MARTI Cifuentes says there were multiple things which attracted him to the role as QPR manager.
The unknown Spaniard was certainly a surprise appointment, with Neil Warnock seemingly in pole position to land the gig following Gareth Ainsworth’s dismissal after last weekend’s 2-1 loss to Leicester.
But the 41-yer-old, who arrives from Swedish side Hammarby, already has a decade of coaching experience on his CV and is now looking to continue building his reputation by saving the Hoops from relegation to League One.
Asked what had attracted him to the Loftus Road role, he replied: “Many things. To say only thing is difficult but definitely the possibility to be the head coach and manager of a club with the history of QPR was the first.
“Then I know there is quality within the squad – in my opinion I know there is potential to get the results that we want.
“It is a very important part as well for me to experience English football.
“I’m a coach who is very curious and I want to learn, to develop, to get better and I know that English football will help me to learn more about the game.”
Cifuentes added: “It is an exciting project.
“From the beginning since the first day they called me, I think it was very clear – not only about the big challenge ahead of us in this first season trying to definitely avoid relegation and to get out of the situation where we are – but looking as well at the long-term to build an identity, to make sure we have a clear idea on how we want to play and how we want to make things on and off the pitch.
“So that really attracted me.”
Cifuentes also explained this isn’t the first time he has been asked to help a struggling side and is looking to put that experience to good use so QPR can hit the ground running at Rotherham on Saturday.
“I’ve been in this situation before,” he said.
“This is my fourth time taking a team in the middle of the season and I know that there is no time basically.
“We need to make sure we can produce results and we can compete well from the beginning, that’s a fact.
“It has been a very intense two or three days and I tried to work as much as I could.
“You can notice my voice is struggling a bit! I think we are going to be ready to compete at a good level on Saturday.
“I have full trust on how the players welcome us and how open they are to the new ideas and new approach on how I want to play.”
Cifuentes was keen not to criticise his predecessor and also pointed out it is a clean slate for everyone at the club.
He explained: “I don’t want to compare on what has happened before my arrival here.
“First of all because I am very respectful of the job that the previous manager Gareth has done here.
“He is a club legend and he is a football colleague, so he is a manager, as I am.
“In that sense I am not here to judge what has been done before.
“Obviously I’ve seen the games to know and to understand the players, but I don’t think it will be fair to compare.
“We are going to come here, as always it is with a new manager, to try to give some fresh air to the players, try to give them a good opportunity to show up.
“I told them from the beginning that we start from zero, so let’s see how many points we can score in the next 33 games.
“If I am wrong then we will see at the end of the season how this is going.”
Cifuentes has previous experience of football in the capital having worked briefly on the coaching staff at Championship rivals Millwall when he was starting out as a coach.
He recalled: “When I was at Millwall, I was just trying to learn.
“I worked for the club to analyse the training just to get a good overview about English football, about the training methodology.
“At that time it was at the beginning of my career as a coach and I was very interested to learn different training methodologies around the world.
“I got a good experience watch the training of the first team, with the U23s and U19s.
“It was a big contrast compared to the way of training that I learnt in Barcelona and in other countries. It was a very good learning experience.”
