, QPR: Warburton’s subconscious ‘Southgate effect’ has R’s fans believing once again

QPR: Warburton’s subconscious ‘Southgate effect’ has R’s fans believing once again

Mark Warburton approaches his third season in charge of QPR and there’s an unfamiliar feeling of optimism ringing through the air in west London.

QPR fans may feel as though the heat is getting to them this summer. They’ve genuine belief that their side can go on and win promotion from the Championship next season and whilst that’s a fallacy that would’ve been laughed off of Twitter in the past, there’s genuine reason to believe that next season might be theirs.

The upcoming campaign marks the club’s seventh back in the second-tier of English football. It seems like only yesterday when Bobby Zamora curled a left-footed strike into the top corner of the Wembley goal to send QPR back up into the Premier League and there could be memories like that just around the corner, and in no small part down Warburton and those above him at QPR.

, QPR: Warburton’s subconscious ‘Southgate effect’ has R’s fans believing once again

Lee Hoos, Amit Bhatia, Les Ferdinand and co all deserve credit for the turnaround seen at the club over Warburton’s tenure.. But what happens on the pitch is largely down to Warburton and what happened on the pitch in the second half of last season has QPR fans in this foreign state of profound optimism.

On just the second day of this year, reports claimed that the R’s were lining up Tim Sherwood to replace a struggling Warburton. A cpersonal friend of QPR’s director of football, Ferdinand, Sherwood came close to taking the reigns at QPR and should that have been the case, what the current summer would’ve looked like on QPR Twitter is anyone’s guess.

But Warburton soon turned things around. He changed up his tactics, opting for a 5-3-2 and to much greater effect than his previous 4-2-3-1. QPR brought in a quartet of loan signings in Sam Field, Charlie Austin, Stefan Johansen and Jordy de Wijs who each contributed to the turnaround, bringing the best out of their teammates in the process.

The season ended with a 3-1 win at home to Luton Town and capped a rejuvenated second half of the campaign, setting the tone for an all-encompassing 2021/22 campaign in which a top-six finish seems to be the least expected of this current side.

The ‘Southgate Effect’

, QPR: Warburton’s subconscious ‘Southgate effect’ has R’s fans believing once again

Noticeably in the second half of last season, Warburton and his players looked generally much happier. We’d become so accustom to Warburton’s previously tired post-match interviews in which he’d reel off the same defensive and ‘individual errors’ lines with a glum look on his face. But pictures hold a 1000 stories and the pictures coming out of QPR’s match days in 2021 painted the story of a happy and content manager in charge of a team full of belief and team spirit.

QPR players look as though they actually want to play for the club. Rewind 10 years ago, names like Jose Bosingwa were pulling on the shirt for much more money than the current crop of players do, but not looking half as spirited as any single one of the Warburton’s players.

, QPR: Warburton’s subconscious ‘Southgate effect’ has R’s fans believing once again

That fight and hunger emanating out of the side has quickly seeped into the fan base, too. QPR fans are as optimistic as they’ve ever been and that is the Gareth Southgate ‘effect’. England’s beloved manager and his believed side came so close to Euro glory this summer, bringing light to a nation suffering some of its darkest times.

Another trait that’s become synonymous with Southgate is his unwavering loyalty to players who’d been criticised at club level – the likes of Jordan Pickford and Harry Maguire, who were two of England’s best players at Euro 2021. Warburton did likewise last season with one name in particular – Lyndon Dykes. The Scot’s season was one of two halves much like his side’s but he eventually burst into form and again, in no small part down to Warburton.

It seems that everyone and everything at QPR is moving in the same direction. The club has put to bed its financial flaws of old and continue to throw caution to the wind. The fans are on board with how the hierarchy are operating and with the manager too. Foundations have been put in place for QPR to make a sustained bid for promotion and next season has a penultimate feel to it, and Warburton has the chance to write his name into modern QPR folklore.

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