Could Harry Redknapp's Resignation Actually Boost QPR's Chances of Safety?

In retrospect, the writing was on the wall from the moment Tony Fernandes took to Twitter proclaiming there would be "no more cheque book" at Queens Park Rangers, that he had "bought all the players" his manager targeted in the summer.

That manager, Harry Redknapp, resigned his position early Tuesday morning and Fernandes, the QPR chairman, accepted the decision, telling the club's official website that the two were parting "on good terms."

There's no reason to disbelieve him.

That said, the parting comes with the Premier League outfit sitting second-from-bottom in the division, without a point gained from their travels this season and having gone seven matches without a win—a stretch that includes an embarrassing 3-0 defeat at home to Sheffield United in the FA Cup.

If Redknapp was the man Fernandes once thought could turn considerable investment into tangible success, his faith was surely battered by the time he received the 67-year-old's telephone call at 5:30 in the morning.

It may even have come as a relief.

Redknapp, for his part, has said he decided to resign after learning he required a double knee replacement.

"I'm struggling so badly now," he told the Daily Mail's Martin Samuel on Tuesday. "I can't walk; I can barely stand and watch. I'm in pain all the time."

He added: "I've been putting it off and putting it off, but it has got to the stage where I cannot do the job."

Again, there's no reason to distrust his explanation. It's not at all disingenuous, even if it's still only part of the story.

Back in July, don't forget, he told the BBC he would have retired if QPR had failed to win promotion to the top flight of English football. If he was feeling beleaguered then, the knee problems will have only added to the strain.

And while he clearly wanted to make some acquisitions on Transfer Deadline Day, a failure to do so was likely just a secondary reason for resigning—a final straw, perhaps, but nothing more than that.

Fernandes, for his part, will now look to Redknapp's replacement—initially temporary, then permanent—to provide a jolt that could boost QPR above the likes of Hull, Burnley, Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion and into some form of safety. The club were always going to need some sort of shake-up between now and the end of the season, and Tuesday's events may well have provided it.

As per Reuters' Martyn Herman, Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey take charge of the weekend's match with Southampton, and from there it's possible former Tottenham Hotspur boss Tim Sherwood could be appointed manager, according to The London Times' Mike Brewer. Both Ferdinand and Ramsey were part of Sherwood's backroom staff at White Hart Lane.

Will they be able to coax the form QPR's high-priced squad requires to survive? We'll know in the coming weeks and months.

We'll also find out whether Redknapp, for all his experience and reputation, was getting the best out of it in the first place.

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