Catastrophe, ou formidable? Stéphan steps into Loftus Road hot seat - Column Wednesday, 25th Jun 2025 08:37 by Clive Whittingham Former Rennes and Strasbourg manager Julien Stéphan has been given the nod to replace Marti Cifuentes at QPR, signing a two-year deal at Loftus Road. If the beret fitsIt’s been two months since Marti Cifuentes was placed of garden leave, and while that’s not quite the four it took Sunderland to land on Regis Le Bris last summer it’s been plenty of time for the rumour mill to churn up an eclectic list of potential candidates for QPR manager. When the bookies first published their list of favourites for the job, back on April 29, it was chock full of familiar names and British managers. Gary O’Neil, a former player for the club and briefly hero for his cynical play-off final red card at Wembley, was the 5/1 favourite. Leyton Orient’s Richie Wellens was priced up next at sixes ahead of the O’s doomed play-off tilt, with Ryan Mason and deposed Luton boss Rob Edwards at eights and death-by-a-thousand-passes Russell Martin at 12/1. A few days later former Norwich and Huddersfield boss David Wagner, who’d been sloping around QPR home games asking fans what they thought was wrong back in the autumn, the first time it looked like Cifuentes would be sacked, started to feature. By May 6, a totally new candidate, Pierre Sage, had been backed into 6/1. Ten days after that former Watford boss Tom Cleverley went as short as 2/5 odds on – usually the last point these things get to before the photographs with scarves held aloft. Still, it went on, and Cleverley is now in League One with Plymouth. Ex Norwich boss Johannes Hoff Thorup was the next apparent shoo in. Onur Cinel’s departure from Red Bull Salzburg had the Twitter experts frothing for a day or so. In the end Rangers appointed… 44-year-old Frenchman Julian Stéphan. Turns out the Regis Le Bris comparisons didn’t end with the timing. It’s a good examination into how these markets are indicative of absolutely nothing other than a desire to rinse money from gullible people – certainly no source of intelligence, on either side of the trade. If I had spare cash kicking around, I’d be interested in an experiment. At our level, with so little liquidity in the market, how much would you need to put on a candidate to move that needle? Would, for instance, one person sticking £200 on Tim Sherwood be enough to send him crashing down through the odds and give the good people of Shepherd’s Bush the fright of their lives? I’m not sure it would take much more. Anybody who’s been paying attention to the Championship could have told you almost nobody on that original list was a remotely likely candidate. Football in this country, perhaps more than ever before, is now horribly divided between haves and have nots. Not just between the divisions, where the gap between Premier League and Championship is starkly shown by the recent fortunes of the promoted teams upstairs and the parachute payment clubs in our league, but also within the divisions themselves. While there are exceptions (Luton, Stoke) the Championship is increasingly just a list of wage bills – Leeds pay the most and are top, Plymouth the least and are last. In finishing 18th and 15th over the last two seasons QPR have been pretty much exactly where they should be and moving up and beyond that on a wage bill of between £20m-£25m is going to be challenging. That immediately means you’re going to attract a certain calibre and experience of manager. Richie Wellens was the only one on that original odds list who realistically fit this. Liam Manning is a great example. QPR have been close to appointing him in the past, both when he was at MK Dons’ and then Oxford United’s level, before he joined Bristol City – whose latest published wage bill in the 2023/24 accounts £34.9m. Even though City made the play-offs this season he has moved to Norwich who finished 13th in the league last year, because with a wage bill in 23/24 of £51.8m and £30m of signings last season (admittedly offset by £35m of sales) the Canaries simply have a higher ceiling. Their wage bill two years ago was £118m. Manning is moving up a level within the level. He’s no longer in QPR’s frame. He moved out of that picture the second he started doing well at Ashton Gate.
Gary O’Neil has done a reasonable job at Bournemouth and Wolves in the Premier League and impressed people on Monday Night Football. He’ll expect to be in the reckoning for every Burnley, Leicester and Sunderland-type vacancy that comes up once the season gets going. Rob Edwards, who was also on that list, has been picked up by Middlesbrough (latest wage bill £32m), another club we’re in the same division as but not the same level. Edwards would have come here from Forest Green, and after being sacked by Watford, but after winning promotion with Luton he probably feels he’s stepped up away from us now. Russell Martin, likewise, getting comfy in the big seat at Ibrox. This can all quickly change. O’Neil stays unemployed too long (Mark Warburton) or Edwards makes another dog’s dinner of this latest job as he did Luton last season then they come back into our picture. Simon Grayson did so well with Blackpool and Preston he was able to step up into the jobs at Leeds and Sunderland. He’s now the new manager of Hartlepool. But, for now, Gary O’Neil is not coming back to QPR. Anybody paying attention to QPR in particular would also have known how unrealistic some of these names were. This is very much Christian Nourry’s ship now. As the “football focused CEO” he is running the joint from top to bottom, overseen by Lee Hoos despite his “happy retirement” departure video on the official website. Nourry has put a game model in place that he wants all the teams throughout the club to be playing. He has appointed head of methodology John De Souza, head of individual player development Kevin Betsy, head of goalkeeping Andrew Sparkes, a head of set pieces is incoming. The quotes when we sign a player come from him. He’s not looking for a manager, he’s looking for a head coach. He butted heads with Cifuentes over that set piece coach, over Ben Williams’ role, and plenty else besides. If you take that role at QPR you are merely the driver in Martin Prince’s soapbox derby racer – essentially ballast. That, again, means you’re going to attract a certain profile of candidate, from a certain part of the world. English football is fast moving in the direction of these sorts of models, but if you’re going for an established candidate from the British leagues they’re still going to want to know a) is there money to spend?, b) am I the one spending it? c) can I bring my mates along as coaches? There’s plenty of grey area, Stéphan is reportedly bringing analyst Rudi Cuni and coach Alou Diarra with him, but the answer to those things at QPR now is pretty much no, no and no. I’m not saying any of this is a bad thing, by the way. I’m certainly not sitting here pining for Gary O’Neil. We’ve long said on LFW that giving managers everything they want at QPR is a road to ruin and Christian Nourry has instigated a lot of overdue processes we’ve long called for here. For the odds watchers though… Martin, O’Neil, this profile of manager is not coming here to do bibs, balls and cones with John De Souza and Kevin Betsy. These models and systems are much more prevalent on the continent which, allied with the aforementioned money situation, means the new man was almost certainly coming from abroad, and a certain part of abroad too: Scandinavia, as with Cifuentes; second division Spain or Germany; top divisions in Belgium or Austria; France full stop; or unemployed and a bit desperate. They’re used to working like this, and actually a Championship budget is very decent versus much of what you’ll work with in Europe – even a straightened one like ours. Nourry has mentioned several times before that this “more common in Europe” set up is the one he’s trying to implement here. It’s possible somebody like O’Neil or Martin crashes and burns in enough jobs to come back onto our scope (as Steve McClaren did), or that QPR do one of their abrupt about turns into something completely different if this goes wrong, but for now this is us and everybody should remember that when assessing these lists of potential candidates. Cinel, and perhaps Sage, was the only one who ever rung vaguely true to me before Stéphan’s name came up. The one interesting bridging candidate, if you like, was Thorup. A year ago, when Norwich hired him from Nordsjælland, he was rated as one of Europe’s best up and coming coaches and I dare say we’d have been quite excited about that one at that point. As we’ve already said though Norwich’s wage bill is £50m+, they spent £30m on new signings last year, and they finished next to us in the league table. If, as Norwich manager, you finish one point and one place above QPR with Borja Sainz and Josh Sargent in your attack then either you’re doing a poor job or the bloke at QPR is doing extremely well. That said, you’ve got a complicated situation at Carrow Road where the dressing room is fractured (it was hard to tell at Loftus Road last season who they hated more – us, the referee, or each other) and an inexperienced DOF is running the show, last season with his mate Jack Wilshere right behind you obviously angling for your job. A year of Championship experience in a profile like that might have been quite valuable – Dave Mc said on the WLS podcast Rangers were drawn to candidates with experience in ‘three game week’ leagues after Cifuentes was the latest manager her to really struggle with that (QPR are 10% worse than their mean in game three of three game week, easily the biggest drop off of any team in the league over the last decade – literally no Championship side is worse than us in game 3/3 in such weeks). It was Thorup’s laborious style of play-out-from-the-back football that put me off more than his Norwich record and in the end we’ve gone in a different direction. Claims Thorup was offered the job and rejected it smell like an agent doing their client a favour to me, QPR are briefing that absolutely isn’t the case (as we would, as he would etc). Stéphan it is then. A name you might not have known a month ago, but a profile you absolutely should have expected the second they gave Cifuentes the boot. Qui êtes-vous?It’s not a name we would have got anywhere close to appointing in the summer of 2019. At that point Julien Stéphan was something of a darling in Rennes, and one of France’s most promising coaching talents. Within the parameters of the QPR job, this looks quite an exciting appointment. A jobbing central midfielder for Toulouse, RC Paris and Stade Briochin as a player, and son of France national team assistant manager Guy Stéphan, he’d been appointed interim head coach of the hometown club he’d spent years coaching the youth and reserves for initially after Sabri Lamouchi, later of Cardiff and Forest, had been binned off. As Ligue 1’s youngest coach, his strong first impression included a run to the last 16 of the Europa League where they were beaten 4-3 by Arsenal after winning the first leg at home 3-1. No disgrace, certainly, and a year later he topped even that by running all the way through the notoriously difficult and laborious French Cup to the final beating Brest (stop it), St Hilaire, Lille and Orlean before winning the semi-final 3-2 away at Lyon. In the final Rennes trailed Thomas Tuchel’s monied PSG side - containing Neymar and Mbappe and holders of the trophy four years straight - 2-0 early but roared back to 2-2 and a 6-5 victory on penalties. It was Rennes’ first trophy since 1971. In the following (Covid-shortened) season they finished third in the French league and qualified for the Champions League (56 games in his first full season, 41 with 10 left in the Covid curtailed season, 45 the following year, to the point about us looking for three-game week experience). “You don't see they’re starting to crumble… stay calm… they’ve got big pressure… play intelligently as big men… something extraordinary could happen… the sky, the earth will fall on them… big bang in their heads… you hold them in your hands… we will score" – Stéphan’s half time address in French cup final. Imagine the cartwheels we’d all have been turning if this bloke had been Mark Warburton’s replacement? The reason he’s slipped back onto QPR’s radar is what’s happened since. His time at Rennes stalled into a seven-match winless run and four straight defeats in March 2021 at which point he left by mutual consent. His next job was at Strasbourg where that pattern of burning extremely brightly, extremely quickly before fading badly repeated – their sixth-place finish in 2021/22 was the highest for a notorious yo-yo club since 1979/80 but by January the following season they were 19th in the table on a very-QPR-like run of one win in 17 games when he was fired. A second spell with Rennes followed, and with 18 wins from 43 games he actually posted a better win percentage (43.9%) second time around than first (41.8%) but left under a cloud after a year amidst backroom turmoil and arguments with the sporting director. Here opinions diverge on the Frenchman dramatically. Almost weirdly so. Our appeal on social media for information brought “at Rennes he has broken the dressing room twice. He has fallen out with all the experienced players and DOF both times.” But the journalists we spoke to dismissed his second spell at Rennes almost entirely – lazy appointment on both sides by a badly run club, walked into a disaster zone, chairman François Pinault at war with sporting director Florian Maurice and Stéphan’s return something of a powerplay by the former. All in all, not his fault. Strasbourg, too, were far from the well-financed project Liam Rosenior is currently guiding. Stephan’s initial top six finish was a significant improvement on everything that had gone before. To read up on Stéphan more recently is like accidentally tuning your radio into TalkSport – two people look at exactly the same thing and reach conveniently polar opposite views so as to spark debate and trigger listeners to call in. In this Opta Analyst piece written while he was at Strasbourg he is praised for his tactical flexibility, willingness to pick a horse for a course and change style and formation based on the opponent. However, this Guardian piece from his second spell at Rennes, syndicated from the Get French Football News website which Christian Nourry founded, describes Stéphan “up to his usual tricks with, chopping and changing systems at will while regularly deploying line-ups that are attack-heavy.” Same attribute, one journalist thinks it’s a positive, the other a negative. Easy this game. Stéphan’s first Rennes team was very much in the modern mould of completing passes and holding possession – hello long afternoons away at Blackburn spent watching the centre backs and goalkeeper pass the ball between themselves. But, at Strasbourg, admittedly with 6ft 6ins target man Ludovic Ajorque in attack, the style sounds almost like watching Gerry Francis’ mid-90s QPR side. They averaged 34.9 passes per shot, the third lowest in the league; attempted the most crosses in the league with 21.6 per game; 31.1% of their shots were directly assisted by crosses; 13.6 second-highest xG from set pieces in the league. Get it wide, get to the byline, get it in the mixer. QPR fans who grew up on Bardsley, Wilson, Sinton, Sinclair and Impey wouldn’t mind a bit of that back in their lives. Another comparison with that great 90s side, and something that’s been true of Stéphan wherever he’s been and whatever style of play he’s adopted thus far, is he’s a rare modern manager that likes to play with two up front. That’s not something QPR have tried really since Ian Holloway was pairing Matt Smith and Conor Washington – it’s very much been 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 ever since. Michi Frey was only able to complete six 90 minutes last season, and then wasn’t available the game after on three of those occasions, so a lot would depend on his availability or another arrival, but it’s an interesting prospect with Charlie Kelman returning from a break-out 27-goal season at Leyton Orient. He’s never been given a proper chance at Rangers, just four starts, but when he has played at Championship level he’s looked a little lost and in need of a big, physical partner alongside. Could Frey and Kelman, with this manager, be an unlikely success story in 25/26? It’s something our columnist Greg Spires considers here. Some of what I’ve read about Stéphan does remind me of Mark Warburton – even when things started to sour at Rennes and they stumbled to tenth in the French Ligue 1 only Monaco and PSG scored more goals than them. Defence? Here’s a plan with some chest hair. One thing the pundits across the Channel do seem to agree on though is his reputation for working with and developing young players, something QPR will no doubt be making a big PR push around. The Development Squad’s Premier League Cup victory in May, and the policy of dramatically reducing the age of that team rather than keeping Charlie Owens, Mide Shodipo, Nico Travelman et al hanging round deep into their 20s just in case, is the big early success of Nourry’s reign at Loftus Road and he’ll be desperate to see that translating into multiple first team graduates ASAP. Eduardo Camavinga came through the Rennes B Team when Stéphan was coach and followed him into the first team before moving to Real Madrid. Jérémy Doku wasn’t such an organic grow, picked up for a chunky transfer fee from Anderlecht furnished with Champions League money, but by the time he’d finished with Stephan and Rennes he was being bought for £55m by Man City. Raphina another similar trajectory, from Rennes to Leeds and now Barcelona. Ousmane Dembélé also started in the academy set up at Rennes when Stéphan was coach there before working his way through Dortmund, Barcelona and PSG and the best part of £200m of transfer fees. Marrying that faith in young players and desire to develop prospects with putting together a cohesive team with a sprinkling of experience has proved problematic for him in the past, particularly in his second spell at Rennes (albeit with previously stated chaotic situation upstairs and haphazard recruitment, but then we’re not without those problems ourselves). The club tried to parachute Glen Kamara and Hans Hateboer into that team for old school knowhow but neither fit well with Stephan’s system and he was accused of failing to get the best out of an admittedly poorly constructed squad.
That’s an amber warning light. QPR’s recruitment last year produced some individual success stories – Nardi, Morrison, Saito, Varane – but it did not add up to cohesive, workable Championship team. While Jimmy Dunne has been retained we don’t know how much football Steve Cook will be able to play after the club’s rather begrudging “captain refuses to leave” statement of his extension and we await news on Morgan Fox and Jack Colback. Workable equilibrium between game smarts and flash boys who look good on the TikTok is going to be an important component in this summer’s recruitment. Stéphan has struggled to strike that balance in his more recent gigs. We mentioned it in the opening paragraph, and the time it’s taken to make the appointment is not the only comparison you can draw with Regis Le Bris. An unheralded manager who’d done exceptionally well with L’Orient in France early before crashing and burning into a relegation season amidst backroom problems and a recruitment talent drain, he was an unheralded choice at the Stadium of Light to manage a team nobody apart from Gab Sutton fancied for anything last season, and yet they’re now in the Premier League. Another manager who built his reputation on developing young talent in France, he came into a Sunderland club being run very similarly to QPR under another inexperienced DOF/CEO Kristjaan Speakman. A young side built entirely on development prospects and continental analytics signings had flopped amidst managerial turmoil the previous year, but with Le Bris appointed and a few more pragmatic Alan Browne-type signings made the Mackems got the balance right to such an extent the won promotion as a non-parachute payment team in 24/25. No chance that didn’t play a part in QPR’s thinking around this appointment and Stéphan wouldn’t need to do nearly as well with us this year to be considered a success on a substantially lower budget. Expect to hear Le Bris’ name a fair bit, and frequent mention of his youth development record, from the spin and “just a supporter who hears a few things” accounts around this appointment Stéphan’s propensity to go on long losing runs he struggles to find a way out of makes him sounds like an Oakland A already. Long cup runs against all odds less so. Everybody we spoke to for this piece used the same word very early in the conversation – “intriguing”. It’s certainly that. All on red (white and blue)A couple of years ago I was contacted by Raphaël Brosse, a French football journalist who covers Ligue 1 for L’Equipe, SoFoot and others. He was writing a feature about the curious case of one Yoann Barbet turning up back at his hometown team Bordeaux and rather tearing things up as the club attempted to rebuild itself. We collaborated on this piece the main takeaway from which was Barbet’s a top bloke, but don’t let him take your free kicks. The week it was published, Barbet lashed a dead ball into the top corner from 30 yards. Thankfully Raphaël hasn’t held that intel against me and was more than willing to jump on a call this week to return the favour with Julian Stephan. Brosse was in the Stade De France covering Stephan’s finest hour, a comeback from 2-0 down to win the French Cup against PSG, and had some fascinating, and mostly optimistic, opinions about QPR’s new coach. Jonathan Johnson is the French football expert for US broadcast network CBS, and also the On The Continent Podcast. He was also good enough to join us this week and lend the benefit of his insight into QPR’s new appointment. And we were also very glad to be joined on Sunday night by Julien Laurens, the French football expert you’ll have no doubt heard on one, two or all of the following - ESPN, TNT Sport, RMC Sport, the Totally Football Show and 5Live. You can hear all three chats in full on our Patreon here right now, available to all three sub tiers, but some of the key takeaways that stood out for me from the conversation are below with attribution in initials at the end of each quote… - “Rennes was a club of losers when he took over. They’d been in Ligue 1 for decades but never won anything. They reached the French Cup final in 2009 and lost to a second division team, Guingamp, which was a nightmare for their fans. In his first season he had a good run in the Europa League before being eliminated by Arsenal having won the first leg – far from ridiculous. I was in the Stade De France when they played PSG in the final and when they went 2-0 down we thought it was a formality, to come back from that and win on penalties was a huge change for Rennes and a big achievement for the fans. The hype around Stephan at that time was very high.” RB - “His gameplan in the French Cup final to frustrate that Mbappe and Neymar PSG team was impressive. A young team which he helped put together as he’d worked with the U21 team and reserves previously. He likes youth, he likes being able to take those players and improve them individually. He did a lot of good things tactically in that first spell at Rennes, against the likes of PSG and Monaco the top teams they were always well organised, well trained, you could see the pattern of play. The success at Rennes brought pressure that he didn’t deal with very well as a young coach at the time – still only 44 now.” – JL - “Strasbourg was a club used to being in the bottom half of the table, but thanks to the way he set them up to play they were able to climb to sixth. A great result for them. However, like every time with Julien Stephan, the second season was a lot more difficult and he was sacked after a poor start.” RB - “He made a very, very fast start with Strasbourg and that’s been a bit of a theme of his managerial career so far – both his periods with Rennes started with a lot of encouragement and excitement and that has often taken a bit of a turn, particularly when you compare the second seasons to the first. That bright early start is one of the constants in his career. I think since departing Rennes he’ll have been looking at why those spells went wrong after promising starts and looking to address some of those issues. But it is something to maybe temper expectations if things do go very well very quickly.” -JJ - “His second stint in Rennes was a mistake. A mistake for him and the club. It’s difficult to know who really runs the club in Rennes – the owner is one of the richest men in France, the president has a lot of disagreements with him. Stephan couldn’t find a solution. In my opinion he’s a coach with a good reputation who will have more success either in France or abroad.” RB - “I think he backed himself into a corner reputation wise by saying yes to going back to Rennes - back to that comfort zone, rather than waiting for the next managerial posting. When managers do repeat experiences it becomes a theme. In France this move is something that will be viewed with a massive amount of intrigue. He hasn’t become a bad coach overnight; look how close he took Strasbourg before their project really got going. That really counts in his favour.” JJ - “Going back to Rennes was never a good idea. You should never get back with your ex-girlfriend. He felt there was some unfinished business. There were some decent performances, the win ratio is actually quite similar between the two stints, because he’s a good coach, but it didn’t go well. It never felt right. Coming to QPR I hope he gets to grips with the physicality and also the schedule – in France you’re not playing twice a week like you do in the Championship. If he can deal with that well there’s a really good coach there.” - JL - On Stephan’s propensity to burn bright, early, then fade, Brosse had some particularly interesting comments. “There’s no official answer of course, but in my opinion the players become exhausted physically and mentally. Stephan asks a lot. The first season with a new coach there is a dynamic where they give everything for him and the team. After that if the second season starts badly it’s more difficult for them to maintain it. Stephan has a strong character and there have been disagreements between him and his presidents.” RB - “If we’re talking about style, first and foremost he does have a penchant for appearing on the touchline in fairly restrictive white jeans. Something to watch out for.” JJ - “He's been travelling a lot since Rennes, observing other coaches and other strategies. He’s kept learning, watched a lot of games, he’s a football addict – 24/7. He’s a great analyst of the game and he’s still only 44 so it’s early in his career. Hopefully QPR will be the perfect match because he’s wanted to come to England for a long time.” -JL - “He’s a coach, rather than a manager. In France we have a lot of coaches, and not a lot of managers except for at PSG and the big clubs. Stephan, in my opinion, wants to be a coach. He loves the game, he loves working with players getting them to play the way he wants, a very smart coach indeed. He wants to focus on the game. He’ll want to have a say over potential players in a transfer window of course, but I don’t think you’ll see clashes over ‘I want this player, not that player, if this one comes I will leave…’ that’s not how he’s behaved. He’s a coach, before being a manager.” RB - “He’s pragmatic for sure. He’s not dogmatic. There isn’t a system he’ll refuse to move away from. He’s very adaptable to his squad and players, but also to the opposition. You’ll see him change systems before games, but also during games. There are patterns of play – overlapping full backs for instance – and he’s well structured and good tactics. He’s not an old school Harry Redknapp, that’s not what we’re talking about here. Again, like Le Bris at Sunderland, he’s very adaptable and I think in the Championship that’s a strength.” -JL
- “He prefers 4-4-2, he prefers control of the ball, he prefers control of the game. He’s a very offensive coach. But he constantly adapts himself to the situation. He won’t stick strictly to one thing, he’s been known to switch to five defenders to try and stop defensive problems. He’s not a dogmatic coach, he won’t just say it’s 4-4-2 from the beginning to the end of the season regardless. He’ll find other ways. He will try and adapt to the Championship.” RB - “A lot was made of him changing system at Rennes and experimenting with 3-4-3 and formations like this. Th most fixed aspect of his teams is built around a four-man midfield. At Strasbourg he didn’t have much choice. He inherited an experienced team, certainly relative to Rennes where the focus was very much on the development of youth which is where Stephan’s expertise lies. The options at that time before the BlueCo takeover were extremely limited. He really went with the systems that worked out of necessity rather than choice. He had more freedom at Rennes which is why people made a lot of out him trying to solve the team’s form issues by flip flopping between systems. There will be a period of him trying to assimilate to the reality of the squad he’s got and the league, no matter how much he’s prepped for the job, but I do think he is better set up to get the best out of younger squads than older ones given the large bulk of his experience.” – JJ - “In a recent interview he said he was very influenced by the way Brighton played under Roberto De Zerbi. They were one of the most interesting teams to watch play when the Italian was there, that’s something to watch out for him trying to replicate at QPR. He’ll have watched QPR a lot before taking this job, 4-4-2 is how he sees football – 4-4-2 with two defensive midfielders to control that area of the pitch – but he will adapt. Watch out for him trying his preferred 4-4-2 in pre-season.” RB - “People in France will find it very intriguing because it’s his first real test after leaving Strasbourg. He was never going to say no to a second spell at Rennes with his connection there, it was a very unimaginative approach they took. Everything about Rennes over the past couple of years smacks of everybody, Stephan included, being in a comfort zone. This is really where we will see what Stephan has learned from his experiences.” JJ - “This isn’t a manager nobody else wanted. Nantes were looking for a manager in Ligue 1 this season, he was on their shortlist. Other clubs moved for him this summer. The attraction of England is very strong. I think he’ll have seen Le Bris work at Sunderland, he’ll have watched Championship games, and thought ‘this looks great I want to be part of that’. It’s a credit to QPR for him to choose them ahead of Nantes or other Ligue 1 clubs. It’s an interesting project. It’s also brave and refreshing for them to look at him, interview him, see what he has to offer rather than just the same old names who’ve done five or six other Championship jobs.” – JL - “He’s had the chance to go to places like Qatar and Iran, but he didn’t want to go there. He’s convinced he can have success in more competitive championships. He’s been waiting for an opportunity like this. He hasn’t rushed, he hasn’t made a choice without thought.” RB - “He has a lot in common with Regis Le Bris at Sunderland. Both come from Western France. Both had modest playing careers. Regis Le Bris, like Stephan, also had this brilliant first season with L’Orient and then the second was a pure nightmare – relegated, a big mess in the club. He looked for a new challenge in the Championship with Sunderland it’s been a success. I think Julian Stephan has looked at that and thought this is a good challenge for him. The Championship is competitive, the Premier League is not far away.” RB - “I think he’ll also have used his time out to work on his language skills. That’s something I think has hindered French coaches making the move to the UK over the last few years. When you look at how well some countries have exported managers into the Premier League or EFL, France hasn’t been able to do that as well. It’ll be interesting to see if this becomes more of a trend after Regis Le Bris at Sunderland – Will Still has also moved to Southampton this summer.” - JJ - “He likes to attack. He likes to play in an attractive way. I hope the fans at Loftus Road will enjoy it and it works. It’s a big challenge for him, not going to one of the more dominant teams in that league – he’s not going to Southampton for instance, Will Still another coach from France is going there – so it’s a big moment for him. A big challenge. Probably the most important moment of his career because if he fails here he will struggle to get another big club in France or abroad. But I am convinced he has the qualities to be a good coach there. I’m not saying QPR will be promoted, but I think they could move into the top half of the table and get through a few rounds of the cup (!!!!).” - RB - “What is encouraging for the fans is it’s still early in his career and he already has a reputation for getting teams, even if it’s only for a short while, punching above their weight. He does clearly have something about him which gets things right in a short space of time, it’s what happens after that and what he’s learned from his recent experiences that dictates whether this is short lived or a three- to five-year spell.” – JJ - “His presentation when interviewed by the club was really convincing, on the squad, what he wants to do with it, what he can do with the academy. It shows how keen he was on the job because believe me lots of managers turn up to those with zero prep and just say ‘trust me’, that’s not who Stephan is he works hard on the details. I hope it works out because it’s an interesting partnership.” -JL If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures - Reuters Connect Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
   Blogs 31 bloggersDerby County Polls[ Vote here ] |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
