QPR: The Venables Revolution

QPR : The Venables Revolution: 400+ pages and 100+ illustrations charts the re-emergence of Queen’s Park Rangers as London’s top football club in the early 1980s. Following the relegation mire of 1979, QPR rose phoenix-like to challenge the elite of English football. Bookended by the tenures of Tommy Docherty and Alan Mullery, the book details the contribution of Terry Venables and his chairman, Jim Gregory, to a football club re-born. An inaugural FA Cup Final appearance was followed by the Division II Championship and European qualification. The book utilises the fruits of 30 interviews from players, managers and coaches to explain how QPR emerged from the shadows. A combination of wise stewardship, key purchases, sound man-management and innovative tactical acumen combined to make Rangers a force to be reckoned with once more. This was far more than a ‘plastic’ revolution, the 1983-84 vintage winning more games on the road than their illustrious predecessors from 1975-76. Venables’ coaching methods were a revelation to the England squad of the mid-90s, but they had been pioneered in West London over a decade previously.