New Hearts boss Neil Critchley has insisted that he was not given the time that he needed while he was manager of QPR.
Critchley left his role as a coach at Aston Villa in December 2022, in order to take charge at Loftus Road, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract with the club.
However, he was sacked little more than two months after his appointment, having been unable to pick up a run of positive results for the R’s.
Now though, it appears Critchley feels he would have been able to change things for QPR, had he been given longer at Loftus Road.
Neil Critchley speaks out on QPR exit
At the time he took charge of the club, the R’s sat ninth in the Championship table, with 31 points from 22 league games.
They were though, unable to maintain that form under Critchley, who after beating Preston North End in his first game in charge, did not win any of the next 11 games.
As a result, he was then sacked after just over two months in the role, with QPR having slipped to 17th in the table, just seven points clear of the relegation zone.
After returning to his former club Blackpool in May last year, Critchley was then sacked by the Seasiders after just two league games of the current campaign.
He is though, now back in work after being appointed manager of Hearts, and after taking on that role, he has been discussing his previous managerial career, including his exit from Loftus Road.
Reflecting on QPR’s decision to sack him, Critchley was quoted by The Scotsman as saying: “It might be wrong of me to speak about what happened.
“I say I don’t look at them as negative. QPR, you talk about your first 100 days at a job and I was less than that.
“So sometimes you know the decisions that you need to make, but you need to get the time to make them in the future.
“And I didn’t, but the club continued losing after I left. I still think they’re third from bottom now in the Championship. So it’s still not right.
“You need time sometimes. I’m not foolish, I know you have to get results, particularly here. You’ve got to win games of football.
“If I can do that, then I’m really excited with the conditions and the people and the support I’ll get, what we can achieve in the future.”
QPR are currently 22nd in the Championship table, having taken seven points from their nine league games so far this season.
They are next in action on Saturday afternoon, when they host another struggling side in the form of Portsmouth, at Loftus Road.
For his part, Critchley has taken on a tough job with Hearts, who are bottom of the Scottish Premiership with just two points from eight games so far.
The 45-year-old’s first game in charge comes on Saturday afternoon, when St Mirren make the trip to Tynecastle.
Neil Critchley’s Loftus Road exit was no huge shock
In all honesty, it did not feel as though the sacking of Critchley by QPR was particularly surprising really.
While the club had been in a strong position when he took over, they were only moving in the wrong direction under him in terms of results.
It is therefore the nature of modern football that clubs will act quickly to make a change such as this, if things are not going in their way.
Consequently, the dismissal of Critchley by QPR did feel rather inevitable in the end, given they will not have wanted to risk being dragged into a relegation fight, as they were on course to do.
Even so, with the club failing to improve under his replacement, Gareth Ainsworth, under who they continued to slide down the table, the new Hearts boss may have something of a point.
Indeed, an eighth place finish in League One for Blackpool was a solid result last season, and if he can get Hearts out of trouble, Critchley may feel he has proved something of a point to QPR.
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