Beale: QPR don’t need to sell star players

New QPR boss Michael Beale says the club are under no pressure to sell any of their star players.

Beale met the staff at the new Heston training ground for the first time on Monday after the move from Harlington to temporary lodgings at the new site before the building work on the main complex is completed next year.

Speaking at his first press conference since being appointed to his first head coach role, the 41-year-old said he believes he has inherited a decent squad that does not require wholesale changes.

“The squad has been well built,” Beale said.

“It’s just fine tuning, one or two areas where in key positions one or two players have moved away and maybe one or two where you feel a different type of player will enhance the team.

“I do feel that it is a strength that we are starting pre-season with 90% of last season’s team in place and if the season started tomorrow we could field a decent team.

“I don’t think there is a need financially to move players on. That is my understanding right now.

“I think we feel as a club the offers we might get for one or two of our players are not up to their potential level.

“The aim is to work as a management team and enhance that value.

“Certainly Ebere Eze went for a fee that was good for everybody and the opportunity was good for him.

“Ideally we can take QPR to that place, but if a player has a fantastic season and the opportunity to go there (the Premier League) comes then the club will have to listen.

“But as it stands right now I do not expect any of our key players to be leaving.”

What went wrong at QPR?

Rangers spent the more than half of last season in the play-off places only to tail off badly between February and May to finish in 11th place.

That drop in form saw Mark Warburton move on after his contract expired and Beale said one of his first jobs will be to find out from the players why things went so badly wrong.

“The team did very well for much of last season, but I am interested to get the player’s take on why it turned,” he said.

“I know there were a lot of injuries, but maybe why it turned in the changing room or on the pitch.

“That experience of the last 15 games will see the players wanting to do much better next season and that will be huge for them.

“Around Christmas they might have felt quite excited about the second half of the season but it didn’t work out the way they planned.

“I am looking forward to getting my teeth into all of that in the next few weeks.”

Maximising strengths

Beale admits the club will need to look at adding to the team’s attacking stocks following the departures of Andre Gray and Charlie Austin, but is keen to have a close look at the likes of Charlie Kelman, Macauley Bonne and Sinclair Armstrong during pre-season.

“It’s an area of the pitch you always want to strengthen but it’s also about maximising the strengths of the players you already have,” he said.

“Last year, did Chris (Willock), Ilias (Chair) and Lyndon (Dykes) play enough together in the second half of last season. Did that impact the team?

“The most important thing is to get our players in-house on the pitch as much as possible, but the number nine position is one you always want to strengthen.”

Beale has only so far added former Chelsea midfielder Damian Matthew, who he worked with during his time at the Blues’ academy, to his backroom staff and kept on Neil Banfield and long-time goalkeeper coach Gavin Ward, with  John Eustace and Matt Gardner departing.

Banfield was brought to the club by Warburton three years ago but Beale said keeping the highly-experienced former Arsenal man was an easy decision for him to make.

“I have known Neil for many years. He knew me when I was a player so he can tell you how bad a player I was when I was young,” he said.

“His experience alongside me is huge, stemming from the 21 years he spent with Arsene Wenger, and Damian is someone I have known for years.

“Them, along with Chris (Ramsey) really help pad out the management team.

“We may look to pad that out with a specialist coach as we go on, but we are not looking beyond what we have right now.”