New Manager?

Julien Stéphan rumoured to be new QPR manager

According to West London Sport, an agreement in principle has been reached between Julien Stéphan and QPR for the Frenchman to become the next manager, although at the time of writing there’s been no announcement from the club. All we know officially is that Martí Cifuentes has been on ‘gardening leave’ since April.

If the rumours turn out to be true, it looks like an okay appointment. Stéphan has managed his home club Rennes twice, and during his first stint he led them to victory in the Coupe de France in 2019, beating PSG in a penalty shout-out in the final. That’s the good news. The not so good news is that his second stint at Rennes ended last November after the team won only three of their first 10 league games. This followed his departure as the manager of Strasbourg in January 2023 after winning only one game in the previous 17.

Overall, his managerial statistics aren’t bad. Almost identical to Martí’s, who has a win percentage of 41.57%.

More concerning is his lack of Championship experience, something that also proved a handicap for Martí, who had to adjust his style of play to ensure QPR’s survival. What began as a progressive, technical approach, with a focus on quick transitions in midfield, eventually became something more Brexity and defensive, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Stéphan goes on a similar journey. That will partly depend on who we sign or bring in on loan over the summer, but absent a decent striker I can’t see us becoming a more attacking side.

Will the fans come up with a song for him that references his country’s food and drink? Best suggestion so far is: “He eats Escargots and drinks the Pernod.” Although his name lacks the right number of syllables to replicate the Martí song.

My tentative conclusion is that he looks like a similar package to Cifuentes. Capable of inspirational leadership and strokes of tactical genius, but also prone to prolonged losing streaks. A like-for-like change, then, rather than an upgrade. He has more to prove than Martí, having been sacked from his last two jobs, so let’s hope that gives him the edge.