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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 19:56 29 Jan 2026
Benham was bailing them out financially for seven years. For the first two years he did so anonymously, though, and his assistance was mostly financial until he took over in 2012 and then started employing his Smartodds to run player recruitment: that same season they got in the play-offs. Two years later they were promoted, a year later they were in the Championship play-offs. Ten days after securing control of Brentford he bought the land by Kew Bridge that he said he was going to build a new stadium on.
Compared to some other clubs in the area, I'd describe that as pretty much immediate success.
I am not a Brentford fan, at all. However, it is an incredible achievement that I am very jealous of bearing in mind how many opportunities we've missed or messed up.
RE QPR in the top flight. I was there for 90%, it was often great, but it wasn't all great, and sometimes we forget that because it was so long ago:
Yes, up there 72 to 79 - though 77/78 and 78/79 were utterly miserable seasons. We won 15 league games out of 84 across both. Quarter Pound of Rubbish, ha ha ha, pretty much all I heard at primary school for two years.
Then 83 to 96, a glorious run when we were the Brentford/Bournemouth of the time. Loved it.
But that was 30 years ago.
Three seasons more than a decade ago, too, which are the now byword in what a promoted team should not do and almost bankrupted the club.
I'm not saying we should forget about it, at all. But the past distorts and comforts us in our current decade-long position as midtable second tier stalwarts.Too much glorious past of 30+ years ago in our mentality. We need some new stories. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 15:20 29 Jan 2026
Yes, true - but only to a degree that they saw themselves as plucky underdogs whereas QPR have a somewhat over inflated opinion of ourselves that is pretty much solely rooted in one four year period 50 years ago and another longer decade that came to an end three decades ago.
But Brentford were already upwardly mobile when Benham took over. He started his trading model in 2013-14, the season they were promoted to the Championship. under his guidance. Immediate success.
In his second season, they came 5th in the Championship.
In the meantime, in his first window he signed Tarkowski for a nominal fee, in his second he signed Andre Gray for £500k who then scored 16 goals that season and then would go the season after for £9m, Jota for £1m who would go for £6m 18 months later and Scott Hogan for £650k who would go two years later for £10m...
So, yeah, maybe they had lower expectations. But when you deliver Brentford's first promotion to the second tier in decades in season one, then their highest league placing and the play-offs in season two, and buy players who immediately make the club tens of millions of profit you quickly earn that patience!
They were both making longterm decisions *and* winning immediately. They knew/know how to do both. We don't. We just say we do every year. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 13:23 29 Jan 2026
They are incredibly good at identifying big talent at value, obviously. But having the confidence to keep selling their best performers and replacing with better, but cheaper unknowns is not really something many fanbases would put up with.
I just can't imagine the reaction if this summer we sold Burrell, Madsen, Varane, maybe Mbengue, a keeper all in one window...but that's what they were doing ten years ago. Having a half decent season and selling all the best performers. Replacing then with relative unknowns.
Also, not just selling Watkins or Konsa who go on to have even better success elsewhere, but getting the very best they can out of some players and then selling Mepham for £12m (!!) or Hogan for £10m, Ryan Woods for £7m, players who they massively inflated the true value of and who will never play as well again.
We're so far off that, it's infuriating. Let's start by selling Madsen this summer. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 12:07 29 Jan 2026
Ten years ago, 2015-16, Brentford sold:
Will Grigg £1m
Stuart Dallas £1.3m
Moses Odubajo £3.5m
Andre Gray £9m
James Tarkowski £3m
Came 9th, about £15m up.
next summer, signed Bentley, Egan, Romaine Sawyers on frees, small fee for Canos, £1.5 Rico Henry. All future mainstays,
Sold Scott Hogan to Villa for £10 million.
Replaced Hogan with Maupay for £1.8m and Watkins for £1.8 million. Two better players and £6m profit.
2018:
Sold
Chris Mepham for £12 million
Ryan Woods for £7m
John Egan for £4m
Signed
Josh Dasilva on a free (and Odujabo back on a free!)
Ensra Konsa for £2.5m
Benhrama for £3m
These last two will go soon after around £35m...
Let's not forget replacing Watkins at huge profit with Toney then Toney with Thiago...each time making huge profits while also climbing the leagues.
This is how you do it. You have to rip out the core of your team every year for big money and replace with better but cheaper. Have to constantly sell and recycle, sell and recycle and and then, after maybe four seasons of this, you are cooking.
We are cavemen trying to make sparks with stones compared with Thomas Edison down the road at the moment. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 11:13 29 Jan 2026
I agree with all of that about the context of the time (I was trying to be brief!). I think those first four, five LF years are massively undervalued, especially on social media where he's routinely characterised as a buffoon and Nourry as a league-on-strings genius. Neither remotely true.
To have left the club in the Championship, debt down to manageable level, new training ground and having produced Eze, Chair, Dieng etc is a decent legacy he should be proud of. Stayed a year too long, I think.
I don't think we can really compare or judge Nourry until he's done four or five years. We may be in ruins then, of course, but as you say he's spent a lot on young players so will take a few seasons to come out in the wash. It's in the balance. Has to sell one or two this year, though.
I do think it's amusing that in 2016 we were 12th and in 2026 we are 12th. After all the comings and goings, all the turmoil, the spin and so forth QPR are essentially a club that lives somewhere between 17th and 10th in England's second tier. That's alright with me, which I know is not a universal view. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 09:33 29 Jan 2026
I thought I'd look up where QPR were a decade ago.
In 2016, 18 months after LF took over as DOF, QPR finished 12th. Exactly where we are now. Our squad was still far too old and laden down with the last of the PL refugees, but it had a lot of promising youth knocking on the door - Eze, Manning, Lumley, Shopido, Furlong, with Chair about to join: they'd beat a five-a-side of our current hopefuls - instead of Madsen, we had Luongo, a talented 8 who didn't score enough, two new players, Cherry and Polter, hit double figures, and so on...
So, a decade later, we're pretty much exactly where we were. The high water point of the Ferdinand years was five years ago, coming 9th. After those five years, he should've gone. The concrete achievements of the Ferdinand/Hoos years are the training ground, the safe standing which has reinvigorated the ground, and riding out the FFP fine without being relegated. Plus the developing of a youth product that produced the money Eze generated. All those pale next to a play-off season in the stats books, but are probably bigger for the soul of the club.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying, we can't judge Nourry for a couple of years, as he's achieved nothing out of the ordinary yet. He is par for the course. See how the club and books look in January 2028. |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 08:50 28 Jan 2026
I agree so much I just tried to upvote a second time.
Forgetting all the muscle injuries (sorry, no, that's a three-month 'contact' injury), we just look knackered in every game well before the end. Saturday we came out first half all guns blazing but could not maintain anything like it in the second. By the 60th minute lots of players looked cooked, particularly the wingers and midfielders, by the end we were totally scrambled - exceptions, of course, such as Dunne (who incidentally often posts pics from his insta of post-match work he does away from the club), but overall other teams appear fitter. Certainly, Wrexham grew throughout and were outrunning us in the second.
Remember how the club made a big show of posting on socials the relative running stats in the glorious defeat away at West Ham? I think the fact that's the only time they have posted that post-match tells its own story.
Incidentally, someone made mention of Amos and Willock's careers elsewhere after they left us. Well, watched the highlights of Willock's man-of-the-match performance for Cardiff last night. Ten points clear of third and he looked absolutely back to the player we had under Beale. Two goals and an assist. He's only 27. He certainly looked better than any of the wingers we currently can pick from. We'll be seeing him soon enough to judge, i suppose. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 20:05 27 Jan 2026
The training ground was opened in June 2023, one week after Ferdinand announced he was leaving.
Nourry's audit of the club began later that summer and was based at the training ground.
Can't really credit him for the training ground "for starters". It had nothing to do with him. It existed before he was employed by QPR in any capacity. |
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Reply | Frey
at 19:24 27 Jan 2026
1/ Of course it's total speculation. This is a QPR fan messageboard filled with 1000s of threads where dozens of QPR nerds like us speculate wildly. It's the point of the thing. Would love you post under every theory in all new threads: "this is just total speculation."
2/There is only speculation about the fee because both QPR and Zurich describe the fee as "undisclosed". If QPR started to disclose transfer fees and contract lengths as they did for many decades without mishap we could stop speculating about them.
3/ Just because Frey signed a contract, it doesn't mean QPR held out for a fee. Nourry says Frey came to him as he wanted to play and the club acquiesced to a move. My guess - speculation - is that the club shook hands on the contract with him and Zurich took it on. That's the £500k "deal" described on WLS, instead of a fee they might usually describe. He's got a deal until 2028 at Zurich now and we've lost an obligation to keep paying a guy who is nowhere near the first team for [redacted]. A good deal.
4/ Who cares? It's only small print speculation. The word "fee" appears nowhere, it is not reported as a fee. Deal is reported so we can speculate about that deal. That's not spinning - who would I be spinning for anyway? |
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Reply | Frey
at 17:11 27 Jan 2026
Since this is probably the only place that QPR nerds can geek out over what may make up a transfer, allow those of us who wish to speculate do that. Seems harmless, no?
No, it wouldn't be a free transfer while his contract is still active.
He would not be leaving for free unless his contract is paid up, as it's six months old, has either half a season or a season and half to run, and is worth to him at least £300k. Probably nearer £500k. Either QPR pays it up or the new club pays it up.
He and his missus may be lovely but they aren't ripping up contracts for free.
Why is there subterfuge? Nobody knows. Why is there subterfuge over contract lengths, or why a muscle injury might be described as a contact injury without saying what the contact injury is. There's no reason for any of it. It's just the way QPR does things now.
Why would Dave clarify? Not his job. But look. In one WLS transfer story Frey leaves in "a £500k deal". In the previous story Obikwu "joins QPR for an initial fee of £500k".
https://www.westlondonsport.co
https://www.westlondonsport.co
Two subtle but important differences. [Post edited 27 Jan 17:12]
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 15:11 27 Jan 2026
The metric that really counts is the trading model.
In his two years we have invested a lot of transfer fees compared to the previous financial cycle on:
Celar
Dembele
Madsen
Varane
Vale
Morrison
Poku
Saito
Burrell
Kone
Edwards
Obikwu
+ some DS transfer fees that all add up, on Smith, Akindileni, Adamson, maybe more
We like a lot of those players, but success will be measured on whether the investment matures or depreciates. It's in the balance overall, I think. Plus I don't imagine wages or loan fees have gone down hugely compared to even the Warburton splurge season. We need to be selling some of CN's signings. Being congratulated on selling the previous DOF's hires seems rich.
Just to add: a couple of comments say he's better than Hoos. Lee Hoos is the Chairman, top of the mast. Thinking he isn't entirely involved is Keyser Soze sht. |
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Reply | Frey
at 13:29 27 Jan 2026
Not really. Dave's 100% reliable.
It's described by WLS as a "£500k deal", not fee. So, it's estimating what a £500k deal for a player on £10-20k a week with between either six or 18 months left on a deal we are not allowed to know the length of might constitute.
I imagine it's not paying QPR a £500k fee and then also paying Frey the same in wages for another deal. Mrs Frey might be really good with organising the players' wives but her husband is no longer a £1m investment. Most likely I think it's paying Frey's contract up of £500k and relieving QPR of that obligation. A "deal" that all are happy with. |
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Reply | Frey
at 10:44 27 Jan 2026
I imagine that to be the cost of his remaining contract which they have bought, rather than a fee directly to club. |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 13:54 25 Jan 2026
Agree with all this, obviously. A few addendums:
1/ The reason the three game-weeks are a thing is because the players aren't fit. They're not fit to play full games, let alone full weeks. Why? It's clearly a scandal for a sporting operation. They lost that game because they were too tired physically to play at the intensity of the first half throughout and too tired mentally to make good decisions in the closing stages. And, because our best players are all injured with muscle injuries. They were notably less fit than Wrexham. There are no stats that can be presented that contradict the evidence of our eyes.
2/ The state of match-day amenities are an on-going disgrace, agree. I don't entirely blame Nourry though. Hoos repeatedly said that if the team was winning nobody complains about the rest of the match-day experience (as well as generally being dismissive of fans who raised issues around that experience, including rejuvenating The Loft, where he was clearly wrong). Hoos retired from the club to become Chairman, a key board member and very probably the driving force behind this philosophy of customer neglect as a by-factor of team investment. Flavio Briatore hated QPR fans but the match day experience is nevertheless worse now. Not in the C-Club, obviously.
3/ I think the "next season" narrative is probably wrong and possibly dangerous. It will let everyone down. The squad’s not there yet, it’s definitely improving incrementally, but I think we’re at the Paulo Sousa part of the this four-year cycle. Probably another couple of years to knit together, fill the gaps. |
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Reply | Charlton sold out
at 18:21 23 Jan 2026
Stats are funny aren't they?
You can say there's loads to play for (there always is until you're safe) because we're only 3 points off the playoffs with 18 to go. But...
There are also five teams between us and 6th - not to mention ten points between us and 3rd, and all the top three have absolutely spanked us, showing how far we are off being promotion-material.
Which is fine. I'm enjoying the season, mostly. We're a 12th placed team and that feels about right on form.
Fully fit top scorer, Chair and Saito with wind in their sails, midfield clicking, then maybe yeah, all to play for. Preston will drop out of the six...Just doesn't feel like kind of season for us, not with our best attacking players injured for a while.
Still impressive that 12th placed QPR have sold out to 9th placed Wrexham on a wet, windy January. |
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Reply | Charlton sold out
at 15:55 23 Jan 2026
Incredible that they've sold out the next home and away on the back of two 0-0s in the back end of January, one of the games on TV, when seemingly not much to play for (and not much being played either).
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Reply | WLS podcast Dave Kev James
at 15:28 23 Jan 2026
Harvey Vale is also apparently 22 but if it said on his Wiki that he was 28 or 29, I'd believe that. He certainly doesn't look older than Kone to me.
Are they conspiring together? |
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Reply | WLS podcast Dave Kev James
at 09:12 23 Jan 2026
Watching that you wonder who's coaching the strikers now - and wishing it was someone like Kevin Gallen. The bit about standing still, occupying the CBs, creating space for wide players like that instead of working so hard was really interesting.
There's a top-level former defender coaching defenders at QPR and similarly a midfielder, but there's no ex-centre forward. Would be a great job for Paul Furlong, whose overall game is not unlike Kone's. Wonder whatever happened to him? |
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Reply | Lather, rinse, repeat – Report
at 11:01 22 Jan 2026
God, you're right, just looked it up. What a mad streaky season that was: those four clean sheets were part of a 13-match sequence where we only lost once (3-0 away Swansea). Followed immediately by a twelve match sequence where we only won twice and lost seven times.
Had some good days with Marti last year, home to Derby, Watford, Luton, Norwich. Forget sometimes. But the bad runs too, desperate.
We need to win some games again soon (and some players back to do so). We need that release otherwise things may curdle. |
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