QPR axe Marti Cifuentes after 'disappointing' links with West Brom and Norwich City

QPR have axed head coach Marti Cifuentes on Tuesday evening after the 42-year-old was linked with the vacant managerial roles at Championship rivals West Brom and Norwich City. Cifuentes will be on ‘gardening leave’ for the final league match of the season against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Sky Sports this week reported that representatives of Cifuentes had entered talks with the Baggies, who sacked Tony Mowbray last week. It was added that QPR had not been contacted by West Brom and had not given talks the green light.

The Sun had also named Norwich City as potential suitors for the Catalan coach, who has been fed up with a plague of injuries at Loftus Road this season. It had been claimed that Cifuentes had a ‘breakdown’ in his relationship with QPR chief executive Christian Nourry.

QPR place Marti Cifuentes on ‘gardening leave’

A club statement on Tuesday night read: “Marti Cifuentes has been placed on gardening leave.

“Assistant coaches Kevin Betsy and Xavi Calm will take charge of first-team affairs on an interim basis and prepare the squad for our final fixture of the 2024/25 campaign against Sunderland.”

Nourry also provided a statement and labelled the situation surrounding Cifuentes as ‘disappointing’. He said: “This is naturally a disappointing situation for everyone concerned. I fully understand and appreciate supporters’ frustrations at this time. As a club, we are working to ensure this matter is resolved as swiftly as possible so we can start preparations in earnest for the future.”

Cifuentes was appointed at QPR in October 2023, following on from Gareth Ainsworth. He has kept the west London club in the league over two difficult consecutive seasons.

The coach was asked about his future following Saturday’s 5-0 defeat to Burnley at Loftus Road and said: “I said before that as long as I’m wanted, I’m very happy.

“In any case I am very calm about the job I have done and the fact that we have achieved what were difficult targets. I’m an ambitious person in the sense that I always push myself. I always want to improve. I have a contract and I want to keep improving. I enjoy my job here, enjoy English football, and am ready for more.”

Cifuentes plans Christian Nourry meeting at Loftus Road

Cifuentes had admitted that there would be talks with Nourry over the future of the club in the coming weeks, but that seemed to point more to transfers than his future. After the defeat to Swansea City, he said: “I need to sit with Christian and we need to decide and see what is the plan and what does he want and what is the idea. I've been very focused on trying to achieve the target and obviously have my thoughts and my ideas on how we can improve.

“I said many times for me QPR as a club has an amazing potential and that's one of the main reasons why I wanted to come here because I feel that, with a fantastic training ground that we have, the location, the history, the identity, the style of football at this club has played in the past and it fits very well into my idea. I think that this is a very solid foundation on which to take bigger steps.”

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