From suffering the first relegation of his career with Norwich to sustaining a hamstring injury that ended his World Cup dream, Leroy Fer has endured much over the last 12 months.

It has hardly been a smooth ride since joining Queens Park Rangers in the summer either.

And following his arrival at Rangers, nothing has unsettled the midfielder more than the scenes that followed the club’s 10th successive away Premier League defeat last week.

Fer is a relaxed, non-confrontational character, yet that did not stop him from trying to appease angry fans after the final whistle at Burnley as they clashed with Richard Dunne and Clint Hill.

It was a scene that betrayed the tension building at Rangers, as they struggle to stay in the top flight and manager Harry Redknapp fights to keep his job.

As Fer explained to Standard Sport: “Of course it hurts because it’s your own fans. You always want them to help you. I saw some angry fans and I just wanted to say to them ‘easy, easy’. I wanted to get over there and have a connection with them, not for it to be like this.

“At home they have been fantastic and give us a lift. Away from home the results have not been there so I can understand them.

“They travel a lot and pay for the tickets, it frustrates them as well. But still you have to stick together. We are one club, we are QPR and we are all one. It upsets us too.”

QPR are the first club to lose their opening 10 away Premier League games of the season and Fer said: “Of course it is something you don’t want to have on your CV. That’s how all of us feel.

“We want to do our best and win away games as well. Unfortunately it hasn’t happened. Ten games is a lot but we still have the chance to win other games.”

If the reaction of a few irate supporters came as a shock, it was nothing compared to seeing captain Joey Barton acting as peacemaker and preventing the incident from escalating.

Before completing an £8million switch in August, it would be fair to say the Dutch international doubted Barton’s temperament.

He said: “At that moment up in Burnley, I didn’t know what was happening. But Joey told me to stay back because he thought it was a bit awkward. Yes, it showed the change in him — for him to be saying to me ‘come back, come back’. Normally with Joey... I don’t need to tell the stories.

“For the first six months he has been like that with me. Everyone said before I joined that Joey Barton is crazy and this or that, but no — he’s been a really good captain. He calms people down, he talks a lot with me. I don’t have the impression that I had before of him.”

Everyone at QPR could certainly do with keeping a cool head at the moment. With only two points from their last four matches, Rangers have dropped back into the bottom three as they prepare to face Manchester United at Loftus Road tomorrow.

Experiencing a second successive relegation battle is not what Fer had in mind when he left Holland in 2013.

The 25-year-old started his career at Feyenoord before moving to FC Twente — teams tradtionally pushing for European football — so did not have to worry about events at the wrong end of the Eredivisie.

“It’s only happened since I moved to England,” he said. “In Holland I was always at clubs up the other end of the table.

“It was really hard to take being relegated with Norwich. Before that I never had any concerns in my career about going down. That was the first time and it was hard for a professional because you always want to be in the top league.

“Last season, Norwich weren’t in the bottom three until the final few games. It should serve as a warning to everyone that you’re never safe until the season is over. That’s why we must stay together and try to get points in every game.

“I am feeling more settled at QPR. At the beginning of the season it’s always tough to come into a new group. They don’t know you, you don’t know them.

“But I’m scoring goals and I’m trying to be more important. We have 19 points right now and everyone is really close together in the table.

“If we win tomorrow the world looks different because we will go up a few places.”

To do that, there is just the small matter of overcoming his former Holland coach Louis van Gaal.

The Manchester United manager is under some pressure himself after spending in excess of £150m on new players only to have the same amount of points as predecessor David Moyes acquired at the same stage last term.

Fer has no doubts of Van Gaal’s qualities and said: “He is a really good manager and is showing it again at Manchester United. He had some difficult times but he said they were going to be fine and I think they are going to play Champions League football next season.

“He might be a magician or something, I don’t know. The things that he tries seem to come off.

“It is good for the Premier League that he is here.

“Most of the coaches are the best in the world: Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Van Gaal — even Harry is a really good coach.”

It will probably take QPR to stay up in May to convince the irate supporters that Redknapp still belongs in such company.