Queens Park Rangers placed head coach Marti Cifuentes on gardening leave before the end of the 2024/25 season, citing reports that the Spaniard had already spoken with another Championship club.

According to The Sun, he was considering leaving Loftus Road due to a strained relationship with CEO Christian Nourry. However, reports later emerged that he was in talks with West Bromwich Albion.

The R’s finished the season with a 1-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, marking their tenth consecutive season in the second-tier after being relegated from the Premier League in 2014/15.

Football League World examines the ten permanent managers of QPR since their return to the EFL and assesses their current status.

Chris Ramsey

Former England U20 manager Chris Ramsey took over QPR in February 2015, overseeing their inevitable relegation from the Premier League before taking charge of their first few Championship games.

He was fired by the West Londoners in early November after a 1-0 loss to Derby County meant they had only 19 points from their first 15 games and were in the bottom half of the Championship table.

Since his departure, he has received an MBE for services to football and diversity in sport. In 2016, he was appointed QPR’s Technical Director, a position he still holds today.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

After a month with Neil Warnock in interim charge at Loftus Road, the Hoops hired former Burton Albion manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in December 2015.

During the 2015/16 season, the Dutchman led QPR to only seven defeats in 27 matches before being fired 366 days later. QPR returned to mid-table a few months later, following a sting operation by The Telegraph.

After leaving QPR, the former Chelsea striker went on to manage Northampton Town before returning to Burton Albion, where he left in September 2022. He was part of Gareth Southgate’s coaching staff when England finished runners-up at UEFA EURO 2024 last summer.

Ian Holloway

The next man through the door at Loftus Road was another former manager, Ian Holloway, who took over for the remainder of the season and led QPR to an 18th place finish in the Championship.

Holloway led QPR to 16th place the following season and left the club at the end of the 2017/18 season. The renowned former Blackpool manager has since moved on to manage Grimsby Town and Swindon Town in League Two, where he has done an excellent job with the Robins this season as they prepare for a promotion challenge next year.

Steve McClaren

In the summer of 2018, co-chairmen Tony Fernandes and Ruben Gnanalingam left the club, to be replaced by Amit Bhatia, and former England manager Steve McClaren took over in the dugout.

McClaren did not make it to the end of the season in West London, however, after a difficult campaign in which they lost their first four matches and were eventually sacked in early April following a 2-1 defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers, which meant they had only seven points from their previous 15 games.

For the last month of the campaign, John Eustace served as his interim replacement. McClaren took a five-year break from management after managing Middlesbrough, Twente, Wolfsburg, Nottingham Forest, Twente again, Derby County, Newcastle United and Derby.

He was named head coach of the Jamaican national team in 2024 and has a good chance of leading the Reggae Boyz to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Mark Warburton

Former Rangers manager Mark Warburton was the next person through the door at Loftus Road, which surprised many given his connection to QPR’s rivals Brentford.

Their season began well, with them in the top six after 13 games, but they eventually slipped to another mid-table finish, with seven of their 16 wins coming in the first 12 games of the season. They finished ninth the following season after a strong second half of the season. After finishing 11th in the 2022/23 season, his contract expired.

QPR’s seasons since PL relegation
Season	Manager(s)	Position
2015/16	Chris Ramsey / Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink	12th
2016/17	Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink / Ian Holloway	18th
2017/18	Ian Holloway	16th
2018/19	Steve McClaren	19th
2019/20	Mark Warburton	13th
2020/21	Mark Warburton	9th
2021/22	Mark Warburton	11th
2022/23	Mick Beale / Neil Critchley / Gareth Ainsworth	20th
2023/24	Gareth Ainsworth / Marti Cifuentes	18th
2024/25	Marti Cifuentes	15th

Warburton has not worked as a full-time manager since leaving QPR, instead serving as David Moyes’ assistant coach at West Ham United in the 2022/23 season, during which the Irons won the UEFA Europa Conference League. In March of this year, he took over as Sporting Director and Head of Football for USL Championship expansion franchise Sporting Club Jacksonville.

Michael Beale

Michael Beale took over as QPR manager in the summer of 2022, having previously worked as Steven Gerrard’s assistant at Rangers and Aston Villa.

The former Charlton Athletic academy prospect, who had never played professional football, started the 2022/23 season very well, with QPR leading the table after 16 games. After collecting a point in their next five matches, Beale was heavily linked with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

After turning down Wolves and discussing his loyalty to QPR, he accepted the position of Rangers manager later that month, in November 2022, but was fired less than a year later. He took over Sunderland in December 2023 but only lasted 63 days at the Stadium of Light before being fired.

He reunited with Gerrard at Al Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League in November 2024, and despite Gerrard’s departure earlier this year, he remains Saad Al Shehri’s assistant coach.

Neil Critchley

Neil Critchley, who had previously worked with Gerrard at Villa, took over as QPR manager after a successful tenure at Blackpool. However, he only managed the club for over two months and had a win percentage of only 8.33% from 12 games.

He returned to Blackpool for just over a season in 2023/24, but was fired at the start of the season following back-to-back defeats against newly promoted opponents Crawley Town and Stockport County in their first two games. He took over at Hearts in October, but was fired by the Jam Tarts a few weeks ago.

Gareth Ainsworth

After making 152 appearances for QPR as a player and serving as caretaker on two occasions in 2008 and 2009, Gareth Ainsworth went on to become a club legend at Wycombe Wanderers, where he spent three years playing, one season as player-coach, and 11 years as manager.

He left the Chairboys to return to QPR in February 2023, but won only three of his 13 games in charge in 2022/23, and only two of their first 14 games in 2023/24, leaving them in the bottom three.

Ainsworth was fired in late October 2023 and did not take another job until the Shrewsbury Town position became available in November 2024. He couldn’t save a relegation-bound side and left before the relegation was confirmed, taking over as manager of Gillingham in League Two in March.

 

Martí Cifuentes

Cifuentes was tasked with correcting what had gone so wrong for QPR in the previous two seasons, and an impressive finish to the season saw them climb to 18th in the table, having been in danger as late as the 33rd matchday.

QPR had only one win in their first 16 games this season and were once again at the bottom, but Cifuentes corrected his own poor work to propel them into the top half at one point, but they had to settle for 15th place, with the Spaniard departing before the season ended.

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