Marti Cifuentes reacts to Harrison Ashby situation at QPR | OneFootball

Marti Cifuentes diffuses Harrison Ashby situation but future remains in doubt at Queens Park Rangers

Queens Park Rangers boss Marti Cifuentes has sought to diffuse the situation involving himself and on-loan defender Harrison Ashby that developed on Easter Monday.

In QPR’s 2-1 defeat to fellow in-form side Swansea City in the Championship on Monday, Ashby was substituted in the 53rd minute in a double substitution that saw both himself and Lucas Andersen replaced by Kenneth Paal and Michael Frey.

Ashby was clearly frustrated to have been taken off by his manager and responded by pushed past Cifuentes and clearly exchanged words with the former Hammarby and Aalborg boss after playing on the left-side of the defence, despite being a right-back, having picked up a yellow card just before half-time.

Ashby has been the subject of some criticism at Loftus Road throughout his loan spell this season and Cifuentes had spoken about him earlier on this season, saying that he ‘needs to learn’ the system a bit more becoming a guaranteed regular.

However, with just a couple of games of the 2024/25 Championship season to go and Ashby’s future for this summer still up in the air, Cifuentes has poured cold water on any possible suggestions of a more longer term dispute between the pair.

Cifuentes’ praise of Ashby

Despite the obvious frustration of Ashby, Cifuentes has been quick to actually praise both the character and recent performances of the Newcastle United loanee.

Cifuentes said via London World: “I love Ash’s personality. He’s so straight and honest, he wanted to play, he’s playing at a high level the last games, which I’m very happy about because I think there is a big potential on him as a player.”

He went on to say that he ‘did really well’ playing on the left-hand side of late, acknowledging his natural preference of being on the right side, but explained the decision to take him off as being due to his yellow card and the fact that they had the aforementioned Paal on the bench.

QPR have spent a fair chunk of the season flirting with the bottom three and the relegation places in the Championship but have been in good form in the last month or so, propelling themselves firmly into the middle-of-the-table with Ashby finding some form his own in that time, in comparison to when Cifuentes made those earlier comments about needing to learn.

Ashby’s possible future

As mentioned, Ashby is currently on a season-long loan from Newcastle which will be coming to an end after these final two games of the season whereby QPR face automatically promoted Burnley in their final game of the campaign at Loftus Road on Saturday before a trip to a Sunderland side firmly tucked in the play-off places at the Stadium of Light on the final day.

Ashby joined the Magpies from West Ham United in the winter transfer window off 2023 for a fee believed to be in the region of £3 million before spending last season out on loan at Swansea City.

Eddie Howe’s side have both Tino Livramento and Kieran Trippier as first-team right-back options at the moment as well as Sweden international Emil Krafth, who is expected to depart this summer.