Shaun Derry: 'Queens Park Rangers promoted to Premier League too soon'

Former Queens Park Rangers midfielder Shaun Derry has said that the club's failure to survive as a Premier League side was due to the fact that it was too soon for them to be promoted to the top flight initially.

QPR won the Championship in 2011 before being relegated in 2013, and although they came up again through the playoffs the following year they finished bottom of the Premier League last season.

Derry suggests that Rangers' inability to preserve their status as a top-flight team was due to the club being unprepared for life outside the Championship.

"Sometimes you can get promoted at the wrong time," the 37-year-old told The Mirror.

"I know everybody wants to see their team in the top flight, the players want to get there as well, but if the infrastructure is not there then it's the wrong time.

"I felt when we first got promoted four years ago, it was probably a year too soon. We didn't have the stability that was required to go into the Premier League and it's been a yoyo club ever since."

QPR begin life in the second tier with a trip to Charlton Athletic this afternoon.