QPR favourite Kevin Gallen discusses Chris Ramsey’s departure, why he thinks Kenny Jackett is the ideal replacement and backs Rangers to get something on the road at Middlesbrough on Friday night.
Hello all and welcome to my second column of the season for the Brent & Kilburn Times.
Quite evidently a lot has changed at the club since my last column, with Chris Ramsey relieved of his first-team duties.
I wasn’t surprised to see Chris go. There was too much disgruntlement coming from the fans. There’s huge expectation at the club and rightly so, there’s a good group of players at QPR and there’s still plenty of money being spent too.
The chairman and the fans will look at that and demand success, and by that meaning at least a top-six finish. The managerial situation needs to be cleared up very soon. I‘m not surprised that the club have been swamped with applications, it’s a fantastic job.
Backed
Believe me I’d do it tomorrow morning if I got the chance. People go on about it being difficult to manage a club like QPR, but the opportunity to be at a club like that is one a hosts of managers will relish, and by Les’s recent comments it certainly seems that way.
There’s all this money to spend on players, so one thing you’ve got to say about Tony Fernandes is that he’s always backed every manager he’s had in charge.
I still think if Neil Warnock gets a couple of wins on board in the next couple of games there’s still a chance he could get the job until the end of the season, and then the club could look to make a full-time appointment in the summer. What you’ll see with him and Kevin Blackwell in charge is a team which is organised and has plenty of endeavour and fight.
Willing
If Neil doesn’t stay, you’ve got to get in someone who is willing to work under a director of football, and accept they won’t be in charge of recruitment, so for me it will be either a foreign manager or a young up and coming boss coming in.
I can’t see someone like Nigel Pearson, who is a good manager at this level, wanting to work under those conditions, he comes across as the type of man who likes to be in sole control of the football side of things.
That said, I think Kenny Jackett would be a great acquisition for the club if he became available. He’s got a proven track record and has done a fantastic job at Wolves. He’s worked at QPR in the past too, so for me it would be a no-brainer. It would have the club’s short-term and long-term ambitions in mind. I believe the fans would back him and the players would love working under someone like that. He would be infectious around the place.
Precarious
Without stating the obvious it’s clear Rangers are in a precarious situation at the moment, but it’s one which will start looking a lot more positive if they can put a couple of wins together.
It will be a tough game at the Riverside against one of the best sides in the division, who will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.
That said don’t be surprised if Rangers nick something there. They are firm underdogs for a reason but a good result against a side like this is all that is needed to reignite a team’s season.
I would like to think QPR will be challenging with the likes of Middlesborough come May, but they must start picking up points urgently if that is to be the case.
They don’t want to be in a situation at Christmas where they are eight or 10 points off the play-offs, because then it will be a real uphill talk to push for promotion in the second half of the campaign.
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