Hughes moves to head of the pack in Prem sack race after dismal start

Mark Hughes has moved ahead of Nigel Adkins in the Premier League sack race after his side went down 2-1 to London rivals West Ham at Loftus Road.

That defeat left QPR rooted to the foot of the table without a win in six games and resulted in Hughes’ odds to be the next manager ousted from his post shorten to 2/1.

The R’s awful start to the season will have fallen way short of owner Tony Fernandes’ expectations after he pumped floods of cash into the playing staff to help Hughes fulfil his promise of keeping the west London club out of any sticky relegation scraps as long as he was at the helm.

Fernandes gave Neil Warnock the boot at the half-way stage of last term, with the current Leeds United supremo having amassed eight points from his opening six Premier League games in charge at Loftus Road, and that was without the enormous financial resources that Hughes has been granted.

This shows that Fernandes isn’t afraid to act if he thinks things aren’t going according to plan and that is definitely the case here.

Unless Hughes can turn fortunes around quickly, he will have to face up to the embarrassment of a relegation dogfight despite his bold proclamation that he was too good a manger to allow that to happen again.

Identical to Hughes’ price to be sacked, the R’s are 2/1 to return to be relegated back to the Championship.

With a home game with Everton sandwiched in between two difficult away trips to West Brom and Arsenal, life isn’t forecast to get any easier for the former Blackburn, Man City and Fulham boss.

If QPR’s win column remains empty after these games, punters can expect to see both his odds to be next manager to leave and his club’s to be relegated trimmed furthermore.

All odds and markets accurate as of time and date of publication