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Reply | Field to Norwich
at 09:11 3 Feb 2026
I am certainly not a Nourry lover, but I like his latest communication on the transfer window. A much-needed dollop of humanity and talking about the players properly rather than all that "progressing into zone#10" nonsense from before.
Although that bit about the Aussies and their physical development smacks a little of the infamous comments the England women's cricket coach made when we got slaughtered out there last year. |
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Reply | Field to Norwich
at 09:04 3 Feb 2026
Sorry, Wegs, yes I did know that wasn't you but I can see my post wasn't written in the most convincing way. Apologies. |
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Reply | Field to Norwich
at 07:19 3 Feb 2026
So strange. You may not rate him as an amazing player, but if you can't see his contribution and professionalism and effort every time he stepped on the pitch for us, then I just don't get it.
I'm glad there is no permanent option to buy. Just like Cook and Dunne, these are the guys you need 4 or 5 of in any successful Championship team. Always available, always committed. It's all the flaky / unproven ones that remain that we should be looking to trade in and out, not proven, experienced, reliable performers.
Shipping Field out is not a sign that we are improving, in my opinion, it's a sign that the current manager failed to watch the whole of the last two seasons and realise that if you give Sam a run of games, he will always be one of the most important cogs in the team. Dropping him in and out the side? Not so much.
Good luck Sam, I hope you do well, persuade the management here they have made a mistake and come back to where you belong. |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 18:44 1 Feb 2026
I think we have a decent chance, especially if Adil Rashid keeps fit. What a servant he has been - and to me he is bowling better than ever. Brilliant again today. Would still like to see more of Rehan Ahmed but they just don't seem to want to give him a long run. |
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Reply | Cooky Monster
at 11:50 1 Feb 2026
Extraordinary criticism of Cook based on a couple of gesticulations. I love Dunne and think he's a great captain, but I will never understand why some Rangers fans are so quick to criticise Cook any opportunity they can get.
Cook doesn't use social media the same way as Jimmy, so unless you have inside knowledge maybe Cook was hosting team building soirees all through his captaincy? |
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Reply | Cooky Monster
at 09:17 1 Feb 2026
Well if you had agreed with everything Ned, I would have fainted in shock :-)
Just gone back to reread it to make sure I wasn't exaggerating the memory - it was indeed the first line:
"STEVE Cook is to remain with QPR after an extension clause was triggered in the defender’s contract."
Which, of course, was written more like what WLS would write on reporting it. Wouldn't have taken much to be like our other contract extension releases and state that "QPR are delighted to announce an extension to Steve Cook's contract" or some such.
And, of course, the Nourry quote was dripping with disclaimers:
"CEO Christian Nourry said: “Steve’s savviness and know-how were vital to the club securing its Championship status in the 2023/24 campaign – while his wealth of experience further helped the playing group in 2024/25 during the more difficult moments of the season.
“Although Steve’s campaign was curtailed by his plantar fasciitis, which he continues to recover from, we are pleased to have the opportunity to work together in 2025/26.”
We all debated it at the time, but for the club's very own PR machine to write such a release - if I was as experienced as Cook I would have been apoplectic.
He, however, is clearly a bigger and better man than me! |
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Reply | Cooky Monster
at 08:47 1 Feb 2026
So agree. I think to be fair lots of us stood behind him when some thought that his foot injury couldn't be recovered from or that his "legs had gone" after a couple of average games.
He has been a fantastic signing for us yet so constantly underrated and underappreciated, no idea why. The thought that a new signing like Mad Mbengue should replace him, or that JCS should shove him out for his occasional honoured-to-see-you appearances always riled me.
What we also need to add in to the pot that this club he is serving so well is the same one that has taken the captaincy from him AND done his best to publicly humiliate him with one of the most mealy-mouthed contract renewal statements I have ever seen.
Cracking professional, always liked him. Sign him up with a long REDACTED contract, he will still be more reliable than the youngsters even at 38. |
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Reply | QPR Business & strategy Q&A
at 16:26 30 Jan 2026
I've submitted mine:
After the cup debacles of recent years, what is the club's general strategy towards both the League Cup and FA Cup? It was pleasing to see a full strength team out for the West Ham FA Cup game, but the throwing away of our League Cup place by selecting a youth team still leaves a bitter pill, as does all the previous cup games we have failed to pick a strong side. Do we have a strategy for cups going forward? Shouldn't we be trying to get as far as possible in each competition? |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 11:29 29 Jan 2026
Although I am well aware as an alleged grown-up that the model of flogging players as soon as they come into some sort of form is a wise one, it isn't half a depressing thought that as soon as say Burrell becomes a top Championship striker we would be gleefully cashing in. I don't trust us to keep replacing with better, to be honest, which makes me think our chances of ever doing anything in the long-run just diminish.
Can someone reassure me that this model which presumably Brentford / Brighton did to get promoted - is that what they actually did on their way up? Genuinely? Or was it more that they had one bonanza gem (eg Watkins) that they cashed in to such a huge extent?
Just seems such a long and precarious road, but then again every other road we have tried has failed dismally so I guess it has to be the approach. |
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Reply | Raheem Sterling
at 13:34 28 Jan 2026
That's your guess, Ned, and maybe it's right. Of course he doesn't need any sympathy, I was just saying that there isn't any hard evidence that he is a bad egg or would be one in a dressing room. |
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Reply | Raheem Sterling
at 10:12 28 Jan 2026
Although I agree we shouldn't be entertaining the idea, I am not quite sure what Raheem has ever done to earn such vitriol. How do you know he doesn't want to play football? Pretty sure he would love to be picked to play. And obviously if he did agree to go and play in the Championship that would show he does want to play football?
I don't see why he would be a negative influence on a dressing room, just because he earn(ed) huge money. He started off at a club like ours and worked his way right up to the very top. Something to aspire too for the youngsters, I would imagine.
He's had a cracking career and we played at least a little part in that. He also earned us a huge sell-on fee.
But no, as much as it would liven up a potentially boring end to the season, don't really see it would work bringing him back! |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 08:08 28 Jan 2026
For what it's worth, I agree Hunter.
I know that injuries happen in football, I just thought the point was to try and do it better than 22 other teams in the league and get promoted.
The only hard evidence I have is that we can't go a season without major muscle injuries, that we are certainly not generally fitter than 22 other teams and that we are currently 12th in the league. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 11:33 27 Jan 2026
There are other things I would give him credit for - the investment in the women's team and in the development squad, for sure, as well as some astute sales and a few promising signings.
But not too sure about saying we have made progress overall under him? Revolving door of managers (again), probably finish lower half of the table (again), out of both cup competitions at the first "attempt" (again), no-one is fit (again), the pitch is far worse than it has ever been, Loftus Road is shrinking and the facilities are getting worse, treatment of stalwarts like Furlong, Cook etc not a good look.
If that's progress, I would hate to see stagnation.
The squad "looks" better indeed but that hasn't translated quite yet into consistent performances. I guess progress is that it is late January and we are not in the relegation fight. But even that could change (or we could show the progress and finish top half). So perhaps we are just the same as we ever were.
Edit - pitch is far worse than for many years, not "ever been" of course! [Post edited 27 Jan 11:35]
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Reply | Frey
at 19:08 26 Jan 2026
Oh yes, just for 10 glorious minutes he turned into prime Alan Shearer. Extraordinary compared with what was to follow. |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 13:39 25 Jan 2026
It was a tough break, that's a fact, but we also love to use it as an excuse.
Football has indeed changed - also a fact - but the other fact that we've gone nowhere in 10 years proves that we've not tackled this as well as other clubs, surely?
As for bringing on Bennie compared to Windass - don't get that. We're QPR, we buy loads of players every single window, have done for donkeys' years. We have £4m+ of Ronnie on the bench. |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 13:05 25 Jan 2026
That is obviously a very fair point, Spaghetti, but we are always unlucky in such things, aren't we? Just watched an interview with Keith Andrews who said "as a football club, we don't look for excuses". I'm surprised we don't have a High Performance Manager of Seeking Where We've Been Hard Done By. |
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Reply | Three-game weeks
at 11:24 25 Jan 2026
This obsession with three-game weeks is another of our negative mentality narratives that drive me bonkers. Sometimes I wonder why we bother, as a club, ever entering the league and two cups seeing that we always seem to find competitive matches a bit of a bind and a hassle.
Are they three game weeks that must be carefully managed, or are they an opportunity to win three football matches in a row and fly up the table?
Are they a fitness team that are there to protect the players from getting injured or are they a fitness team who are there to get as many players out on the park and as fit as possible for the manager?
Is the league cup our best chance to win a trophy or a chance to rest our amazingly high-achieving superstars after ooh, 1 week of the season? Same with the FA Cup, unless you've got 9,000 away fans potentially breathing down your neck.
Festive period and a load of games? A chance to move forward or to phone in away games at poor sides like WBA just so that we can play even more poorly in the next home game?
I detested Ainsworth's small-club, privilege-to-be-on-the-same-park mentality as I thought it spread a small-time belief throughout the club. I think a major part of the reason Marti was so popular was that he was generally positive, for example publicly often stating he was never happy with a draw, and usually pushed a far more positive mindset.
I don't think many fans demand that much - just some ambition, some high standards throughout the club. It can be done. Things like the injury time debacle yesterday - we've often played for an hour against 10 men without ever looking like scoring. An opposition with a strong mentality sees it as a chance to up their game, come together, thou-shalt-not pass. Do we?
I want (ho ho) the owners to grab this club by the scruff of its neck; to say look, the potential is huge. We sell out home and away despite being served up some bang average tripe on a regular basis for so many years now. We are building a stronger squad. We've worked out that gambling on Burrell-types is far better than previous transfer tactics (although I fear Saito and possibly Edwards could be regressing to the mean) - and we are not just buying these players to potentially improve our FFP, or just make a profit in a year's time. We're building a squad and a team and a club that is going to make a serious aim for promotion and returning to be a regular Premier League side, like all of our near neighbours.
Or we can just drift, tinker around, bitch and moan about the number of games and injuries, give inexperienced / chancers the keys to the controls and go round in circles. We love going round in circles. How many seasons now have we been about building a more open, possession based playing style around exciting youngsters? And how many seasons does it take only a few months to go running back to stalwarts like Steve Cook that we've arrogantly derided in press releases and then saying "oops, now we realise all teams need players like you"?
Do we have management who can look at the ever-deteriorating Loftus Road situation, with a capacity that seems to reduce every season, that sells out even when we are toilet, and say right - we sort out a temporary fix quickly, like more standing, making the whole Loft standing, properly improving facilities and catering, or do we have management that implies you can either have a Kone signing or actually be able to get served a decent pint at 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon?
Round and round and round we go. Ah - but next season, we are always about next season. I will check back in next season with our management and see just how that goes. |
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Reply | Dembélé new boo boy?
at 12:42 21 Jan 2026
I think that is so harsh. Sure, he's not in the best of form but he has shown me enough recently, in the first half yesterday and at West Ham generally, that there is plenty to work with for a young player. I am probably completely wrong compared to the majority view on here, but I just don't think he has been THAT bad.
The criticism he gets compared to Saito and their relative performances is beyond me. |
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