Concern is growing for Queens Park Rangers supporters, who have been showing signs of a condition only observed sporadically at Loftus Road over the past two decades: optimism.
The failure of a host of Premier League clubs to make a reasonable offer for Charlie Austin, and accept his apparently optimistic wage demands, means he remains a QPR player. Proving that the best activity of the transfer window does not always have to involve a new arrival, hanging on to the 26-year-old means expectations have suddenly shot up in W12.
Queens Park Rangers handed Chris Ramsey a three-year contract as head coach, and the task of steadying a ship on a rough sea with a couple of holes in its side, just in time to watch his team go down 5-1 to Leicester City.
His first job had been to finish a season that has been a miserable pit of despair at times on some sort of a high, but comically bad defending and general ineptitude put paid to this plan at the King Power Stadium.
QPR exited the Premier League on Sunday, putting in a display of rank incompetence as they lost 6-0 to Manchester City at the Etihad stadium.
In many ways, it was a fitting end to another disastrous top flight campaign in which, once again, a shambolic collection of men wearing blue and white found their level.
Queens Park Rangers are staring down the barrel of relegation after they failed to beat West Ham United and Hull City pulled away from the abyss with two successive wins to pile pressure on the bottom three.
Charlie Austin, without whose goals the Rs would perhaps already be down, had a penalty saved by the goalkeeper Adrián, who also kept out Matt Phillips in an unhelpful 0-0 draw.
For Queens Park Rangers, the war is surely over: there is no way the Rs can avoid relegation to the Championship with Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool still to play.
This will probably not stop Chris Ramsey being found in a jungle at some point during the summer, refusing to admit that Rangers have dropped out of the Premier League.
Queens Park Rangers squandered a perfect opportunity to close the gap on Aston Villa and pull clear of the relegation zone by losing twice in a week to Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
Spirit, endeavour and commitment were no match for quality in either encounter, with bright opening periods giving way to defensive lapses that helped the away sides take control.
QPR ended a run of 11 straight away defeats with a 2-0 win against Sunderland, which led to caretaker manager Chris Ramsey being given the job until the end of the season.
Goals from Leroy Fer and Bobby Zamora, both supplied by superb crosses from Matt Phillips, sunk the Black Cats, who are on a dreadful run themselves with just two wins at home so far.
QPR FanZoner Chris King outlines the five New Year’s resolutions the club should be setting themselves after starting 2015 with an FA Cup exit.
Queens Park Rangers dropped out of the FA Cup with a whimper on Sunday, losing 3-0 at home to Sheffield United, but remain in the thick of the Premier League survival battle.
The Rs slumped to defeat in yet another cup match after being comprehensively outplayed by the Blades, who are no strangers to upsetting supposed bigger teams.
This Chemical World 