish, that young players will be given a chance in the first team if they're remotely good enough, even if it's just to make a point about how good he is with young players. It's a bug bear of QPR fans that no juniors ever progress at Loftus Road — if they didn't get a run under Sherwood they wouldn't get a run under anybody.
- Tries to play an attacking brand of football.
- Takes cups seriously.
- Recent failure at Villa only came after his two best players had been sold during the summer and replaced inadequately by a disparate collection of weird and wonderful European punts largely selected by a newly formed transfer committee above him. Nobody succeeds at Villa, not just him.
- Straight talking, no-nonsense style would play well with QPR fans weary of their club being a grazing ground for over-paid, under-worked wanker footballers.
- Has worked with Les Ferdinand, and many of the ex-Spurs staff in the QPR set up previously. Knows and likes Luongo and Hall.

Cons:
- The bloke's an absolute weapon.
- Many of his claims about the young players he brought through at Spurs are overblown or completely untrue. He mentions Ryan Mason frequently, as one for instance, despite him making zero starts and zero sub appearances during Sherwood's spell in charge. Much of the development of those young players was done by the man we've just sacked.
- He's been shown up tactically repeatedly during his time at Spurs and Villa — including by Ramsey in the second half of our 3-3 draw there last season. Villa played seven different systems in seven straight league defeats at the end of his spell there as he thrashed around looking for some sort of answer. This 'football is about footballers not about systems' attitude is not only totally outdated but also entirely unhelpful for a club of QPR's size which has been trying to solve its problem by simply adding more players for too long.
- Might bring Ray Wilkins with him.
- Possible future issue with compensation, having to sack Tim Sherwood and Tim Sherwood.
- Likely to be incredibly expensive. His settlement from Villa is reportedly £2m with a non-compete clause for 12 months, all of which QPR would have to compensate for.
- Refusal to drop down levels and learn his managerial trade means he not only has no experience at Championship level, but comes across as an arrogant dick.
- Even if it was going well, could you stand to listen to him?

Paul Lambert 8/1

Age — 46 >>> Current Club — Unattached >>> Previously Managed — Livingston, Wycombe, Colchester, Norwich, Villa

Pros:
- Achieved great success at this level previously with Norwich, taking a team on its arse in League One and turning it into one capable of surviving in the Premier League inside two years.
- Showed not only canniness in the transfer market to pick up the likes of Jonny Howson, Bradley Johnson and Anthony Pilkington for small fees and make them Premier League players, but also an ability to get the best out of limited players — anybody who can turn Grant Holt into a top flight striker is worthy of consideration.
- Failure at Villa, much like Tim Sherwood, to be judged against a backdrop of everybody failing at Villa, suggesting the manager isn't the problem there.
- Cut his teeth at a lower level with first Wycombe and then Colchester. Knows about working with a variety of skillsets, egos and budgets as a result. He'll find a challenging mix at QPR.

Cons:
- Very defensive playing style, to the point where his Villa team happily conceded 70% possession in away games and defended so deep their back four should have been charged for tickets in the front row of the stand behind the goal.
- Main success so far, at Norwich, was achieved with a much more settled, much better run club than he'd find here.
- Has shown no inclination towards managing in this country, never mind the Championship, since leaving Villa and has been looking mainly abroad. Does he have the stomach for what is a colossal job here?
- While using the fact everybody fails at Villa as a pro, probably worth putting in the cons that everybody fails here too. New man has to be able to get past that and make it work somehow.
- Carries himself like a man taking his dog to the vet to be put down.

Ian Holloway 16/1

Age — 52 >>> Current Club — Sky Sports >>> Previously Managed — Bristol Rovers, QPR, Plymouth, Leicester, Blackpool, Palace, Millwall

Pros:

- A modern day QPR legend. Has picked this club up and returned its identity and pride from a far lower starting point than this.
- Vastly experienced in the Championship, including promotions with Crystal Palace and, miraculously, with Blackpool.
- Would be given more time to succeed because of his standing at the club, and would improve the atmosphere around the place.
- Few on this list love the club as much as Holloway, and would try as hard to put it right. Perhaps QPR need a feel-good appointment.

Cons:
- Sadly, there's a lot of these. It feels like it would be a bad idea. As I said with Warnock and Derry, we risk tarnishing the memory and legend of one of the club's modern day greats by trying to get him to do it again.
- Although he was promoted at Palace, he did so on the back of Dougie Freedman's work and team having joined late in the season and many Palace fans were expressing doubts despite the play-off win. Very honestly walked away from the job two months into the Premier League season saying he wasn't up for it.
- Subsequently had a very poor spell at Millwall and failed at Leicester before that.
- Looked and sounded quite depressed and withdrawn while at Palace and Millwall, like somebody whose time has been and gone. If failure happened at a club he loves as much as QPR, would he cope personally? Do we want to do that to him?
- The overall job he did at Loftus Road last time was incredible considering his starting point and the nonsense going on behind the scenes towards the end of his spell. But, specifically on the pitch, much of the success occurred while Mel Johnson was chief scout and Kenny Jackett the assistant boss. Neither are here now. These days QPR think the chief scout is somebody who can pitch a tent successfully on rough terrain.

Mark Warburton 20/1

Age — 53 >>> Current Club — Glasgow Rangers >>> Previously Managed — Brentford, Glasgow Rangers

Pros:
- A diligent, modern thinking coach.
- Excellent results record with Brentford and Rangers.
- Knows this division, has succeeded in it before with less money and from a lower starting point than he would have at QPR.
- Very focused on team and group over individual, to the point where he fell out with the Brentford chairman who wanted to add new signings to what Warburton saw as a settled dressing room. That would be a refreshing change.
- Having worked hard for a role in football at all over the last decade, after abandoning a career in investment banking, he has a hunger and drive to succeed. He’d see QPR as a chance to get himself into the Premier League for the first time.
- Glasgow Rangers latest tax/money issues mean he may not be as unattainable as it first seems.

Cons:
- Feels like a boat that has sailed. QPR had their chance to appoint him last season, and didn’t do it. Would that effect their chances of getting him this time around? Would he want to come?
- Already at a club, unlikely to release him easily or cheaply unless he forces it through which he doesn’t seem inclined to do.
- Worked in a set up at Brentford that has been carefully cultivated under chairman Matthew Benham, with ever-improving training facilities and youth academy. The club has a clear ethos, strong and experienced senior management and board, and has been on a steady and carefully planned upward trajectory for some time. QPR is a monkey’s tea party by comparison, how would he cope with that? Look what happened when Uwe Rosler left Brentford…
- Whatever they say, the QPR board likes the big name players and constant high profile signings. It’s good PR and publicity. Is Warburton a good fit with that, given what happened at Brentford?
- Could feasibly be a Champions League manager in a short space of time if he stays where he is now.

Kenny Jackett 40/1

Age — 53 >>> Current Club — Wolves >>> Previously Managed — Watford, Swansea, Millwall, Wolves

Pros:
- Very experienced manager and coach, with successful stints at Swansea, Millwall and Wolves under his belt as a number one and QPR already as a number two on his CV.
- Came into a similar situation to the one at QPR now when he took over at Wolves, and was able to rebuild the team into one capable of winning promotion back to the Championship and then pushing straight in towards the play-offs last year while also cutting the size of the squad and its wage bill, and its average age.
- Plays a style of football that would go well at QPR. Favours two big, athletic strikers fed by two out and out wingers with excellent crossing ability and backed by a hard working central midfield.
- Would likely increase the Gallen employment at Rangers by at least 100% by bringing Joe with him.
- Prone to good runs deep into cup competitions, including Wembley appearances while with Millwall.
- Straight-talking, calm, respectful man not likely to draw unnecessary newspaper headlines or farce to a club already very adept at bringing that sort of stuff upon itself.

Cons:
- Hasn't shown, anywhere, the ability to push on beyond getting a decent, solid Championship team together and turning it into a promotion winner. Although his current mediocre form at Wolves comes having lost key man Noah Dickho to injury, it follows a pattern set at Swansea of being able to solidify a club and squad and build a platform for success but needing somebody else to come in and push it on towards the Premier League. That's exactly what QPR need, but judging by the comments from board level of late I don't feel a lot of appetite for 18 months of consolidation and platform building.
- Not exactly Mr Charisma.
- Little experience with big money and big name players.

Others

The sheer length and breadth of the book currently open on this shows how little anybody seems to know, including QPR, about what QPR actually want from a new manager.

Hibs’ Alan Stubbs at 8/1 suggests a modicum of research has been done — Lee Hoos’ influence on the process?

There are names on there I would class as a season ticket returnable offence - Gary Megson and John Carver, for instance, are available at 33/1. Shorter than Uwe Rosler at 40/1, who has perhaps shown at Wigan and Leeds that he’s not well suited to a club in a bit of a state and was propped up by the infrastructure at Brentford, and Brian McDermott who I’m surprised is as long as 40/1 and might be a half decent shout.

There are others - David Moyes at just 12/1, Brendan Rodgers at 20/1 — that just seem like ridiculous wishful thinking to me. Both will be favourites for every Premier League job that comes up between now and whenever they take one. Why on earth would they jump straight back in at QPR in the Championship? They wouldn’t. I find it odd that so many people on social media and message boards seem to think there’s a realistic chance of getting either.

A couple of names - Gus Poyet and Michael Laudrup - are at 25/1 when they have been close to the favourites to come here before. Both are contracted to clubs abroad currently.

I’m surprised Gareth Ainsworth is as long as 66/1, but that’s not to say I’d appoint him for a lot of the same reasons I’d steer clear of Derry and Holloway. Don’t ruin Lovely Gareth now, let him continue to learn his trade and succeed at Wycombe.

Harry Redknapp is laughably as short as 20/1 with Ladbrokes which rather sums this all up.

Conclusion

What might help is if we decided as a club what exactly our expectations are. It was the club that spent the summer playing down our chances this season and the club that subsequently said those expectations had changed after the summer transfer window closed. It was Tony Fernandes who said a fortnight ago that "promotion is everything" and Tony Fernandes who said this week "QPR fans need to manage their expectations".

The betting field for the new manager at QPR is as wide open as you'll ever see, both in terms of prices and the qualities of the candidates. There are experienced and inexperienced managers on there, suits and tracksuits, coaches and managers, modernisers and old stylers, young and old, lower league and Premier League, proven and unproven, attacking and defensive, passing and long-ball. Nobody really knows what QPR are looking for, possibly including QPR themselves.

Personally, my first choice from this bunch would probably be Kenny Jackett from Wolves who has shown previously that he can come into a club like ours in this situation and not only lower the wage bill, the size of the playing staff and the average age of the squad but at the same time build a team rather than a collection of individuals and get things moving upwards again. Not only that, but his preferred style of play with two wingers, two athletic forwards and two hard working central midfielders is very-QPR and would appeal to a fan base which desperately needs a team to get behind. He might also sign James Henry.

But I say that with the idea that he would do that over the next 18 months, getting us into a position where we can go into our last round of parachute payments with a rebuilt team, maybe three signings away from a big promotion shove in 2017/18. Is that what the board want? Is that what the fans want? Would either suffer two lower midtable finishes in the meantime? I have my doubts. If it's an immediate promotion push now that's wanted/needed, Jackett isn't your man I don't think.

What we really need is absolute clarity on what the board wants/needs from the team in the coming months and years and it needs to be communicated clearly to the support base so everybody is on the same page. Then appoint somebody appropriate to that aim and don't go changing the brief halfway through just because you didn't sign somebody you thought you would, or you didn't sell players you think are brilliant.

Personally, the whole list makes me hope there’s a random left field appointment still to emerge.

The Twitter @loftforwords

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stneotsbloke added 11:52 - Nov 12 Thankfully, no mention of Stuart Pearce !!. He's a West London boy so an obvious shoe in ..................... As Clive rightly says, the biggest problem we have is dealing with the Board's ridiculous suggestion (demand ???) that we get back to the Prem next season - why is it that highly successful and intelligent people lose all sense of reality when they become involved with a football club.

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romfordranger added 21:03 - Nov 13 Unfortunately Ramsey was out of his depth due to the high expectations. If we had sold Austin,, Fer, and Philips and he was playing some of the youngsters he may have got more time. Ramsey seems averse to playing the youngsters, and both finess and tactics were poor. Forget personalities, Pearson does seem a real dickhead but I also think he is the best of the current crop of available managers. He has a decent track record, and would probably get us at least challenging for the playoffs. The club will probably mess it up again, and by the end of season we will be going through the same process. It is a circus act, and unfortunately for us the biggest clowns are in the boardroom!

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TacticalR added 17:05 - Nov 15 The club needs to decide where it wants to go before it decides who can take us there. Whoever we end up with, it feels like it's all going to end in tears, because once again the board have shown that they haven't got the stones to stand by their man. Appointing Moyes or Rodgers, even if it were possible, would only add to the sense of QPR as a Frankenstein club. Norwich, Bournemouth and Birmingham have shown that it's better to get someone on the way up (or someone who knows what they are doing at this level) than a big name on the way down, but that's easier said that done. Of the names listed it's a definite 'no' for: McLeish, Sherwood, Holloway, Warnock (who has said he doesn't want to be permanent manager). A con for Paul Lambert is that I can't understand a word he says, although perhaps that's an advantage in pressers. Talking of which, there's the prospect of Pearson rampaging like a bull at the boutique if a journalist says 'waxing' or 'waning'.

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