QPR manager Mark Warburton has established himself as a manager with one of the more exciting brands of football in the Championship, but his route into the dugout wasn’t a traditional one.
The 59-year-old has been in and around football since the 1980s. He was a player with both Enfield and Boreham Wood but injury would bring a premature end to his playing career.
Since, he’s worked outside of football before going on to travel the world as he studied the game. An interesting life to say the least, and here’s three things you may not have know about the R’s gaffer.
Swap game
Before entering into management, Warburton spent more than 20 years working as a trader in London. He said in a 2014 interview how he’d wake up at 4:30am every morning to get behind his desk by 5:45am, currency dealing for the likes of AIG, RBS and Bank of America.
European road trip
By 2000, Warburton had enough money and enough security in his own life to try something new, and he decided he wanted to make it as a football coach.
He spent his own money travelling around Europe and watching coaching sessions at a variety of clubs including Sporting Lisbon, Valencia, Barcelona and Ajax.
Watford upbringing
Warburton’s first real experience in coaching and management came at Watford. He was appointed as a coach at the club in the 2000s, working with the U9s all the way through to the U16s before being named academy manager in 2006.
He left his role in 2010 and later revealed that he ‘had a fall out’ with some names at the club.
An interesting life which has led him to this point in time, vying for promotion to the Premier League with QPR and doing so in some style.
