An alternative view

[QPROslo]

I think the criticism of Warburton is a bit over the top.
Our player budget right now is one of the lowest in the Championship and comparable to top half of League 1. We have many players on fixed salaries between £1200 and £4000 a week if the stats presented on various web sites are correct (fixed salary before bonuses). Our average salary is between a third and a half of the average Championships salary as far as I understand.
Look where we recruit from: Ball was not good enough for Rotherham, Dykes comes from Livingston where he only got 12 goals all season (in a league much poorer than the Championship), Bonne wasn’t a regular at Charlton, Thomas struggled to make an impact when at Scunthorpe (2018/19), Kakay and Hämälainen returned from loan spells at respectively Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock (that’s ok if you are 19 and up and coming, but they are around 23 years of age), Adomah wasn’t good enough for Forest, Carrol wasn’t good enough for Swansea, Barbet wasn’t good enough for Brentford. It is just a few months ago Oteh was our best striker.
I think we have five players that are Championship quality (Dieng, Dickie, Carroll, Chair and BOS) plus Amos that is out for the season. The rest is League One quality.
If we have a top half League One squad and Warburton has taken us to 19^th in the Championship, is that bad? I think Warburton does half decent given the squad and the budget at his disposal. Obviously, he is not doing great, but I think the amount of abuse he gets on this web site is over the top.
Look at how our ex-players do in their new clubs. I think Warburton got more out of Hugill than Norwich does, even though they have a very decent manager. I think Warburton got more out of Wells than Bristol City does, even though they have a good manager. I think Warburton got more out of Manning than Swansea does, even though they have a good manager. I can go on.
If a manager like Ernie Howe came around and wanted to coach QPR I would be happy to let Warburton go (with my sincere thanks and best wishes), but only if we really got on board a better manager. However, given the salaries we pay and the budget we have, few good managers will find us an attractive proposition.
Some of the manager candidates put forward are certainly not an upgrade:
Ainsworth: With a marginally smaller budget at his disposal he has got 40% less points onboard so far this season. His brand of football does not match our philosophy. Why he would make an upgrade is hard to see.
Cook: He was coaching Wigan to 18^th place in 2018/19 and 13^th place (prior to points deduction) in 2019/20 on a higher budget than QPR. How can he be an upgrade?
Barton: We have tried League One managers with some success before (Hasselbaink). It is certainly no obvious recipe to success.
Unless we could somehow find a manager than is better qualified than Warburton and keen to take on a big challenge, I cannot see why we should change. I think we should rather get behind Warburton and the team. I think the owners realize we need strengthening in January and I think we will see BOS leaving and 3-4 players coming in, including loans. Stability is underrated, and I think we will be better off sticking to Warburton than to gamble on some of the managers that have been suggested on this message board.

[Shania]

However you dress it up he seems to make the same mistakes over and over again. Yes, our squad is admittedly not very good, but he dosn`t even give the fringe players a chance even we he time and time again complains about fatigue and the importance of using the squad. Kelman and Bettache are just two excamples of players we should have used more frequently. Off the field, he seems to do most things wrong: 1)He seems totally reluctant to set us up to play according to other teams weaknesses or strenghts. 2) His substitutions fail almost every game. Today i.e. he took Chair off and we conceded, the same thing happened earlier in the week(?) I have also noticed that he too often change personell likes for likes. Not sign of counter play as far as subs either. And finally when Clint Hill states that Warburton doesn`t do defensive drilling in training, well, I don`t know how I can defend his results anymore.

[Darkranger]

I think the criticism of Warburton is a bit over the top.
Our player budget right now is one of the lowest in the Championship and comparable to top half of League 1. We have many players on fixed salaries between £1200 and £4000 a week if the stats presented on various web sites are correct (fixed salary before bonuses). Our average salary is between a third and a half of the average Championships salary as far as I understand.
Look where we recruit from: Ball was not good enough for Rotherham, Dykes comes from Livingston where he only got 12 goals all season (in a league much poorer than the Championship), Bonne wasn’t a regular at Charlton, Thomas struggled to make an impact when at Scunthorpe (2018/19), Kakay and Hämälainen returned from loan spells at respectively Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock (that’s ok if you are 19 and up and coming, but they are around 23 years of age), Adomah wasn’t good enough for Forest, Carrol wasn’t good enough for Swansea, Barbet wasn’t good enough for Brentford. It is just a few months ago Oteh was our best striker.
I think we have five players that are Championship quality (Dieng, Dickie, Carroll, Chair and BOS) plus Amos that is out for the season. The rest is League One quality.
If we have a top half League One squad and Warburton has taken us to 19^th in the Championship, is that bad? I think Warburton does half decent given the squad and the budget at his disposal. Obviously, he is not doing great, but I think the amount of abuse he gets on this web site is over the top.
Look at how our ex-players do in their new clubs. I think Warburton got more out of Hugill than Norwich does, even though they have a very decent manager. I think Warburton got more out of Wells than Bristol City does, even though they have a good manager. I think Warburton got more out of Manning than Swansea does, even though they have a good manager. I can go on.
If a manager like Ernie Howe came around and wanted to coach QPR I would be happy to let Warburton go (with my sincere thanks and best wishes), but only if we really got on board a better manager. However, given the salaries we pay and the budget we have, few good managers will find us an attractive proposition.
Some of the manager candidates put forward are certainly not an upgrade:
Ainsworth: With a marginally smaller budget at his disposal he has got 40% less points onboard so far this season. His brand of football does not match our philosophy. Why he would make an upgrade is hard to see.
Cook: He was coaching Wigan to 18^th place in 2018/19 and 13^th place (prior to points deduction) in 2019/20 on a higher budget than QPR. How can he be an upgrade?
Barton: We have tried League One managers with some success before (Hasselbaink). It is certainly no obvious recipe to success.
Unless we could somehow find a manager than is better qualified than Warburton and keen to take on a big challenge, I cannot see why we should change. I think we should rather get behind Warburton and the team. I think the owners realize we need strengthening in January and I think we will see BOS leaving and 3-4 players coming in, including loans. Stability is underrated, and I think we will be better off sticking to Warburton than to gamble on some of the managers that have been suggested on this message board.

A very concise and positive post (unusual for this board). It is easy to forget (because of the current situation) just how well we were playing before the 1st lockdown. Warburton certainly managed to get the best out of Wells, Hugill etc. The current crop of players are clearly not yet up to that standard.
The issue at the moment appears to be Warburton's refusal to change tactics/formation, when it is apparent that all is not going to plan. His stubbornness and apparent lack of plan B, is alienating supporters immensely. This is compounded by the fact we have stopped playing well and the results have been poor.
Despite his past performances I feel his time may be up. I would hazard a guess that he will either be gone by the New Year, or the club will stick with him and back him in the next transfer window.

[gator]

QPROslo Those are some interesting numbers and I appreciate you presenting things that way, it doesn't change the fact that he will probably be sacked based on recent results and unrest by the supporters, any new manager coming in will know the squad limitations and must be prepared to deal with that!

[Northolt_Rs]

QPROslo Those are some interesting numbers and I appreciate you presenting things that way, it doesn't change the fact that he will probably be sacked based on recent results and unrest by the supporters, any new manager coming in will know the squad limitations and must be prepared to deal with that!

1 win in the last 10..... LDLDD last 5 nuff said.

[Stainrod]

I think the criticism of Warburton is a bit over the top.
Our player budget right now is one of the lowest in the Championship and comparable to top half of League 1. We have many players on fixed salaries between £1200 and £4000 a week if the stats presented on various web sites are correct (fixed salary before bonuses). Our average salary is between a third and a half of the average Championships salary as far as I understand.
Look where we recruit from: Ball was not good enough for Rotherham, Dykes comes from Livingston where he only got 12 goals all season (in a league much poorer than the Championship), Bonne wasn’t a regular at Charlton, Thomas struggled to make an impact when at Scunthorpe (2018/19), Kakay and Hämälainen returned from loan spells at respectively Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock (that’s ok if you are 19 and up and coming, but they are around 23 years of age), Adomah wasn’t good enough for Forest, Carrol wasn’t good enough for Swansea, Barbet wasn’t good enough for Brentford. It is just a few months ago Oteh was our best striker.
I think we have five players that are Championship quality (Dieng, Dickie, Carroll, Chair and BOS) plus Amos that is out for the season. The rest is League One quality.
If we have a top half League One squad and Warburton has taken us to 19^th in the Championship, is that bad? I think Warburton does half decent given the squad and the budget at his disposal. Obviously, he is not doing great, but I think the amount of abuse he gets on this web site is over the top.
Look at how our ex-players do in their new clubs. I think Warburton got more out of Hugill than Norwich does, even though they have a very decent manager. I think Warburton got more out of Wells than Bristol City does, even though they have a good manager. I think Warburton got more out of Manning than Swansea does, even though they have a good manager. I can go on.
If a manager like Ernie Howe came around and wanted to coach QPR I would be happy to let Warburton go (with my sincere thanks and best wishes), but only if we really got on board a better manager. However, given the salaries we pay and the budget we have, few good managers will find us an attractive proposition.
Some of the manager candidates put forward are certainly not an upgrade:
Ainsworth: With a marginally smaller budget at his disposal he has got 40% less points onboard so far this season. His brand of football does not match our philosophy. Why he would make an upgrade is hard to see.
Cook: He was coaching Wigan to 18^th place in 2018/19 and 13^th place (prior to points deduction) in 2019/20 on a higher budget than QPR. How can he be an upgrade?
Barton: We have tried League One managers with some success before (Hasselbaink). It is certainly no obvious recipe to success.
Unless we could somehow find a manager than is better qualified than Warburton and keen to take on a big challenge, I cannot see why we should change. I think we should rather get behind Warburton and the team. I think the owners realize we need strengthening in January and I think we will see BOS leaving and 3-4 players coming in, including loans. Stability is underrated, and I think we will be better off sticking to Warburton than to gamble on some of the managers that have been suggested on this message board.

Oslo you sing from the same hymn sheet as me when it comes to budgets and expectation.Having said that it’s getting increasingly difficult to fight Warbs corner over the last 6 weeks .We are clearly a team that is short on goals and he has done absolutely nothing to address that problem . You quite rightly addressed our small budget but we chose to spend a large chunk of it on Bonne and Adomah ( wages ) that he refuses to put in the team .We don’t create chances we don’t score goals and we keep doing the same things week after week . He is leaving himself open to criticism by sticking stubbornly to this system as we slide down the table . I constantly bang the drum about how we are blooding youngsters and living within our means for the first time in years but that doesn’t give the manager a free pass to failure.I really hope he can turn this around as I said before we have been in every game this season apart from Blackburn but we were lucky to get a point at Wycombe yesterday and confidence is diminishing game by game , he needs a good Xmas period to turn this around and I hope it happens .

[Stainrod]

With Swansea and Norwich over the Xmas period I seriously doubt that anything will improve. Then in January we have Cardiff, an improving Derby and a Watford team who will no doubt have a "new manager bounce". Luton are no push-overs either. I can't see us getting much over those games if MW insists on sticking to the same team and tactics.

Hopefully he proves me wrong. It's sad to think that we were flirting with the play-off spots around this time last year, iirc.

To be fair to Warburton last years squad is chalk and cheese compared to this season’s squad. Manning , Hall , Rangel , Amos , Eze , Hugil and Wells all gone .

[Northolt_Rs]

To be fair to Warburton last years squad is chalk and cheese compared to this season’s squad. Manning , Hall , Rangel , Amos , Eze , Hugil and Wells all gone .

Yes Warburton should have done so much better with that squad last season. It’s is criminal we didn’t at the very least make the play-offs....

[Stainrod]

Yes Warburton should have done so much better with that squad last season. It’s is criminal we didn’t at the very least make the play-offs....

We spent 50k on a goalkeeper last season , lost Wells in January, Hugil to injury towards the end and could only sign free transfers in Ball , Wallace etc. I’m not sure we could have expected much more .Plus we were reducing our wage bill by releasing Luongo , Scowen , pav , Furlong Bidwell and others .

[Stainrod]

I keep seeing this said but I don't remember anyone singing their praises last season. Wells and Rangel maybe and Manning for the first half of the season but then he got slated. But all of the others got a huge amount of stick on here, especially Amos who seems to have been turned into a real asset on the basis of about 2 reasonable performances this season. As I said, we were mostly happy this time last season but it all went the shape of the pear after Xmas. I can't see the opposite happening this year.

I have a lot of sympathy with regards the budget etc. but that's no excuse for persisting with a formula that simply isn't working. It's not acceptable to just slip into league 1 and say "Well, he didn't have any money, bless him."

I'm not normally so negative but something clearly needs to change.

I agree with you regarding his stubbornness my issue is comparing this years squad to last seasons , it doesn’t come close .We had a £20 million player last season .Wells and Hugil went for roughly £8 million .

[Shania]

Like the opening poster pointed out: Amos`s injury was a real downer for us/Warburton, imo. so whoever comes in, if Warburton gets the sack has to been given funds to strenghten that position.

[Stainrod]

Really? The general feeling on here not long ago was that Amos is pony.

I have to admit to not being Amos biggest fan but we have definitely missed his legs and pressuring the opposition in our midfield. We are far to pedestrian with our current 3 in there .

[Northolt_Rs]

Really? The general feeling on here not long ago was that Amos is pony.

Exactly! He got slaughtered by all and sundry.

[SheepRanger]

Exactly! He got slaughtered by all and sundry.

As did rarely playing Wells and Hugill together. The latter wouldnt have had a look in until Wells left in Jan.

[QPROslo]

Because of financial reasons we have got rid of these players:

Eze, Hugill, Wells, Freeman Luongo, Furlong, Bidwell, Hall, Leinstner, Rangel, Manning, Pugh, Scowen. These 13 players make up a good Championship team.

We have replaced them by:

Kakay, Hämälainen, Ball, Dickie, Dykes, Bonne, Willock, Adomah, Thomas, Kelman, Carroll, Kane, Wallace, Kelly

Those thinking Thomas can replace Eze, Bonne can replace Hugill, Dykes can replace Wells, Kakay can replace Furlong, Häälainen can replace Manning/Bidwell, Ball can replace Freeman and Cameron can replace Luongo are deluded.

During the process we have netted £25-30m in transfer fees (Eze, Freeman, Luongo, Manning) and we have spent around €5m. More important, we have more than halfed the salary budget and got rid of the FFP treath.

When McClaren left we were number 19th. Thats exactly where we are at the moment.

Please show me one - just one - club in the entire league that have got rid of so much quality and replaced it with poundland players, and still sit at the same place in the league! Compared to most managers in similar position Warburton is not doing bad at all.

I appreciate we are all frustrated with the recent run, but I think the abuse in the direction of Warburton is grossly exegarated. The main problem is not Warburton, but the quality of our squad.

A dose of realism is needed: Which managers can we attract on our budget that would be a sure upgrade? Please don't come with Ainsworth, Derry, Hill, Barton, Cook or that sort of options. And please don't bring up unrealistic dream candidates like Howe and Klopp.