QPR’s Julien Stéphan: ‘The Championship is probably the most difficult league in the world’.
The new head coach discusses the need for his team to find its identity, the challenges of the second tier, and managing Dembélé, Doué, and Doku at Rennes.
Julien Stéphan had been enjoying his two-month break from football when his wife’s patience ran out. “She said to me: ‘I hope you will manage again quickly – and very quickly – because I want to see you on the pitch and back in your own environment,'” says the new Queens Park Rangers head coach.
Stéphan left Rennes for the second time in November, and he estimates that in addition to spending quality time with his two children, he watched 20 to 25 games per week while waiting for his next opportunity.
Last month, the Frenchman took over at Loftus Road from Martí Cifuentes, who later joined Leicester.
But the opportunity to take a break after six years as manager, during which he led Rennes to the Champions League for the first time and Strasbourg to sixth place in Ligue 1 – their highest position since 1980 – was greatly appreciated.
“You need to take time for yourself and your family,” Stéphan says. “It is important. However, you must also make time to watch various things, analyse the game and different games in different leagues, and consider what you did previously and what you intend to do in the future.
It’s critical to begin to imagine how you might see the future.” QPR fans will be hoping that, after a decade spent primarily in the Championship’s bottom half, the club can reclaim its glory days under Stéphan.
The 44-year-old has heard stories about QPR being London’s best team during the first Premier League season in 1993, when they finished fifth with Les Ferdinand as their star striker.
But Stéphan insists they must live in the present to have a chance of escaping what he describes as “probably the most difficult league in the world”.
“I know the history of QPR, but now we are in a different period,” he jokes. “It is important to remember and understand the past, but it is also critical to live in the present and plan for the future. There is work to be done with everyone, including the players, management, CEO, owners, and club legends. It is everybody’s responsibility.
Julien Stéphan and Steve Cook played a pre-season match against Stevenage. ‘It’s important to live in the moment and plan for the future,’ he says. Photograph: Andrew Fosker/Shutterstock.
Stéphan adds, “We understand the fans’ expectations; we must give our all on the pitch while also developing a strong identity.
It’s very important, followed by football. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you have to give your all.” Stéphan has been so busy since his appointment that he hasn’t had time to settle into his new flat near QPR’s home ground, let alone explore Shepherd’s Bush and its surroundings. “Only work, work, and work,” he declares.
“Just hotel and training ground and training sessions …” Stéphan is speaking from a pre-season camp in Girona, which has allowed him and his staff, including the former West Ham,Charlton and France midfielder Alou Diarra will serve as assistants to get to know their players ahead of the Championship season, which begins on August 9.
“It’s the beginning of the process and we need to build step by step all the ideas, the collective ideas and also the relationship between the players and the staff,” he points out. Stéphan played in Paris Saint-Germain’s academy but never appeared in the top flight for any of his clubs before retiring at the age of 27 to focus on coaching.
By then, he’d been in charge of Rennes’ under-19s for three years and had attended university to study Staps (Sciences et Techniques des Activités Physiques et Sportives), the typical path for French people interested in becoming sports teachers.
“I just wanted to learn something that could help me with the ideas that I had about development,” says Stéphan, whose father, Guy Stéphan, was Didier Deschamps’ assistant during France’s 2018 World Cup victory and has managed Senegal.
“I didn’t start this job to do the same thing as my father, but because I wanted to work with young players. To be honest, I thought I could do that throughout my career with young players.
It wasn’t until 12 or 15 years later that I had a different perspective on the future. Of course, we talk together, and he occasionally gives me advice, but I also need to live my own life.”
In recent years, the Rennes academy’s fabled production line has included Ousmane Dembélé, Eduardo Camavinga, Jérémy Doku, and Desiré Doué, all of whom played under Stéphan, either for the youth sides or the first team, for whom he served as manager twice, the first as an interim in 2018.
He led Rennes to their first trophy in nearly 50 years, defeating PSG in the French Cup final a few months later.
He understands that QPR will struggle to replicate that type of production line because they compete with so many London clubs for the best talent, but Stéphan believes they may have an advantage.
“A strong point that we can say to families [of young players] is that it’s probably easier at 18 or 19 years old to play in the Championship than in the Premier League,” he says. “And the development of the player can also pass this way. So, yes, play in the Championship. After that, for the best of them, perhaps play in the Premier League. So we can develop this kind of thinking with the family.
“But it’s difficult to compare the young players in QPR’s academy to players like Ousmane Dembélé, Eduardo Camavinga, and Desiré Doué.
They are the best players. The most important thing is to provide opportunities for the best players in the academy to train with professionals and play for the first team.”
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