QPR: Exclusive interview with boss Julien Stephan on the club's youth revolution | OneFootball

Former Rennes manager on making his mark in West London - and getting the best out of his young squad

For a coach as meticulous as Julien Stephan, it is revealing to learn that his decision to take the QPR job was based, more than anything else, on a good feeling.

Stephan, revered in Rennes, where he guided the Ligue 1 side to the Coupe de France and the Champions League, is an exciting appointment as head coach for QPR, who finished 15th in the Championship last season, yet he says it was a point of genuine pride that they selected him for their project.

“When you have a good feeling, you need to go. Honestly, you need to go. And I had a good feeling.”

Work to do: Julien Stephan gets started on the QPR training ground

Ian Randall Photography

The opportunity to experience a different culture and a “completely different football” was a huge draw for Stephan, whose playing and coaching career hadn’t taken him outside of France until this summer.

“It's a completely different football, but it's very, very interesting, to be honest,” Stephan continued, buoyed by the emotion of his first win as QPR boss before the international break.

“It's very important to deal with the long ball, with the second ball. It's very important to deal with the long throwing. It's very important to deal with the free kicks. It's very important to deal also with the chaotic moments.

“You have a lot of chaos in the game. So, yes, just adaptation, and we have some ideas, and we try to develop these ideas, but we need to adapt also our ideas because it's a special league.”

Stephan has not only had to adapt tactically to English football, but also to life on this side of the Channel.

The language barrier initially presented an issue for the 44-year-old, but it was something he was determined to work on.

“The big challenge, the first challenge, is the communication for me,” Stephan said, his English broken, yet confident as we sat down in his office at the club’s Heston training ground.

High point: QPR’s players celebrate victory over Charlton in August

Flynn Duggan/PA Wire

“We try to improve each day and first to understand well, after to be able to speak and to communicate more and more and more efficiently each day with you (the media), with the players, with the staff members, with all the people here in the club.”

Stephan had a fair grasp of English when he arrived at QPR, but he struggled to follow conversations if he was doing multiple things at once.

Intensive lessons for three hours per day, five days a week, have improved his English immeasurably, but it’s clear he feels there’s room to improve in order to get his points across succinctly.

Stephan has very clear ideas about the way he wants to play, in line with QPR’s game model, and conveying that to his players demands confidence in the way he speaks.

“We want to be a team with a good defensive structure, a team it's difficult to create something against. For me, it's very important because without discipline and without structure, it's impossible.

“So, this is the first idea. The second idea is that players are able to fight for each other each time and represent well the values of the club.

“The third one is be a team able to create danger and share emotion with the fans. Like last week against Charlton, for me, it was perfect,” Stephan elaborated, allowing himself to get caught up for a moment in the warmth of a precious three points against Charlton.

“When you win the last 10 minutes like this with all the fans, with the atmosphere, for me, it's perfect.

All the staff have to be 100 per cent behind the players each day because sometimes they will do good things, sometimes mistakes

QPR head coach Julien Stephan

When surveying their options following the departure of Marti Cifuentes, QPR were keen to find a head coach with a history of getting the best out of young players.

Known for his role in developing the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha and Desire Doue during his time at Rennes, Stephan was viewed as the perfect candidate to nurture QPR’s increasingly young and inexperienced dressing room.

“With my experience with the young players, you need time. If you don't have time or if you don't accept that you need time with them, it's too difficult. Because they don't have experience, and you can't buy the experience.

Stephan has always retained faith in his squad, who are on average the youngest side in the Championship, and it was telling that even after their calamitous 7-1 defeat to Coventry, they were able to bounce back quickly by beating Charlton 3-1 at Loftus Road the following week.

Julien Stephan worked with a young Ousmane Dembele when at Rennes

AFP via Getty Images

“Confidence is a key word. We need to build something very strong in terms of strategy, but also in terms of management to build the confidence of the players, because if they don't have any confidence, even if they have a lot of strength, it's impossible to imagine having a good result or to develop them.

“But confidence, it's not only the result, it's also the atmosphere around the players and around the dressing room.”

Stephan has had cabin fever over the international break, itching for the relentless competition of domestic football.

“I need competition each week. I don't have competition, I'm not happy. Because no competition, no pressure. It's not a good week for me,” Stephan says, a steely smile etched across his face as he thinks ahead to Saturday’s trip to Wrexham.

QPR are a work in progress under Stephan, who has won one of his first four league games, but he has the backing of the club, who are willing to afford him time and patience in pursuit of long-term stability.

Arbitrary targets have not been set; instead, Stephan, who knows how to temper the volatility of youth, will be judged on his ability to improve the performances of a squad that lurched from relegation candidates to promotion hopefuls and back again last season.