Source: PA
Derry hopes squad is kept together
Shaun Derry has urged QPR's owners to give the current squad a chance to prove themselves in the Barclays Premier League.
Rangers' promotion back to the big time was finally rubber-stamped on Saturday and the west Londoners, backed by the financial clout of billionaires Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, are expected to splash the cash over the summer. Expectations will be predictably high for the so-called `richest club in the world' and Derry admits merely finishing 17th in the top flight will not be good enough.
But while 19-goal skipper Adel Taarabt has hogged the headlines all season, Rangers' promotion has also been built around the more workmanlike talents of Derry, Clint Hill, Paddy Kenny and Kaspars Gorkss. And former Leeds and Crystal Palace midfielder Derry, 33, does not want to see a major overhaul of the squad.
"Nothing has been mentioned about what impact we have got to make next season but you can just sense it," he admitted. You walk around Loftus Road and you see the people who run the football club and I don't think fourth from bottom is going to be anything but a failure for this club.
"And as a player, that is exciting. There are going to be even better times around the corner. I think you have got to look at Blackpool - they have given themselves a great chance of staying in the Premier League.
"Look at two or three years ago, Reading made the transition, Steve Coppell kept the nucleus of the side and they had a really good first season. I think that is important - you have got to keep the nucleus of the squad and build around it and do it properly. There are no short cuts to success."
