Mark Hughes at Fulham
In appointing Mark Hughes as their new manager, QPR have given themselves a major boost in their battle against relegation.
Neil Warnock may count himself unlucky to be sacked, with his club still outside the bottom three the season after a spectacular promotion campaign.
As Warnock pointed out, Tony Fernandes's takeover of the club, on August 18, did not give the manager enough time to bring in new players, while many of his preferred targets had already gone elsewhere.
Warnock said on Tuesday: "Will a new manager make a difference? Not as much as new players will.
"If you haven't got the players you can't win games, that's another fact of life in football management.
"I just wish I had the chance to bring in the ones I wanted, both in the summer, and this month."
New managers often possess a strange ability to loosen the chairman's purse strings, and reports suggest Hughes could get as much as £30 million to spend this month.
If the previous gaffer had that money to spend - who knows?
So while Warnock has the right to feel somewhat aggrieved, this is ultimately not an issue of fairness. It is a simple upgrade in the dugout.
It's not about whether Warnock 'deserved' the sack as much as whether Hughes can do better.
I think he can.
In its final weeks, the Warnock era appeared in some danger of spiralling out of control.
Not just in the miserable run of nine games without a win, but in the manager's demeanour.
Never slow to take up arms against officialdom, Warnock cut an increasingly angry figure as results went against QPR.
His rage following Joey Barton's red card was well-documented, and included a claim that referees favour bigger clubs (odd, given Barton was sent off against Norwich).
Days earlier, he ripped into referee Lee Probert after the draw against Swansea, claiming he had perpetrated "an injustice".
Now, managers criticising referees is nothing new, and even the best bosses do it. But they normally do it with a specific goal in mind - making sure the next decision goes their way.
Problem is, Warnock's rants were so splenetic, so bitter in their condemnation of referees and the FA's appeal process, that far from coaxing some more favourable treatment, they merely risked alienating the authorities.
QPR chairman Tony Fernandes may also have considered the potentially damaging effect all this rage might have on a club trying to raise its global profile.
Flavio Briatore's idea of selling Rangers as an exclusive 'boutique' club was clearly preposterous no matter how many times Naomi Campbell turned up. I mean, have you ever been to White City?
However, the Italian was right that the club needs to broaden its appeal overseas, and coming across as a gang of irate bruisers probably won't cut it.
To paraphrase the late, lamented Garry Cook, Shaun Derry doesn't roll off the tongue in Beijing.
So a change is probably for the best, though Hughes does not come without his own question marks.
He seems desperate to tell everyone just how ambitious he is. But in the summer that ambition led him to quit Fulham with no alternative lined up, and resulted in six months of unemployment before joining a lower-ranked club than the one he left.
So if Hughes does keep QPR up, there is no guarantee that his ambition will not take him elsewhere if a bigger club comes calling - or even if they don't.
One thing not in question is Hughes's ability to deliver results.
Only once in six full seasons of management has his side finished outside the top half - his first year at Blackburn.
Manchester City have progressed since Hughes was sacked in December 2009, but that may have something to do with the oodles of cash lavished on transfers as much as Roberto Mancini's managerial acumen.
In any case, it was a run of draws that did for Hughes at City; not ideal for ambitious -that word again - owners but hardly an indication of a useless manager.
Hopefully he will have learned a lesson from his ill-advised departure from Craven Cottage - that a manager looking for the next big move is more likely to get it if he already has a job.
And Hughes's appointment must come as something of a relief to his representative Kia Joorabchian, whose two highest profile clients in Britain have been at something of a loose end.
In Carlos Tevez, he has a footballer in his prime not playing football, and in Hughes a manager in his prime not managing.
By the end of the month, both men should be back doing what they do best.
Hughes is too talented a manager to spend his days pruning the roses. QPR are lucky to have him.
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