One point above the drop zone, Queens Park Rangers sacked the manager who’d saved them from League One and had them head and shoulders above the rest of the Championship last season, Neil Warnock.

Warnock has as many detractors as supporters — many of them either from his days at Selhurst Park or who remember his kvetching spell against Liverpool over fielding a weakened side against Fulham when he was relegated as gaffer at Sheffiield United — and you can tell if you see any reference to a “Colin Wanker” (an anagram of his name.) 

Warnock’s sacking is worth note to me in the sense that QPR’s poor form has largely confirmed my own pre-season suspicions they’d be the only one of the promoted sides to be sent back down. Now, there’s still plenty of season to go, but Warnock isn’t a tactics man, while Norwich’s Paul Lambert and Swansea’s Brendan Rodgers very much are.  Sunderland’s sacking of Steve Bruce was a harbinger: if your primary attribute as a manager is as a motivator, you are not going to have very much rope to work with in the Premiership (unless you are Harry Redknapp and can identify and afford coaches to handle that for you; you could probably say the same about Kenny Dalglish and be justified.) Sacking rumors surrounded Warnock since QPR’s promotion with this rationale in mind.

Two entertaining notes to end this: the first is that Warnock has a “Disputes” section of his Wikipedia page, which is fabulous reading. The second is that Mark Hughes — the one who declared the other small club in West London too small for him when he thought Aston Villa would come calling — is apparently a shoo-in as Warnock’s successor. I can’t imagine Hughes would find Loftus Road any less cramped for his ambition/self-delusion than Craven Cottage.