Finance expert makes QPR revelation - It may surprise some people | OneFootball

The R's haven't been performing at their peak, on the pitch, for a while, but they have been praised for their work off of it.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has revealed who he feels is the best run club in the Championship.

Modern day football has presented us with some of the best and worst ways to run a football club. In recent years, clubs like Brentford and Brighton have risen up the English pyramid thanks to their ingenious way of managing their teams through innovative techniques that more and more of the bigger sides have begun copying.

Then, of course, there is a balance to that equation. The Reading's and Sheffield Wednesday's of the world, whose reputation and standing in the sport, have been seriously damaged by poor ownership and leadership.

There was a time when you could put Queens Park Rangers in that category. Their major Premier League splurges were both ineffective and incredibly damaging to the long-term hopes of the football club as it forced them to comply with strict spending restrictions going forward.

Still, QPR managed to survive and haven't dropped any further than the Championship since they last came down from the top flight. And despite merely avoiding the bottom three being considered a success in some seasons, they have received high praise from one of the leading minds in the world on this topic.

QPR named the best run club in the Championship

Maguire, a Football Finance Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, believes that the Hoops are currently the best run club in the English second tier.

QPR have pulled off two impressive bits of business in recent days, acquiring Amadou Mbengue and Kwame Poku from Reading and Peterborough United, respectively. Given how small a budget they have to work with, Maguire believes the R's do a fantastic job.

When asked the question of which team is the best run in the Championship by the Second Tier podcast, he said: "I'll go for one that I probably wouldn't have said a few years ago, and this one has given me a lot of consideration.

"I'm going to go for Queens Park Rangers, and the reason why I say that is on a player recruitment budget on the square-root of f*** all - that's an accounting piece of terminology - they've managed to survive.

"They've managed to get control of their wages, they did have legacy issues, their wage bill is bottom-six, the total squad cost is £2 million, and yet QPR did okay last season."

QPR will be praying for extra Julien Stephan cash boost from Eberechi Eze sale

The club could be in line to receive a fee much larger than the current worth of their squad if former player Eberechi Eze leaves Crystal Palace. He moved to Selhurst Park from Loftus Road for £16 million in the summer of 2020. After having a standout season last time out, playing a key role in Palace winning the FA Cup, Eze is being looked at by the likes of Arsenal.

He has a £60 million release clause in his current contract, which could rise to £68 million if all add-ons are met. Because of the 20 per cent sell-on clause that QPR agreed with the Eagles when they sold the creative midfielder to them, the west London club could make more than £10 million from their former prodigee being sold this summer.

That would certainly give new boss Julien Stephan an extra boost in his first summer in charge of the club.