FM15: QPR - Leaving The Loft Behind?

[kubo]

WELCOME TO THE QPR THREAD FOR FM2015!

Five reasons why you should manage QPR:

1. Take on the elite clubs of London and the rest of the nation as the perennial underdogs, playing at the smallest stadium in the Premier League
   
2. Become an instant legend by guiding the club to their first ever league title or FA Cup triumph
   
3. A bunch of thirty-somethings on one year deals, quite a few loanees and a small core of good-to-great players aged 25 or younger means you can shape the squad to your own liking
   
4. A strong backbone of domestic players complemented by a handful of skilled South Americans gives you a choice: keep it British – or flood Loftus Road with foreign imports
   
5. - can you guide the big man to the England squad (despite him being somewhat underrated in the db)?
   

CLUB INFORMATION

Name: Queens Park Rangers Football Club | Nicknames: The Rs, The Hoops | Year Founded: 1882

Chairman: Tony Fernandes | Manager: Harry Redknapp | Captain: Clint Hill | Vice Captain: Richard Dunne

Division: Premier League | Last Season: 4th in the Championship, Play Off Winners | Media Prediction: 17th

Fierce Rivals: Chelsea | Other Rivals: Fulham, Brentford

This year's kits.

HISTORY

I’m not gonna bore you with a long novel in this section, you all know how to find Wikipedia. This graph and my 160 word summary of their entire existence should hopefully paint an intriguing enough picture.

Lower league nobodies for a good half of the century. Winning Division Three and the League Cup in 66/67, beating first division side West Brom 3-2 in the final (the club’s only major trophy), sent QPR on an upwards curve – ending in heartbreak when missing the 75/76 league title by a single point. The team were champions with thirteen minutes to go, when Liverpool scored against Wolves to clinch their ninth title. Decline but swift recovery. Beaten FA Cup finalists against Tottenham in 1982 (Hoddle from the penalty spot). Ever present in the top flight from the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s, until relegation started a slump that would last for nearly two decades. New, batshit crazy owners in 2007 (The Four Year Plan is a fascinating documentary about this era). Promotion in 2010/11 under Neil Warnock. New, sensible owner the same year. Possibly the worst recruitment drive, ever, under Mark Hughes followed by relegation. Bouncing straight back up under Harry Redknapp, after an extremely fortunate play off victory against Derby at Wembley.

2014/15. Are you the one to write the next chapter?

HONORS

First Division (level 1 of the English football league system

• Runners-up: 1975–76
  

Football League Championship and predecessors (level 2 of the English football league system)

• Champions: 1982–83; 2010–11
  
• Runners-up: 1967–68; 1972–73
  
• Play-Off Winners: 2013–14
  

Football League One and predecessors (level 3 of the English football league system)

• Champions: 1947–48; 1966–67
  
• Runners-up: 1946–47; 2003–04
  

FA Cup

• Runners-up: 1981–82
  

League Cup

• Winners: 1966–67
  
• Runners-up: 1985–86
  

FA Charity Shield

• Runners-up: 1908–09; 1912–13
  

1967 League Cup heroes, playing in a rare all-white kit.

STADIUM & FACILITIES

Name: Loftus Road Stadium | Nickname: The Loft | Year Built: 1917 | Capacity: 18 500

Record attendance: 35 353 (QPR vs Leeds United, 27 April 1974) | Condition: Good

After moving around quite a lot in their early days, QPR have played at Loftus Road since 1917 (with the exception of two short spells at White City Stadium, the arena built for the 1908 Summer Olympics). Loftus Road is known for its intimacy, with stands very close to the pitch, but as the only Premier League stadium at a sub 20k capacity QPR will always be at disadvantage compared to their rivals. Recognizing this, only last year the club announced plans for a new 40 000 stadium in Old Oak, a few miles north of their current home. These plans haven’t made their way into the database yet – so for stadium expansions you’ll have to live with what the game throws at you.

View from the stands.

The training and youth facilities are what you would expect from a club that’s spent the better part of the last two decades on the decline – just not good enough. ”Good training facilities”, ”average youth facilities”, ”adequate junior coaching” and ”average youth recruitment” means that serious upgrades are needed just to reach decent Premier League standards. At the end of the first season, our youth setup was actually demoted from level 2 to 3.

FINANCES

After years of financial mismanagement, even entering administration in the early 00’s, Malaysian aviation entrepreneur Tony Fernandes has put the club on a sounder financial footing - albeit with one caveat. You start the game with a positive balance of around £5m. Bank loans of £20m are nothing to worry about. However, hanging over the club like the sword of Damocles is a neat little gift loan of £250m, repayable at departure of the chairman. Fortunately, at the start of the game, Fernandes is ”enjoying times at the club and intends on being around for a long time”. Well, he’d better.

The boss.

As far as sugar daddies go, Fernandes reminds more of Mohamed Al-Fayed than Roman Abramovich. He’s put in the dollars to take his club back to the Premiership, but there will be no crazy money invested to take on the big boys. No sir, your job is to challenge for honours on a budget. As an in-game chairman Fernandes is more than happy to invest in the infrastructure of the club, but is stricter regarding transfer and wage budget requests.

However, with so many senior players on loans and one year contracts, you can find some great wiggle room for the wage budget from season two onwards.

STAFF

No extensive guide is needed for the club staff. In short: they’re pretty rubbish. The one’s worth keeping are young scout Steve Hitchen (15/15 vision at the start but with potential to grow, at the end of my first season he had 17/17), former Chelsea keeper Kevin Hitchcock as GK coach and last, but not least, living legend and former England manager Glenn Hoddle. Hoddle was brought in this summer to help Redknapp implement a 3-5-2, only for Harry to scrap it after three games! Anyhow, he’s great for technique training but on a short-term contract, so decisions are needed. The rest of the staff should be replaced over time, especially Redknapp’s former Pompey and Spurs buddies Kevin Bond and Joe Jordan who, despite high wages, brings very little to the table.

[kubo]

THE SQUAD

Finally, we’ve come to the most important part. Who are the guys to do the job out on the pitch? Please remember that Bond is a bad ass man with lousy ratings for judging players, so you can’t trust the stars entirely. I decided to only screenshot the best or most interesting player in each department. If you’re curious about other player's details, kick up the game!

GOALKEEPERS

Former England keeper Robert Green is known for a good old howler now and then, but in fairness is pretty solid and has played just north of 500 league games. At ten years younger, new Reading signing Alex McCarthy (still probably best known for

) has potential to go way beyond Green. Boasting excellent reflexes and aerial reach, he’s still gotta learn how to really boss the penalty area. With no obvious first choice, you have to decide between experience or long-term potential between the sticks. Remember that QPR is a newcomer, after all. Do note that Green is pretty well paid, so he’ll be a very expensive reserve keeper if/when McCarthy takes over. Third choice Brian Murphy is just plain rubbish.

CENTRAL DEFENDERS

Welcome to 'Appy 'Arrys Retirement Home - all declining Premier League defenders welcome! With an combined age of over 100 years and some 1500 league games between them, Richard Dunne, Rio Ferdinand and Clint Hill provides the defence ample experience and know-how. Unfortunately, they also bring an alarming lack of pace and stamina. Ferdinand is of course the natural leader at the back, returning to London after a decade of success in Manchester. In the right tactical setup he should still have a good season or two left in his aging body. Dunne and Hill are clearly past it, but with great mental values they might be worth keeping around for tutoring or staff duties.

At the other end of the career spectrum is former Tottenham youngster Steven Caulker, preparing for his fourth PL season at the tender age of 22. Strong, relatively quick, with good mentality and all the technical skills you would need from a modern CD, he's the real deal. A potential future club captain, unless the Man Citys and Liverpools of this world turns his head. Finally, former Man City starlet Nedum Onuoha rounds out the defence. A world-beater he is not, but adds much needed pace, stamina and versatility to your defence. Young scot Coll Donaldson is the only youth prospect of note, without looking that exciting.

FULL BACKS

No need to deny it, full back is a bit of a problem area. After selling Danny Simpson to Leicester, the club has exactly zero natural right backs on their books. Chilean Juventus loanee Mauricio Isla comes the closest. According to the game, his natural position is at M R, but he looks pretty much like an explosive wing back in my eyes. Centre back Onuoha has the pace to play at full back, but lacks any kind of end product. Distinctly average Michael Harriman is the other option.

At the left side there's at least a couple of naturals. Unfortunately, they're not very good. Armand Traore and Yun-Suk Young are both quick and hits nice crosses, they just don’t seem to really cut it at this level. In one of the stranger moves of the summer, QPR signed promising Liverpool full back Jack Robinson only to send him away to Huddersfield for the season. Well-rounded attributes and room to grow makes him the obvious long-term solution on the left. Beware that both Traore and Young will most likely go away in January 2015 for the African and Asian championships respectively, leaving you woefully short of cover. Hill can play left back in worst-case scenario, but without providing no attacking threat whatsoever.

CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS

"He brings energy, aggression, power and quality. They call him The Beast. He's not only a top-quality footballer, but a fantastic boy as well.” Harry Redknapp wasn’t short of praise after luring injury-plagued Spurs midfielder Sandro to QPR on Deadline Day. Unlike the failed marquee signings of the Hughes era, Sandro is exactly the right kind of character for a relegation battle. Or any kind of battle, really. He can sit just in front of your back line, but will be more effective higher up the pitch where he can chase the ball like a rabid dog all day long. Keep him fit and you have a winner. Possible captain, if you wanna take the club in a crazy gang direction. Twitter philosopher Joey Barton, former Stoke and Wolves hardman/hitman Karl Henry and sent-off-on-his-debut-victim Samba Diaketé are all players of the same mould as Sandro, just nowhere near as good. Barton in particular doesn’t justify his wage packet.

New boy Leroy Fer famously failed his medical at Everton, signed for Norwich instead and impressed enough to earn a QPR move when the Canaries were relegated. A jack-of-all-trades sort of player with a well-rounded set of skills and the ability to play pretty much everywhere, the challenge is to find his best position and role. Jordon Mutch had a breakthrough season at Cardiff last year, scoring seven goals, which earned him the same move to the capital as teammate Caulker. A less complicated player than Fer, Mutch will simply run from box-to-box for 90 minutes, hopefully cracking of a screamer or two in the process. Finally there’s argentine fan favourite Alejandro Faurlin, who played a key role (in several ways) when QPR got promoted back in 10/11. His attributes seems perfect for a combative DLP, able to win physical battles and pinging long-range passes with the same finesse, sadly the Premier League seems to be just a bit over his level. Could still be a useful squad player, though.

ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS

Ah, here’s where we find the club’s best – and worst, at the same time – player. Adel Taarabt came in from Spurs and scored 19 goals in 10/11 to lead QPR back to the Prem. At the highest level however, he’s only showed glimpses of his quality. The little moroccan can work magic with the ball at his feet, but is ignorant to concepts like ”teamwork” and ”tracking back”. My take on him is simple: you either build your team around him – or don’t play him at all. Misunderstood genius or just a bad apple drowning in his own ego? That’s for you to find out. Be warned that Spurs takes a hefty 40% of the fee should you decide to cash in on Taarabt. A safer playmaking option is Dynamo Kiev loanee Niko Kranjcar, signed by Redknapp no less than four times (for Pompey, Spurs and QPR, twice). It’s easy to see why Redknapp likes him. He works hard for the team while still providing that little bit of magic. Easy on the eye too. Good dead ball delivery. Your job is to find his best role and keep him fit.

Out wide the options are few but quite alright. At a glance Matt Phillips looks like a traditional old-school winger, quick with good crossing, right footed and prefers to play at the right wing. However, he’s surprisingly lethal inside the box, and with no preferred moves can be moulded into whatever you want. Canadian international Junior Hoilett prefers to cut in from the left, using his pace and dribbling skills to unsettle defences. However, he hasn’t really kicked on since showing great promise at Blackburn, and at very generous wages needs to step it up or leave. Shaun Wright-Phillips was one of the first star names to sign when Fernandes took over QPR, but at 32 is clearly past his best. His wages can be spent on something more exciting. Pacy dribbler Michael Petrasso is one of very few youth gems at the club, and deserves a chance in the cups at least. Finally, full backs Traore and Isla can do a job in deeper winger roles.

STRIKERS

Up front it’s all about Charlie Austin. One of the great from-rags-to-riches stories of later years, Austin was still playing non-league football for Poole Town at the age of 20, when Swindon and later Burnley gave him a chance in the league. Scored the goals to lead QPR to promotion last season, and is now tasked with the responsibility to keep them in the Premiership. A tall, strong, hard-working attacker with a knack for finding the net, Austin makes a great target player but can also be used as a clinical poacher. At 33, Bobbie Zamora is similar to Austin - just older, slower and less motivated (reflected in some horrible mental attributes). An okay backup season one, nothing more. Rounding out the strike force (and the club’s South American faction) is Napoli loanee Eduardo Vargas. Clever, tricky and full of running, he’s the perfect partner to Austin. Prefers to play up front but will do a job in the AM strata if needed. The loan deal includes a future fee of £8.45m, but being in the last year of his Napoli contract means he can be signed on a Bosman – if you can get his signature at the dotted line.

TACTICS

To sum up the squad, you’re well stocked at central defence and midfield, have some serious pace to burn at the flanks and two quality strikers. There are several possible formations that could bring out the most of your squad, here are just three basic suggestions to start with.

[kubo]

Think that’s it. Hope I have inspired someone to give QPR a go in FM2015. After testing my luck at quite a few clubs in the last month but finding them too easy – or in a couple of cases too hard – I have a feeling QPR could be my long term save this year. I really like the spine of the team in Caulker, Sandro, Mutch, Phillips and Austin, while the small stadium and frankly inadequate facilities should make long-term success really hard earned!

[Ronaldo Beckham]

First thing you should do before you attend the meetings is ask for a new stadium and get the training and youth facilities improved.

[Welshace]

Do they grant you a new stadium?

[grahamf]

I played a couple of seasons with QPR and the board decided a new stadium was needed without my asking them.

Lots of potential for the club to grow, I think the trick is to be patient as there isn't a huge amount of cash coming in and wholesale changes never seem to go well in my experience. I can't remember exactly who I signed to play at left back but I had lots of joy using Onoura as a limited right back and an attacking left wing back so the team defended with 4 at the back and changed to 3 at the back when we went forward.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Yeah granted one straight away, going through the planning stage at the moment, should be completed by 2016, no idea what the stadium is called, capacity etc, will keep you posted.

Doing well so far, using a 4-2-3-1 formation with advanced playmaker and advanced forward.

Currently 4th with 21 points after 12 games played, best player is Lucas Romero who I signed from Velez for 8m, he has 3 goals from 14 games with a 7.61 average rating.

Transfers wise I got rid of the older players if possible, got rid of Dunne to Leicester for free, also released Zamora, Hill, Barton, Henry, loaned out SWP to Leyton Orient, sold Taarabat for 6m, Faurlin went for 4m and Onuha went for 3m.

I replaced them with literally any half decent young prospect from Barca including Sandro who is a good striker in the Advanced forward role, he has got 7 goals in 10 games so far, signed Kyle Naughton for 3m, Neves on loan, Strandberg, Reginiussen, Gil Romero, Fossum and a few Scandinavian bargains.

Will keep you posted how I do.

[Welshace]

Mine was turned down :/

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Yeah maybe I was just lucky lol, start a new game, before you go into the meetings ask for a new stadium, should work if you click the top response when they initially say no.

[Rooney_08]

well done on the nice thread lad . here is the table for my 1st season with qpr :

made only one signing and that was Eder Balanta from river for 7m over 3 years.

will update with more screens soon as i just finished my 2nd season aswell

[kubo]

Ah, nice to see more people playing with QPR.

In my experience, Tony Fernandes is very generous when it comes to investing in the facilities. In my first season he was more than happy to improve both training and youth facilities, and at the end of the season he announced plans to build the 24k capacity "QPR stadium" without me asking for it. I had hoped for something bigger, but I guess you gotta walk before you can run.

Interesting that some of you have managed to sign the "classic" FM argentinians. I had a look at Lucas Romero, but he wasn't even close to interested. I had to settle for some less interesting names.

Ronaldo Beckham,

your squad must have a pretty low average age by now?

Rooney_08,

well done on the first season. 8th is not bad. Did Everton take the last European place? We got pipped to the last european place by Newcastle, finishing only two points behind. Seems your QPR team has the same character as my QPR team: lethal going forward, but shipping tons of goals at the back.

[kubo]

QPR SEASON 2014/2015 REVIEW

Just a short summary of my first season with QPR.

As a newly promoted side with a predicted finish of 17th and one of the smallest wage budgets in the league (believe it or not), anything more than a solid mid-table finish would be a bonus. I was worried for a while after only taking one point and scoring one goal from the first three league games, but the next game against Man Utd laid down a marker for the whole season.

The obvious highlight of the year.

Some low points.

In the end, we finished 8th, two points off Europa. Next year, maybe?

THE CUPS

Lost against Stoke in the league cup. Our FA Cup campaign was promising - knocking out Everton away - but ended on a sour note. After throwing away a lead at home against Norwich, we had to go to East Anglia for the replay. But the draw for the next round was made before the match: the winner would face Man Utd away. I couldn't see us getting anything from Old Trafford, so sent the reserves to Carrow Road, where they got smashed to bits. Not my proudest moment.

TRANSFERS

I always play with the first transfer window disabled, so not much action here. When Isla broke his foot, we needed cover at RB so I brought in Ebou on loan. But for some reason, we couldn't register him, so in the end we had to pay his wages for half a season without him making a single apperance. What a waste. We signed Jozefzoon on loan in january to add depth to the squad (and to confirm that we actually could register new players).

Strangest moment of the season: Tottenham buying back Taarabt. The 40% sell on clause still got activated, so Tottenham payed us £10m in cash - only to take £4m back immediately. And I still don't understand where Leyton Orient found the money to pay for all £65k of SWP's weekly wages, but who am I to complain?

THE AUSTIN REPORT

One of the goals in this save is to see Austin represent England. No luck yet. He started the season brilliantly, banging in goals, before faliing of during the spring. A brace in the season finale at Leicester saw him finish at 16 goals, joint top-scorer of the league's british players with Wayne Rooney.

Hodgson has indicated that he's following Austin's progress, but no call up so far. Hopefully he'll keep working even harder next year.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Hiya, been enjoying this save, first season ended ok, finished 8th in my first season, I also got told I will have QPR stadium with 25k capacity being built ready for the 2017 season. Transfers wise managed to sign Banggard, Neves, Brayan Angulo, Patric, Vargas, Cleverley, Guidetti, Vokes, also signed Dong Won on loan and he was amazing so was Traore from Barca on loan as well, a tip when you start is to get as many young Barca players as possible, end of the season I signed Dong Won for 3m which was a bargain. Finished 4th in my 2nd season and won the fa cup, just managed to sign Roberto, Bruma, Dier and Ajer, sorry for the layout of this post, using my phone.

[kubo]

Finished 4th in my 2nd season and won the fa cup, just managed to sign Roberto, Bruma, Dier and Ajer, sorry for the layout of this post, using my phone.

Very nice! Hope you don't get unlucky in the CL qualification draw.

[iolodavanki]

OP was a really good read! Well done!

I am trying a save with QPR right now!

[kubo]

OP was a really good read! Well done!

I am trying a save with QPR right now!

Thank you.

Great that you're giving QPR a go. Let us know how you get on!

[Rooney_08]

will be uploading a heap of screen shots soon ..into my 3rd season and lets say its just getting too easy

[Rooney_08]

season 2 finished like this and i got that 7th place ....just haha

here is the transfers for season 2 : got villa for 3m but his wages will send the club broke haha ,but it pays for it self really and same for Love , he scored 7 in 12 so pretty good for a free transfer

here is a few very good results from season 2 :

season 2 ended well and got 7th as you see above

charlie austin for 2 seasons worth :

Will upload some more soon. season 3 is wow factor just a quick update ive just got through the play off stage and group stage of euro cup with ease. Will keane is scoring for fun so i cant stress enough why everyone should buy him or get him free like i did .

cheers

[iolodavanki]

I signed Winston Reid From West Ham as his contract was expiring. Trouble is, he left a few games into the 15/16 season for international duty and now it says he will return 5/6/2016. So he will miss the whole season due to international duty with New Zeeland.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I am getting bored of this save now, mostly due to my tactic that seems to kill everyone I play, won the Champions League, got some good players like Romero, Neves, Dongou, Adama Traore, Ji Dong Won, Sergio Roberto etc, might try a different formation, what do you think guys, surely QPR winning the Champions League after 3 seasons is a bit unrealistic.

[Rooney_08]

I am getting bored of this save now, mostly due to my tactic that seems to kill everyone I play, won the Champions League, got some good players like Romero, Neves, Dongou, Adama Traore, Ji Dong Won, Sergio Roberto etc, might try a different formation, what do you think guys, surely QPR winning the Champions League after 3 seasons is a bit unrealistic.

put up some screen shots

[Ronaldo Beckham]

How do I do that then and what screenies would you like, I aint lying, I have no need to.

[kubo]

I am getting bored of this save now, mostly due to my tactic that seems to kill everyone I play, won the Champions League, got some good players like Romero, Neves, Dongou, Adama Traore, Ji Dong Won, Sergio Roberto etc, might try a different formation, what do you think guys, surely QPR winning the Champions League after 3 seasons is a bit unrealistic.

A bit unrealistic, maybe, or maybe not. If you want a greater challenge, stop buying players with proven world class potential.

I signed Winston Reid From West Ham as his contract was expiring. Trouble is, he left a few games into the 15/16 season for international duty and now it says he will return 5/6/2016. So he will miss the whole season due to international duty with New Zeeland.

That sounds very weird. Have you checked NZ's fixtures too see what's up?

[oglo]

adel taarabt is a liability in my save , always complaining and wanting to leave for bigger clubs even though nobody bids for him

[grahamf]

adel taarabt is a liability in my save , always complaining and wanting to leave for bigger clubs even though nobody bids for him

Sounds pretty true to life, Neil Warnock and 'Arry have both had a few things to say about his off the pitch behaviour.

[Rooney_08]

Season 3 update :

league table for season 3 . pretty happy with the finish got a decent place on table still letting heaps in but im a ill score 4 you have 2 kinda guy haha

Cup Run :

i think the whole street herd me go mental

Transfers :

just finished season 4 its been my best season on any save for fm 15 so far . will upload screen shots this week sometime

[mancgeordie1892]

Can somebody put up a screenie of all first team/reserves who's contract expires on 30/06/2016 please? I'm debating starting a game with them but fancy thinking about who's going to stay/go whilst i'm at work.

Thanks in advance

[kubo]

Can somebody put up a screenie of all first team/reserves who's contract expires on 30/06/2016 please? I'm debating starting a game with them but fancy thinking about who's going to stay/go whilst i'm at work.

Thanks in advance

I presume you meant contracts expiring in the summer of 2015?

[Gungner]

Does anyone know QPR's transferbudget's on the new DB update?

[Galvanize]

Does anyone know QPR's transferbudget's on the new DB update?

I've just started a save with them and the board gave me £8m to spend along with just over £950k in wages, with £900k already being spent.