Nedum Onuoha makes honest claim on his QPR exit - "the fans understood" | OneFootball

Nedum Onuoha spent six-and-a-half years at Queens Park Rangers before leaving in 2018

Former Queens Park Rangers captain and centre-back Nedum Onuoha has revealed the key factor behind his exit from Loftus Road in the summer of 2018.

It would be fair to say that the 2010s were certainly a 'rollercoaster of emotions' for all associated with the West London side, having initially returned to the Premier League for the first time since 1996 by securing the Championship title in the 2010/11 campaign under the management of Neil Warnock, before failing to reconsolidate their position in the top flight over a lengthy period despite several major transfer sprees on high-profile signings.

As such, it took Rangers plenty of time to financially recover from their era of overspending under Tony Fernandes, with the club hit by several sanctions over time following their return to the second tier at the conclusion of the 2014/15 season under Chris Ramsey, and they have rarely threatened to end a decade-long hiatus from the elite of English football since then, with the occasional escape from relegation to League One also taking place in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.

And, although the Hoops are looking to firmly put those days behind them and make great strides of progress in the future, those who found themselves on the inside at Loftus Road during an extremely tumultuous period are unlikely to forget those days any time soon, and that certainly applies to Onuoha, with the former defender-turned-pundit speaking about how his time at the club reached its conclusion on Ben Foster's 'Fozcast'.

Nedum Onuoha reveals key factor behind Queens Park Rangers departure in 2018

Onuoha initially moved to QPR in January 2012, in what was Mark Hughes' first transfer window after controversially replacing Warnock in the same month.

Whilst reuniting with his former Manchester City boss, the England youth international penned a four-and-a-half year contract that, according to Capology ESTIMATES - equated to £45,755 per week.

After being a part of two Premier League relegations and the most dramatic of play-off final successes over Derby County at Wembley Stadium, the experienced figure penned a two-year contract extension in September 2015, shortly after being named club captain following the departure of Joey Barton to Burnley.

As such, it was ESTIMATED that his wage packet was decreased to approximately £30,236 per week over a two-season period, before another ESTIMATED drop to £25,421 per week in his final season with the club in 2017/18.

Onuoha made the bulk of his 426 career appearances at Loftus Road, featuring 224 times for Rangers during a six-and-a-half year period, also scoring eight times before exiting the club.

Over seven years later, though, the 38-year-old has been discussing the predicament which saw a continuation of wage drops during a testing period for the club financially, as they looked to stabilise following Fernandes' obscene spending sprees which also saw the capital side owe debts as big as £177.1m across the 2012-13 accounting period.

When asked to summarise the chain of events which led to the decline of a pay-as-you-pay contract by Foster, Onuoha said: "The money I was on at QPR when I first joined - money's never been my driver, I've been paid well, but I'm not really bothered by the status of it, if it's enough it's enough - is probably around £2m a year, then it was going up.

"The last years, it was probably like £1m. Then the deal they offered me was around £2,500 per week," he added. "Subsidised by an appearance bonus which was around four or five times.

"At the time, the way the club was - sorry for speaking out of turn - I'm always wary," Onuoha stated.

"Players think they have strengths until they're on a pay-as-you-play deal, or they need 28 appearances to get a new deal, and you sit at 27 for most of the season.

"I was like, 'this isn't it'," he claimed. "I'd just had my third kid. I was settled in Surrey, and it was great, but there was no way I was going to be staying on that.

"I was like 'I need to go' and I was like 'fair enough'. The club had gone through so many changes and I think as I was leaving, the fans understood who I was finally."

Nedum Onuoha's career post-Queens Park Rangers

Following his exit, Onuoha then enjoyed two-and-a-half seasons of Stateside football, featuring for Real Salt Lake of the MLS, where he would make 50 appearances between late 2018 and the conclusion of the 2020 season.

After suffering injury problems whilst at the club, at the end of the aforementioned campaign, the Nigeria-born defender announced his retirement from the professional game, and he has been heavily involved in the sports media industry ever since.