Exclusive: QPR hit reset button to provide hope of a brighter future

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By Gbam Godwin On Sep 4, 2025

Exclusive: QPR hit reset button to provide hope of a brighter future.

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Queens Park Rangers won glowing praise for their new-look footballing project when they acquired sought-after Wycombe striker Richard Kone in the summer, beating off interest from promotion-chasing Leicester City and previous manager Marti Cifuentes.

Kone’s entrance was a statement of intent, validating the ideals that the club has worked to implement over the last 18 months. For the past decade, QPR has been repaying the debt of their ambition after spending millions on a Premier League dream that swiftly faded.

QPR’s recklessness soon pushed them into financial ruin, as they fell out of the top division and into a perpetual state of survival, barely keeping their heads above water in the Championship.

RICHARD KONE CELEBRATES AFTER SCORING AGAINST CHARLTON (Getty Images) Something had to change, and in January of last year, it did. The club appointed Christian Nourry, then 26, as CEO and moved its aim to lowering the average age of its roster.

QPR had the Championship’s sixth-oldest roster on average when Nourry took control. They have now signed more than 20 players, both on loan and permanently, for the first team and development squad, with only one player over the age of 25, custodian Paul Nardi.

Following the close of the transfer window, QPR now has the Championship’s equal youngest roster.

To foster long-term stability, QPR has made a concerted effort to improve the way their men’s, women’s, and youth teams play, led by the club’s first head of methodology, Jon de Souza.

“We’re trying to build a football club, but also a coaching department that will never have to start over, regardless of who leaves,” de Souza exclusively tells Standard Sport.

“We’ve done a lot of research and data in terms of success and what success looks like for winning games in the Championship but also selling players in the Championship.”

When former head coach Cifuentes was placed on gardening leave at the end of last season amid suspicion that he had held conversations with West Brom, there was a lot of confusion. However, the game model reacted, reflexed, and fulfilled its objective.

Julien Stephan, a French coach known for developing players like Eduardo Camavinga, Ousmane Dembele, and Desire Doue, was hired, and QPR carried on as if nothing had changed.

Jon de Souza, QPR’s Head of Methodology, and Ian Randall Photography “I think the beauty about the game model and being so clear is, you know, that enabled us to really find what we thought was the right head coach,” Souza tells me.

“Because if we were to bring in a head coach that doesn’t fit into the principles that we’re trying to deliver, straight away, we’re not going to be successful.”

But Julian’s previous clubs have played in a very similar shape, formation, and manner to how we want to play.” QPR have had brief periods of optimism in recent years, but with players and managers constantly changing, it has been difficult to develop something tangible.

Their new motto is that no one person is more important than the club, and that while players and head coaches come and go, the club will always exist.

“What we’re looking for is consistency, and I think the club and Christian have spoken a lot about becoming sustainable,” Souza says.

“There are two ways to approach football. That’s getting to the Premier League, and it’s a successful player trade strategy.

And to have a successful player trading model, you must be able to create your own players.”

Julien Stephen was appointed at Loftus Road throughout the summer.

QPR’s new player trading model has been very effective this summer, with the club selling academy graduate Charlie Kellman, who scored 27 goals on loan at Leyton Orient last season, to Charlton and replacing him with Kone, one year Kellman’s junior, who scored 21 goals for Orient’s promotion rivals Wycombe last season.

Kellman and Kone squared off in QPR’s 3-1 victory over Charlton last weekend, with Kone scoring and Kellman struggling to make an impression from the bench. You can’t get a more unambiguous vindication of QPR’s business.

Players are buying into QPR’s project, and it’s allowed the club to snap up a number of League One’s most promising young talent.

Winger Kwame Poku, 24, who is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury, had several offers at home and abroad after an excellent season at Peterborough in which he contributed 12 goals and 11 assists in all competitions, but he says he chose QPR after being impressed by the club’s plans for the future.