Jimmy Dunne and Harvey Vale troll Ronnie Edwards in hilarious QPR prank | OneFootball

Ronnie Edwards' teammates pranked him while on their pre-season tour of Austria

QPR begin their second season under Julien Stephan with plenty of encouragement that they could perhaps be dark horses in the play-off race.

Injuries made it difficult for QPR to finish any higher than 15th in the Championship last year. Kwame Poku played fewer than 500 minutes of league action due to hamstring injuries, Harvey Vale didn't get an extended run in the team until January, and Rumarn Burrell was one of the league's best strikers until he missed three months with a hamstring issue.

But Julien Stephan's side made a real splash in the transfer window both in the summer and then in January, building an exciting squad which, when everything clicks, could challenge for a top-eight place.

The frontline is incredibly exciting, but the backline hasn't been neglected either. Highly sought-after defender Jimmy Dunne extended his stay last summer, and the Hoops spent £4.5 million to bring back England under-21 international Ronnie Edwards in January from Southampton.

The 23-year-old is a popular player at Loftus Road, having impressed on loan in the second half of the 2024/25 campaign before his permanent move a year later, and he's clearly got a good relationship with his teammates, too.

Jimmy Dunne and Harvey Vale prank Ronnie Edwards on QPR's pre-season tour of Austria

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QPR are currently enjoying the opening part of their pre-season in Austria, where they drew 0-0 with First Vienna on Saturday.

Pre-season trips are often a good time for players to show a bit more personality off the field, while the results on the pitch aren't as much of a demand, and the Hoops took that opportunity to stage a little prank on the former Southampton defender.

The club set up an interview between Edwards and an Austrian actor pretending to be a journalist, with the questions being filtered to him by the 23-year-old's teammates, Dunne and Vale.

In a similar sketch style to Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, both Vale and Dunne told the actor to ask rather stupid questions, such as what accent his dog might have, whether he'd rejoin Peterborough United if they got into the Champions League this season and why his time at Southampton was so particularly bad.

Then, as the interview was coming to an end, the duo would leave the room where they were filtering the questions from and surprise Edwards, with the centre-back stating that he was close to walking out of the interview completely.

Luckily enough, he saw the funny side.

QPR will be fully serious in their outside play-off pursuit next season

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With plenty of young players ready to take that next step in their development, there's a lot of excitement around this QPR side, if they can remain fit.

They may have conceded the second-most goals in the division last season, but their expected goals against indicated that they should've conceded 16 fewer than they did in reality. Indeed, the 57.4 xG they conceded landed them in the top half of the division.

With Pierce Charles and Callum Ward, there's every expectation that the Hoops will be a little more shored up in defence, with the likes of Dunne and Edwards contributing to keeping their goal as unscathed as possible.

Then, if they can keep their attacking threat through the likes of Burrell, Kone, Vale, and a returning Poku, Julien Stephan's side could definitely ruffle a few feathers in the race for the expanded play-offs next season.