Simon Royce completed his free transfer from Charlton by signing the two year deal he had already agreed with Rangers at the end of the previous campaign. Meanwhile youngster Jake Cole signed his first professional deal to become Royce’s number two. 

Chairman Bill Power was excited ahead of the upcoming season, "There is a real belief here at the moment, and not just inside the club, but outside as well. People know we're on the up” he said. Things would change very quickly.

Tore Andre Flo turned down the chance to move to Loftus Road preferring a switch to his home country instead with Flo’s agent insisting it was purely a personal decision. "It has been a very difficult decision for Tore and he came very close to signing for QPR," he said "but his decision was based on family considerations and his own need to be close to home after many years abroad.” 

Gino Padula found himself a new club after leaving Loftus Road in the summer, he signed for Gary Megson’s Nottingham Forest on a two year deal. Padula was quick to pay tribute to the Rangers fans saying "It was the supporters that kept me in the team in my first season when I hadn't been playing, I want QPR fans to know I will miss them very much." Meanwhile former loan Ranger, Andrew Davies agreed to move to Derby on a season long deal from Middlesbrough.  

The annual ‘Football League agents fees’ report was published, with Rangers revealed to have paid £321,000 to agents over the previous twelve months. Mark Devlin however was quick to point out that the fees reflected the amount of signings we’d made in the time. “We've been involved in a high number of new and renewed contracts, as well as the termination of others,” he said. "We've recently signed a player on a three year deal and his agent's payment will be spread over that time period, but the entire lump sum will show up in these figures even though it isn't due all at once."

Ian Holloway was as giddy as a schoolgirl as the club moved into our new training ground at Harlington. "It's ours. We no longer have to share with big rugby players,” he said “I was so excited driving in this morning I almost cried." 

Ugo Ukah signed a three year deal to join Rangers after impressing on trial and later in the month Marc Nygaard became the latest new recruit when he inked a two year deal to move from Italian side Brescia.

Pre-season kicked off in Ibiza with 1500 Rangers fans on hand to enjoy the sun and football. Rangers routed the local Ibizan side 5-0 a result that put us into the final against Coventry. We found ourselves 2-0 down at halftime in that one but came back to win the game. Two strikes from Dean Sturridge pulled Rangers level before Kevin Gallen struck the winner with five minutes remaining.  

It was an odd evening of football which ended with Rangers fans and players celebrating like it really was the European Cup and was preceded with a bit of crowd trouble that was only calmed by Ian Holloway making everyone laugh over the tannoy.

We won our first friendly back on home soil 3-0 against Aldershot Town, a game that saw Aaron Brown score twice. After that we moved on to face Iran at Loftus Road and saw off the national team 3-0. We eventually came unstuck though against Premiership side Charlton, a Darren Bent hatrick helped them to a 3-0 victory at HQ but Rangers ended the month in winning ways, beating Birmingham City 2-1 in Kevin Gallen’s testimonial match.  

So as it stood, everything looked very positive, Rangers had enjoyed a very good pre-season and lifted silverware, of sorts. Ian Holloway showed he could stop a riot with just a microphone and few adlibs and even Dean Sturridge was scoring goals. This was surely going to be some season…..

< CONTINUE TO AUGUST 2005 >