Queens Park Rangers have been connected with former Norwich City manager Johannes Hoff Thorup as a replacement for Marti Cifuentes, but the club’s decision has yet to be confirmed.
Here’s a summary of the recent developments. QPR placed manager Marti Cifuentes on gardening leave for the final game of the 2024/25 season due to a deterioration in relations with CEO Christian Nourry, as well as being connected with the empty role at West Bromwich Albion.
Rangers finished 15th in the Championship in 2024/25 and were eliminated in the third round of both the FA and Carabao Cups.
Thorup’s in-person meetings with the QPR hierarchy
Johannes Hoff Thorup, the former Norwich City manager, has been most closely linked with the vacant role.
The Danish newspaper Tipsbladet stated last week that Thorup “was recently in London to speak with the club’s representatives face to face,” but there has been no confirmation of his appointment as of the last week in May.
Goodman “surprised” by Thorup’s links to QPR following Norwich’s 2024/25 season
Speaking exclusively to Football League World at the end of last week, Sky Sports Pundit Don Goodman confessed he was “surprised” by QPR’s interest in him.
He shared this with us: “There were lots of things about his Norwich City that I liked – particularly when they had the ball in the opposition half and in the forward areas – but then there were things I didn’t particularly like, in terms of the risks they took trying to play out from the back.” He did, however, add that he was “slightly surprised that QPR would be interested in employing him”.
Thorup is not the only one considering for the QPR role.
Although Johannes Hoff Thorup has been the subject of much conjecture about the vacant position at Loftus Road, he is not the only applicant.
Pierre Sage, the former Lyon head coach, has been linked to the role for some time, and the French publication L’Equipe revealed last week that he may still be chosen. There has also been chatter about the former 1. FC Magdeburg manager, Christian Titz, who departed the German club after finishing fifth in the 2. Bundesliga at the end of the 2024/15 season. Titz was associated with “clubs from the Championship” by German journalist Florian Plettiburg, while he also mentioned that Hannover 96, another 2. Bundesliga team, would be interested in him.
Both of these managers have extensive experience, although neither has managed in England before. Sage coached for over 10 years before being elevated to manager at Lyon after serving as the academy’s director. He led Lyon to the Europa League at the conclusion of 2023/24, but was fired in January 2025 after a string of dismal results. Lens and Leicester City have expressed interest in him as well.
| Pierre Sage at Lyon – Per SofaScore | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points Per Game |
| 56 | 33 | 9 | ||
Titz is another academy graduate. He rose through the ranks at Hamburger SV and previously coached Rot-Weiss Essen before taking over at Hannover in 2021, guiding them from the third to the second division at the end of his first full season in charge.
According to Plettiburg, he is “ready for a new chapter” after leaving at the end of the 2024/25 season. With the season now ended and QPR fans becoming restless ahead of the summer, the time for the club to make a decisive decision on this appointment is undoubtedly approaching.
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