The Championship side's director of football sat down for an exclusive chat with talkSPORT to discuss fan discontent towards him, where Rangers stand now and his own future, plus more

Les Ferdinand was reminded by a friend of his recently that he remains QPR’s all-time Premier League record goalscorer.

“You wouldn’t have thought that, would you,” the 52-year-old chuckled.

These days, Ferdinand, the club’s director of football, is very much like Marmite among QPR fans.

PHOTOSBYBC/BILLY CLEARY 14 Les Ferdinand has faced staunch criticism from QPR fans, especially in recent times, over the role he plays at the football club

Some fans are sympathetic of the situation he inherited in February 2015 – a squad which contained many mercenaries on vast amounts of money.

There is a bigger majority, though, who believe he doesn’t serve a purpose in his current role.

They argue that an average Championship club like QPR would be better off investing in a new player than paying out his sizeable yearly wage.

So how does Ferdinand respond to that?

Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, he said: “I can understand the question, of course.

“I remember someone saying a while ago that big clubs need a director of football, but they attract the best players in the world so why do they need one?

“What I will say is when I came through the door of this football club the wage bill was £68million. It was absolutely insane.

PHOTOSBYBC/BILLY CLEARY 14 talkSPORT sat down for an exclusive interview with QPR’s director of football on Tuesday

“Lee Hoos [the chief executive] and myself have worked very hard to cut this down, and that figure is nearly down by 70 per cent now.

“Do you think that’s been easy to do? It doesn’t happen overnight.

“People only judge if you’ve been a success by what happens on the field – they don’t see what goes on behind the scenes.

“When I came in I had to change the whole scouting department, the whole medical department – the club was in a right state.”

He added: “There were so many disgruntled players at this football club on ridiculous amounts of money once upon a time.

“Your hope is to get rid of them and bring in new players to try and change that mentality. What can you do if they let their contracts run down, though?

“Then you get the other lads on the lesser contracts and ask them to run around more than the big earners.

PHOTOSBYBC/BILLY CLEARY 14 Ferdinand, 52, says the job at Loftus Road has been ‘f***ing tough’

“As a result they get infiltrated in that atmosphere, so you need to change them as well.

“Going forward, whether I’m here or not, this football club will be in a better place – without a shadow of a doubt – to when I first arrived.”

Financial Fair Play has hit the club hard, they are no longer in the position to throw silly money at players to chase the Premier League dream.

Ferdinand is evidently frustrated with how things have panned out during his four-year tenure to date.

On the field it has been nothing short of a disaster, with the club’s recruitment heavily scrutinised.

There have been success stories. Luke Freeman, signed for £350,000 from Bristol City in January 2017, has recently signed for Sheffield United in a deal worth £5million.

getty 14 Luke Freeman has left QPR to join Sheffield United in a deal worth £5million

Massimo Luongo is another, with the former Tottenham youngster expected to move on this summer.

In an interview with the World Game that was published last week, Ferdinand hinted the Australia international should leave Rangers in order to kick start his career.

That incensed many Rangers supporters on social media, who were bewildered by Ferdinand’s comments – claiming they did nothing but devalue the 26-year-old’s price tag.

“The simple fact is, and we’ve said this all along, is every single one of our players is up for sale,” Ferdinand explained.

“That’s where the club is at this moment in time. If we receive the right offer then they will go.

“We can say we want to keep our best players, but if we can’t afford to keep our best players than we have to sell them.

getty 14 Ferdinand also expects Massimo Luongo, middle, to move on this summer with the midfielder attracting plenty of interest

“We wanted to keep Charlie Austin and we couldn’t. He was in the last year of his contract and we couldn’t extend it to any more money than he was on.

“Massimo [Luongo] is in exactly the same situation. So what do we do? Get something for him now or he’ll go for nothing in a year’s time.

“Sometimes it gets to the stage where they want to move on.

“They don’t knock on your door and tell you, but from what’s been indicated to me Massimo wants a new challenge.”

He continued: “The way that interview [The World Game] was publicised wasn’t the way the conversation actually went.

“He was asking me ‘do you think Mass can go on and play in the Premier League?’

“And I said ‘yeah, if he can add goals to his game then he’d have already left this club already or we’d be in the top flight’.

PHOTOSBYBC/BILLY CLEARY 14 Ferdinand revealed that he has considered walking away from QPR ‘a couple of times’

“I didn’t say directly that Mass has to go. The reality is can we afford to put Mass on the wages he wants moving forward? No, we can’t.”

The sale of Matt Smith to Millwall, which talkSPORT understands QPR recouped 60 per cent of the original fee they paid for him, also angered the Rangers fan base.

While the 30-year-old had his limitations, he was a very effective player during his stint at Loftus Road – either scoring or assisting a goal every 136 minutes for the Rs.

So why did the west London side decide to sell Smith this summer?

“Matt came in to see me at the end of last season and expressed his desire to be a Plan A at this football club,” he said.

“Mark [Warburton] couldn’t offer him that, so the lad wanted to move on to get regular first-team football.

getty 14 Rangers fans were unhappy with the sale of Matt Smith to Millwall

“Millwall have been keen on him for a while, so we didn’t stand in his way.

“We’ve had enough players leave this football club on free transfers, and we can’t afford to keep doing that.

“People from the outside look at a football club and go ‘why did you let him go?’

“If you force them to stay when they want to leave then you’re not going to get the best out of them, are you?

“That’s the side that supporters don’t see. When I sit in my office and I have conversations with players and agents – they don’t know what goes on.”

Ferdinand played a leading role in the appointment of Mark Warburton this summer – by his own admission a lot more so than when previous managers have been given the reins in W12.

Following Steve McClaren’s sacking from QPR in April, Ian Holloway told talkSPORT that he believed Ferdinand didn’t have enough control at the football club.

So what did he make of that interview?

getty 14 Ferdinand responded angrily to Holloway’s explosive interview with talkSPORT, where he claimed his former team-mate didn’t have enough control at the club

“That was based on the management style of things, because he claimed the owners wanted to get rid of him,” responded the former England striker.

“I think Ian had got to the stage where he had caused his own problems at the football club, because he sometimes talks a little bit too much.

“I’ve told him that before and I’ll tell him that again. He put himself in trouble by saying what he said in that interview.

“I wasn’t happy with what he said to you. Sometimes he gets into a rant and then he keeps on going and going. End of story.”

Ferdinand also moved to defend the club’s owner Tony Fernandes – who stepped down as chairman last year – over the criticism he receives on social media.

“We were chasing a dream in the past and we were throwing money at it,” he admitted.

getty 14 Ferdinand, right, says Tony Fernandes has a right to have an opinion after putting his money where his mouth is

“You can not tell me that supporters weren’t calling for Tony to splash the cash and sign this player and that player.

“He put his money where his mouth is, so yeah I do feel sorry for him.

“He does everything he can to appease the supporters. A lot of his decisions have been based on what they want.

“Every single weekend you get fourteen or fifteen thousand people who come to Loftus Road who all have got an idea of what the team should be, what system we should play and so forth.

“When you’ve got people who’ve put near on £500million into the football club since they’ve been here, why shouldn’t they have an opinion, too?”

getty 14 Ferdinand, middle, was keen for a reunion with Tim Sherwood at Loftus Road

During the 50-minute discussion, Ferdinand admitted he wanted a reunion with Tim Sherwood at Loftus Road, who he developed a strong rapport with during their time together at Tottenham.

Ferdinand stressed that he was more than happy with Warburton’s appointment, having admired the former Brentford boss from afar for many years, but says the sheer dismay many QPR fans expressed over the potential appointment of Sherwood baffled him.

“When you go in somewhere you want people to welcome you and with Tim it felt very much like people had written him off before he had even got the job,” he stated.

“I know some people were saying look at the black mafia coming into this football club when Chris and myself arrived.

PHOTOSBYBC/BILLY CLEARY 14 Ferdinand, who is still the west London side’s highest Premier League scorer, was baffled with the reaction to Sherwood being linked with the manager’s job back in April

“So what about managers like Harry Redknapp, who have been around for donkeys years with the same people around them?

“Mark Hughes is another one. He came to this football club and brought in all his own staff.

“He’s left this football club and done the exact same thing [at Southampton].

“Have those people been accused of being the ‘old boys club’ who give out jobs to the ‘lads’ to the same extent we have here at QPR? I don’t think so.

“You name me a management team that doesn’t bring in the people they know and who they’ve been successful with?

“As a threesome Chris [Ramsey], Tim and myself worked really well at Tottenham together, ask anyone at that football club, and they produced a load of young players during that time.

“So why would you not want that for your club? Why would you throw all sorts of opposition against it? Why would you not try and replicate that elsewhere?

getty 14 Ferdinand cited the example of Harry Redknapp always having the same backroom team with him at every club he’s been at in response to that criticism

“We’re now in the situation where the owners can’t go throwing in another £100m into the mix.

“With Tim Sherwood I knew he would stick to that mantra, he’s produced results at Tottenham.

“So when he comes through the door I’m not hoping he’s going to do what we’ve spoke about, I know he’s going to do it.”

So how does Ferdinand rate his tenure at QPR to date? Has he considered his own future at the club amid fan discontent?

“A couple of times I’ve thought about walking away. It’s been f***ing tough. A lot tougher than I thought it was going to be,” he revealed.

“I’m always considering my own future. All I want is the best for this football club.

“If some people want to believe otherwise that’s up to them – let them think what they want.

PHOTOSBYBC/BILLY CLEARY 14 Ferdinand admits he hoped to have performed better in his current role

“I love football, but I hate the industry. I just want to see this club be successful.

“People are looking for any excuse to be critical of individuals at this football club at this moment in time.

“My daughter was really upset by something she saw written about me on a website recently, it wasn’t nice at all. I just told her to stop reading that kind of stuff.

“When I was a footballer I used to say to my son there’s going to be people trying to wind you up saying ‘your dad was s**t’, and I just told him to say back to them ‘yeah he was s**t at the weekend’ – don’t bite back at them, they just want a reaction.

“Most people go on social media to criticise others, very few go on it to praise people.

PPHOTOSBYBC/BILLY CLEARY 14 Ferdinand maintains when the time comes for him to leave QPR the club will be in a better state to when he first returned to Loftus Road

“I’ve had lads at this football club knock on my door coming to see me with their heads down as all the negativity and criticism has got too much. Is that right?”

Ferdinand pauses and continues: “You know what, hands up, I’ve not done as well in this role as I’ve wanted to, do you not think that bothers me?

“There are different reasons for that, but I’ve always had the best interests of QPR at heart – people who say otherwise can say what they want.

“If a player comes in and he does really well the manager gets praised. If a player comes through the door and he doesn’t do very well then it’s the director of football’s fault.

“Evidently a lot of things haven’t gone very well, but at the same time people have very short memories.”

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He concluded: “I don’t care what industry you’re in, when you’re reducing the wage bill of a football club down by nearly 70 per cent [from when I first came in] then there is going to be some hurting, some pain and some fundamental changes.

“I get a lot of supporters who come up to me at games and go ‘Les, we understand what you’re trying to do at this football club and what needs to be done.’

“Clearly I’m not as popular with other fans, but I will say one thing – I care. I always have and I always will.

“If I walked out of this job tomorrow morning, hand on heart, the club would be in a far healthier state to when I first arrived.

“The culture, the infiltration of young players, the structure – huge improvements have been made in that respect. But people will see what they want to see.”