QPR are the Future

Finally! A place where I can post a story based on my Football Manager 2012 journey. I have a decision to make. Do I post about my current Newcastle United save having got to season 7 and post about my achievements in this save? However, I am going to follow the advice in the Writing Advice thread and not post post after post after post (put post too many times?)I have decided to set up a new save and start with a club that I have never had anything to do with before, not even bought players from them before, and that is QPR (other leagues I have uploaded are the first divisions of Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Scotland and the rest of the English leagues).

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As you can see the transfer budget is...none existant, which I must admit I am not use to so going to have to have a think if there is anyone that needs to be sold, bought or if I just go for it with the team I have got. Based on not being given a transfer budget for any of the options I am going to select avoid relegation to reduce expectation and for the board and fans not to expect a miracle to occur.

For those of you, that like me have never encountered managing QPR I will post the team sheet below (missing off the bottom are Cisse and Zamora).

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/690/queensparkrangerssquadp.png/

I think in order to decide on the transfer policy of this first, and expected tough season, I will have to decided on a formation. As you can see from the team sheet I have a lot of attacking midfielders, for all three positions, so I am considering a lone striker with three attacking midfielders behind with two centre midfielders - i.e. basically a 4-2-3-1 formation which I use A LOT. Below are the team instructions (hardly been altered) and chosen formation.

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I am going to leave it here for now and spend time looking over the team more and will post about pre-season in the not too distant future.

Thank you for reading.

Well I have finally made a start on this journey. I never usually take control of friendly matches and let the assistant manager be responsible for the outcome. However, not knowing the team I thought it was important for me to be in charge and figure out who could play well in which positions and if there was anyone I could move on to try raise some funds.

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I decided to start by looking in the reserves and see if there were any players that could be moved on, which results in the out-goings above. Unfortunately the three players I got money for were over 30 and as you can see, not worth much, but every penny counts. I have decided because of the size of the squad that I would not spend any money that came in and save it for next season or if I need to urgently get anybody in during the January transfer window. There weren't many other big transfers by other clubs, just noteably Ganso moved from Santos to Manchester City but also interestingly City decided to purchase Phil Jagielka for an overpriced £14.75mil.

As for pre-season matches they went surprisingly well. I cancelled two of the matches, that I assumed by team would dominate and instead challenged two more challenging teams, which were Chelsea and Corinthians. I managed to get a 1-1 draw out of the match with Chelsea and beat Corinthians with 1-0 so overall quite happy. The result that stood out most was a dominating with against a unknown team from Belgium.

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What was really good to see was the range in goal scorers which stands us in good stead for the upcoming season. Based on pre-season I think my next step is to come up with a backup formation that will focus on defending as I think this season is going to be a tough one with the first game being against Wigan Athletic.

I will leave this here for now...any feedback on what I have written so far would be appreciated.

Thank you for reading.

So, I went into this season not too sure what my teams chances were going to be in there first season in the EPL for a number of years. I had a few solid pre-season results but I have never been a believer that they have a profound effect on your teams performances over the course of the rest of the season. I thought I would provide an insight into the first 10 games of the season, which have been surprisingly pleasing.

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This is how the league currently stands. As you can see I have made a positive start by securing 6 wins. Hopefully this impressive start will continue to until at least the Christmas period.

The most noteable achievements so far are the team scoring 8 goals in the first two games (against Wigan Athletic and Bolton respectively) while only conceding 1. These two matches were followed by wins against Notts County in the League Cup and a 5-2 win against Stoke in the EPL. I was disappointed by the teams failure in scoring a winning goal in a 2-2 against Aston Villa in conjunction with failing to get a goal when facing Everton who scored two good goals past my team. I was also never going to complain about a 4-0 loss to Manchester City who I never expected to perform well against.

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I have to say that this result was the one I was most proud with, especially with the performance of Jamie Mackie. Despite Tottenham finishing with a higher percentage for possession I think it is clear to see that my team were more capable of making the most of the chances they had on goal, i.e. note shots on target compared to Tottenham's.

The stand out performer of my team has to be Jamie Mackie who has been consistent which has resulted in 8 goals in 10 games in the league, 1 assist and 3 man of the match awards; this has meant he has average rating of 7.68. Long may this type of performances continue.

Despite not making a single singing at the beginning of the season, as it has progressed I have managed to employ staff, with a focus on improving training.

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A result of delegating different training tasks to individual staff members has resulted in the training stars increasing dramatically from an average two and half stars to an average three and a half. I think this improvement has contributed to the pleasing results so far.

Upcoming matches through a mix towards my team of matches I would expect them to win because of the positive starts, however there is a period of matches which I am dreading and could already have an outcome on my teams final position come the end of the season.

The dreaded four fixtures are as follows:

19.11.2011 - Chelsea (H)
26.11.2011 - Liverpool (A)
3.12.2011 - Arsenal (H)
10.12.2011 - Manchester United (A)

Wish me luck folks....

Well in my last post I had made good progress and my team were defying expectations of an expected quick return to the Championship. However, I had four games coming up which I was dreading to say the least, which I had a feeling could put a dent in my season and change their morale for the long term.

19.11.2011 - Chelsea (H)

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This match did not go in my favour whatsoever. The only positive that came from the game was that Bobby Zamora, who in fairness has not had much game time, got his first goal of the season. I must admit that after this result I could not see the other's going any other way. Would I be proved right?

26.11.2011 - Liverpool (A)

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This has got to be one of the most frustrating results of the season so far. I am of course going to come across as biased but my team did not deserve to lose the game. What is the most annoying aspect of this game is that the referee only gave 4 minutes extra time but Liverpool manage to get a equaliser after 7 minutes of extra time. It is just going to have one of those things you take on the chin, not the nose. It was good to see Taye Taiwo putting in yet another solid performance; I will be looking to sign him on a permanent basis but I think this will be a challenge in itself.

3.12.2011 - Arsenal (H)

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Despite being 2-0 up within 25 minutes my team suffered from exhaustion and just ran out of steam. Diego Perotti took it upon himself to destroy my team by himself in the end which just made the end result inevitable.

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Joey Barton has got to be a 24 carrott plonker! I have had continuous issues with him as the season has progressed and I have never been a fan of him...his red card was obviously him paying me back for my dislike of him. Once he was set of the score was always going to go against my team.

Since these awful four games, which I still do think could have gone a lot worse, my team have continued to show a lot of promise.

QPR 2 - 0 Sunderland
QPR 1 - 1 Fulham
QPR 4 - 0 Wigan Athletic
QPR 4 - 2 Bolton Wanderers

Current League Standings:

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Manchester United are running away with the league with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City competing for 2nd place in the league. Could I end up in Europe? Could my fortunes totally change and I head down the league? Will I be able to break into the top four?

We will have to find out...

Keep it up, if you manage to get into Europa League in the first season it's a great success!!

You really are punching above your weight there if you can secure a european spot that would be a huge success. And i reckon your owner would give you a large budget next season if you can retain that top6 spot of yours.

Thank you for your comments guys, much appreciated.

This is going to be a quick update on my progress. I had made a decision at the beginning of the season to not spend any money, to save up, and then invest during the summer transfer window. I decided to go against my instinct and invest some money during the January transfer window. Overall I spent £15mil even though I had a budget of £0. How was this possible? All three players were bought with 48 monthly installments - this means the club is in debt to three other teams but I am confident in my team finishing way above expectation and to be given a large sum of money for the final league position.

1st transfer - Jonjo Shelvey (Liverpool - £4mil)

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The majority of my midfielders are getting on and some of them are going to have to be released or sold at the end of the season. Jonjo came available as he wanted to move on from Liverpool to a club where he may get regular games in the future. With this transfer I am definitely looking to the future; he has come to me with good ability, especially for a 19 year old. He has already started 8 games and has put in some good performances. I think it will take him the rest of the season to settle into the team and a further 2-3 season to achieve just start to achieve his potential.

2nd transfer - Asmir Begovic (Stoke - £5mil)

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I personally think that this is a fantastic signing for the club. Although Paddy Kenny is in his prime I would not want him to be my regular keeper next season, and with only Brian Murphy in reserve this was going to be a position I would be looking to invest in in the summer. He wanted to move club just like Jonjo so I decided to snap him up. He has great ability and potential so after this season, unless I find anyone better, he will be my number 1 choice.

3rd transfer - Joe Ledley (Celtic - £6mil)

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The fans are far from happy with this particular signing but I could not be happier. Ok, he has cost a fair bit of money, especially money that the club does not have but he is young, good ability and has the potential to be a solid player for the club and in the Premiership. Joe and Joey Barton, I think, will form a solid partnership in the middle of my team and it will take something special for me to replace them both. I am confident that Joe will win the fans round and the fans will start to believe that I know what I am doing when it comes to transfers (you may disagree).

I am going to leave it here for now and my next report will an in depth look at a very important match in QPR's history and my own as their manager...

25.2.2012 - Swansea - Competition: League Cup Final

Here we are. The League Cup Final. QPR vs Swansea.

Current league positions:

QPR: 3rd - 56pts

Swansea: 12th - 31pts

Previous meetings:

291.10.2011 - Swansea 1 - 2 QPR

Winning goal by Shaun Wright-Phillips (SWP) in the 88th minute.

Journey to the final:
Swansea admittedly have had a much tougher journey in order to reach the cup final and are fully deserving of their chance; they have most noteably beaten Chelsea and Manchester United. My team on the other hand have come up against lesser teams such as Leicester City and Crystal Palace respectively.

Bookmakers:

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Expectations: a comfortable QPR win.
Prediction: QPR 2 - 0 Swansea

Match report:

6mins - Swansea have a nice passing move resulting in the first shot of the game, which is comfortably saved by Paddy Kenny (Asmir Begovic is cup-tied). QPR however are taking control of the game with a 53% possession rating. QPR are showing they mean business by the higher percentages in relation to passing complete across the field.

13mins - first chance of QPR. A corner swung in by Shelvey, met by the head of Onuoha but saved confidently by Vorm. This was followed by a good through out by Vorm to Taylor who played a beautiful through ball to Luke Moore whow as tracked by Onuoha who made a tackle and played the ball out for a corner, which came to nothing as Sigurosson was caught offside.

22mins - Tommy Smith who I had decided to start despite an inconsistent season for SWP has been tackled resulting in injury. This resulted in a straight swap between the two players. Lets hope SWP can make an impact down the right wing.

26mins - Freekick for Swansea. Sigurosson, who has made a good start to the game, passes a ball into the box which is met by Joe Allen. Allen takes the shot first time but it is hit straight at Kenny who saves comfortably.

44mins - Chance for QPR. The ball is crossed in dangerously by Shelvey. It is deflected across the box and lands at the feet of DJ Campbell, who is currently recovering from an injury which sidelined him for several weeks. Campbell controls the ball, jinxes past a defender and shoots only to see the ball saved by Vorm who palms the ball out for a corner.

46mins - GOAL FOR QPR!!! From the corner there was 2 minutes of scrappy play before the ball came to Luke Young who was being closed down by Scott Sinclair. Young manages to pass Sinclair and play a through ball to SWP. SWP turns on the pace and bursts into the box and even though he is surrounded by two Swansea defenders he manages to place the ball into the keepers bottom right corner of the goal. Just what the team needed before half time. Well done SWP!

Half time analysis:

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53mins - Chance for Swansea. Shelvey placed in a horrible cross which was picked up by Vorm. He quickly threw it out to Taylor who played a first time ball to Sinclair. Who passed a cross pitch pass to Moore who played a ball for McEachran who took the ball in his stride towards the goal and hit a powerful shot which went past the far post. Swansea have had a more confident start to the second half.

59mins - Swansea are piling on the pressure which has resulted in another corner. I decided to make a change at this point. DJ Campbell, who has not had the best of games so far, was replaced by Bobby Zamora. Now Zamora has had an awful season resulting in very little goals but I felt the experience would help drive the team on.

66mins - An absolute sitter for Mr Reliable Jamie Mackie of QPR. QPR cleared the ball from a poor corner and SWP ended up with the ball on the right wing. He easily passed the Swansea left back and played a beautiful ball across the goal. Mackie ran onto the ball and with only the keeper the beat he hit a tame shot which sailed past the post. Opportunity missed.

68mins - GOAL FOR QPR!!! After Mackie's blunder 2 minutes previous QPR come up with the goods once again. Taiwo picked the ball up on the left wing, passed a the ball to Mackie who turned and passed to Ledley. Ledley took control of the ball and passed it inside to Buzsaky who was quickly closed down by Williams of Swansea. Somehow Buzsaky passed the ball to Shelvey on the edge of the box who played a first time pass to Zamora who slotted the ball past Vorm who was helpless. Should I take back my comments about Zamora's season? Inspired subsitution as just a few minutes before I had instructed by team to work the ball into the box?

82mins - PENALTY FOR QPR! Shelvey had a freekick on the left side of the box. He floated a cross to Onuoha who attempted to head the ball but was clattered by Luke Moore...Taiwo is to take responsibility over the penalty kick. Taiwo so far this season has scored all 5 of his penalties. Can he make it 6?

83mins - GOAL FOR QPR!!! Taiwo confidentlt steps up and strokes the ball to Vorm's left, who guesses correct, but cannot stretch far enough to reach the ball.

Final result:

Swansea 0 - 3 QPR (Shaun Wright Phillips 45+2, Bobby Zamora (69), Taye Taiwo (pen) 84.)

Player ratings:
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Hopefully this brilliant result in the cup can help to keep the momentum going in the league. Possible finish in a place in Europe is still on the cards.

Thanks for reading.

Well my first season in charge of QPR is over and what a season it has been.

Highlights of the season:

The season got off to a fantastic start and it was a much needed confidence boost to myself and the team. The first two games of the season resulted in my team scoring 8 goals with them only conceding two, a very positive start. These results catapulted my team into the top four in the league and that is where I have been ever since. The players have been very consistent throughout and played well in a new formation introduced to them. A disappointment of the season was a defeat to Everton in the FA Cup 4th Round Replay which I had pipped my team to win but alas, a 3-1 loss after extra time. In regards to the other cup competition my team won the League Cup confidently against a lower than par Swansea team, no competition.

I have left the best highlight to last. With three games left and a possible finish in 4th place on the cards it came down to three games, the most noteable against Manchester United. I am not going to give a report but simply post an image below of the result, my most proud result of the season and shows how far my team have come.

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What a result!!!

QPR's final game and league position:

It was a tense afternoon of football on the last day of the Premiership season. My team had a chance to finish 4th which would have been a brilliant achievement as my season expectations at the very beginning was to avoid relegation. Manchester City sat in 4th place; if they beat Arsenal, who was in a disappointing 8th place, then 4th place would be theirs. However, if I was to beat Fulham and Manchester City lost then 4th place would be mine.

Results:
Manchester City 2 - 0 Arsenal
QPR 2 - 0 Fulham

So it wasn't mean to be this season but you will not hear of any complaints from me about my team's final league position. Not only finishing 5th but also being the 3rd highest scoring team is a real achievement.

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I have been delighted to have been offered a new contract which will keep me at the club until 2017.

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I am now going to be looking forward to the pre-season, especially the transfer window which will be the the focus of my next post.

Until then, thanks for reading.

I love the summer break between seasons simply because of the transfer window. I love nothing more than revamping a squad from top to bottom. This post is going to focus on sharing with you the most noteable departures from the team and then focus more on the players that have come in and the reasons behind them.

Players out:

Clint Hill, Danny Shittu, Danny Gabbidon, Rowan Vine and Lee Cook were not offered new contracts. The majority of these players were getting on a bit, well into their 30's and I wanted to build for the future and get in younger players.

Bobby Zamora - sold to Norwich for £1mil. Bobby was sold for a HUGE cut down price purely to get a bit of money in and to get rid of his big wages. I can't say that the team will miss him as last season he only put away 3 goals in 20 appearences.

Rob Hulse, Matthew Connolly, Brian Murphy and Tommy Smith are other noteable players sold.

Funds received: £3.2mil

Players in:

Kyle Naughton - £1.5mil from Tottenham
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Reasons: I was in need of a young right back to take the place of Luke Young who would this season be relegated to the bench due to his age. He is a pacey right back who prefers to be set to wing back and attack which suits my teams focus on using the wings. I think his stats will improve hugely after this season as he will experience a lot of football.

Charlie Adam - £6mil - Liverpool

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Reasons: I was looking for a player who has a lot of experience and that can command the midfield. Charlie prefers to be played as an advanced playmaker while supporting which means he will spend a lot of the time on the ball and set up a new of attacks. I think he will play a big part in the team this season.

Marc Wilson - £4.5mil - Stoke

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Reasons: I needed another young defender. He has brilliant stats and I was interested in the fact he can play in a range of positions - that is simply worth the fee I paid.

Ashley Williams - £4.4mil - Swansea

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Reasons: He is a solid centre back who will soon head into his prime and I am sure he will shine for my QPR team. I am confident that he will form a solid partnership with Onuoha and they will be extremely hard to beat.

Carlos Fierro - £7.5mil - Chivas

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Reasons: From past experience this guy turns out to be one of the best strikers in the game; this is the reason why I was willing to spend so much money on him. He is definitely a player for the future of the club, especially as I see Cisse starting to not perform on a regular basis after this next season. He will get a fair bit of football; he will definitely be used in the FA and League Cup.

Marco Verratti - £4.4mil - Atalanta

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Reasons: This guy will, as he is going to be given football on a regular basis, will become a solid midfielder. I can see him creating a brilliant partnership with Charlie Adam and Jonjo Shelvey in midfield. He is a great young player which means with a lot of football his attributes will continue to develop and he will get better and better.

A possible transfer still to occur is Arouna Kone from Sevilla but he is unable to get a work permit which is rather annoying as he will bring damn good attributes to my front line.

Funds spent: £28.5mil

Thank you for reading.

Liking the story so far! I only have one little bit of advice.
Use Imgur.com Instead of Imageshack, imageshack is really slow to load

#63264 Atreidas : Liking the story so far! I only have one little bit of advice.
Use Imgur.com Instead of Imageshack, imageshack is really slow to load

Cheers for the advice - it will be followed.

I will be posting in the not too distant future with an update of the season so far and a focus on how the new players have settled in. Did I make the correct signings for my club? What have they contributed? Answers in the next post.

This post is going to focus on three things. I am going to start by sharing how my team have done after 10 games in the EPL. I will then move onto how my team have done so far in the Europa League which was just rewards for my teams performance last season; it has been a long absence so every game has been tense and exciting to watch. After studying my european campaign I am going to look at my signings and share with you how they have settled in.

Here we go!



What a cracking start to the season. Not only losing 1 game so far has been impressive but a very good goal difference so far has kept spirits up in the camp. The EPL season got off to a noteable start with a 3-2 win against close rivals Chelsea who finished above my team last season. It was important to get off to a good start and that is exactly what we did. The two draws are result of an away match to Liverpool and a very annoying and lack luster performance against Birmingham who were sitting in 18th at the time. The loss was against Manchester United, who despite having Vidic and Ferdinand before injured during the match they ran out comfortable 2-0 winners. I am very happy with the start of the season so far and I am really hoping that we can get back on a winning streak with the only real challenge being Manchester City in 2 games time. Other matches coming up are difficult but I expect my team to dismiss teams such as Blackburn, West Brom, West Ham and Blackpool.

QPR have entered a european competition after a prolonged absence. The Europa League draw gave me the tough challenge of Valencia the former Spanish league champions and interesting matches against BATE and AZ Alkmaar. This was not the nicest of draws and my expectations were to progress but the team would find it difficult to do so.



The team have really impressed me with their taking to European competition. My team have had 3 confident wins with the only loss coming against Valencia at the Mestalla stadium. As you can see from the table I am poised to qualify and hopefully in my next post you will find out if I did and what challenge I was in the next stage of the competition.

All my signings have settled into the QPR way of life and I am impressed with their contributions so far; money well spent. Ashley Williams has managed to form a solid partnership with Onuoha which has been a big factor in my team only conceding 7 goals so far in the EPL. Ashley's experience has helped to support the younger defenders such as my other signing Kyle Naughton and a young player I have brought up from the reservers (Max Ehmer). If my team are to be successful I will need Ashley to stay disciplined and fit if my team are going to make a push into the top 2. Charlie Adam's passing percentages have provided the foundation for goals this season and with him being played in the attacking midfield position, as an advanced playermaker, I hope he will improve on his 2 goals in 9 appearences so far. I am very excited about Verratti as he has put in some good performances so far. He is more being used as a substitute when the team are in a winning position which is good experience for him; this is also being done for another exciting signing being Carlos Fierro.

I am going to leave it here for now. My next post will be in the not too distant future, I hope, which will be a live report on the next draw for the Europa league if my team continue their good performances and qualify in second place.

Thank you for reading.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Euro Cup 1st Knockout Round Draw. We have spent some time looking over the teams in the draw and there a few teams you may want to take note of before the round commences. Arsenal have qualified for the draw by finishing 1st in their group with 5 wins under their belt. A solid group campaign and they should be looking to do well in the knockout rounds of the competition. Liverpool had been handed a very hard group in the Champions League with them being beaten to the next round of that competition by Real Madrid and Dortmund. They are going to be the "must watch" team in the remaining rounds and they will be looking for some success with them currently sitting in 6th place in the Premiership. There are a few teams that could provide tricky trips for any teaml Galatasary, Juventus and Malaga just to new a few. QPR have made it through the first knockout round which has to be seen as a big achievement for their manager. They finished the group stage with a draw against Valencia which meant they finished in 1st place. The manager had expected to go no further than the group stage so he must be pleased with the progress his team has made.

The draw is about to begin...

Fulham is first out and they have been handed a tough match against FC RB Salzburg but should feel good about the round as they have home advantage in the first leg.

Tottenham, just like Fulham, could have been given an easier team to play against than Steaua who have been given the home match in the first leg.

The english teams seem to be appearing at the beginning of this draw. Arsenal have been drawn away in their first leg of the first knockout round to Ajax. Arsene Wenger would have been hoping for less difficult task but I am sure he will expect his team to continue their form in the group stages.

The surprise team QPR have been drawn out. Their manager has slumped down in his chair and does look displeased with the result of the draw. QPR will start the next part of their european journey away to Galatasary. This will be a very tough trip for the QPR team and they will not be expecting a nice welcome to Istanbul with the fans welcoming visiting teams to hell.

Liverpool have been given an interesting tie against Schalke while Valencia, who finished second to QPR in their group, will visit Paris Saint-Germain. Rangers from Scotland will travel away to Russia to play Spartak Moscow but Juventus have been given an easier task of being CFR Cluj who are regular competitors in europe.

That concludes the draw for the Euro Cup 1st Knockout Round Draw.



We now have the draw for the Euro Cup 2nd Knockout Round Draw. We already have a number of interesting matches in the 1st round. This draw will give the teams an insight to what to expect if they manage to progress. We will be focusing on who the english teams will have to face if they manage to win on aggregate in the 1st round.

QPR vs Galatasary is the third tie brought out of the pot and these two teams will have a home tie in the first leg against either FC Lorient or FC Twente. A very interesting tie but the QPR does not look keen on the prospect of playing either of those teams.

There is potential for a London derby in the 2nd round if Fulham and Arsenal manage to progress into the 2nd round. What an exciting prospect. Liverpool can expect to travel to either Sporting or PSV if they manage to beat Schalke. Tottenham have been given a tougher test. If they manage to beat Steaua over the two legs they will face either Valencia or Paris Saint-Germain.



This concludes the draw for the Euro Cup 2nd Knockout Round Draw. The 1st round matches 1st leg will take place on 21.2.13.

Well what a season this has been! Manic from the start. QPR were back in Europe and after a great first season back in the EPL there was a sense of hope around the club that the team would pick up from where they left off. This post is only going to be a short one to summarise the season as I am very eager to move onto the summer transfer window where hopefully the club will be going through a big revamp which will be the focus of the next post.

EPL: Final position = 5th. The team managed to finish in a Europa League spot yet again and beat the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool who only finished 6th and 7th respectively.

Europa League: Second Round Knockout. After managing to pass Galatasary on the away goals ruling the team were soundly beaten by FC Lorient to exit europe earlier than the team had hoped.

Player of the season: Nedum Onuoha - average rating of 7.29. Solid performances from start to finish.

The team is in desperate need to be rebuilt as the majority of the team are now getting on age wise and if I want this club to really push to challenge for the EPL and in Europe then there has to be serious investment. I will be hoping for the Chairman to trust me with the job to rebuild the team and give me an amount of cash which will show our intentions for the next season.

The next post will be done shortly as I am eager to get the next stage of the QPR journey underway.