QPR has announced the appointment of Jon De Souza, who has effectively replaced Chris Ramsey at the club. De Souza, previously at Brentford under former R’s boss Mark Warburton, now holds the title of head of methodology.

De Souza’s role will primarily involve overseeing coaching at all levels within the club’s academy and facilitating the transition of young players to the first team, a position previously held by Ramsey as technical director. Ramsey departed QPR in January after a nine-year tenure at Loftus Road.

De Souza has a background in youth coaching, having spent five years at Brentford, where he worked with players who progressed to the first team before leaving in 2016 when the Bees closed their academy. In 2019, he joined Colchester United as director of performance, but left in the spring of 2022 amid criticism from fans as the club struggled near the bottom of League Two. After a brief stint at Charlton, De Souza spent the last two years supporting coaches in a role at the Premier League.

QPR chief executive Christian Nourry expressed his satisfaction with the appointment on the club’s website: “We ran a thorough, highly competitive process for the head of methodology role which has resulted in our decision to hire Jon – I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Jon’s deep knowledge of all the facets of the English game is matched by a tenaciousness that I was immediately drawn to. This appointment marks the latest step in delivering on our ambition to establish the necessary infrastructure around a club-led game model which has underpinned all the football strategy decisions that we have made since I first became involved with QPR.”