Queens Park Rangers tonight parted company with manager Neil Warnock after a run of nine matches without a victory. For owner Tony Fernandes it is a decision that will define his reign, and shape our club for years to come.

The King is dead…

It’s a needlessly petty touch in an otherwise well designed new stadium that the visiting teams at MK Dons get standard fold down seats on their bench while the home substitutes recline on the now fashionable padded arm chairs. Neil Warnock, nursing 20 stitches in his mouth after a midweek bone graft, chose the seat at the end of the row to watch his final game as QPR manager and spent much of it cutting a frustrated figure.

At one point in the second half he actually started to rock backwards and forwards, hands thrust into his pockets, blood pressure no doubt through the roof. Occasionally the Warnock the country has grown to know and, mostly, loathe over the past 30 years would reappear again. After the last in a series of horribly misplaced passes from Shaun Derry prompted chants from the travelling thousands of QPR fans mocking their own team’s Premier League status he exploded, accelerating to the edge of his technical area with a volley of abuse and then wheeling around to demand Akos Buzsaky change and prepare himself for action. That substitution, like most of Warnock’s decisions in recent weeks, made no discernable change for the better.

The rocking wasn’t just frustration with his team’s under-performance, it was the realisation that he didn’t know what to do about it. A sad end, in a desolate place, to a fantastic 22 month reign at Loftus Road.

Warnock used his column in The Independent on Saturday morning to heap praise on the FA Cup and talk about how much he values it. Strange, because a year ago at Blackburn he’d jokingly threatened centre half Kaspars Gorkss with a fine had he equalised to force an unwanted replay with the Premiership side. That day, and in every cup tie he’s played since he arrived at the club, he fielded a reserve team. Suddenly yesterday he wanted to win, and spoke about going all the way to the final, but the need for victory was more about self preservation and a desperate need to kick start the QPR season rather than any genuine Wembley ambition. A stronger team selection brought a performance every bit as abject as the surrender to Rochdale in the League Cup back in August. The players, disinterested and ambling about almost to a man for the majority of yesterday’s farce, simply weren’t playing for him any more.

In many ways Warnock was a victim of his own success at QPR. He arrived as the club’s fourth manager in a traumatic 2009/10 season when expectations for the team were at rock bottom and League One looked more likely than the Premiership. He found a side half made up of mediocre loan players and kept it up with something to spare. He stated openly that he wanted to win promotion to the Premiership in his first full season in charge and, despite being widely criticised for the quality of his signings in the summer of 2010, was as good as his word. QPR didn’t lose a single one of their first 19 matches of the campaign and were promoted as champions.

The target for the top flight was simple; anything from seventeenth upwards would suffice. Warnock leaves with QPR in seventeenth position despite a disastrous summer where Flavio Briatore retook control from Amit Bhatia, and then spent the months following promotion refusing to strengthen the team safe in the knowledge that he was about to sell the club. The takeover went through with ten days of transfer window left, and important games against Bolton and Wigan already lost, and Warnock scrambled together a side that at the point he was sacked was achieving its target of remaining outside the relegation zone in its first top flight season for 15 years.

In those ten days Warnock attracted high profile players to the club – Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton and Anton Ferdinand all came through the doors and initial performances against Newcastle, Wolves, Stoke and Manchester City were exceptional. QPR climbed as high as ninth in November, the best performance of the three promoted clubs and well in excess of everybody’s expectations.

But when the performances fell away, expectations remained high. People had seen how the team could perform and wondered why it was no longer doing so. A tough run of fixtures that featured games against six of the top eight teams as well as a trip to unhappy hunting ground Carrow Road brought a creditable seven points but performances declined and the Christmas results were far inferior to those we’d seen earlier in the season.

Warnock said earlier this season he’d waited his whole life for a team like the one he had at his disposal at Loftus Road but in recent weeks that mantra changed to the point where he effectively seemed to be writing off chunks of fixtures and large swathes of his playing staff that he believed would need to be replaced in the notoriously volatile January transfer market. His praise of opponents and “just happy to be here” attitude to Premiership life began to grate as belief drained from his team.

He may well have kept QPR up had he been given the chance to add the further four or five players he believed we are missing this month. But in the meantime, while he waited for the window to creak open, worrying signs started to appear. Compare Shaun Wright-Phillips performance in the home games with Newcastle and Chelsea to his more recent showings, compare Joey Barton v Wolves to Joey Barton v Swansea, Anton Ferdinand’s first two months with the club with his last two and so on.

This is modern day football at its worst, where players hold every single card in every single aspect of the game. That QPR team at the moment is playing well within itself. Whatever the reasons, however many mistakes Neil Warnock has made, there are several players who he brought to the club who have not pulled their weight for him and today’s news is the result of that.

But Warnock has made mistakes. In the summer he cited Blackpool and their free spirited attacking ethos as an inspiration for his side and Man City, Wolves and Stoke all found his QPR team difficult to live with. Compare those performances to the limp surrender at Liverpool and last half an hour against Swansea where even a modicum of attacking ambition would have yielded greater rewards. Three defensive midfielders started in home games against Blackburn and Sunderland – where was this gung ho approach he’d promised and initially enjoyed success with?

When taking the QPR job he cited his disappointment with how things had turned out at Sheffield Unted, where he worked like a dog for years to get them promoted but then found himself unable to keep them in the Premier Division. The Blades looked the least likely side to go down that year of all the relegation candidates but Warnock approached the final games of the season in ultra cautious mode, playing the hapless Christian Nade up front on his own even in the penultimate match against a poor Aston Villa side with nothing to play for, a game they lost 3-0. Sadly in recent weeks some of these traits were starting to shine through again.

Warnock had either lost his way, lost his dressing room, or both. The starting 11 changed haphazardly, the team lined up in a 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 and more besides. How could we be sure his January signings would make a difference when he didn’t seem to know what system he wanted to use? Jay Bothroyd played as a centre forward, then not at all, then as a support man, then not at all, then as a wide attacker, and then not at all again on Saturday.

DJ Campbell was signed to great fanfare in the summer and then never used; Warnock pursued Andy Johnson last week without ever having given Campbell, a similar player, a run of games. Campbell’s performance on Sunday at MK Dons justifies that decision but when demanding faith and money for a transfer window Warnock must surely acknowledge that buying a player to replace one he bought just six months ago and has never used was going to raise concern. Likewise his assertion that the club should not take advantage of the break clause in Kieron Dyer’s contract this January despite one of football’s biggest mercenaries being ruled out for the rest of the campaign after just four pathetic minutes of action. In the summer he allowed Kaspars Gorkss to leave, signed Bruno Perone who’d looked out of his depth even against our meagre pre-season opposition, and has spent the last few weeks saying we need to sign another centre back. Remember whose money this is.

Compare his backing of Dyer, who has done absolutely nothing positive for the first team to warrant any loyalty or support, with his lambasting of Armand Traore for his sending off against Aston Villa. Compare his criticism of Adel Taarabt’s outspoken interviews with his silence after Joey Barton went very public with harsh criticism of the Moroccan. Even when Warnock was doing well at Loftus Road it was very much a case of being with him or packing your bags – Martin Rowlands and Pascal Chimbonda were both ostracised and ignored for failing to toe the party line sufficiently.

He was playing with fire by filling his dressing room with such strong characters and it appears to me, as nothing more than a week-in-week-out supporter, that it backfired on him. Harry Redknapp spoke of a tremendous argument heard during the half time break at White Hart Lane followed by two substitutions and a second half rally from Rangers. But there was none of that fire on show yesterday at Stadium:MK where QPR players could repeatedly by found ambling back at a walking pace as the home side launched vibrant counter attacks.

All of this would have been forgiven in the past, with Warnock’s efforts last year entitling him to at least one full season in the top flight regardless of how it went. But there’s no loyalty in football anymore, and no money in loyalty. This is the sport we follow now.

He came to the Premiership to prove everybody wrong, but in what will surely be now his long talked about retirement he’ll have to face up to the fact that he will forever be remembered as a lower division promotion specialist who struggled to make the step up to the top flight.

With a heavy heart, I’m finding it hard to argue against the decision that’s been made, but every day I find myself disliking football a little bit more.

All on red…

This all left chairman Tony Fernandes with a choice because time has been against QPR all season. They were forced to play catch up on the rest of the division in the summer when a late takeover left just ten days for squad building while the other more established sides had been at work for three months. Then the structure of their fixture list meant a bad run of results was put down to playing so many outstanding teams all at once and a sacking in advance of the transfer window therefore rightly ruled out. Now with plenty of corrections required to the squad and only 30 days of transfer window to do it in a change had to be made immediately or not at all or risk the summer situation being repeated again - with the last ten games of the season looking like the stuff of nightmares it would have been pointless to allow Warnock to strengthen, then decide later to sack him, and leave a new man with somebody else’s players and eight of the top ten to play in the final ten fixtures.

Fernandes either had to back Warnock today, allow him to bring in his own players and then leave him to do it until the end of the season, or he had to sack him. He’s sacked him, and immediately been set upon by online supporters with talk of tearing up season tickets and losing all faith in the new owner.

That seems premature, as does the praise from those who believe he’s done exactly the right thing. Slating him or singing his praises now is akin to standing next to the roulette wheel and hurling abuse at a gambler who’s put it all on red and is waiting for the wheel to stop spinning. He only knows if it was the right decision when the ball drops, and we’ll only know if Tony Fernandes has done the right thing here if we’re still a Premiership side next August. If you’ve taken the time out to abuse Tony Fernandes on Twitter tonight then I’m afraid I just don’t understand your mentality.

There are ambitious plans for QPR. A desperately needed purpose built training ground and youth academy is, according to CEO Philip Beard, just around the corner. A new stadium is a priority. All of Fernandes’ plans and ambitions are based on QPR as a Premiership side, earning Premiership money from Premiership television rights. QPR need to be a Premiership team for a lot of this to happen and it was clear from recent performances, and body language of many of the players yesterday at Milton Keynes, that this hard-won Premiership status was in serious, serious doubt. Fernandes has rolled the dice; let’s see where they land before hanging him for it. If the new manager keeps us up the foundations could very quickly be put in place for a QPR club that holds its own at the highest level for years to come. If he doesn’t, it may be 15 years before we’re back here again and things like owning our own purpose built training ground will remain a pipe dream. Everything hangs on the result of this massive decision today

This time last year an orderly queue of the great and the good formed to talk about what a disgrace West Brom’s sacking of Roberto Di Matteo after he’d won them promotion was – Roy Hodgson subsequently kept them up with something to spare.

Next

Time will continue to punish QPR as they begin their search for Neil Warnock’s successor. There are 22 days of transfer window left and in that time the R’s also face Newcastle and an absolutely crucial home game against Wigan Athletic. In an ideal world what QPR should do now is to take a lot of time to consider carefully what sort of manager they want here, advertise the post and interview candidates from all corners of the globe, of all ages and of all footballing backgrounds. They need to make an appointment with an eye on the next five years or more.

But nothing highlights what a short termist view football has on everything at the moment more than Neil Warnock’s departure today. QPR need to be a Premiership club next season, and for that to happen they need to have a significant number of points on the board by the time they’ve concluded their game at fellow strugglers Bolton in March. After that ten games will remain including fixtures with Manchesters United and City, Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, resurgent Sunderland and Stoke.

Sadly just when they really need to think carefully about a long term strategy, they’re probably going to have to make a very quick appointment for the short term.

Mark Hughes is an early favourite with the bookies, if not with the majority of QPR supporters. Hughes endured years of running battles with QPR legend Alan McDonald during his playing days at Manchester United and finished his career at Chelsea which is never going to position him favourably with the Loftus Road faithful. He also spent the best part of £200m with Manchester City and managed a tenth and sixth place finish only. And he walked out on Fulham last summer citing a lack of ambition with both parties seemingly quite happy to be parting company.

But at both Blackburn and Fulham, clubs of similar size to Rangers with similar budgets, he achieved comfortable midtable finishes and showed a deftness in the transfer market that QPR would love him to recreate at Loftus Road. Chris Samba found and bought for £400,000 is a particular triumph but Hughes also bought Roque Santa Cruz and Benni McCarthy on the cheap at Blackburn and had them playing the best football of their careers, and City still benefit from the likes of Vincent Kompany who he brought to the club. I’m not as adverse to this appointment as most seem to be.

Alan Curbishley has been mentioned but he doesn’t strike me as a particularly inspired or forward thinking appointment – he looked a tired and outdated coach in his latter days at West Ham. Another former Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola is said to figure highly in Fernandes’ thinking but, nice guy though he undoubtedly is, I thought he did an abysmal job at Upton Park and set them up for relegation last season which Avram Grant duly saw through. If Grant is so much as linked with QPR I could well have seen my final match.

Rafael Benitez is another name being tipped, and Tony Fernandes seemed to endorse the stories through his Twitter account on Sunday evening. Benitez has been out of work since a messy departure from Liverpool, where he won the European Cup in 2005, but is a known Anglophile and has remained a resident of Southport since he left Anfield rather than returning to his native Spain where he previously won two La Liga titles and a UEFA Cup with Valencia. Even in the good times at Anfield his transfer activity was wildly erratic, and although he built a squad capable of winning the league in 2008/09 they missed out because of his incessant team rotation that cost them vital points in winnable home games. I’d be surprised if he was remotely interested in a relegation dog fight with QPR but stranger things have happened.

Currently, Hughes looks the favourite.

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Pictures – Action Images

Photo: Action Images

QPRFish added 01:37 - Jan 9 Isn't it strange how when results start goin against us it's the training sessions etc etc that are to blame. With the same managerial set up last season i didn't hear a word of dissent....... Hmmmmmm
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ozranger added 02:45 - Jan 9 Good analysis Clive. Yet, I think there will be a decision within the next 24 hours. As you said, the transfer window is closing and no player will sign with a club if they do not know who the manager is. While I am not a Hughes favourite, he may at least help build the team to keep us there, build both in players and morale. Let's hope for the best. At least we will not have to worry about an old favourite.. Jim Magilton. He has taken up a temporary coaching position in Melbourne, Australia! Finally, I do feel sorry for Neil. While he was not as much a fan favourite as Ollie was, I feel he did get along well with the fans - as you said there has been some solid backlash on twitter, etc. I for one will miss his post-game media-conferences.

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MelakaRanger added 02:59 - Jan 9 Well written Clive. Well written indeed. Sad to see him go but it was the right decision, albeit maybe 2 weeks too late. Tony F is here for the long term - just look at how 'poor' his F1 team is and he is still backing them. We have to 'trust in Tony'. He is driven to succeed and with him QPR will succeed. I just hope its not too late to save this season. Its so easy for supporters to be anti this or that or pro this and that. Its what makes us all different and makes ofr good debate. But to slag off Tony F on Twitter and the like, is bang out of order. As for a successor. I have never liked Hughes myself but if his is deemed to be what we need then so be it. And I totally agree about the players. Warnock is not the only one who should pay for our appaling performance these past 10 games. A number of them should either man up or ship out - both old and new to the club - Bothroyd, Barton, SWP, Derry, Campbell, Taarabt to name but a few. If they are not part of our solution then they are part of our problem!

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CanadaRanger added 03:18 - Jan 9 Well written, Clive. I am disappointed with the decision, but won't criticize TF as he is bankrolling the club and (right, wrong, or without change) it was his decision to make.
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snanker added 03:39 - Jan 9 Sound perspective Clive and yes spot on every day we get a little more disillusioned with this game. Gotta feel for NW and fear for the next man in the hot seat. Time will tell is the old mantra and wouldn't back any new boss to keep us up. We must have been dyer (sic) at MK Dons and lucky to get out of it so late with a fortunate goal. Having said that would NW now be gone if we'd won ? Whats, ifs, and buts seems to be what the game evolves around more than ever these daze (sic) especially so as far as our R's are concerned. Ultimately TF puts in the cash so he can call it anyway he sees it & as you say lets pray he has got it right before time runs out ?

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ozexile added 06:04 - Jan 9 Good article. I don't believe anyone is happy about the sacking yet the way the season is going something had to be done. Warnock will have been paid handsomely he's got a loving family to go to he'll know it's not the end of the world. If he ever comes back to Loftus Ed he should get a standing ovation. Let's all move on and look forward to the rest of the season.
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MelakaRanger added 08:28 - Jan 9 Alis out for the rest of the season. So so stupid to have played him in the first place. But no good looking back, we must look forward. Now we need yet another 'quality' player. Drat drat and triple drat! Lets hope the cheque book is big enough !
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BazzaInTheLoft added 08:29 - Jan 9 Blackburn fans worship Hughes, and they were in a similer situation to us when he took over....
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JB007007 added 08:49 - Jan 9 Thank you Clive for these articles. Very very sad that its not worked out for NW at QPR in the Premier League. In your last article you listed down some memorable games with Neil in charge and he for me has become a legend like Ollie. They both pulled off the impossible under such challenging circumstances. No other Managers would have achieved what they did at their respective times. The decision had to be made now so the timing was right (just about) whether or not its the right decision... Disappointing that NW's own players were not playing for him. As far as the next man, I guess Mark Hughes is the obvious choice. Can command respect, has done some reasonably good jobs in the Premier League and can probably attract some of the players we've been linked with. If it is him then its in his interests to get here quickly too, with the transfer window ticking down.

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QPRski added 09:06 - Jan 9 I am sure that it was a tough decision for TF. It is a decision that he will need to live with (and more importantly reap or pay the financial consequences of) However, I am dissapointed by the lack of strategic planning. Clearly now the clock is ticking and a "best availlable candidate" will be chosen and not "the best candidate". I personally am hoping for a "Martin O'Neil type of new manager" effect. I fear that even the new management who want to put the club first and slowly build succcess is and will continue to roll over new managers. Clearly QPR are the clear historical leaders in this field. It is a pity that NW who did "miracles" with us in the Championship is sacrificised for Premiership survival. Perhaps this is the modern game - but it is not so with every club and I think the board also plays a very large role. Let's hope that they now the correct decions and actions!! The king is dead! Long live the king!

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ElHoop added 09:26 - Jan 9 When people take drastic action, everyone says that they gambled, but doing nothing is also a gamble in those situations. Put it another way, if you do nothing, then you are gambling that things will work out. I'm not sure that Warnock had actually lost the dressing room. MKD were a decent side and they used the ball well. We didn't have much guile in the side, nobody to pull the strings and make things happen, with the exception of poor Faurlin. Everyone else seemed to be giving it to someone else to do something constructive with the ball, but there weren't enough ideas on the QPR side. Little imagination. The ball was passed around like a parcel that nobody wanted to open. In those circumstances, I think that the players lost their way in the first half, which was as poor as i can remember under Warnock, given the quality of opposition. At the time, I said to my son that we were playing better than that last season. In the second half, we did come out and play a bit, to start with anyway. Macheda moved wider out on the left and got plenty of change out of their right back. He looked decent - basics like pace, strength, ability to track back and defend when required. What you would expect from a Man Utd player and absent from many of his teammates. But at least we looked lively during that period of the game. Smith wasn't having a great game but was willing. Faurlin was finding the spaces, for Macheda in particular. But Campbell just wasn't at the races at any stage. Had he scored from Macheda's cross, things may have ended up differently, but it was certainly no surprise when Helga replaced him. If Macheda was tired then I can understand his substitution but otherwise most would have preferred Mackie to go off. Macheda at least has some potential and looks a certain starter under the new manager, up front with Helguson or down the left. If they get the right replacement, then I think it will probably work out for us. If they don't it won't, simple as that. The thing is, we are currently a club without any real core, heart or continuity. We the fans are the only thing of substance that's been here for any length of time. We need players who have come upthrough the ranks, staff coaches and management who know who we are and what we stand for. But that takes longer than we have. At the moment it's just us, the fans. We need to get behind them, as we are all there is that is truly 'QPR'. Cheer them on. Come on you R's.

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Northernr added 09:46 - Jan 9 Fish - isn't it always the way? Whoever the new man is, expect the players to be talking about how much fitter they are within two weeks. Look at the performances of the Sunderland players for Steve Bruce compared to how the same group of players is now performing for MON. Players get managers the sack, once they stop playing for you, you've had it. Stinks.
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benbu added 09:56 - Jan 9 Very gutted about NW being sacked, he bought back the good days for the Rangers fans and im sure the majority of our fans will hold him in regard as club legend overseeing the championship win in 14 months and beating Chelsea at home. Very tough news to take, but I guess not totally shocked by it. I would like to personally thank NW for bringing the smiles back on the Rangers faces and brining our club back from a joke to a proper football club. Great times! wont ever be forgotten. Unfortunately in recent weeks, I do feel that NW had lost the plot slightly, some odd substitutions at weird times, poor formation and player selections, too many excuses after poor showings and players in the wrong position too often. Also in important games I felt we should have been more positive and missed out on 3 points - WBA, Blackburn, Swansea to name 3! The players (as several have mentioned previously) also have to realise what a let-down they have been and the FA cup showing proved how little they wanted to perform 100% for the club. Too many errors and lack of trying has to stop and they all have to be behind each other and wanting to play for the club. Hopefully a new manager will have time to strengthen the squad ASAP and we can survive this season. Anxious times ahead but hopefully this decision pays off.....

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qprjug added 10:02 - Jan 9 Im new to posting but have been reading LFW for a while. I too am dissappointed wuth the decision, warnock didnt really get a fair run with transfers, his summer was wrecked by previous owners holding out for the best they could get and not giving a toss about us. Hopefully we can attract someone who can give us our belief and fighting spirit back which have ebbed away over the last few weeks, personally i think faulin out for season is worse, he appears to be our only consistent performer. We have to back TF though, otherwise its championship here we come. I think its time our players had a hard look at themselves also and realise what a privelidged position they are in and maybe they should give it 100%.

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QPRski added 10:40 - Jan 9 I think that every body feels a bit washed out and is emotional. I have just re-read these last 3 reports & all comments to refect & formulate my own thoughts on what has happended, and what could be the implication for the future. Clive, Many thank for puting out these articles in a very short period of time with your usual excellent professional analysis and good taste. It must have been difficut to control your emptions. Your work work is very much appreciated and for me it an excellent reality check.

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AshteadR added 10:44 - Jan 9 Thanks for a well written, balanced article Clive. Time will tell, whether this is a good decision or not, but it clearly wasn't made lightly and it's good to see that it seems to be as amicable as these things can be. I feel very sorry for Warnock, who transferred us from relegation candidates into a decent Premier league outfit (at least until November) but it really is a dirty business - far too much money at stake. I don't expect we'll see Warnock again, but he deserves a huge amount of credit for the miracles he worked. The players really need to step up now; some of them were truly awful on Saturday - you get away with a lot more if you at least put the effort in.

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grahamrose added 11:17 - Jan 9 Excellent articles and reports Clive. So much that all of us want to say at the moment and the timing seems curious to me. If the decision was made after and because of Saturdays debacle then fair enough and the players concerned really need to look at themsleves and beyond because it stinks. However, if the decision was on the cards previously then why wait until after Saturdays game? NW should have gone a week ago, then get the new manager in as his transfer targets were/are bound to be different. Wasted time to me if that decision was going to be made on 1 game it condenses the apparent time it takes to get players signed up these days!! All of that said i, along with many QPR fans, would like to thank Neil Warnock for what he acheived. It was nothing short of phenominal and some. If he retires, i hope he gets enough out of us to enjoy it (although they are not badly paid are they?). One hell of a ride Neil, THANKS.

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dixiedean added 11:34 - Jan 9 I echo the thoughts of many contributors in saying we all see NW leave with a heavy heart- he made us credible as a club again and restored pride. However, he hasn't been backed by his players of late,and they should take much of the blame for his sacking.TF no doubt saw the effect with Sunderland and will no doubt be thinking why Swans & Norwich are doing much better than us with lower investment. It does seem very harsh on NW but there is no room for sentiment in football and as Clive said,it was Sh*t or bust time- he either pulled the trigger now or gave NW money to spend and hoped it worked.Managers have to make tough decisions with players in the same way- that is football,whether we like it or not. Businessmen like TF don't make their millions by sitting around wondering- they are ' doers'-they make painful and often ruthless decisions by which they stand or fall and keepintg the status quo is a decision/gamble in itself.He must have someone already lined up ( presumably Hughes) or he would have kept Jones or Curle in place for Newc game so an immediate appt is likely IMO and it needs to be.NW's pride will be hurt but he won't starve and nobody has died, so let's not be too morose.If anyone has my sympathy today it's Ale Faurlin as he know faces a long hard road back when he's entering his prime. Let's home he comes back as good as before and as a premier lge player. Sadly this is not about what is proper or fair,it's about what moves the club forward and the stakes are enormous. NW is the victim of the fallout,but if the players look in the mirror and can say they've given 100%, they're probably wrong.It's wrong to abuse TF at this point-he has done what he thinks is right.Only time will tell if it was hasty or well-timed.Meantime let's get behind the team and the new manager ( just so long as it's not Ray Wilkins!)

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headhoops added 11:48 - Jan 9 Thanks Clive, well balanced and perfectly stated. Having reflected over night my opinion remains that its certainly sad that NW has been dismissed, however, it really did look at MK that he had lost the dressing room as the old cliche says. Our recent form has been shocking and not just that, its the manner in which we are playing, the negative formations at home, the reluctance to substitute certain players. I fear NW had simply run out of ideas in a division that is merciless. Whoever we appoint the players more than anyone I belive owe it to the fans to stand up and be counted. DJ's effort and work rate at MK was scandalous. Hughes looks the favourite, he could bring in his old sparring partner Macca as defensive coach! Come the end of the season we will either be hailing TF as a true genius or lambasting him for firing our best manager for a long time.

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newgolddream added 11:58 - Jan 9 Sad news to hear of the departure of Neil Warnock However it was inevitable following our dreadful run of results and heres hoping that the board can bring in the right man to rescue our season. Personally I would have thought he was at least as popular as Ollie who had some rocky times at Shepherd's Bush albeit with a financial strait jacket. NW was unlucky that Fernades didn't take over pre-season and its very possible that we wouldn't have been much worse off if we had used last season's panel and not brought in any new additions at all. Many thanks Neil for bringing the championship trophy to W12 after thirty five long years. Very disappointing news about Ali Faurlin and the FA Cup curse has struck again. Having said that lets win our replay and bring Chelsea to Loftus Road for another beating in round four. After all they are the only team to leave here empty handed since April, 2011.

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Spaghetti_Hoops added 12:33 - Jan 9 As a piece of fiction your account of what didn't happen at MK is quite readable. Like most sports journalists you fit the narrative to the outcome rather than seek the truth. The truth is that we have been patchy and inconsistent throughout. Lucky wins against Everton, Stoke and Chelsea, unfortunate dropped points at other times. We are probably where we deserve to be overall but the 'form' has not been in decline, we are just coming out of a run of very tough games with confidence understandably fragile. What you saw at MK was players like DJ, Bothroyd and Smith playing like DJ, Bothroyd and Smith do. Other players not brimming with confidence in a completely changed team. We were outsiders to win the game, and it was never going to be easy or pretty. Warnock has never changed. His weaknesses now were all apparent in the first half of last season. Our early unbeaten run and Taarabt's exception individual ability allowed him play two defensive holding central midfielders, a 'holding' wide player (Hogan), a target man who rarely shot and basically we wore the division down with conservative football enlivened by Taarabt, Routledge and Walker. At Sheffield United he wasted strikers by the bus load. He has just been continuing that characteristic with Hulse, Bothroyd, DJ etc. In compensation Warnock has many strengths. Let's hope the next manager has more, because sacking a manager is dead easy, finding a better one can be tricky. I have not seen anybody comment on the fact that the Chairman has only five months experience (and has never appointed a manager), the CEO has four months experience of football full stop, and the Vice-Chairman only four years and not a great track record of persuading others to make good decisions. Our club is in very inexperienced hands. They may be enthusiastic and have a talent for PR, but can they run a football club?

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BlackCrowe added 13:25 - Jan 9 IMO I think the whole Barton saga seemed to knock the stuffing out of NW - 1-0 up in a possible last-chance saloon match and that happens. And to rub salt in, the FA endorse it. Neil - have youself some well-deserved time off mate, and many thanks for everything - we are extremely grateful.
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NorwayRanger16 added 13:35 - Jan 9 Great, great article Clive. Whether Neil Warnock got the transfer window ruined by the Goons doesn't matter. He got dealt a poor hand before his PL comeback, tough luck, but TF can not take that into consideration. We're over halfway through the season and got three weeks left of the transfer window. We've had an alarming slide in the table AND in the performance of the team. For me TF hands were tied, if we are to survive it had to be done, end of. It would have been great to give Neil a full season, he certainly deserved to. But we would be relegated come may. Now Neil can go with his head held high and forever live in our memories as the legend he was. Thank you Neil for everything, especially for bringing pride back to our club, but also last seasons fantastic promotion. Thanks to Mick and Keith as well, best coaching staff in ages.

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ManinBlack added 13:54 - Jan 9 Clive you rightly mention WBA and their change of manager last season not doing them any harm and we have to hope for something similar. You could also have pointed out Newcastle and West Ham from last season as examples to highlight your point. Like us, Newcastle arrived in the Premiership as champions with Chris Hughton at the helm and they had results that we could only envy. They thrashed Villa 6-0 and their local rivals Sunderland 5-1, not to mention winning at Arsenal yet none of this saved Hughton from the sack. If I recall Newcastle went 5 games without a win and he was gone in early December. To be fair to their board Newcastle have done ok with Alan Pardew despite the fans outrage at the time all this happened. If it is true Fernandes is a West Ham follower than he would have noted the events at Upton Park from last season. This time last year there was much speculation that Avram Grant would be sacked but in the end West Ham left him in charge and down they went. This may well have had a bearing on the decision to sack Warnock as Tony would be mindful that this bad run could continue if the players resented Warnock for whatever reason. We are not party to what goes on behind the scenes but it maybe that TF has observed a rift and he felt if it drags on it would be too late to save our season so once again player power wins the day. The obvious difference with us is the timing of the sacking compared to the Newcastle situation. They gave their new man a month to assess his squad before the January transfer window opened something our new manager is not going to have. In many ways we are back to the summer scenario with our manager having a couple of weeks to identify the players he wants so that does not bode well for our survival hopes. I fear we are reliant on most of our current squad upping their game to get us out of this mess. The question is whether any of the bigger names we signed care enough about the club to save us from the drop or whether they just think it is acceptable for QPR to be relegated because they will join another Premiership club in the summer. Sadly we won't have Warnock's expertise to get us back into the Premiership should the worst happen. Either way it is a massive gamble and the outcome could either see us blossom if we survive or crush future ambition if we fail in terms of a new ground, youth policy etc.

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extratimeR added 14:24 - Jan 9 Very good balanced piece Clive, just about summed up my thoughts exactly, Norwich away in the first half was a wake up call, with Derry exposed and a deadful confused first half show, lots of in my opinion correct comment about Derry starting home games. The Independent is my rag and when I saw the comments about the FA Cup, I thought "Hello its cover your arse time" particularly after the Rochdale shambles. I think the Sunderland game was the end of the road for Neil, tactics were incomprehensible, we had descended to pure long ball, Tarabt taken off, etc etc, We all watched it, trooped off to pub, and all agreed NW had run out of ideas. A sad end to a manager who has done wonderful things for the club, with some inspired signings, Derry, Clint Hill etc, who did so much to get us promoted Tony Fernandez was correct to make this call.

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