QPR should act swiftly and seal fresh agreement with £12.5k-a-week star | OneFootball

Queens Park Rangers should try to tie down goalkeeper Paul Nardi as soon as possible, with the goalkeeper out of contract next summer.

Queens Park Rangers have recovered from a disastrous start to the campaign and the Hoops will believe that they can now look ahead to the winter to try and plot a push for the top six and the play-off places – but there is in-house work that also needs to be done.

Experienced goalkeeper Paul Nardi is out of contract in the summer of 2026 and it is imperative that the R’s act swiftly to ensure he remains at Loftus Road from next season and beyond.

Nardi is at the back of a QPR side that have progressed after a rocky opening few matches this season, following the appointment of former Stade Rennais boss Julien Stephan over the summer.

QPR have put together an impressive squad full of very exciting youngsters with the west Londoners having focused on bringing him some of the best talent from the EFL to compliment their already intriguing group.

Experience remains a requirement for any team seeking to propel themselves to promotion and to sustained success – and ensuring Nardi remains a part of their project will be key.

Paul Nardi has forced his way back in at QPR

At the start of this season, for the opening four matches of the campaign, Julien Stephan opted to play 23-year-old Joe Walsh ahead of Nardi, with the Frenchman beginning the season the bench.

Stephan said it was a tactical decision, rather than any sort of lingering injury for Nardi with the former Rennes boss saying Walsh ‘was ready’ but acknowledging that he had ‘two very good goalkeepers.’

After just four points were collected before the September international break, and 11 goals conceded in those games, including a 7-1 demolition at the hands of Coventry City, Nardi returned to the starting eleven in mid-September as he started the R’s 3-1 defeat of Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground.

Nardi has remained in net for QPR and has emerged as a force once again for Rangers with just one game in which he has conceded more than a goal in the game and three clean sheets in his eight appearances thus far.

He has conceded just six goals in those eight games, playing a key role in QPR being able to batten down the hatches after their worrying start to the campaign.

Nardi is ranked fifth in the Championship for his save percentage so far this season, according to FotMob, and it would seem like a naïve decision for QPR to allow his contract to get much closer to expiring.

Stephan has already made the error of trying to move away from the 32-year-old Frenchman but he has been proven wrong on that decision and Nardi, who joined from Gent in the summer of 2024, is earning himself a new contract in England’s capital city.

QPR should not allow Paul Nardi to leave on a free

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Lorient v Lille - Stade du Moustoir, Lorient, France - September 10, 2021 Lorient's Paul Nardi reacts REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

Having begun his career playing for Nancy, Nardi’s promise and potential earned him a move to Monaco before loan stints at Rennes and then Cercle Brugge ahead of really establishing himself at Lorient and Gent.

Intriguingly, Stephan was Rennes’ B team coach during Nardi’s stint at Roazhon Park, in which he failed to make a Ligue 1 appearance for Les Rouge et Noirs.

The former France youth international, who won the Best Goalkeeper award at the 2014 Toulon Tournament, only moved to England last summer and so there would likely be very little loyalty binding him to ensure he remains beyond this season if QPR do not offer him a new deal.

From the turn of the year, clubs from abroad can approach the Vesoul-born shot stopper to sign a pre-contract agreement and that is not something QPR can allow to happen.

According to Capology, Nardi earns £12,500 per week and that it would be very difficult for the R’s to find another first-choice goalkeeper for a similar wage, before taking into account that it could cost them yet another transfer fee.

From a cost-effective perspective and a desire to protest his value, as well as the fact that he is again proving himself to be one of the better shot stoppers in the Championship, QPR must ensure they act swiftly to extend the contract of Nardi.