I Know it’s the Hope That Kills You, but we QPR Fans Don’t Have Much Else

The trials and tribulations of supporting a struggling Championship club

This is a piece Charlie has written for the school magazine, but he’s given me permission to publish it here too.

The reason I’m a QPR fan is simple. When my family lived in Shepherd’s Bush, my dad was looking for any excuse to escape his three young children – with another on the way. He went to a few QPR games, and with the likes of Adel Taarabt playing for us then, it would’ve been easy for him to fall in love, which he duly did. However, his plan backfired, as my mum would later force him to take his kids along with him. What a fateful decision that turned out to be, as now every member of my family is subjected to watching a bunch of useless twats run about in a field.

The first season I consistently went to games was 2013-14. I was five years-old and, like my dad, I fell in love. Unlike now, this was easy to do, as we were relatively decent back then. We managed to get promoted through the play-offs that season, with a 90th-minute winner at Wembley courtesy of Bobby Zamora. However, little did I know – that was the best it was ever going to get for me. The following year we finished rock bottom in the Pre, and since then we’ve been loitering in the Championship for what feels like an eternity. In that time, the best finish we’ve managed was a tragic 9th – in a season fans weren’t even allowed to attend due to Covid. You can imagine how depressing it’s been.

Things got worse when my dad and I decided it would be a good idea to start going to away games as well. This was due to all the optimism surrounding the 2021-22 season. The year before had been that 9th-place finish and after a remarkable second half of the season everyone was filled with hope. Many tipped us for a play-off finish that year and that’s why my dad and I decided to go to as many games as possible.

And for a while, that seemed like a wise idea. We were sat in the play-off places for most of the season and witnessed some incredible away wins. The highlight was a tour of the North East, where we played Hull and Middlesbrough back-to-back. We started off with a 0–3 win at Hull – which seemed inconceivable to the mind of any QPR fan – and then on the Tuesday we beat Middlesbrough 2–3 in a cracking game. I’ve been chasing the feeling of those wins ever since. But it wasn’t to be – injuries piled up, and we ended the season in 11th.

The next year (2022-23) was a reality check. We scraped survival. The most notable moment was the departure of manager Mick Beale. We were top of the league in October when Wolves came calling, hoping to poach our new manager, who was doing a fantastic job. But in an interview he said, “Loyalty and integrity are not just words to me – they are values I live by.” He went on to say he couldn’t abandon the project many of the new signings had bought into.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later, Glasgow Rangers came calling – and he fucked off. His words proved about as meaningful as mine when I tell my teacher I haven’t used AI. After his departure, we fell off a cliff, and after going through a few managers we just survived in 20th place.

The 2023-24 season was filled with dread. After a terrible end to the previous season and under the stewardship of Gareth Ainsworth, many tipped us for relegation. This was because Ainsworth had about as much tactical nous as a wet towel. His footballing philosophy was to sit back and lump it up to the big fucker up top. This saw us finish games with 20% possession and zero shots on target. It made for appalling viewing.

However, my faith never wavered and my dad and I still went to most games. Sixteen-hour round trips just to see us get twatted by Rotherham started to take their toll. By November 2023, we were second from bottom and looked nailed on for relegation.

Our salvation came in the form of Martí Cifuentes. He pulled off something that many thought inconceivable – he miraculously guided us to safety. Highlights of that year included an away win at eventual champions Leicester City, and a 4–0 win against Leeds in the final home game of the season to secure survival. QPR fans sang the tune to The Great Escape and Cifuentes was hailed a messiah just for keeping us in the second tier of English football. That’s the level of expectation you have when you support a team like QPR.

It seemed things were starting to get back on track – we had a great manager and now he had a full summer to put his stamp on the squad. Unfortunately, this proved to be a false dawn. We finished last season in 15th after surviving yet another relegation scare.

Despite what you might think, I hold firm that supporting a relegation-threatened club in the Championship can still be more exciting than supporting the likes of Chelsea or Arsenal. Teams like them win every week – and anything short of that is a disaster. For a fan like me, we lose every week. You become numb to the pain. And the scenes we QPR fans produce when we scrape a 1–0 win against Stoke on a Tuesday night to lift us off the bottom of the table? You’d think we’d won the FA Cup. Some call it sad – I call it character building.

Anyway, after two seasons of scraping survival, things are looking up for next year. Martí Cifuentes departed, which was a huge loss considering he kept us up despite a lacklustre squad and a decade-long culture of losing. But we’ve just appointed a new manager, Julien Stéphan, who genuinely looks like an upgrade.

In terms of credentials, the 44-year-old Frenchman is impressive. He won the Coupe de France with Rennes in 2019 – beating PSG in the final – and made it as far as the Europa League semi-finals (beating Arsenal in the first leg). He also steered Rennes to third place in Ligue 1 in 2019-20, securing a Champions League spot. In his first season at Strasbourg (2021-22), he led them to sixth place – their best finish since 1979-80. A remarkable appointment, especially when you consider the talent he’s developed: Raphinha and Dembélé (Ballon d’Or favourites), Eduardo Camavinga (Champions League winner), Désiré Doué (Champions League winner), Jérémy Doku (Premier League winner), and Ismaïla Sarr (FA Cup winner). These are just some of the players Stéphan helped develop.

Add to that some excellent business this summer. We renewed Jimmy Dunne’s contract, brought back Charlie Kelman from Leyton Orient after he won the League One Golden Boot and signed centre-back Amadou Mbengue – arguably Reading’s best player last season. Perhaps most impressively, we beat clubs like Glasgow Rangers to the signature of Kwame Poky, a 23-year-old Ghanaian winger with 20 goal contributions in 27 League One games last season.

In my opinion, it’s all aboard HMS Piss the League with Julien Stéphan’s blue-and-white army. I’m personally sticking every penny I have on us walking the league – and I recommend anyone reading this do the same. All I’m thinking about now is the likes of Mo Salah and co. coming to the lowly depths of Shepherd’s Bush in a couple of years, greeted by an angry mob of QPR fans hurling abuse at the poor fuckers for 90 minutes. Sounds absolutely wonderful.

I know football fans are so eternally optimistic that it often borders on delusion – but in my view, if you take away hope from a fan like me, you leave them with nothing. That’s why my prediction for next season is this: QPR will win the Championship, the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup.