MARK HUGHES HAS poured scorn on suggestions that he will be replaced as manager of QPR by former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp.
Hughes and his players have not enjoyed a good start to the Premier League season, earning just two points form a possible 21, but the former Wales, Blackburn and Manchester City manager is supremely confident in his ability to do the job.
“I’m not nervous about it at all,” he said when asked questions about his future. “I know how I work, and what my staff do on a daily basis. I would put my ability up against anybody.
“I don’t even think in terms of my job (being under threat). We are where we are, and I understand the focus on us is not going to go away until we start winning games, so why worry about it? It’s the football world we live in, and we are bottom of the league.
“At this stage of the season, in terms of setting targets, we are probably two wins short of where we thought we would be, so we’re not a million miles away. But once we get continuity of selection, and everyone gets up to speed, it’s only a matter of time before we turn it around — and ideally that will happen this weekend.”
QPR host Everton – a club he once played for – at Loftus Road tomorrow afternoon.
“We all want to do well for Tony (Fernandes, the QPR owner), because he has made a huge investment and it’s our job to make sure he gets a return on that, but we are still very positive about where we’re going to take the club,” he said. ”Before the season started we flagged up the possibility that we might struggle initially, but over the course of a long season we’ll be in good shape at the end of it.
“We need to put points on the board because the longer it goes on, the more we’ll put pressure on ourselves. We just need a couple of positive results and we’ll be off and running. In our first seven games we have come up against either big clubs who are expected to do well or sides who have started the season strongly.
“It’s a long season, and sooner or later we will be facing teams closer to us in the table.”
