Things are likely to get worse before they get better as new manager Mark Hughes tries to turn around the Asian-owned Queens Park Rangers.
The January appointment at the newly promoted club is a shrewd one, because it means Hughes (pictured), a former Manchester United and Chelsea striker, will be able to attract better talent in the transfer window than his unfashionable predecessor, Neil Warnock.
Already he has been linked to players such as Andrew Johnson, Chris Samba and Nedum Onuoha, with whom he has worked before. They are clearly a cut above the likes of Shaun Derry, Clint Hill and Paddy Kenny, who go back a long way with Warnock.
With an annual salary of around GBP3 million (HK$36 million) a year, which puts him just behind Roberto Mancini, Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson, Hughes will soon be feeling the weight of expectation as he prepares for a relegation dogfight. It is a different kind of pressure to what he experienced in his 18-month stay at Manchester City, but the fans will be no less impatient.
The problem is that he takes over a dressing room in turmoil. Argentine midfielder Alejandro Faurlin, QPR's best player this campaign, has been ruled out for the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Another midfielder, the outspoken club captain Joey Barton, is serving a three-match suspension after he received a red card against Norwich. And last season's top scorer, Adel Taarabt, is on his way to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to represent Morocco in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Defensively, the Rs have been a shambles, especially with the prolonged absence through injury of their key August signing, Anton Ferdinand. In their miserable run of just one win in 12 games since October, they have failed to keep a clean sheet and slid to 17th on the table.