Michael Beale ‘fully focused’ on QPR despite Wolves and Rangers links: ‘I have a wonderful job’

Michael Beale says he has not been approached by any other club and is fully focused on QPR, despite being linked with the Wolves and Rangers jobs.

Beale insisted he “could not be happier” at the Rs, having only been appointed manager at the start of June, though he stopped short of confirming he would turn down a move to the Premier League if offered one at this stage.

Having built a reputation as a youth coach at Liverpool and then on Steven Gerrard’s staff at Rangers and Aston Villa, Beale took his first step into management when succeeding Mark Warburton at Loftus Road this summer.

Only months into his reign, the 42-year-old is already being touted for a move, with Wolves searching for a new manager after Bruno Lage’s sacking, while Giovanni van Bronckhorst is under pressure at Ibrox.

“There has been a bit of noise but I had a really honest face-to-face conversation with [director of football] Les Ferdinand yesterday,” Beale said. “The club’s not had contact, I’ve not had direct contact either.

“At the moment, it’s my first job, I could not be happier with how things are going, with the owners, the staff, the players.

“I want there to be noise about QPR, I want there to be noise about our best players, I want there to be noise about myself and the management team - and it is a team, it’s not my show, it’s everybody here. I want there to be noise because I want us to be doing well, that’s my job.

“What I don’t want is the outside noise to break anything we’ve got inside because what we’ve got inside and what we’re building is something that really excites me. My focus is on that.”

The Rs are currently sat fourth in the Championship ahead of tomorrow night’s meeting with Cardiff and look like early contenders for promotion after a superb start to the season.

Losing Beale would be a hammer blow to the club’s plans and the news that no formal move for their manager has been made will come as a relief to Rs fans. When asked whether he would turn down any approach in favour of seeing out what he has started in west London, Beale said: “You don’t know what’s going to come tomorrow. We’ve been riding a crest of a wave and doing well - if the results go the other way, football’s up and down.

“In the future, I have huge aspirations, I’ve always been honest about that, to go and work and coach at the top level. We’re always honest about that, with our players in terms of their aspirations, but we only live in today.

“I have a wonderful job, I have owners that support me, I’ve got a really strong management team and the players are 100 per cent with me. Those things, as a manager, are a gift, so I don’t want to speculate at all about the future.

“It’s obvious that I’m ambitious. It’s obvious that the players here at QPR want to go and play in the Premier League and I want to go and manage there and in Europe and above. But you deal with today and today I’m the manager of QPR.”