Queens Park Rangers: The 9 permanent managers since Premier League relegation – Where are they now? | OneFootball

A look at the nine permanent Queens Park Rangers managers since the Hoops were relegated from the Premier League ten seasons ago.

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

The Sun suggested that he was willing to walk out of Loftus Road due to a poor relationship with 27-year-old CEO Christian Nourry before it then began to be reported that he had held talks with West Bromwich Albion.

The R’s finished the season with a surprise 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light against Sunderland to complete a tenth successive season back down in the second-tier following their relegation from the Premier League in the 2014/15 campaign.

With that long second-tier stint in mind, Football League World has looked at the ten permanent managers that QPR have had since their return to the EFL and had a look at where they all are now.

Chris Ramsey

Former England U20 boss Chris Ramsey took charge of QPR in February 2015 and oversaw their inevitable relegation from the Premier League, before then taking charge of their first few games in the Championship.

He was sacked by the West Londoners in early November after a 1-0 loss to Derby County meant they had collected just 19 points from their opening 15 matches and sat in the bottom-half of the Championship table.

Since his departure, he has been awarded an MBE for services to football and diversity in sport. He became QPR’s Technical Director in 2016 and remains in that role to this day.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

After a month of Neil Warnock back in charge on an interim basis at Loftus Road, the Hoops appointed former Burton Albion boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in December 2015.

The Dutchman steadied the ship, and they suffered just seven defeats in the 27 matches that he was in charge of during the 2015/16 campaign before he was then sacked 366 days after Ramsey’s departure, with QPR once again in mid-table a couple of months after he was the subject of a sting by The Telegraph.

Since leaving QPR, the former Chelsea striker has gone on to manage Northampton Town and then a second spell at Burton Albion, where he departed in September 2022. He was a part of Gareth Southgate's coaching staff as England finished as runners' up at UEFA EURO 2024 last summer.

Ian Holloway

The next man through the door at Loftus Road was another former boss as Ian Holloway took charge for the rest of the season and guided QPR to an 18th-placed finish in the Championship.

Holloway then oversaw QPR’s 16th-placed finish the following season before departing the club at the end of the 2017/18 season. The renowned former Blackpool boss has gone on to manage Grimsby Town and Swindon Town in League Two, doing an excellent job with the Robins this season as they prepare for a promotion challenge next year.

Steve McClaren

The summer of 2018 saw co-chairmen Tony Fernandes and Ruben Gnanalingam depart the club to be replaced by Amit Bhatia and also saw the arrival of former England boss Steve McClaren in the dugout.

McClaren didn’t quite make it to the end of the season in West London, though, after a difficult campaign in which they lost their first four matches and was eventually sacked in early April following a 2-1 defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers that meant they had collected just seven points from their previous 15 matches.

John Eustace replaced him on an interim basis for the final month of the campaign. McClaren took five years out of management, having previously been Middlesbrough, Twente, Wolfsburg, Nottingham Forest, Twente again, Derby County, Newcastle United and Derby, again, manager.

He was appointed 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 boss Mark Warburton was next through the door at Loftus Road, and it was a surprising appointment to many given his connection with QPR’s rivals Brentford.

Their season started very well, and they were in the top six after 13 games, but eventually drifted to yet another mid-table finish with seven of their 16 wins that season coming in the opening 12 matches of the campaign. They then finished ninth the following season with an impressive second-half of the campaign. An 11th-placed finish in the 2022/23 season then prompted his departure at the end of his contract.

Warburton hasn’t been a full-time manager since his departure from QPR, becoming David Moyes’ assistant coach for a season at West Ham United in the 2022/23 campaign as the Irons won the UEFA Europa Conference League. He became the Sporting Director and Head of Soccer as USL Championship expansion franchise Sporting Club Jacksonville in March this year.

Michael Beale

Michael Beale took charge of his first ever managerial post in the summer of 2022 as he was appointed QPR boss, having been an assistant to Steven Gerrard at both Rangers and Aston Villa.

The former Charlton Athletic academy prospect, who had never played professional football, began the 2022/23 season very well with QPR sitting top-of-the-table after 16 matches. They then collected a point from their next five matches, Beale becoming heavily linked with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

After turning Wolves down and talking about his loyalty to QPR, he then accepted the role of Rangers boss later that same month in November 2022, but he was sacked less than 12 months later. He took charge of Sunderland in December 2023 but only lasted 63 days at the Stadium of Light before being sacked.

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

Neil Critchley

After an impressive couple of years at Blackpool and having been another of Gerrard’s assistants at Villa, Neil Critchley was the man that replaced Beale, but he lasted just over two months in charge of the club, leaving with the worst win percentage of any QPR manager in history of just 8.33% from 12 games in charge.

He returned to Blackpool for just over a season in the 2023/24 campaign but was sacked at the start of this season due to back-to-back defeats against newly-promoted opposition, Crawley Town and Stockport County, in their opening two matches. He took charge of Hearts in October but was sacked by the Jam Tarts a couple of weeks ago.

Gareth Ainsworth

After making 152 appearances for QPR as a player and having been the caretaker of the club on two separate occasions in 2008 and 2009, Gareth Ainsworth went and became a club legend at Wycombe Wanderers with a three-year playing career, a season as player-coach and then an 11-year managerial stint.

He left the Chairboys for a return to QPR in February 2023 but only won three of his 13 games in charge in the 2022/23 season before winning just two of their opening 14 games of the 2023/24 season, leaving them in the bottom three.

Ainsworth was sacked in late-October 2023 and didn’t take another job until the Shrewsbury Town role opened up in November 2024. He couldn’t save a relegation-bound side and departed before their relegation was confirmed, becoming the Gillingham manager in League Two in March.

Marti Cifuentes

Cifuentes was the man tasked with rectifying what had gone so wrong for QPR in the previous couple of seasons and an impressive end to the campaign saw them climb to 18th in the table, having been in the danger zone as late as the 33rd match day.

QPR managed just one win in their opening 16 games this season and were once again rock-bottom, but Cifuentes rectified his own poor work this time around to push them into the top-half at one stage, but they had to settle for 15th eventually, with the Spaniard leaving before the season had concluded.