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Reply | Summer transfer rumours 2026
at 10:19 5 Sep 2026
RK seems to be a talented player, but whether he is an exceptional talent I am less sure. The fact is that he is home grown talent and I think we all warm to the idea of the next Clive Allen/Paul Goddard emerging after some pretty barren years on the development front.
I get the feeling he could be one of those players that cannot be easily placed in the models favoured in modern coaching . There are a number of players who simply do not fit systems. If you are a footballing genius you get away with it. Teams are shaped around the genius. Otherwise there will only be one winner in this argument.
The heirarchy at football clubs pushing out players is not a new thing or exclusive to our current management, sometimes they get it wrong (Stan Bowles, Ebere Eze) and we have benefitted. Sometimes they get it right. Time will tell in this instance. I wish him nothing but good luck. If he can go somewhere with a set up and a coach that can maximise his talent that would be great. If, as appears to be the case, the current bosses do not fancy him then the positive thing for him to do is find a place that can help him achieve his footballing ambition. Currently this is wasted energy by both parties. |
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Reply | New pre match song
at 11:55 4 Sep 2026
With so much to smile about so far, it is a shame that a song should cause an issue. My first thought was for the person(s) who wrote it and did so because QPR is their team. It is sad to see their efforts get trashed in an unforgiving way.
I also get why it has provoked angst, the songs are part of the ritual and connection and messing around with ritual without some form of conversation beforehand seems crazy. Ironically all the in-house interviews continually make reference to the connection with the fans!
Personally, whilst not a fan of the song , as others have suggested, I hope it is retained and used in some form or other during the pre-match music programme.
However, my main interest is whether we are witnessing the start of something special in the way the team play and what they might achieve. Some of the football has been wonderful to watch. Personally, I can live with changes to music, if we can maintain what is happening on the pitch. |
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Reply | Summer transfer rumours 2026
at 16:27 8 Jul 2026
I have sympathy with the hierarchy on the goalkeeper situation. It is possible that there is a chain involving several clubs, agents and players. If one deal gets delayed or doesn't happen then it can change the sequence of intended transactions.
No club can predict or control every aspect of a transfer if there are a number of moving parts and what can look weird from the outside can be logical from inside. This activity in fairness may be a case where details cannot be disclosed if there is a complex series of events involved.
That said, clubs that invest time in communicating straightforward info with fans earn trust. When you have that kind of relationship it cuts you some slack. For many reasons, some articulated here, that type of relationship does not yet exist.
Lastly as to critical comment being Nourry focused, well he kind of created that beast! He is in charge of back office support as well as football operations. He sets the strategy and the control of all the coaches. Stephan has confirmed the narrow definition of his role so he gets stick within those parameters when people do not like what they see on the pitch.
Nourry also said that his background means he has a very direct no messing comes style. If so, then it invites people to reciprocate.
If you write the theme, sing the theme tune... |
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Reply | Rare QPR Footage
at 21:49 23 Jun 2026
QPR v Sheffield Wednesday, my first ever QPR game, my brother took me and treated us to a seat in the Ellerslie Road stand! |
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Reply | How QPR are building for the future - Christian Nourry interview the CEO show
at 17:30 23 Jun 2026
I see the point you make, however (and perhaps this is just me) I really don't see discernable progress on the pitch.
Leaving Ainsworth and Critchley to one side, my perception is that we have spirtied runs of good form followed by difficult to explain less good, sometimes awful form. That appears to be a concistent feature.
Generally (I think with one seasons exception) Cup games appear to be treated like training games, again under various regimes.
The sums that have been gained for player trading were all signed under the apparently unscientific system.
We cannot (it appears) manage 3 game weeks which is a fairly basic requirement of championship football. We always seem to be saying that player x needs a good pre-season, or coach B needs a year to understand championship football and so on.
Where I think some progress has been made is in the recruitment of younger players with potential. But even here it is a mixed bag. How did we end up buying so many small forwards?
Why did we buy Saito when we already had Dembele, Chair etc? The logic of certain signings is more Redknapp style rack and stack than Moneyball.
Surely the best way of adding value to players is to be either in or near the play off positions and winning more than you lose?
The team is consistently inconsistent. What frustrates me is watching some excellent football, energy and commitment and the following match watch a team of strangers who cannot pass to another hooped shirt. That pretty much seem to be my experience over a number of seasons, so hence my view that the upcoming season is critical.
For me success will be a top eight finish, more consistency, especially a strong home record, at least one of the young non regular players really making a name for themselves and a big money sale at the end of the season. Do that and I will say fantastic progress! |
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Reply | How QPR are building for the future - Christian Nourry interview the CEO show
at 15:20 23 Jun 2026
As a matter of interest I looked up SoccerEx. not having heard of it before. It was founded in 1996 by the son of Don Revie and states as its purpose:
:
To Help the Football Business Ecosystem Connect, Grow, Invest, and Create Impact.
Soccerex exists to bring the right people, capital, companies, and institutions together around the opportunities shaping the future of football.
Through events, Deal Network, HerSoccerex, market insight, and strategic partnerships, Soccerex creates the platform for relationships to become partnerships, partnerships to become growth, and growth to create lasting commercial and community value.
Since 1996, Soccerex has served as neutral ground for the global football business ecosystem, connecting leaders, rightsholders, capital, brands, innovators, and strategic partners across the game.
Sounds like an excellent place for young ambitious businesspeople in football to raise their profile and showcase their skills to the football ecosystem. |
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Reply | How QPR are building for the future - Christian Nourry interview the CEO show
at 12:47 23 Jun 2026
Why is using a forum about a football club to discuss its performance and its leadership an obsession? Especially when one of the leaders participated in an interview that is about QPR and put on the web?
Fernandes, the mob before him, Paladini all featured on message boards. All prompted a range of views.
The arrangements at QPR are unusual. Nothing wrong with that, it could be a stroke of genius but it will obviously attract comment. The fact that the narrative is not yet matching the experience inevitably leads to debate.
Without rehearsing some of the many pertinent points already made, the club has not helped its cause. So it is hardly a surprise if some fans are in need of seeing some tangible evidence of improvement in performance.
If next season, we have first team performance that is consistently better that what has gone before, maybe a cup run as well? Then I am sure that plaudits will rain down on the leadership. In the meantime there will be questions, there will be some anxiety about the direction of travel.
It is not unreasonable for those who have an emotional investment in QPR to be very interested in what the leaders say and what they do. It may be an obsession, but not in the pejorative sense as suggested. |
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Reply | WLS - Deal Agreed to Sell Field to Norwich
at 12:52 21 Jun 2026
Sad to see Sam Field go. Hard working honest player who provided solid protection to the defence and showed albeit infrequently strong forward play and some great goals. I felt if he perhaps lacked a little self belief .I wish he was staying but equally I fully understand the business case behind letting him leave. The fee received is unlikely to be higher in the next two windows so the time is probably right.
The piece on the official website was an improvement on some media releases and hopefully a sign of more thoughtful style to come. |
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Reply | Is 3 years a fair amount of time to judge Christian Nourry as ceo of qpr
at 09:50 11 Jun 2026
No one should be subject of unpleasant personal comments. However. there has been a lot of messaging that does not reflect the lived experience of fans and a rise in odd stuff on this message board at certain points. Given past events it is not surprising that people get the hump at the hype.
It is right that supporters should be realistic but for anyone who watched the great teams of the past knows that hope is a wonderful thing when watching your team play.
A small club in size of stadium and fanbase has always had a big heart and close bond with its fans.
Whether imagined or real there is a need to feel a connection with the people in charge, lose that connection and you lose something special.
If you have a full 60,000 stadium with Premiership funding streams then you can afford to be indifferent towards the fanbase, treat them as consumers and spout corporate jargon with little real world impact. For clubs like QPR, that is not an effective model.
The reality is that the fundamentals have not changed in terms of league position, the consistency of performance, any form of playing 'identity' or any coherent strategy that I can see in terms of recruitment.
I am unclear whether the overall strategy is to build a team that can challenge for promotion or a staging post to develop and sell on players to try and become profitable, or both? Maybe it is all three, staging post, then profitable, then challenge? If the latter then this is a long process and after three years there are not many green shoots.
As others have said, I think the next season is a critical one, if all of these recent signings improve in a similar fashion to Madsen then through sales and an improvement in league position the picture will look very positive.
My niggling worry is a vibe of hype over substance. I genuinely hope those feelings are misplaced and this is the season when we can feel and touch real progress on and off the pitch. One measure (for me) will be to see more effort to reconnecting with the people who have so much passion for the club |
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Reply | Podcast with Marti.
at 17:22 5 Jun 2026
A few observations, Leicester were a basket case even when they got promoted to the Premier on the most recent occasion and the manager jumped ship. They bought poorly and had massive financial problems which will continue for some time yet. If you read the analysis it is mind boggling. The leaders left and there was no money to recruit . They have a fantastic training ground and some good youngsters. MC actually did an amazing job I the circumstances but they were a bad fit.
As regards his loyalty to QPR, let's be real, it is a ruthless business so everyone is always looking for a plan B unless you are at a top club and winning things. It is quite possible he wanted to stay and that his agent was looking at options. The two are not mutually exclusive.
If you are looking for clues, the best indicators are behaviour of the parties, how have individuals who were recruited under the old regime fared under the new?
How honest have the current regime been in communication with supporters generally? Look at the timelines, where suddenly 'leaks' emerged by both parties, who had most to gain in having their narrative take hold?
Whenever an organisation has a change of senior leadership there is almost always a culling of the level below, people with organisational knowledge and internal networks can be of huge benefit but also perceived as a threat.
Lastly, personally I didn't think MC was the next Alex Ferguson but I think he was a decent coach who was learning from experience and had a decent assistant. On that basis, any change needed to make significant improvement. Thus far it hasn't happened. I have high hopes for next year if the obvious areas of weakness are addressed, but hopes and reality are not the same! |
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Reply | Fan sites meeting with Christian Nourry
at 11:22 20 May 2026
I find it very sad that if people are invited to an event aimed at engagement are then vilified for asking straightforward questions. Whether this is via some form of direction or spontaneous coincidence it is unpleasant and unwarranted.
Anyone who takes the time to read the content of this site and the superb quality of writing by the LfW team can see that there is a love for QPR and a desire to see it flourish. It may be that there is a particular demographic that finds it more to their taste but I would hope that there really is something for everyone here.
My main frustration is what seems to be a focus on building a narrative and 'controlling the message' rather than a focus on delivery. using success and tangible progress to create something real upon which to build a powerful story. If the purpose of engagement is to build bridges, get people unified behind the leadership at the club then it has been a failure in this instance and sadly a bit of trend. From the outside it looks like a box ticking exercise that the club do under sufference rather than a serious exercise to listen, communicate and explain.
I am sure that sometimes the questions are tedious, there will always be an element of that in this kind of event but there will also be genuine and well thought out positions that either may not have been considered by decision makers or they based a decision on inaccurate or inaccurate data.
The reality is we have made little tangible progress in terms of league position, consistency in performance, development of high value talent or renovation of the stadium. We still have a high turnover of managers/coaches or whatever and for all the talk I do not see a clear strategy. It seems in recent years we have a mini performance crisis and either at the end of a transfer window or in the next available window we acquire players that are contrary to the stated approach. That has happened under Warburton, Ainsworth, Cifuentes and to a degree under the current incumbant.
I would agree that the proportion of inbound players that seem good prospects has improved on previous years and the Training Ground (which precedes the current CEO and his team) is excellent. But fundamentally we are in the same place, getting roughly the same level of performance that we have achieved for a few years now. Maybe football is less complicated than it is sometimes dressed up to be?
For me, either have fan/fan group engagement if you really want to hear voices that may take a contrary or challenging view and see that as a benefit or do not bother. If you are not doing it for the right reasons then you cause more harm than goood. You disunite instead of bringing people together, you seed distrust so that even when you do something good it generates suspicion. There will be genuine reasons for any organisation not to disclose some information but that apart open, timely and honest engagement will bring you far better medium and long term benefit and credibility.
A wise man once warned against urinating down someones back and telling them it is raining. It does not end well.
Clive and his team are the good guys here and the club would do well to see that and understand where he is coming from. |
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Reply | Hoos on first team strategy
at 21:03 17 Mar 2026
Hmm, I do not know if there is a waiting list for season tickets, but if there is, I suspect those on the list will get lucky this close season! I will be surprised if there is a substantial line of potential season ticket holders next year. |
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Reply | Hoos on first team strategy
at 17:42 17 Mar 2026
Disappointing in my view. It seems his take is that the plan is working, its inevitable there will be bumps in the road but be more supportive of the players (but its not your fault). No reference to the role of the backroom staff, the transfer activity, poor comms,how to keep fans on board. Trust the process, whatever that means!
I didn't see him say anything about why QPR supporters should buy into the process? I Just saying at the end of a stream of criticism of fans that he is not being critical is quite a sight to behold.
I am surprised at the lack of emotional intelligence and wasting an opportunity to try and rally supporters. If he wants to get buy in, then do something to get it, not simply tell them to be patient! |
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Reply | Please don't Fox Us in the Rs Leicester Vs QPR match thread
at 12:58 15 Mar 2026
I thought there was a big improvement from some of the recent games I have been to. I thought we rode our luck at Charlton in the first half and found the Blackburn and Sheffield United games just awful. I was so happy for the players and you could see how much it did for their confidence and energy.
I agree that you can only beat what is in front of you but Leicester were exceptionally poor Our players had space and time that some of the well organised and hungry teams deny us. Reading the Leicester forum could be like this one of recent weeks! Our passing was still not great, but better, still not able to be creative in the absence of Madsen and Chair but lots of commitment and energy, trying to play to the strengths of players, rather than try to replicate what we do with better players.
I hope that having broken the run, we can get a result against Portsmouth, they I suspect will be a tougher nut to crack but if the confidence remains high we should win.
Lastly, I think Walsh will be a good keeper and I hope with QPR and Edwards was simply outstanding. |
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Reply | Latest WLS podcast
at 12:54 13 Mar 2026
I suspect watching other managers training sessions and preparation is not so much about the drills but how good coaches communicate their ideas and whether their ideas are executed well on the football pitch. How the coach explains things, how he or she gets 'buy in' will also depend on how much the players trust the information and the person in charge. I suspect observing the culture the coach creates and how he engages with the players is the real learning rather than what type of football skills, tactics they are being carried out.
I have met really clever people with great ideas that go nowhere because the audience cannot make head nor tail of the information. Normally a combination of an inability to communicate the idea well and poor people skills. Equally I have known people who are able to spot good ideas, understand them and communicate them amazingly well. |
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Reply | WLS - Edwards might be moved into QPR’s midfield
at 17:01 11 Mar 2026
The injuries to key players have been a terrible blow, but the response in terms of organising a team that can at least be resilient and contain the opposition has been woeful. I was lucky to see Marsh and the great Jago/Sexton and Venables teams but have seen less skilful players still provide me with entertaining football and enjoyment. Recently, the misplaced passes, lack of initiative or variation in moving the ball has left me thinking about packing in going. Sam Field may not be the Messiah but he was an important part of a core with Cook and Dunne that provides the heart and support to younger players. He is an excellent shield to the defence, an extra defender when under pressure and blocker and goal line clearance man when needed. Every manager bar this one has seen those qualities and understood how getting combinations of players is as important as having individuals that are very skilful and create problems for the opposition.
I think the manager is a good guy but not a good fit for QPR. That said with the current arrangements I am not sure any coach could excel. My understanding of a DoF model is that they provide continuity so that when a manager departs the overall structure is robust enough to cope.
Logically therefore the DoF has a good understanding of professional football, managing players and so on, in order to build the correct structure. It seems we have a very large backroom team that are either on a par with the coach or at a higher position in the hierarchy. It is a feature of poorly run organisations that they have a bloated bureaucracy in which it is difficult to pin accountability on any individual, especially the top leadership. Sadly, I fear that is precisely the 'model' we have at QPR. There has not been a dramatic improvement in performance, the mix of good bad and indifferent performances has hardly changed. The recruitment has unearthed some better (potentially) players but equally some that at best are average and at worst unsuitable for the Championship. The narrative has been polished but the reality is pretty much the same, but it just costs more. There are good examples of clubs with similar financial and physical constraints (small stadium, low income generation) that are outperforming our club with less grandiose structures but strong on basics.
I wanted to be optimistic, I thought this novel approach could be transformative, but actually little has changed in performance terms apart from how it is being marketed. Worse than that, the connection between the club and its patient and loyal supporters is being weakened.
I want to watch good football, I want to see players that are confident to try something out of the ordinary and that get enjoyment out of playing for QPR. If the best players are injured then I want to see the players graft, dig in and pass to a player wearing the same coloured shirt. Is that too much to ask? |
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Reply | Stephan
at 17:00 25 Feb 2026
There is a famous Bob Hope film called Paleface, Bob Hope is mistakenly believed to be a gunslinger in a wild west town. He has to face down a notorious gunman, he is given lots of helpful advice on how best to tackle his adversery. Needless to say he ends up utterly confused:
"Hey listen, the man that's after you just killed my brother. Here's a tip: He draws from the left, so lean to the right."
Potter: He draws from the left so lean to the right.
Greg: "Son, I'll let you in on something. Along towards sunset there's a wind from the east. So you better aim to the west."
Potter: He draws from the left so lean to the right. There's a wind from the east so better aim to the west.
Pete: "I know this Joe like a book. He crouches when he shoots so stand on your toes."
Potter: [Outside in the street] He draws from the left so lean to the right. There's a wind from the east so better aim to the west. He crouches when he shoots so stand on your toes. Thanks... Growl.
[Goes out into the street]
Potter: He draws from the left so stand on your toes... There's a wind from the east, better lean to the right... He crouches when he shoots, better aim to the west... He draws from his toes, so lean toward the wind. Ah ha! I got it!
As I look down at the dug out at Loftus Road around the 65th Minute this scene comes to me everytime. |
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Reply | Stephan
at 16:52 25 Feb 2026
The manager/head coach/whatever strikes me as an intelligent, articulate individual who knows his stuff. I am sure that there are better coaches out there, there are certainly worse. But one thing I am certain of, changing the coach will not solve the problem.
Personally, I do not see much difference, or progress, on the field. In some cases the football can be lovely to watch and matches what, in my head, is the 'QPR way'. All too often, however, the performances seem to lack intensity, guile, or any sense of freedom by the players. That is not a specific criticism of the current coach, it was similar under MC, and Beale, less so Warburton but certainly under others too. (Ainsworth and Critchley were more generally poor).
Maybe that is a symptom of the modern game. The physicality and stamina required of modern players has certainly gone up several notches, but the data obsession is turning it into some quasi form of NFL. I see ever growing numbers of coaches in the dug out with music stands for their laptops bombarding each other with data in 'real time' . Does this really make the game better as a spectacle? The performance of the players? I see precious little evidence of that. I am not even sure that all the managers or coaches buy into it, but to say so would probably be career ending.
Data helps smart people make better decisions. But even smart people can struggle to use it when making fast time decisions, where absorbing the data, understanding it and communicating it effectively have to be done almost immediately. My gut feeling is decisions on substitutions and tactical changes are delayed as some coaches grapple with this deluge of information rather than sometimes relying on oneself. The risk of ignoring data and screwing up in a world where data is king is obvious. Sticking to the data might still mean screwing up but the kings of data will be more tolerant of failure.
You can change the coach a hundred times but unless the individual is obviously poor, then it is unlikely that a reasonable coach would do much better than the present incumbant |
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Reply | Special mention for the kits last night
at 16:06 25 Feb 2026
Yup, have at least three kits, change them as frequently as you can, make a video drip feed glimpses, create a 'buzz' and maximise income. Then spend the season badge kissing and waxing lyrical about the fans and how special they are. Modern commercial football, so authentic! |
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