QPR have hit the jackpot with summer arrival - It’s not Richard Kone | OneFootball

Playing open, expansive football and with a place in the Championship's top six, QPR have one man to thank more than any other for their strong start.

Playing open and expansive football, and with a place in the Championship's top six, Queens Park Rangers have one man to thank for their excellent start to the new season.

As Queens Park Rangers return to Championship action following the international break, their fans have much to be pleased with.

Their team sits in 6th place in the table, the final play-off berth, and they're only three points off the automatic promotion places. Following years of underachievement in this division, it makes a bracing change from what Rangers supporters have had to become accustomed to in recent years.

The club's transfer policy during the summer was certainly bold, targeting young attacking players such as Richard Kone and Kwame Poku and, of course, the returning Koki Saito.

But it isn't any one specific player who has thus far proved to be the defining difference between QPR's class of 2025-26 and previous seasons. The individual who's made the biggest difference to their fortunes hasn't stepped onto the pitch for them, and won't be doing so.

Julien Stephan's arrival has seen QPR play some of their best football in years

The arrival of Julien Stephan has been the single biggest contributing reason for QPR's successful start to the season. Like so many other EFL clubs, Rangers have had something of a revolving door policy when it comes to managerial appointments in recent years. Since the departure of Michael Beale at the end of the 2021-22 season, they'd burned through four managers in three years by the time that Stephan arrived at Loftus Road in June.

But since Stephan's arrival, there has been a clear gear-shift at the club. Rangers' progress since his arrival hasn't been without its bumps in the road, but recovery from a defeat in August which could have completely knocked their season off balance has been followed by a degree of resilience that's only been seen in passing from Rangers teams for several years, and they head into the autumn looking in better shape than they have done, arguably since returning to the Championship more than a decade ago.

Julien Stephan's QPR have the right blend of attack and defence

That Julien Stephan had pedigree was known before he arrived. In his first senior managerial appointment in France with Stade Rennais, he took the club to their first major trophy in 48 years when they won the 2019 Coupe de France and into the Champions League. In his next position at Strasbourg, he took the club to their first top six finish in Ligue 1 since 1980.

Perhaps more than any other club in the Championship, at the time of Stephan's arrival Queens Park Rangers were in need of renovation. Marti Cifuentes left the club at the end of the 2024-25 season after a spell on gardening leave, following in the footsteps of Michael Beale, Neil Critchley and Gareth Ainsworth in terms of failing to reignite Rangers since the departure of Mark Warburton at the end of the 2021-22 season.

And this has been a common theme at Loftus Road since their last relegation from the Premier League in 2015. Over the ten seasons since then, Queens Park Rangers have underwhelmed more consistently than any other Championship club, finishing above the midway point in the table just twice and failing to build any momentum towards a push for a return to the top flight.

By the time August was reaching its end, it looked as though Rangers' gamble on Stephan might be backfiring. The first seven days of the new season saw them pick up just one point from their first two League matches and get eliminated from the EFL Cup. And a horrific 7-1 defeat at Coventry City in the Championship on the 23rd August which left them in the relegation places suggested strongly that this could turn out to be a very long season indeed for the club.

But since then, the team has been transformed. They've played six games since then, winning four and drawing the other two, and some of those wins have been impressive. Going to Ashton Gate and beating Bristol City - a team expected to challenge for a play-off place themselves this season - 2-1 was an outstanding result, as was their 1-0 home win against early pace-setters Stoke City a couple of weeks earlier.

This hasn't been entirely about results, either. It's been just as much about the manner of them. Rangers have one of the youngest squads in the Championship, and their effervescence on the pitch has been noticeable. Richard Kone, who was signed from Charlton Athletic during the summer after having scored 21 goals in League One last season, has already scored four goals and is proving his capability of stepping up a level.

But it's not even all about the attack. They've only conceded four goals in the six games since the Coventry loss, the sort of defensive form that we'd expect to see from promotion contenders. While Queens Park Rangers have been sprightly in attacking positions, they've also built up a solid defensive spine which makes them difficult to beat. With the right balance between attack and defence, an exciting-looking young squad, and a league position that has very much not been their norm over the last decade, QPR fans have a lot to look forward to as their team returns from the international break.