"Best thing to happen to the club" - QPR backed for making big Marti Cifuentes decision | OneFootball

QPR have tied Marti Cifuentes down to a new long-term contract, with our R's fan pundit lauding the decision

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

QPR have been backed for rewarding Marti Cifuentes with a new long-term contract despite enduring a disappointing opening to the 2024/25 Championship campaign.

There was a fair degree of optimism surrounding Loftus Road ahead of Cifuentes' first full season in charge of the club, with the Spaniard steadying the ship while endearing himself to supporters during the previous term.

QPR's summer transfer window was positively indicative of a sustainable long-term strategy too, with only two of the ten recruits brought in by Cifuentes - Zan Celar and Paul Nardi - being over the age of 24.

The R's were put to the sword in a 3-1 defeat at home to West Bromwich Albion on the opening day of the new season and although that result preceded a five-match unbeaten run in the Championship, they have claimed just one win from eight league attempts.

It has been an underwhelming start to the season for QPR, who currently find themselves in 22nd place with the same number of victories as rock bottom outfit Cardiff City.

However, they have been backed to charge back up the table under Cifuentes.

Verdict offered on QPR's new Marti Cifuentes contract

QPR have successfully struck a fresh long-term contract with Cifuentes, the length of which remains undisclosed. It is, however, known that the deal has seen him commit his long-term future to the club.

We quizzed our resident R's fan pundit, Louis Moir, on the decision to hand Cifuentes a new long-term contract despite the side's early-season struggles, and he believes they have made the right call.

"I think it was the right time to announce Marti's new contract," Louis told Football League World.

"Obviously it's been a shocking start to the season, one which we weren't really expecting at all so you can imagine that fans are pretty down at the moment and thinking 'what's actually going on here?'

"So I can see why they've announced it now, maybe to give everyone a boost and a lift. But regardless of if we're doing well or not, it doesn't really matter about the timing. At the end of the day, Marti has been the best thing to happen to the club in recent years.

"Obviously, the job he's done and is continuing to do is brilliant. Although the start to the season has been shocking. You look back at a few games and think that we have actually created a lot of chances, we're just not taking them, and we're getting hurt for them.

"That happens a lot, if you don't take your chances then you're going to get hurt, especially in this league. So at the end of the day, we've got a lot of new signings and quite a few of them are still yet to settle in and are taking longer than we thought, but you can see the signs are there.

"It's just the defending which is a concern at the moment, we haven't had a clean sheet yet and it's strange because last season when we stayed up that was the strongest part of our game.

"We've got to sort it out because if that continues then we will end up struggling again, we just can't continue conceding goals and not taking our chances.

"I'm delighted Marti is staying on longer terms and I'm still very confident that we can progress up the table with him in charge."

Marti Cifuentes can turn current QPR situation around

Make no mistake about it, Cifuentes is the man to turn QPR's fortunes around and it will reassure supporters that he is being afforded the time, patience and faith to do just that.

He made them robust and hard to beat last year, and they need to start being similarly-resolute if they are to arrest their patchy run of form. A potential limitus test awaits Cifuentes' QPR, who face Derby County and lowly Portsmouth in their next two encounters - providing a strong opportunity to stop the rut.

The critical call of duty for Cifuentes is making QPR more incisive at seeing teams off too, and they have already drawn half of their first eight games.

However, with talismanic playmaker Ilias Chair now returning to the fold following his long-term injury absence, you would expect QPR's attacking output to hit flow and the results should follow.