Never go back.

It’s a saying you hear all the time in football, and one that is probably beginning to grate on Ian Holloway.

Although, given his proclivity to stray into cliche or colourful repartee, maybe not.

The effervescent 53-year-old last week returned to QPR for a second stint as manager of the club, taking over from the sacked Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

His previous tenure ended over a decade ago, after guiding the R’s to second-tier safety in 2005/06 before leaving for Plymouth.

The club – and league – he is joining in the present day, though, are vastly different to those that he departed.

The money swilling around the Championship – with clubs spending big to realise their Premier League ambition – has changed it beyond recognition.

When Holloway left QPR, the record fee in that division was the £3m paid by Norwich for Robbie Earnshaw.

That it is now £15m – stumped up by Aston Villa for Jonathan Kodjia – says everything you need to know about the attitude-shift in the Championship.

QPR themselves have been caught up in the excesses of dream-chasing, too.

Firstly, the botched rebrand by Flavio Briatore – attempting to make the R’s what he called a ‘boutique club’ – which was the subject of the film, The Four Year Plan.

The controversial spell opened a disconnect between the fans and the board, which – even with promotion to the Premier League and new owner Tony Fernandes – was still apparent.

The unsustainable spending that followed, with Julio Cesar, Jose Bosingwa and Stephane Mbia – among others – drafted in, did little to mend that.

While Rangers have since recovered from the inevitable relegation – and been up to the top flight once more in the interim – the past decade has moulded a different football club.

But the appointment of Holloway may prove a clever one.

Having been at the club prior to their revolution, his presence will appeal to the emotional history of QPR fans.

Expectation, admittedly, at Loftus Road is stratospheric compared to his previous spell.

That Hasselbaink was sacked with the club sitting 17th in the Championship, having won just three home matches, shows as much.

The west countryman has addressed this, though, likening himself to a pair of trousers that get “re-tailored all the time to get in fashion, because that is what you have to do” during his unveiling as manager.

Adjusting to testing situations is indeed a strength of his.

At Blackpool, for example, he earned an unbelievable promotion with a side expected to fight for relegation.

Crystal Palace, too, were able to maintain their form at the top of the Championship under his leadership in 2012/13 and managed promotion.

Despite that, the appointment of someone who has been out of football for 20 months – with his previous job a disaster at Millwall – is clearly a gamble.

But as the chant of “We’ve got our Rangers back,” rang out during the win over Norwich last week, it became clear that QPR may have landed the right man to rebuild a fractured club.