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The players had visibly lost faith in their manager, observes Vital QPR's Adam Boxer, with a change of direction the only viable course of action for the Premier League strugglers

COMMENT
By Adam Boxer | Vital QPR

Inevitable - that would be the best word to describe Friday's departure of Mark Hughes from QPR.

In a way it is sad that the club have built their very foundation around a man who they thought was going to take them to the next level but has now been removed.

It will be a huge regret for the board that, despite their admirable and steadfast support of the beleaguered boss, things frankly never looked like taking off at any point this season.

Hughes is a self-confident individual who has few regrets from his managerial and playing past but, even through his rose-tinted spectacles, he will surely be able to see that he had a squad of talented players at his disposal, whom he was responsible for assembling.

Unfortunately, he could not organise them effectively or prevent them from conceding the same calibre of goals, week after week.

	DAMAGE ALREADY DONE?
15/8	QPR are 15/8 with Bet365 to finish bottom of the Premier League

I was tentatively behind Hughes, even given the poor start that we had made to the season, as I saw a semblance of positivity in our play despite the ludicrous defensive lapses and the profligacy up front.

Against Southampton, however, we decided not to turn up at all and in truth it was the players, rather than the board, who had decided that Mark Hughes was not the man to take the club forward.

No effort, no ideas tactically and making Southampton look like Barcelona - it was the last straw for many and certainly displayed to me that things were on the decline and nowhere near the upward curve that Hughes continually purported was occurring at the club.

A delusional post-match press conference after a recent defeat against Stoke City had also only fuelled question marks that were persistently lingering over his leadership.

Harry Redknapp is rumoured to be the man taking the helm and, while he would not have been my first choice, I consider him a fine man-manager and someone who would be able to attract players of genuine quality in January.

We need to get organised tactically and play to our potential - if we do, then the two or three wins that are required to haul us out of the bottom three should be forthcoming.

Any turnaround in fortunes will not happen overnight and certainly not on Saturday but, despite all the things I don't expect at Old Trafford, the fans expect effort in spadefuls and a performance that shall hopefully spur us on to take points against Sunderland afterwards.

We can but live in hope, but Friday's move to sack Hughes was definitely the step which was necessary in order for all parties to move forward.

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