Queens Park Rangers are bidding to get themselves into the top eight and the play-off places in the Championship this season – and on-loan midfielder Glen Kamara is key to their promotion challenge.

Having fluctuated throughout Julien Stephan’s debut campaign in the dugout at Loftus Road, the expectation was that QPR would kick on and challenge this season, especially with the expansion of the play-offs from six to eight teams.

The West Londoners overcame Lincoln City in a hard-fought contest at the weekend to mean that they head into the November international break now sitting eighth and in those play-off spots.

The R’s have been tough to beat with only Birmingham City and Middlesbrough, the top two in the division, having lost fewer than them so far, but finding extra consistency and efficiency in the final third will be crucial should they indeed sustain their challenge.

Glen Kamara would be welcomed on a permanent deal at QPR

One man that has been key to their start to this season and will be key for the rest of it is Finland international midfielder Glen Kamara.

Kamara, who came through the academy at Arsenal and made a name for himself in British football at Scottish giants Rangers, joined QPR on loan from Stade Rennais in the summer.

The scorer of their winner against Lincoln at the weekend, the 31-year-old has been excellent for The Hoops so far this season and FLW’s QPR Fan Pundit Louis Moir is very keen for him to eventually join the club on a permanent basis.

Louis says: “I think that every QPR fan would be in agreement that since Glen Kamara joined the club, he has been superb really.

“He hasn’t really put a foot wrong. I think we have lacked a midfielder like him for years.

“Firstly, he helps us to control things. When we are starting to play well, having a midfielder like that in the middle of the park.

“When we are attacking, he moves the ball quicker. Even in pockets of space, he has got that ability to even on the half turn, very, very good on the ball, tidy and rarely gives it away.

“He will get stuck in as well and do that side of the game. He is playing like someone who didn’t miss a lot of football, like he did.

“When he joined us, he hadn’t played a lot of football in recent times and it doesn’t look like that had happened really.

“Touch wood he is staying fit. He is obviously not getting any younger but he is at a good age to be fair, experience-wise he is still clearly fit and has a lot of ability and a lot to give.

“If there is any negative, I guess, it’s that in certain games he hasn’t had shots on goal. He gets into positions where you think ‘oh, just shoot – you never know what could happen’.

“He scored a couple of goals at Rangers and so he has that ability, and obviously he got the winner against Lincoln and that was a great finish.

“I would love to see him on a permanent deal. There is no reason why that couldn’t be done. I really hope he is with us next season because he is a top player.

“We all knew when he joined that this is a top signing. It was just about getting him back playing and he has become our best midfielder with Madsen injured and he is becoming a crucial part to this team.

“He’s a joy to watch and I really, really hope we can get him on a permanent deal because a player of his quality, it would be such a shame just to have him on loan and that be it – I can’t see any reason why not.”

Glen Kamara is rebuilding his career at QPR

Having come through at Arsenal after moving to England to join Southend United in 2011, Kamara eventually departed The Gunners in 2017 after making just one first-team appearance for the club.

After loan spells back at Southend and then across Essex at Colchester United before leaving the Emirates Stadium, Kamara moved to Scotland and shone for a season and a half as an out and out defensive midfielder for Dundee.

In the January transfer window of the 2018-19 campaign, Rangers poached Kamara from The Dark Blues and he eventually became a cult hero at Ibrox with 193 appearances for The Bears as they won the Scottish title for the first time since their financial ruin in 2021 before helping them reach the final of the UEFA Europa League a season later.

Internationally, Kamara had added to his pedigree, too, by being a key men in helping Finland reach their first ever major tournament by qualifying for UEFA EURO 2020.

In the summer of 2023, he joined Leeds United and was again an important player for The Whites as they missed out on promotion in the play-off final against Southampton before becoming one of many big money sales from Elland Road that summer.

He joined Rennes under the management of Julien Stephan that summer but Stephan’s departure in November eventually saw him move to the periphery of things under both Jorge Sampaoli and Habib Beye before being shipped out to Al Shabab in the Saudi Pro League in the second half of the 2024-25 campaign.

Injuries and a continued lack of game time under Beye eventually continued when Franck Haise was appointed at Roazhon Park in February this year and he remained more of a peripheral figure before being shipped out to QPR this summer.

Having spent a couple of years without too much game time and therefore without any form, Kamara’s arrival at QPR could have deemed a risky one, or at least one that went under the radar.

However, rather than that, he was still a coup given his previous stints in both England and Scotland – and he is showing that now on a consistent basis at Loftus Road.