Tony Fernandes backs Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink after difficult QPR start
Tuesday 23 February 2016 11:18, UK
QPR co-chairman Tony Fernandes has given his full backing to director of football Les Ferdinand and manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink despite the club's disappointing attempt to bounce straight back into the Premier League.
QPR are 12th in the Championship, 13 points behind sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday - who they play on Tuesday night at Hillsborough - with Hasselbaink collecting just two wins from his 14 games in charge.
But, although Fernandes accepts it has been a struggle on their return to English football's second tier, he believes the right pieces are in place at Loftus Road.
"I think Les has been a fantastic guy," he told Sky Sports News HQ. "Some of the fans give him stick but he knows what he wants, he's done some great deals for us, he's honest, he's hard-working.
"Jimmy is new but I love his enthusiasm. Again, he knows what he wants, he's very forthright. He's very clear. I hope this is the foundation we've been dreaming of for a long, long time.
"We want to be back this season, who wouldn't? We've probably missed the boat this time so I hope in the short term we start playing good football and we start giving players who are going to be here for the long-term game time. Hopefully we'll be competing in the not-too-distant future.
Fernandes believes Southampton got one of the bargains of the season when they signed striker Charlie Austin for £4m in January, but thinks the club could have hung on to the striker had they been closer to the play-off places.
"A club that he really wanted to go to came in and made an offer, so we said okay. We took what money we could," he added.
"It wasn't what we would have liked but we got some money. I tried very hard to extend his contract, we were close while in the Premier League and then we lost one game and he got nervous about it."
"We would have fought very hard to keep him [had we been higher in the table] and I think Charlie would have stayed and helped to take us up. It's hypothetical now, but the player would have made a big impact. It wasn't cashing in, the player wanted to go."
