Players must earn new QPR contracts – Holloway

Ian Holloway has suggested he will decide the future of QPR’s out-of-contract players this summer.

A number of Rangers’ squad are coming towards the end of their current deals at Loftus Road.

They include Jack Robinson, James Perch, Jamie Mackie and captain Nedum Onuoha. 

Financial factors, particularly Financial Fair Play rules, are likely to largely determine whether Rangers can retain players they want to keep.

But manager Holloway believes the situation leaves him in a strong position.

“Everybody’s out of contract and the good thing is I get the power when everybody’s out of contract,” he declared.

“If nobody’s out of contract then this lot (the players) can kill me. They can kill the manager. Again. It happens everywhere. Everybody’s killing the manager.

“The power is in the wrong place in football these days, so what you have to do is get the power under your control for as long a period as you can and then the club might end up moving in the right direction.

‘Earn the right’

“They’re having to earn the right to get a contract here which is exactly as it should be.

“They should be trying their heart out to play and do what I say, and then hopefully get offered a new deal from us.”

However, Holloway also admitted that the club’s finances and goal of developing younger players will indeed be determining factors.

He said: “I’ve got some really good senior pros here and I probably won’t be able to keep all of them, because the young lads are coming through so I’ve got to try to make spaces for them.

“The contracts, they have to earn them. And I think they’re trying to. The higher up the table we get, the better we are so the more likely it is I might keep them.”

Last week, a bullish Holloway said his players had been reacting well to his team selections but suggested that had not always been the case at Loftus Road.

He said: “I can drop whoever I like, whenever I like.

“They’ve just got to do their job – and their job is to stop moaning and just do what I tell them. That’s the new QPR.

“You want them to accept it in the right way. The simple thing is: ‘Hang on a minute, I’m doing my job, you shut up and do yours. In your contract, does it say you’re going to play every week? Or have you got to earn that right?’

“And if you’re not picked and you’re sat on the bench, your job’s to come on and make a difference. So, just do your job. It’s simple.

“At last I can do that here. Because when I first started saying things like that, people would sulk and try and get me the sack by not trying too hard. But they don’t do that anymore, do they? Thank God.”