Improving on last season’s finish has to be seen as a success, according to QPR’s boss.
Queens Park Rangers manager Gareth Ainsworth believes this season can be counted as a successful one if they improve on last term, setting out this key aim as he spoke exclusively to Football League World.
The R’s struggled for much of the 2022/23 campaign despite spending time at the top of the table during the early stages of the season under Michael Beale.
Unfortunately, the speculation surrounding his future arguably tainted the current Rangers manager’s time in the English capital and things didn’t exactly get better after that.
QPR’s sharp decline
Beale may have endured good results for a decent chunk of his spell at Loftus Road – but he can’t escape the fact results took a turn for the worst during the latter stages of his time in West London.
And although Neil Critchley (pictured above) won his first game in charge of the R’s, he didn’t win a single fixture after that and was sacked after spending just 12 matches in charge, with poor league form and a humiliating FA Cup exit at the hands of Fleetwood Town contributing to his dismissal.
Following the departure of Critchley, Ainsworth came in but he wasn’t able to turn things around straight away, with two impressive away wins at Burnley and Stoke City saving them in the end.
Finishing just six points above the drop zone in 20th, QPR’s current boss will be hoping to turn things around as quickly as possible by making a positive start to next season.
What would Gareth Ainsworth deem a “definite success” next season?
Just an improvement on last season would be enough for Ainsworth to deem the 2023/24 campaign a success.
Making this admission to FLW, the 50-year-old said: “If I can improve on last season, that’s definite success for me because this club has been through the mill without a shadow of a doubt.
“Without going into detail, it’s a lot different to the club I left 13 years ago.
“And it’s been through an unbelievable rollercoaster of emotions, of finances, of things at QPR and we now have to build this club back to the glory days.
“It’s not going to come overnight but there’s a definite potential here to build and make it the club it used to be.”
Can an improvement on last season be deemed a success for QPR?
Considering the strength of the division, any improvement on last season should be deemed a success.
Rotherham United are probably one of the favourites to be at the bottom end of the division but Cardiff City have improved considerably, Plymouth Argyle are under the stewardship of a very capable manager in Steven Schumacher and the other promoted teams should be staying up considering their stature and the managers they have in charge.
Sheffield Wednesday boss Xisco Munoz is a Championship promotion-winning manager and Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna is arguably one of the most talented coaches in the EFL.
With this in mind, QPR can’t rely on other teams to be poor next season, they simply must improve on last term.
They may have been in the promotion mix last season but they need time to recover from a traumatic and confidence-denting 2022/23 campaign and this is why a finish of 19th or higher at the end of 2023/24 has to be seen as an achievement at this stage, even though it sounds underwhelming.
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