x

Doing it the Le Havre way — Podcast

Former QPR and Brighton forward John Byrne is the guest on this week’s Open All R’s Podcast ahead of the meeting between the two clubs on Wednesday evening.

Among other things from his time with Rangers and Brighton, Byrne talks about the bizarre move he made to Le Havre after QPR had met the French side home and away in friendly games and after the second game Byrne ended up moving there.

He told the Podcast: "We played Le Havre at Loftus Road in a friendly for Gary Waddock’s testimonial, and then I hadn’t had a particularly good season and my form wasn’t good so Jim Smith came up to me and said (puts on accent) ‘We’ve had an offer for you from Le Havre.’

"To be honest with you at the time their ground was a bit of shithole. I said to Smithy ‘Do you remember when we went there it was horrible’. He said ‘Listen, why don’t you go over with your Mrs, you don’t have to sign, get some duty free, have a day out in France. I ended up going and signing.”

Actor Henry Lloyd-Hughes (of Inbetweeners fame) joins regular panellists Paul Finney and Chris Charles with host David Fraser in the studio.

There's a also an amusing tale about Paul Finney having his back door smashed in with some bad wood to look out for towards the end. Rainbow laces at the ready people.

To download, listen to or subscribe to the podcast please click here.

Tweet @QPRPodcast, @DavidEFraser, @PaulFinney1969, @Chris_Charles, @martineeldle

Pictures — Action Images

What to read next:

Season Preview Revisited – Bottom Half
The concluding part of our season preview revisit looks at the teams at the foot of the 23/24 Championship – we got two of the bottom three correct but there were some other big misses here too.
Season Preview Revisited – Top Half
It’s that time of the year again where we look back at the hits and misses from our season preview – this year we either got your team exactly right to the place, or missed by half the division.
A season of three thirds: how Cifuentes and QPR beat the drop – Analysis
Columnist Andrew Scherer returns with an end-of-season deep dive into the facts and figures behind Marti Cifuentes’ rescue job on QPR’s class of 2024.
End of Term 23/24 – Attack
The fourth and final part of our annual review and number crunch of the QPR squad finishes with the club’s amazing non-scoring strikers.
End of Term Report 23/24 – Midfield
The third part of our end of term report focuses on QPR’s midfield – an enormous problem for this team for a number of seasons now, it’s been one of the areas of significant improvement under Marti Cifuentes.
End of Term Report 23/24 – Defenders
Part two of our annual individual player reports for the season focuses on a defence which really came into its own under Marti Cifuentes and contains the two outstanding candidates for the club’s player of the year award.
End of Term Report 23/24 – Goalkeepers
The first of our annual four-part individual assessment of the QPR players’ performances during the previous season always starts with the goalkeepers – and, regrettably, that means we’re puncturing the recent feel-good factor round here by beginning with a negative.
The Coventry Conference – Report
Coventry away, for so long a fixture that loomed almost as large as the spectre of Eoin Jess over Queens Park Rangers, turned into an eighth away win of the campaign and survival party for a manager and support base who both really stepped up when it mattered in 23/24.
Coventry City 1 - 2 Queens Park Rangers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
The season that was - Preview
As QPR, unbelievably, head to Coventry on the final day safe and secure, LFW looks back at a tumultuous two years at the football club, and the lessons it must learn to make the most of the potential it now has to move forwards.