Poor old Jim Magilton. It looks as if his days in the Loftus Road hotseat are at an end after a bad run of results culminated in his suspension by the club's board following an incident with midfielder Akos Buzsaky.
Before we get into the alleged details of said incident, the BBC's online coverage of what happened makes for interesting reading.
Not for their straight reporting of Magilton's suspension, but rather for the 'see also' section next to the article.
In case you can't make it out from the picture, it goes as follows:
⢠Watford 3-1 QPR
⢠League awaits Briatore F1 ruling
⢠QPR appoint Magilton as manager
⢠Briatore denies picking QPR team
⢠QPR sack Sousa after just 26 games
⢠QPR part company with boss Dowie
⢠De Canio parts company with QPR
⢠Briatore wants a QPR super-brand
⢠Briatore is QPR Holdings Chairman
⢠QPR secure huge investment boost
⢠Gregory sacked as manager of QPR
⢠F1 magnates take over at QPR
OK, so these hand-picked stories give a somewhat blinkered view of life at Loftus Road during the last two and a bit years, but even so that's a lot of largely negative related news stories in such a short time period.
And no wonder, when Magilton is the seventh different manager - of which only two were (officially) temporary - since the club changed ownership 27 months ago.
Let's try a quick recap. John Gregory was given the boot just a month after Flavio Briatore & Co. breezed into Shepherd's Bush to seize control of the ailing R's in September 2007.
His successor Luigi de Canio was given short shrift (seven months), but longer than Iain Dowie (15 games).
Paulo Sousa â who's now doing the business at Swansea â was probably even getting to like the area after the board flirted with stability by affording him a tenure of 26 games, before eventually giving him the chop.
Football is of course a results business, and while Sousa, Dowie and De Canio were hardly setting West London alight, they weren't afforded sufficient time to prove their worth either.
Moreover, both Dowie and Sousa both departed amidst allegations that the Italian tycoon was meddling in first-team matters, including team selection.
It's hardly the type of thing to fill any future managerial candidate with confidence.
At least the (probable) imminent departure of Magilton appears, at this stage, to be unrelated to any clashes with the club's hierarchy. Every cloud and all that.
Or maybe not in this case.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the former Ipswich boss was, to put it mildly, none too pleased with his players' efforts on Monday evening against Watford at Vicarage Road.
They had crashed to a 3-1 defeat, and this after shipping five at home to Middlesbrough on Saturday.
During a fierce post-game tirade the Northern Irishman is alleged to have barricaded the dressing room door, before having a confrontation with Akos Buzsaky, who was later seen â having presumably smashed his way through the barricade, Rambo-style â seeking refuge in a nearby public toilet.
Having initially played down the incident himself, by claiming all matters would be dealt with 'in-house', it now seems as if Magilton has had his chips.
Magilton has denied the allegations in a short but pointed statement released via the League Managers' Association: âÂÂWhile passions can run high in football, especially after a poor performance, I categorically deny any allegation of wrong-doing following MondayâÂÂs fixture.
"I understand that the club has initiated an internal investigation, with which I will cooperate fully. This is an unfortunate situation and I look forward to resuming my responsibilities shortly.âÂÂ
It's not the first row between manager and player to escalate out of control. After one boot-flying confrontation with Sir Alex Ferguson, David Beckham briefly threatened to make butterfly stitches popular.
But by then Sir Alex had amassed a significant amount of silverware for Manchester United, rewarding several times over their belief in stability during the turbulent months when the Stretford End called for Ferguson's sacking.
It's surely no coincidence that QPR have announced Magilton's suspension with the team struggling in 12th place, having won just once in their last seven.
Wind the clock back a month. Rangers were flying high in fourth place in the league, having won three in a row, smashing 12 goals in the process.
Would this scenario have played out then?
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