 | Forum
Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 11:01 30 Jan 2026
I've got to disagree with your first paragraph.
If QPR were a large multinational it might be fair enough that the CEO doesn't even know what the employees look like never mind trying to foster a good working environment.
But in relatively small businesses the 'culture' (for want of a better word) is important for employees to feel valued and motivated.
Small and medium sized businesses struggle to thrive if employees are unhappy and there's a high turnover of staff.
And if QPR is going to pride itself on being a community club then it has to accept the club employees are also a vital part of that community.
The employees don't have to worship the CEO, but they do need to trust and respect him! |
| Forum
Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 13:51 29 Jan 2026
I think you are selling Warburton a little bit short there.
When Warbs arrived in summer 2019 something like 13 players left the club and he had to replace those with very little money to spend. In fact we had to sell our best young prospect Darnell Furlong just to generate some cash.
Nourry was appointed CEO/DoF just as we had got our FFP/P&S situation under control and had money to spend again.
Nourry has been dealt a much better hand than Warbs had to play with. |
| Forum
Reply | Christian Pullella
at 10:02 29 Jan 2026
Another possibility is that it's a World Cup year and we did quite well out of FIFA compensation for Chair and Dieng at the last World Cup.
The reason given for Morrison going on loan to Aberdeen is to give him a chance to make the Scotland squad.
Maybe Adamson has a chance of getting into the Australia squad.
If any of our players get to play in the tournament it's a great shop window. And even if they don't play we still get compensation for while they're at the tournament. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 23:35 28 Jan 2026
If he were employed as a doctor, physio, or nutritionist he would be required to prove professional competence and experience in those fields.
We employed Williams into a senior post at a football club when he clearly has very little experience in the sport.
At best it's bold, at worst it's reckless. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 21:35 28 Jan 2026
With regards to your point (a) I could say that since you are in a minority of one on this thread the onus is on you to provide evidence that shows the rest of us are wrong.
However, I know you won't be able to do that because that data is not publicly available.
I believe that in major American sports all the data is owned by the leagues, which is why they have complete transparency about things like the Brooklyn Nets 'shocking' injury data the year Ben Williams was working for them!
By contrast, in English professional football players data is owned by the clubs. And for that reason (in the absence of transparency by the clubs) the best we can do is the evidence of our own eyes and anecdote.
If you want to believe something different from everyone else that's up to you, but neither of us can categorically prove our point.
With regards to your point (b). You have completely ignored everything I said.
Williams had very little experience of football before we gave him full responsibility for the condition of our players. In any industry that would be seen as a bold/reckless decision - delete as you think appropriate.
Even if Williams did an amazing job at Ineos (and I haven't seen any evidence to support that) the simple fact is that cycling, basketball and football are completely different sports, played in very different environments, and by people of very different physiques.
Just because he might have had some success with one of those sports does not mean he is competent to take on all three. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 20:07 28 Jan 2026
I think our shocking injuries record in the last couple of years answers that point.
Even with us giving him two and a half years to learn the sport.
And his one year with Brooklyn Nets also saw a glut of hamstring injuries!
You also completely ignored my main point. We shouldn't have given someone lacking experience in our sport the top job in maintaining our multi-million pound assets.
You mentioned his stint at Nice.
From our own website:
"He consulted with French Ligue 1 outfit OGC Nice during the 2022/23 campaign.
He was a consultant for one season.
Maybe that's the basis on which we should have retained his services!
https://www.qpr.co.uk/players/ [Post edited 28 Jan 20:09]
|
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 18:17 28 Jan 2026
But not knowledge of football, or footballers.........
??
In principle I'm not against bringing in expertise from outside your own industry to give different insights or perspectives. But you wouldn't normally put that outsider in charge of running a whole department unless they had worked in your industry at some point in their career! [Post edited 28 Jan 18:25]
|
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 17:48 28 Jan 2026
Cricket is another sport that has copious amounts of performance data, going back well over a hundred years.
Doesn't mean Andy Zaltzman should be picking the QPR team.
Data skills might be transferable from one sport to another but every domain has its specific priorities which need to be understood by the analytics team and the decision makers.
Intensive knowledge of one sport's performance metrics does not automatically make you an expert in any other sport you turn your hand to. |
| Forum
Reply | Christian Pullella
at 14:56 28 Jan 2026
An advanced search on Companies House shows that you are right.
I won't go into detail because it appears to be a residential address but there are dozens of businesses registered there. [Post edited 28 Jan 15:08]
|
| Forum
Reply | Christian Pullella
at 14:16 28 Jan 2026
That's a really good spot.
But if you go through the nationalities of that agency's clients they do seem to have a lot of Australians and South Africans, as well as Japanese players:
https://www.transfermarkt.com/
Going through the squad list of QPR players and their agents it looks like there's a reasonable spread of representation:
https://www.transfermarkt.co.u
Maybe some agencies just specialise. Two of our keepers have the same agent, and a quick glance at their client list suggests they have a lot of keepers on their books
https://www.transfermarkt.co.u |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 22:44 27 Jan 2026
Apologies Brian, I mis-read your post.
And yes, Ben Williams was appointed in July 2023:
https://www.qpr.co.uk/players/
I suppose Williams might say that he deliberately prepped the players to start slow and hit peak fitness in the second half of the season.
But I can remember Paolo di Canio trying that approach when he was Sunderland manager, and he was sacked long before his players began to feel the benefit!
Personally I don't subscribe to the slow burn approach. The Championship is fiercely competitive and I don't believe we can afford to start the season slowly and let other clubs get away from us. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 22:25 27 Jan 2026
I think that was partly down to Beale bringing back Willock and Amos before they were ready and seriously aggravating existing problems. And how have the careers of those two young players gone since then?
And without naming names I think we can say that some of those 'injured' players from the Beale/Critchley/Ainsworth season might have had a few motivation problems. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 22:06 27 Jan 2026
But it's not just under Stephan that we have had these injury problems.
It was the same story last season under Cifuentes - The big difference being that Williams was working remotely from Dubai last season.
Whatever the explanation we can't keep going like this or the development/trading model will never get off the ground. The club should be making it a priority to fix this issue. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 21:34 27 Jan 2026
I agree with what you say.
However, something that has been mentioned in Clive's match reports and on other threads is the way JS uses (or doesn't use) his subs. And I think that has to play into this discussion of player fitness.
Back in the days of Warbs Warburton he would often take players off after an hour or so and explain afterwards that this was on the advice of the physios that the particular player could only play a certain number of minutes and no more than that.
We don't seem to be seeing this under JS, even though the experts seem to agree that the game has become more intense and players are running and sprinting a lot more in recent seasons.
I think this raises some questions about what is going on behind the scenes.
Are the medical team not assessing/protecting the players in the same way as previous years?
Are they giving the same advice about player durability to the coaches?
Or are the coaches getting the guidance from the medics but not putting it into practice?
Burrell is a case in point. He was looking cooked several games before he finally snapped. And in the recent WLS podcast Kevin Gallen was saying he though Kone also looked like he was suffering from fatigue and might not have enough left in the tank to effectively lead the line for the rest of the season.
This doesn't just affect our league position. Injuries to our sellable young prospects will reduce their future sale value. Something we sadly saw with Chris Willock but don't appear to have learned from.
I know I have made this point on other threads but we have more sports science than ever before and we also have more (avoidable) injuries than ever before.
Something doesn't seem to add up. Is the science wrong or is the practice wrong?
Or are clubs just using the sports science to squeeze every last bit of effort from the players (hopefully) without breaking them? |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 20:57 27 Jan 2026
Big clubs aren't interested in judgement and compromise.
And to be fair, they are the ones collecting and looking at the data.
Their solution is bigger squads and more substitutes:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/fo
"Europe's top clubs, including some Premier League sides, have held discussions about using six substitutes per game to ease the workload on players.
Sides met at the European Football Clubs' (EFC) general assembly in Rome last week to discuss issues within the game.
It was not officially on the agenda, but clubs had informal, private discussions about utilising 28-man squads - up from the current 25 - and six substitutes.
Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest were among those from the Premier League in Italy.
Football's rulemakers, the International Football Association Board (Ifab), would need to recommend any changes first, and it is unclear when, if at all, any changes would be made.
Five substitutes were introduced in the Premier League in May 2020 before football resumed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The league reverted back to three for the 2020-21 season, before five was voted in permanently from the 2022-23 season. An extra substitute is allowed to replace a player with a suspected head injury.
Three extra squad places are seen as being able to reduce the workload on players after threats of strikes." |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 17:11 27 Jan 2026
Where is the PFA in all of this?
They're supposed to be looking after the welfare of the players and if necessary campaigning on their behalf.
Four games over the Christmas period can't be good for the players and makes a mockery of what is supposed to be competitive sport.
There's also the argument some have made that switching to five substitutes has increased the intensity of games, placed greater pressure on those outfield players who play the full ninety minutes, and in turn led to a glut of injuries.
Sports scientists have been saying for years that soft tissue injuries are wholly preventable, but the data shows that these injuries are on the increase all across the game.
So when will the PFA sit up and take notice? |
| Forum
Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 14:06 27 Jan 2026
I think I agree with most of what thehat has said.
What hasn't been touched on is playing style.
Even before Nourry breezed in we were talking about a set style of play for the club that new managers/coaches would have to play to.
When Nourry arrived he was on message with that and gave an interview where he talked about some variation of 4-3-3 possession-based football being the key to success at this level, and that this was what we would be doing!
Since then every time we have tried this possession-based style it has failed and both Cifuentes and Stephan moved to a completely different and more direct style. Nevertheless we kept reverting back to possession based football under Cifuentes, only for it to keep failing. And then we tried it again and failed again under Stephan.
So the question is have Nourry and the club swallowed their pride and given up on possession based football or will we be trying again at some point in the future? And if we have given up on possession football then what is the new vision that Nourry sees the club adopting as its in-house style?
And I'm not putting that out as a criticism of Nourry. I've got no problem with someone saying we got it wrong but have cut our losses and pivoted to something different. But we haven't had that assessment yet from the club, or any indication of where we go from here. |
| Forum
Reply | Sell Jon Varane ?
at 17:49 19 Jan 2026
DM apologised for it five days ago.
Try to keep up.
[Post edited 19 Jan 17:50]
|
| | KensalT
|
Site Scores| Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 0 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
