Match Day Thread QPR vs West Brom

Christian Nourry update ahead of the new season ...

On the eve of the new season, QPR CEO Christian Nourry has provided an update to supporters on a number of key topics.
Rangers kick off the 2024/25 Sky Bet Championship campaign by welcoming West Bromwich Albion to MATRADE Loftus Road on Saturday - kick-off 12.30pm.

• Transfer window

"I think all the fans are aware of the difficult Financial Fair Play context that we have recently experienced and are still in the process of unwinding from. This means that every piece of business has to be particularly considered and, crucially, building us up for long-term success with players that we feel suit the way in which we try to play football as a club.
"Generally speaking, you can see across the Championship but also in European markets that this is an incredibly difficult window because an enormous amount of clubs are facing Financial Fair Play challenges, both at home and abroad.
"We are in a position where we feel we have made important additions that can impact both the first team and the starting XI immediately and also a number of additions we hope can develop into the nature of Championship football and grow as both players and human beings. We will always do our best to improve and strengthen the squad as much as we can but without ever putting this club in more difficulty down the line."

• Expectations

"First of all, I would say I am phenomenally proud of the work that everybody did in the second half of the season to get us to a place where we achieved Championship safety. I am super proud of this squad who, for two seasons, have had the challenges off the pitch of dealing with the fact that every game has felt like life or death.
"I want to congratulate the players, Martí, Xavi and the whole coaching staff for the incredible work that was done, but also all the staff who you don’t see every day – everyone executed their role to a high level.
"I really feel like we are going into this season as a staff, both playing and non-playing, that has a better understanding of what we are trying to do and is perhaps closer on a human level as a result of now having a shared vision and having struggled through something really tough and having got out the other side of it.
"We now move into chapter two of what we are trying to achieve which is less about the game-by-game and more about how we set this football club up going forward to allow us to play the football we want to play and allow us to develop young players.
"Developing young players has always been such an important part of the DNA of this football club and I fully intend for it to continue to be front and centre, whether those players have come from the academy or whether they are younger players we are bringing into our first team from elsewhere.
"With that focus in mind, you will see this season – both on the pitch and off it – we are making further adjustments to try to make that a reality, which ultimately puts the club in the best possible position for long-term success.
"This takes time, and there will be setbacks, there will be challenges. All I can do is ask our supporters to continue to show the passion and positivity that they did in the difficult moments last season.
"Our target is simply to try to get better at what we do every day and make the best possible decisions to help the club into a position where it can be financially stronger off the pitch. On the pitch, the goal is to continue to improve our competitiveness which is a major challenge in such a tight league."

• QPR fans in Achilleus Security Stand Lower

"We were so overwhelmed by the immense support and how many games were sell-outs last season that we wanted to provide both new and returning supporters the opportunity to be able to acquire season tickets in an alternative area of the ground at a market-leading rate for the Championship, given the context of the world we are living in right now.
"Also, we are trying to pay a microscopic level of attention to detail to everything we do and the truth is, the more QPR fans we have in the stadium, the greater the support the players get and, hopefully, the better the results they can achieve. All these details count."

• Development Squad

"We are at the beginning of the journey in terms of how we structure our youth teams in order to put young players in the best possible conditions to turn pro.
"Our incoming head of methodology Jon De Souza will now be responsible for ensuring that the game model that was developed last year is able to be implemented at every age group across the academy and women’s structures.
"Where we feel there are opportunities in the market to bring in players who have had significant exposure to professional football or high level of academy football at early ages who are interested in coming to QPR because they see a potential pathway to the first team, then we are going to pursue those opportunities.
"Ultimately, that is at the heart of what we are trying to do. The biggest part of having a stated goal of prioritising young talent is actually doing it."

• Women’s team

"It was high time that the football club made a strong commitment to its Women’s team. It is an incredibly important cornerstone of English football that will continue to grow.
"I was amazed by the work that Steve Quashie and the team had done with the limited resources they had, so we are starting from a really, really good place which is why the vast majority of staff who were there last season continue to be involved. We are excited about that journey and excited about that adventure, and we want to give it the time, attention and support that it deserves."