The summer saw the signings of players the like of midfielder Adel Taarabt and goalkeeper Paddy Kenny, who would play vital roles in the side's fortunes. Middlesbrough were hotly tipped as the favorites to win the league prior to the start of the season, with a significantly-strengthened Bristol City joining them, Nottingham Forest , and Cardiff City.
Mention of QPR was simply an aside. They opened the season with a resounding win against Barnsley , however, putting them at the top of the table where they were hardly removed from all season. The first half of the season saw QPR's stiffest competition from Cardiff City, who looked to be title contenders themselves before waning around the new year.
Consistently rising sides Norwich City and Swansea City came to be the team's only competition for the title in the latter half, but by their arrival into second and third place respectively in March, the title already seemed destined for QPR's Loftus Road.
With a hearing scheduled over questions of third-party ownership and how the player was signed, there was great discussion on whether QPR would be docked points for a breach of Football League rules. Would it prevent them from being promoted, or having them start their Premier League season with massive point deficit? In the end, however, the discussion proved to be null, as the Football Association chose to simply fine the side rather than deduct any point.
Since that decision, the question that has followed is just how much the team would have to spend on players for the coming season. This has been further clouded by discussions of new ownership for the side , with an airline tycoon and fellow F1 owner interested who may have more money to spend on the playing staff.
Despite having to rely primarily on free transfers during this transfer window, manager Neil Warnock's signings for the coming campaign have looked shrewd, if underwhelming. Dyer has spent much of his career being touted as an extremely talented player who has constantly failed to live up to expectation. Plagued by injury nearly the entirety of his career, it still waits to be seen whether he can live up to his billing, as age 32 certainly seems to have caught up with him quickly.
While the transfer money spent right now may be limited, the returning squad at Loftus Road still makes QPR a good side for the league this season.
Much has been written about star midfielder Adel Taarabt, but with good reason. The Moroccan definitely has a point to prove to his former employers and Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp, and his performances will be vital to whether the club can avoid relegation this season.
While speculation has been rife over the last few weeks that Taarabt could be leaving the club, his departure seems unlikely. He's far too important to the team, and it would take an offer of truly silly-money for him to depart. Along with Taarabt, however, comes the safe hands of goalkeeper Paddy Kenny, who has done well to revitalize his career following his drug-test debacle in While not outstanding in his first outing in the Premier League with Sheffield United in , QPR supporters would be happy to sing the praises of their 'keeper, as his performances last season were incredibly important.
With him comes a backline that only conceded 32 goals all season or an average of only. They and the new defensive additions will need to be at their best to deal with the attack of their Premier League opponents. Where the goals will come from this season, however, is perhaps much more of a concern. As many teams over the last few years have demonstrated, scoring bags of goals in the Championship doesn't necessarily carry into life in the Premier League.
Record signing Alejandro Faurlin needs to really step up to the task this season, and Taarabt will need to keep up the level of his own contributions away from the penalty spot. Striker Tommy Smith also has a point to prove—previous stints for Smith in the Premier League with Watford and Portsmouth both resulted in relegation and questions of whether he is Premier League quality.
QPR have a reputation of a nomadic club; during their early years, they have played at about twenty different grounds before, more or less, settling at Loftus Road in The club was officially formed in , under the name of St.
Four years later, they merged with Christ Church Rangers and subsequently changed their name to Queens Park Rangers, due to most of their players hailing from the Queen's Park district. The club became a member of the expanding Football League in , but was not particularly successful during the decades that followed, spending most of their time in the lower ranks of English football. Their luck finally changed with the arrival of Alec Stock in Now regarded as the club's greatest manager of all time, Stock made his presence known from the get-go; in the season that followed, QPR achieved their record victory by routing Tranmere Rovers But it was not until that Queens Park Rangers really made a name for itself.
The club won a double by placing first in the Third Division and defeating West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup final after being down at halftime. The very next year, QPR managed to earn promotion to the First Division for the first time in their history. The best result in the top league was reach in with a second place, one point after Liverpool. In QPR became the first football club in Europe to install an plastic pitch or artificial turf, in this case called Omniturf at their stadium.
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