Warburton confident Dickie will stay at QPR

By

Mark Warburton is confident QPR won’t lose in-form centre-back Rob Dickie before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.

Dickie has enjoyed a superb start to the Championship season, helping Rangers to four points from their opening two games and advance to the second round of the Carabao Cup.

The former Oxford United man, who joined Rangers for £2m last summer, has also scored in all three matches this season – and prevented a certain equaliser for Hull in Saturday’s 3-0 win at the MKM Stadium with a brilliant goal-line clearance.


The 25-year-old’s form has seen him earmarked as a player destined to make the step up to the Premier League.

But Warburton insists it will take a lot of money to prise Dickie away from Rangers, with the club making no secret of their aim to push for promotion this season.

“Rob has more than justified his fee,” Warburton said.

“It’s amazing, as a coach, an owner or a director of football, you read some of these stories about our players being linked with other clubs but the fees listed are nowhere near good enough.

“Rob was a good investment for us. A young centre-half who is getting better and I think he will get better throughout this season.

“I have no doubt he will benefit from the types of games we had at Hull where we had to stand up, show character, quality on the ball and defend our goal.

“I think that type of game for Rob Dickie and all the young players is a great learning curve and he is in a good place right now.”

Dickie became the first Rangers player in 40 years to score in the first three games of the new season, emulating the feat of Andy King under Terry Venables during the 1981/82 campaign, and Warburton said set-piece routines, which led to two of Saturday’s three goals, are something the team have been working hard to improve.

“Set-pieces are a huge part of the game but when you are six-foot-three, six-foot-four, can get good delivery and you attack the ball it can be so hard to defend,” he said.

“You can have the best defence in the world but if you attack the ball with real purpose and in Jordy (de Wijs), Rob, Charlie Austin and Lyndon (Dykes) we have players that can attack the ball in both boxes and right now it is paying off for us.”