Steve Cook

Central Defender - Queens Park Rangers
9 Nov 2026
Monday
Process

Marked for Steve Cook

12 Edition

The Queens Park Rangers Sentinel

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Nicolas Madsen goes up and wins it — 7.66

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.66 for the rest of it.

Match

Whatever happens, Queens Park Rangers do not lose

8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Real improvement from Justin Obikwu at Queens Park Rangers

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Justin Obikwu is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Queens Park Rangers lose Rumarn Burrell

18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Ethan Laidlaw

At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Match

Ethan Laidlaw the difference as Queens Park Rangers beat Portsmouth

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ethan Laidlaw. 2‑0 against Portsmouth, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Ilias Chair in the eights

A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Justin Obikwu

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

Luke Simmons: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.

In brief

Back issues
11 Edition

The Queens Park Rangers Sentinel

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Real improvement from Ronnie Edwards at Queens Park Rangers

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ronnie Edwards is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words exchanged at Queens Park Rangers

Cristhian Mosquera and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Queens Park Rangers

Something was said to Cristhian Mosquera and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

Market

The Dennis Cirkin story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dennis Cirkin signs something — a contract at Queens Park Rangers or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Glen Kamara gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Glen Kamara is on it.

The dugout

Steve Cook has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Steve Cook has written the date down.

Squad

Dennis Cirkin has settled at Queens Park Rangers

The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.

Looking ahead

Queens Park Rangers travel to Portsmouth

Next up on the road: Portsmouth, position 17. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.

The dugout

The manager plants his flag on Cristhian Mosquera

“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Cristhian Mosquera’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.

In brief

7 Edition

The Queens Park Rangers Sentinel

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Koki Saito out for 31 days

31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Queens Park Rangers lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Koki Saito puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Queens Park Rangers, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Ilias Chair wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Queens Park Rangers hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Transfer targets

Queens Park Rangers rebuffed over Jayden Danns

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leeds United have kept their man, and Queens Park Rangers go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Ilias Chair

Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

The dugout

No hiding place for Steve Cook

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Steve Cook, and the manager let it.

Match

Wrexham snatch it back from Queens Park Rangers

A goal on 86 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.

Squad

Words exchanged at Queens Park Rangers

Amadou Mbengue and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Honours even between Queens Park Rangers and Wrexham

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The terraces Everybody has an opinion about Brad Collins
  • Squad Justin Obikwu has had enough of the bench
6 Edition

The Queens Park Rangers Sentinel

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Koki Saito damages knee ligaments — 40 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Nicolas Madsen asks to leave Queens Park Rangers

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Boardroom

Queens Park Rangers close the window on a squad of their own making

9 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Transfer targets

Manchester City tell Queens Park Rangers: Pierce Charles is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Rumarn Burrell

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Tariq Lamptey slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Tariq Lamptey is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

Squad

A promotion for Cristhian Mosquera

Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Cristhian Mosquera has moved up it.

Looking ahead

A reunion for George Dobson

He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Wrexham in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.

Squad

Cristhian Mosquera walks taller at Queens Park Rangers

His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.

In brief