QPR backed to capitalise on Coventry decision to bag £0 transfer | OneFootball

Queens Park Rangers are being urged to pursue a Coventry City midfielder who's set to leave The CBS Arena at the end of June.

With the transfer window open again, Queens Park Rangers are among those with work to do on their first team squad, and one title-winning midfielder should be on their radar.

At the culmination of a season which ended with them finishing 15th in the Championship for a second season, there's much work to be done at Queens Park Rangers this summer.

Julien Stephan's team was one of the least predictable in the middle order of the division in 2025-26, but despite finishing in the bottom half of the table for a fourth season in a row, the Championship mid-table was so congested that it might not take much to propel them towards a serious bid for a play-off place next season.

While the transfer window is now open for business, many players don't fall out of contract until the end of June, and one midfielder who's set to be released by last season's winners Coventry City could be just the player that QPR need to strengthen their numbers for the challenge ahead.

"We've been crying out for Championship experience" - QPR urged to pursue Jamie Allen signature

The 2025-26 Championship title winners Coventry City announced their retained for the end of the season in the middle of May, and one name who stands out as potentially suitable for Queens Park Rangers is that of midfielder Jamie Allen. Now 31 years old, Allen has been at The CBS Arena since 2019, but Coventry's promotion to the Premier League has rendered him surplus to requirements.

Football League World have spoken to our resident QPR fan pundit, Louis Moir, about the possibility of Rangers making a move for Allen this summer, and Louis feels that Allen is a player that his club should be pursuing this summer: "I think I would welcome this transfer. We've been crying out for Championship experience, so if there's the opportunity to sign him, especially on a free transfer, he literally ticks that box and I don't see why we wouldn't pursue it."

Louis feels that Rangers need more experience, and that both this and young talent are necessary for any club looking to be successful in the Championship: "Obviously, Jamie Allen is getting on a bit, but he's still at a good age. He's quite a tidy, nippy little midfielder. People may have questioned when we signed Jack Colback, but overall he did a job for us, and I truly believe that for a team to succeed in the Championship, you need that blend of experience and younger players."

Our Rangers pundit can see how Allen could fit into the Rangers squad, even if it's not necessarily in their starting eleven every week: "With players like Steve Cook leaving, I feel like we've lacked a bit of experience. So adding someone like Jamie Allen wouldn't be a bad bit of business. He'd add a bit more depth to the midfield. He probably wouldn't be a starting midfielder, but him coming on or starting certain games, you wouldn't be against it."

And given the players that Queens Park Rangers already have at their disposal, he feels that this addition to their numbers could be one of the tweaks to help his team make a more sustained push towards the top of the table in 2026-27: "It would be great if we managed to get someone like that and maybe one or two Championship-experienced players, because I really do think the squad needs it. If we were to add Championship experience to the talent we've got and - I hope - more talent that we sign this summer, we could end up with a really good squad on our hands, because it doesn't need much doing to it, just a few missing pieces. So yeah, Jamie Allen on a free to add more depth to the midfield as an experienced Championship player, I'd be all over that."

Minor tweaks could mean the difference between success and failure for clubs such as QPR

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With the third-youngest squad in the Championship throughout the 2025-26 season, at an average age of 25-years-old, there's little question that Queens Park Rangers could do with a little more experience next season. There were points - such as their 6-1 demolition of Portsmouth in March - when the potential of the squad was very clearly visible, but heavy defeats at Coventry and Southampton demonstrated the risks of putting a lot of faith in younger players.

And Jamie Allen has bucketload of experience. Having made his senior debut for Rochdale in 2013, he's made more than 400 appearances in the EFL for Dale, Burton Albion and Coventry City, and was part of Coventry's 2020 promotion-winning team from League One.

But as time has progressed at The CBS Arena, Allen has found it more difficult to tie down first-team football. He managed 23 League appearances for Coventry throughout 2025-26, but only four of these appearances were starts, and although he will be disappointed not to have got an opportunity to prove himself in the Premier League with the club, at 31 years of age he can still clearly bring something to a Championship club, having been there and done it with the Sky Blues last season.

With five clubs having ended last season within ten points of a play-off place last season, the middle of the Championship table was pretty congested for most of 2025-26, and every club in the division will have taken note of the transformations at Hull City and Derby County, who went from battling relegation to being serious contenders for a top six spot in just one season, with one of those two reaching the promised land.

In a division in which marginal gains can be critical, successful tweaks could make the difference between challenging for promotion and missing out, and after many seasons of having been one of the promotion also-rans in the Championship, Queens Park Rangers could, with the right blend of new additions, be among those challenging next time around.