Nice to get a win before you’ve even taken over the hot seat but new Queens Park Rangers manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink will be aware there is plenty of work for him to do.
Hasselbaink was today set to be appointed after interim boss Neil Warnock signed off with a win at Reading last night.
Hasselbaink, who joins following a successful spell at Burton Albion, was not at the game but he will be aware his new side struggled until Nedum Onuoha’s 90th-minute winner.
The 43-year-old will be under no illusions about the size of the task he faces in getting Rangers back in to the Premier League and will inherit a squad that have not looked equipped to deliver promotion from the Championship at the first attempt.
QPR lacked any real quality against Reading and, while they are now just two points away from the play-off places, did not play like a side capable of going up.
Holding onto striker Charlie Austin in January will be key to their chances of finishing in the top six.
A number of Premier League clubs have expressed an interest in signing Austin and, with his contract up in the summer, Rangers will consider selling their top scorer during the next transfer window.
Hasselbaink will hope he can convince him to stay.
Austin hopes Hasselbaink, QPR’s third full-time manager in under a year, will bring some stability to the club and he feels they can make the play-offs.
“I do not see why not,” he said. “Look at the squad we have got. Nothing comes for free in this league, we need to work as hard as we have in the last six weeks and who knows what will happen come May.
“The main thing is we need someone to come in and stabilise the club. We have got stability in the squad and we have showed that in the performances since Neil took over but we need him to come in now and help us push up the League.”
Hasselbaink’s arrival will give everyone at Loftus Road a lift and having a new man at the helm normally provides a short-term improvement in results. But their next six fixtures do not give the former Chelsea striker an easy start. He has the luxury of a full week to work with his new players before his first game in charge against Burnley next Saturday. After that leaders Brighton are the visitors followed by games at Bristol City and Ipswich then Huddersfield and Hull at home.
Warnock says Hasselbaink has a difficult challenge but sees no reason why he cannot be a success.
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“I have told them that there is no reason why we do not go up because they have not really got going yet,” he said. “It is a wide open League. Jimmy can take them up another step like he did at Burton. It will be a good test because the Championship is tough.”
