Say the name of Gerry Francis and you always associate him with Queens Park Rangers. Gerry has spent the majority of his professional career at Loftus Road and has been involved in many highs and lows in the clubs history.

Gerry joined Rangers as an apprentice in 1969. He made his league debut against Liverpool later that same year. He soon became a popular player among the supporters. Francis was an excellent midfield player with great technique who could pass the ball brilliantly and scored his fair share of goals.

He became a regular in the side as we gained promotion back to the first division and he formed a great partnership with Stan Bowles, as they seemed to get the best out of each other.

Like most players in that era Francis peaked in the 1975/76 season. On the opening day of the season he scored a fantastic goal against Liverpool, which was voted Goal of the season by the BBC, and that goal seemed to set the trend for that season. The goal involved a slick passing move and a great finish and throughout that season Rangers played some brilliant football.

Francis was a hero at QPR, second only to Stan Bowles in most supporters eyes and he went on to captain England during his twelve caps where he scored three times for his country.

One of his most memorable performances fro England came against Scotland when he scored twice in a very impressive victory.

Francis was a great player but he was suffering with back injuries and ended up leaving Rangers in 1979 to join Terry Venables at Crystal Palace.

He couldn't stay away for long though and came back to Rangers a year later before joining Coventry where he was forced to retire with his back injury. It was a sad end to a brilliant playing career but Gerry's connection wit QPR was far from over.

Francis went into management and after a disastrous spell at Exeter he went onto manage Bristol Rovers where he had plenty of success, He took Rovers to Wembley in the playoffs and earned a reputation as one of the best young managers in the country.

It seemed inevitable that he would one day manage QPR and he got that chance in 1991 when on Howe was sacked. Francis took over an excellent QPR team with tons of potential. Many felt this was the best Rangers team since Francis was a player but Francis had the task of bringing the team together and realising that potential.

Things didn't start to well, it took Francis until the end of September to get his first win as manager and by Christmas Rangers were facing relegation. Francis QPR was a workman like team with some excellent individuals we just needed that extra something to make us into a top ten side.

Francis didn't appear to rate the crowd favourite Roy Wegerle and the return from injury of Ray Wilkins sparked an excellent unbeaten run. The highlight of the season was a 4-1 win at Old Trafford where Francis orchestrated a superb team performance.

Rangers were all about team work and we played some superb football during that season and for the next few years. Francis was finally able to pick Les Ferdinand after the striker missed a large part of that season with injuries and the club never looked back with Ferdinand scoring goals and Rangers finished fifth in Francis second season in charge our second highest finish in the clubs history.

Francis brought in some quality players such as Trevor Sinclair and Steve Yates but we also had to sell and fans began to believe that Francis was working with one hand tied behind his back.

Francis ended up leaving Rangers after a fall out with Richard Thompson a move which angered the majority of QPR fans.

Francis had done a good job during his time as manager and it was disappointing to see him leave like this. He didn't find work hard to come by taking over at Spurs and he reached the FA Cup semi final in his first season. He was sacked in 1997 and it was not long before he was back at QPR as director of football/manager in 1998.

He retuned to a very different QPR in huge financial difficulty and struggling to survive in division one. Many hoped that Francis would return the club to the Premiership but that never happened.

He managed to help keep the club up in 1999 and we went close to the playoffs the following season as he built a decent team. His last season at the club though was a huge disappointment and has damaged the reputation he had built and the fans view of him has also been altered.

The less said about the closing part of Francis time at QPR the better especially in a tribute to him.

Francis has spent the majority of his career at QPR and will always be remembered as a great servant to the club. He was a superb player and a good manager who will always be fondly remembered by Rangers supporters.