The strange-looking partnership between Iain Dowie and the multimillionaire owners seeking to turn Queens Park Rangers into a glamorous club came to a swift end yesterday as the manager was sacked after only 15 matches in charge. It is hard to predict his successor, given that Zinédine Zidane was being considered for the role before it was offered to Dowie. Roberto Mancini and Roberto Donadoni, the Italians, may enter the frame, as well as Terry Venables, Sam Allardyce and Kenny Jackett, the Millwall manager.

Dowie took charge in May and led QPR to eight wins and three draws and a tie against Manchester United in the Carling Cup next month, but they have won only one of their past six Coca-Cola Championship games and are ninth in the table. They drew 0-0 with Swansea City, who played for more than an hour without a recognised goalkeeper, on Tuesday.

Despite a pre-season pledge that they would be patient, the members of the board are believed to have become concerned by the club’s recent downward turn in the league.

Dowie’s was a surprise appointment but the board decided that his track record as a talented motivator at Championship level made him the right man to lead a promotion bid. The 43-year-old, a former player at Loftus Road, became hot property after managing Crystal Palace to promotion in 2004, but his reputation has been dented by recent brief and unsuccessful roles. He suffered a financial hit last year when he lost a High Court case brought by Palace over the circumstances of his move to Charlton Athletic, a club he left in November 2006 after only 12 league games. He moved on to Coventry City, where he lasted almost a year, leaving in February with the club just outside the relegation zone.

Gareth Ainsworth, the player-coach, will take charge for this evening’s match against Reading at the Madejski Stadium. “I’ve been thrown in at the deep end,” he said.