ClaphamFox

If the other names on the shortlist were Carrick, Wilder and O'Neil, then I'm pleased we've ended up with Cifuentes.

I'll only be truly convinced by him if he turns up for his first day at Seagrave on an old-fashioned push bike, wearing a flat cap and bicycle clips on his trousers, and then chooses a bowl of porridge for his breakfast in the canteen, and puts salt instead of sugar in it.

No. It is very much open.

Are they running a book on it? They don't seem to be on my app...

Judging from reports about Cifuentes’ wages and the fact that he’s been told he has to sell to buy, it seems like the club may finally be getting serious about being financially sustainable. That’s a welcome development, but it will only bring success if we back it up with excellent scouting in addition to maintaining a strong academy. It’s the scouting bit that I remain to be convinced about…

I’ve seen some of those facebook pages and had exactly the same thought. Why boast about your ignorance? Is it really something to be proud of? They seem to regard being chronically ill-informed on football matters is a badge of honour…

That game at Loftus Road was Ainsworth’s last game in charge.

The main reason I’d be reasonably happy if it turns out to be Cifuentes is that it sounds like he will give us a clear identity again - something we didn’t have under Cooper or RVN. Whatever people thought of the style of play under Maresca, surely we can agree it’s good to have a team that is well drilled and understands exactly what it is supposed to do? Judging from reports, it sounds like Cifuentes favours possession football but is more pragmatic than Enzo was and is happy to change the plan depending on the opposition and circumstances of the game. In fact he sounds very similar to how Carlos Corberan was being described when we were linked with him last summer. Anyway, this is an encouraging read: https://therealefl.co.uk/2025/05/23/why-qpr-boss-marti-cifuentes-could-be-the-premier-leagues-next-big-manager/

They haven’t. If you go into oddschecke, the only bookmaker’s odds they’re actually listing is betfair. But betfair have suspended their market like everybody else, so oddschecker isn’t reflecting any genuine odds. I think the Gerrard thing is a glitch.

He’s paying his own compensation clause just so he can join us? Awww Marti…😍

The chap who sits next to me at work is a QPR fan and absolutely raves about him. He was gutted when he fell out with the chairman and was put on gardening leave.

Rob Dorsett tweeted that O'Neil is "a front runner" for the job, which was probably what caused the odds to fall (however, note that he said a front runner, not the front runner). He also said that Rohl and Dyche are out of the picture. Dorsett is a fairly conservative journalist and only tends to publish stuff he's very confident in, so unfortunately can't be just dismissed as we might do if it was a story on Football Insider. I'm trying convince myself that given that two of our biggest problems in recent years has been a terrible defence and an undisciplined squad of players, there surely is no way that we would consider O'Neil given that his Wolves team was horrendous at defending and his squad became so toxic the players ended up scrapping with each other. But then I remember that Top and Rudkin and suckers for a ppt presentation and if O'Neil managed to deliver one and utter a few coherent sentences, they'd probably decide to look past his awful record and take a punt on him.

Is it worth starting a crowd funder to hire a plane and drop thousands of copies of this article over the KP and Seagrave in the hope that Top and/or Rudkin might read it?

I'd put him below virtually every other name we've been linked with. I can't stand Wilder but I'd take him over O'Neil without a second's hesitation.

Until it is announced we can continue to hope it won't happen. This may just be a futile act of denial, but I prefer denial to the grim reality of learning that Gary O'Neil has been appointed as our next manager.

On the WYS podcast last night Matt Piper said that O'Neil was a friend of his, and spoke highly of his personal qualities and his dedication to coaching — and then admitted that he definitely would not want O'Neil to manage us. He basically said that if O'Neil really wants to continue being a manager rather than just a coach, he needs to get a job at a smaller club in the lower divisions where he can learn his craft and, in Piper's words, 'get his confidence back'. And this was coming from somebody who knows and likes O'Neil...

As much as I agree that King isn’t ready, I’d take him in a heartbeat over O’Neil.

I’m surprised it’s that high.

Top isn’t a business person. He’s a polo-playing rich kid whose father was a business person.

He’s not a manager - he’s a coach who wants to be a manager but doesn’t possess the leadership skills to do it. It may take one more failed attempt at being a manager for him to realise this, which is bad news for the club that’s stupid enough to appoint….ah.

If Wilder and O’Neil both wanted to the job, why on earth would they choose O’Neil?

Agreed. If it was down to those two, as horrible as that prospect is, why would anybody choose O'Neil over Wilder?

He was sacked after keeping Bournemouth up because they had seen him at close quarters and decided that he wasn't manager material. He then went on to have a decent start at Wolves before it imploded in spectacular fashion. The only difference between his spells at Bournemouth and Wolves is that Bournemouth had the good sense to sack him before it fell apart, not afterwards. Anybody who watched some of his post-match interviews at Wolves could tell you that he was seriously out of his depth. He looked completely haunted and helpless. There's no shame in that - managing a squad of football players is a hard job and few people are up to it. He may be a very good coach and I suspect he'll end up going back down that route. But do I think he could manage a squad of players like ours in a club with all our issues? Never in a million years.

Wolves degenerated into a chaotic mess under him - zero discipline, fighting among themselves, etc. In one post-match interview O'Neil basically admitted he couldn't coach the squad. Then Pereira arrived and they improved beyond measure. We should avoid him like the plague.

Probably.