QPR player reveals he was 'desperate' for Loftus Road exit | OneFootball

Murphy Cooper is getting everything he wanted out of his loan switch to Barnsley

Young QPR goalkeeper Murphy Cooper has revealed he was “desperate” to get out of Loftus Road on loan this season.

The 23-year-old had his wish granted.

After signing a new deal with Rangers, he headed out on loan with League One outfit Barnsley and has quickly made the starting spot his own, much as he did the season prior on loan with Stevenage.

His secondment to Oakwell Stadium is his fifth such move and, at 23, is still incredibly young for a player in his position – but feels senior experience is crucial to his development.

Murphy Cooper reveals the importance of first-team football

"You can train as well as you want," Cooper told The Yorkshire Post. "And I was playing well for the [under] 21s at QPR at 18.

"But it's about men's football and that's the only way you'll get that experience.

"I was desperate to go out on loan as soon as I could. This is my fifth loan, including non-league ones and every single one has been massive for me."

As is so often the case with goalkeepers, Murphy has struggled to break into QPR’s senior squad and has been restricted to just two appearances, despite being with the club throughout his academy life.

But thanks to his eagerness to get out on loan, he now has an incredible 87 senior games to his name.

The Middlesbrough man who played huge part in Murphy Cooper’s development

Cooper has, however, been around the first team for a long time, and he revealed that those experience, and the senior glovemen he’s spent time with, have played a crucial role in his development.

One such figure he highlighted in the interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post is Seny Dieng, who – alongside multiple loan deals – was at Loftus Road between 2016 and 2023, and is now with Middlesbrough.

Cooper said: "The season when Seny was the number one at QPR, I was third choice, so I travelled home and away and watched how he prepared in the hotel and would prepare and speak to the lads in the dressing room and go out and perform.

"It was massive for me."

He speaks a lot about mentality in the interview, and in particular, the additional demands on the mind that being a goalkeeper brings, but being around senior figures like Dieng has gone a long way in aiding that development for Cooper.

Murphy Cooper should be an example for young goalkeepers

However, while being around the best senior figures you have access to is desirable, playing senior minutes, especially for a goalkeeper, trumps everything else.

Cooper has done things the right way. A club like QPR are unlikely to ever go into a season with their primary goalkeeper being a young academy product who has never stepped out of their own training ground.

But the 23-year-old has worked his way up, from the National League, to League Two with Swindon Town, and now to two back-to-back League One seasons.

A player with that CV, should this season go as well as last season – where Cooper kept 16 clean sheets for Stevenage – is much more likely to be trusted by QPR, and if not them, then another side at a similar level.

However, given the fact Rangers tied Cooper to a new deal before he headed back out to Barnsley, they are unlikely to want to let him go should he bank another positive campaign.