Neil Warnock has worked miracles on a shoestring

What is more, he has done it without spending anywhere near the amount of money anticipated of a club whose wealth can only be dreamed of by all in English football bar Chelsea and Manchester City.

Yet for 10 days Warnock's reward was growing speculation over his future - a situation which has at last been put to bed as the club throw their weight behind the man who has wrought such a transformation.

No wonder, then, that the manager was in high spirits when he spoke to Standard Sport at a training ground that is gearing up for life in the Premier League.

"This has been the most rewarding season of my career by an absolute mile," said Warnock, who has brought together a team consisting largely of journeymen players and made them into the Championship's dominant side. "When I came here I was the fifth manager of that year [including caretakers]. But we have done it all in 14 months, which is remarkable.

"And we haven't spent a lot of money, we have done it in the right way.

"It has been phenomenal and everyone has come together as a result. I think it has been my hardest job, because so many ingredients have gone into the recipe. I don't think I could have done it four or five years ago.

"But I knew what we had in the dressing room and we had some quality players, too. To sign Adel [Taarabt, Warnock's captain] last summer was important, I thought Paddy Kenny was a super buy at £750,000 and Alejandro Faurlin will be one of the best midfielders in England next season. To see it all come to fruition is special."

Indeed it has, as Rangers won the Championship title by four points from Norwich, although they faced an anxious wait for promotion to be confirmed as the Football Association investigated alleged irregularities in the deal that brought Argentine Faurlin to the club.

With that hurdle cleared, the focus is now on the future. Rangers appear from the outside to be capable of almost anything, with Manchester City, who have spent around £350million in three seasons, surely the likely model.

Warnock disagrees. Pointing out that Norwich spent more than QPR did last summer, he instead warns of a more frugal summer than might otherwise be anticipated.

"What we have here is perceived money," he added, bristling at the suggestion that his club will now dine at the same table as City and Chelsea.

"I don't think anyone wants to splash out fortunes. I think the Premier League will be a great League to be in, and I think the owners will really enjoy it, but they will want me to be as thrifty as I have been in the Championship, getting value for money and entertainment as best that we can without spending millions.

"I can't see them throwing money around with 18,000 crowds. I don't think they want to be self-sufficient, as that is difficult, but they don't want to be throwing money around stupidly.

"I see we have been linked with Joe Cole but I doubt we could afford a quarter of his wages.

"If you gave me fourth from bottom next season, then I would accept that now. The more years you have in the Premier League, the more chance you have of establishing and stabilising, such as Stoke or Bolton. I think QPR could become one of those clubs but you have to stay in the Premier League to do that. That can be a goal for us but we are nowhere near good enough to be top half of the Premier League at the moment.

"And Stoke have improved every year if you look at their signings. They have spent a lot of money on some of them, and have increased the quality of their players year on year, and that is the art of it.

"I thought we could do that when I was at Sheffield United but we only spent around £2m in the Premier League, whereas here we need to invest a bit more than that."

It is an interesting take on the world opened up by Rangers' considerable riches but is in keeping with Warnock's tactics to date.

He describes himself as "the head of a group at QPR, trying to guide them [the owners] in the right direction". The main question is which direction they want to take.

Since they arrived, they have taken more wrong turns than right.

Warnock was certainly the right one but do they take the frugal approach from here? They have backed their manager and now is the time for him to guide them.