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Reply | Julien Stephan - He is doing quite well !!!!
at 10:37 11 Dec 2025
Yes, obviously Venables.
Jim Smith also had big success with Derby.
But I was really pointing to managers this century! So...
Ian Holloway's success after leaving us has been notable (yes, Dave B, he was unsuccessful briefly at Millwall, Leicester, Grimsby - but two PL promotions mitigate that, as will Swindon if they go up having been bottom when he took over.)
Paulo Sousa has been very busy since leaving, but not a roaring success anywhere other than Switzerland.
Warncock got Palace promoted after us, but he's an outlier given how many he's managed.
QPR have a very good record for ending management careers, really. |
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Reply | Julien Stephan - He is doing quite well !!!!
at 08:53 11 Dec 2025
Ian Holloway didn't really struggle at other clubs after us overall, though - in fact he was probably more successful elsewhere. He took both Blackpool and Palace to the Premier League, incredible over-achievements (two Championship play-off finals with Blackpool is amazing work). He had a few misfires over a 25 year career but he's always come back more successfully elsewhere, eg Swindon now. Just a really, really good EFL manager. Less good at PR than Warnock, but just as successful in his own way.
Who are the other managers who've left QPR and then succeeded elsewhere? Struggling to think of them. Overall, I think it's more that QPR don't often appoint very good or suitable managers. In Cifuentes they got a good one and in Stephan they have another, one who looks to my eyes like a subtle upgrade. [Post edited 11 Dec 8:55]
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Reply | Julien Stephan - He is doing quite well !!!!
at 18:46 10 Dec 2025
"Er, anyone who doesn't want to watch Preston Knob End, Stoke, Blackburn, the list goes on and on."
Yes, much better watching Burnley, Sunderland, Bournemouth, the list goes on and on. But just for twice as much money.
£50 to watch QPR get pumped 6-0 at Stamford Bridge or Craven Cottage, remember those heady days? Going to Anfield and being filmed by Korean tourists throughout the game, which you lose without having a shot. And at the end of those 12, 24 months you get to come back down and start the trek up all over with a load of mercenary players you're can't shift. Magic.
Promotion to the PL doesn't look to have set Luton or Norwich up "for the next 100 years" (nor Burnley or Wolves for that matter), but I'm sure they enjoyed getting spanked every week then falling down the leagues.
I loved QPR in the top division in the 70s, 80s, 90s but I hated it in the PL last time round. Championship all day. Fck VAR, too. |
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Reply | Julien Stephan - He is doing quite well !!!!
at 17:48 10 Dec 2025
"Now we're in the top 6 though, is there any reason why we shouldn't stay there?"
If Stoke get a point at Ipswich tonight, or Bristol City beat Leicester and/or Hull beat Wrexham we'll be out of the top six by 10pm this evening. So, three good reasons right there and nothing we can do about it.
Doesn't really matter where you are in the table on December 10, though, as Southampton and probably Sheffield United will prove come May. Staying there until then is not really likely. Being there then is not impossible, though fairly improbable.
Who wants to go up anyway? |
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Reply | Kolli
at 14:42 10 Dec 2025
Did everyone notice that Kolli was on the pitch at the end of the game in club tracksuit, laughing with his team mates and applauding the fans, looking for all the world like an integral member of the squad who might be injured? |
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Reply | Julien Stephan - He is doing quite well !!!!
at 13:27 10 Dec 2025
By some. That was bollox, though, wasn't it? It was schedule-related. Something borne out by the fact all the same players bar injured Field have played some part in the subsequent two home wins.
It's constantly pointed out that Stephan has a better squad than Marti had last season. But so has Marti got a considerably better squad than he had last season - and probably better players than Stephan has now, cost and wages-wise. Fewer points so far, though. |
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Reply | Julien Stephan - He is doing quite well !!!!
at 12:14 10 Dec 2025
We've seen Dunne struggle at RB against lesser wingers than Gray so not sure that would've been safer. Poku definitely needed to track Roberts, agreed: I think Stephan was making that point loud and clear at full time to him. Think Poku will be a very important player on the right later in the season, love his directness and that run to the byline creates the goal.
All praise of Julien Stephan must be prefaced by "I liked Marti Cifuentes" and so... I liked Marti Cifuentes, and yes we do have a much better squad in forward positions this season.
However, we don't have Ronnie Edwards, who was the catalyst for recovery from the disastrous position we were in this time last season. And JS is currently playing Madsen and Varane in a central two, with Dunne and Cook at CB in front of Nardi. All five were there available last season but we would never have risked such a line-up in that formation in key positions. It's down to the coaching and the information he's given them that it's working well, as well as the instructions he's given others in and out of possession.
I'd be amazed if JS isn't rapidly rising on the whiteboards of some other higher-placed clubs. |
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Reply | Are you Madsen?
at 11:08 10 Dec 2025
R Block were singing Walking In A Madsen Wonderland last night:
"He used to be shte
But now he's alright
Walking in a Madsen wonderland"
Not the warmest praise, but could catch on. |
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Reply | Julien Stephan - He is doing quite well !!!!
at 11:01 10 Dec 2025
His coaching of the press, where players need to be both out of possession and in is excellent: it's totally flummoxed two bright young English coaches in our last two home games. I am looking forward to the Spires analysis of it because to my untrained eye it looks levels above what we're used to. It's getting better, too. Last night's and the WBA pressing was really top.
It's really risky having those full backs backing up the wide players in the press like we do now, but we're getting really good at it. Nearly had another goal from it (do need some work on our own goal kick bits though - or maybe that'll be solved with a new keeper in Jan...)
I think he's massively underrated (on this thread). Yes, he has better players than Marti, who I really liked, but JS appears to have drilled this lot to such an impactful degree. They're improving every game, both collectively and individually. We're playing a two man midfield of Madsen and Varane, with two strikers new to this level...
It's very impressive work which, much as I liked Marti and Warbs, would've been beyond other recent QPR coaches. And it's ballsy as it definitely isn't the stated game model...shame nobody asked Nourry about that in the meeting.
Anyway, I think he's a very good coach who is getting the best out of these particular players. Excellent hire. |
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Reply | Fan sites meeting with Christian Nourry
at 17:35 9 Dec 2025
You read it once and go, 'Oh, OK.'
Then you think about the GDPR over revealing injuries nonsense and how they can't invest in the catering or customer experience because you won't be able then to enjoy your favourite player...and it's such bullsht. Can we swap out one coach or reserve goalie or head of under 16 methodology for some decent bar staff and clean bogs, please?
There are other CEOs who don't need to micromanage youth player loan deals and pie supply chains, surely.
Massive chain-yanker. |
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Reply | FA Cup Draw Monday Evening
at 09:12 9 Dec 2025
You're disappointed about drawing a London Premier League team in terrible form at a ground we've never played at? Old London rivals, East v West, new stadium to play at, 9k away fans, loads of kids going to their first away day, on telly, Kone v Killman, Burrell running into the huge expanses of the London Stadium...
I doubt anyone under 55 is going to be feeling disappointed today, maybe anyone under 60.
(And yeah, getting out of London Stadium is terrible but getting into Upton Park Station after matches after walking round the back of the Boleyn was also terrible. And the drinking in Leyton, Leytonstone, Wanstead and Hackney Wick is miles better for away fans than anything near Boleyn.).
(And the capacity at Weston Super Mare is 3k, so not sure how many of the 9k in the away end at West Ham would get in there) |
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Reply | Kolli
at 18:07 8 Dec 2025
To be honest, this is where I am with the club too. I hate the media management stuff, like the signings, like the manager, hate they got rid of Furlong and not revealed who is taking the Dev squad games, etc. Perhaps similar to you?
Which proves that most 13 page messageboard debates on any subject could be resolved in 30 seconds across a pub table with either agreement or at worst a shrug.
But I want to believe, as feel it is best for all to believe, that the manager is not lying on camera at press conferences, as he comes across as a decent man. I assume that he's telling the truth over something as mundane as Kolli and Vale (or whoever's) fitness. To be cross about a lie, I need to catch someone in it. |
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Reply | Kolli
at 18:00 8 Dec 2025
He's made six first team appearances, started at Coventry, started at Plymouth, couple of full halves too. I thought his cameo at Bristol was excellent and would've liked to have seen more subsequently...but he has been injured since then. Six appearances by December, having been injured too: it's not being cast into the wilderness, really. |
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Reply | Kolli
at 15:18 8 Dec 2025
If JS is saying Kolli is injured, on camera, on Saturday, and he's not injured then that has to be lie that people have discussed and agreed upon. There is no spectrum between that. It's one or the other. I believe he's unfit to picked, you think they're fibbing.
This bit though: "we've been told time and time again how essential to our survival youth players are."
They're essential because selling them is essential to the bottom line. So if he's being sold in January, why is that bad? |
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Reply | Kolli
at 15:03 8 Dec 2025
And maybe he tweaked that in training subsequently? I don't know.
I mean, I literally don't know. Just as most here don't know. But if QPR can sell a squad player hungry for first team appearances to Nice in Ligue 1, a Euorpa League team on a very bad run but with a squad that would batter us most weeks then fair play. Let's see. |
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Reply | Kolli
at 14:57 8 Dec 2025
1) The club asking the manager to lie on camera in a press conference to mask true intentions about a player would definitely constitute a literal conspiracy. A conspiracy means: "a secret plan to do something dishonest".
2) Because Poku's on the bench and not therefore injured?
My question to you, though: why would it be bad to sell a contracted player for money in January or the summer in a position that we are well stocked in? Do QPR need to sell players every season? |
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Reply | Kolli
at 14:44 8 Dec 2025
"I'm not saying it's a conspiracy..."
But
"its well managed PR to cover the exclusion and possible exit of a in form and popular player."
You're literally describing a conspiracy.
He was stretching hamstrings and calves. We said he looked done in that game. And he did! And he was. The game ended soon after.
Players get injured all the time. Vale is injured having walked off the pitch. Walsh broke his wrist in training. Are those conspiracies because we didn't see the injury occur? Also, if we get a transfer fee for a player, no matter how "popular or in form" ( debatable if those 20 mins make him in form or just your favourite player) that would be exactly what the club should be doing. You don't sell out of form, unpopular players. We need to sell players.
But let's see. I bet we see him again for QPR. You don't think we will. Time will tell. |
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Reply | Kolli
at 14:32 8 Dec 2025
They've not announced their squad for AFCON. And since Kolli wasn't picked for the last two squads versus Zimbabwe and Saudi last month, it seems very unlikely he'll make the cut. |
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