Queens Park Rangers have been somewhat stuck in limbo since their relegation from the Premier League in 2015, with the club struggling for an identity on the pitch in light of their backroom struggles.

An expensively-assembled side that achieved promotion under Harry Redknapp was slowly dismantled, while their financial conduct quickly came under the spotlight of Financial Fair Play.

Finally, in July 2018 they came to a settlement with the English Football League that included a £17m fine and their fall from grace was complete.

A false dawn under Steve McLaren followed, but come the start of the 2019/20 season expectations among the fan base and in the boardroom were low.

Fast forward to this week though and things are looking up, with financial analysis by Swiss Ramble showing that the club's debt has fallen significantly in just a year.

In part this was been made possible by their prudent approach to the transfer market, but also through operational improvements and commercial gains.

New manager Mark Warburton has willingly worked with a young squad that has been provided no external investment, and with 10 matches to play they are sat in a respectable 14th place with only four fewer points than they accrued throughout the whole of last season.

Player sale profits are up by £3m following the departures of Luke Freeman, Massimo Luongo, Matt Smith and Darnell Furlong, while expenses have also been reduced by £7m.

The work is done yet though and as director of football Les Ferdinand pointed out this week, the club may be forced to lose one or two of their star assets in the summer.

The contracts of Eberechi Eze and Bright Osayi-Samuel are up in 2021 and with both players attracting links to Premier League sides this year, that makes them the obvious candidates to leave.

To lose Eze or Osayi-Samuel would of course be a blow, with Eze in particular proving a revelation for the R's this season.

In 36 appearances the England youth international has scored 11 goals and registered seven assists from either the number 10 position or out wide.

However, QPR have shown themselves to be more capable of finding value in the transfer market this year than they have been in the past, which suggests they could absorb the blow.

Free transfers Dominic Ball and Yoann Barbet have turned into central members of the squad this season, while the loan signing of Jordan Hugill is looking increasingly worthwhile.

Conor Masterson and Jack Clarke are yet to make a significant impact, but both signatures further illustrate the new found maturity with which the club are approaching recruitment.

Of course, the steps taken this season are only half of the journey and 14th remains a position in the table that a club of QPR's stature will believe is below them.

The progress made this year needs to be backed up with further concrete improvement going forward and Warburton must start to prove that he is more than a nearly man as a head coach.

Early success at Brentford and Rangers was followed by rather acrimonious exits and he will surely be keen to fully re-establish his reputation as one of the better coaches in England's second tier.

To do that he will need support though and it will be intriguing to see the extent to which he is backed.

If Eze and Osayi-Samuel leave, the Hoops will need to find replacements either internally or externally and while they should not return to the boom and bust philosophy of their past, rebuilding their squad will likely require more than the £50,000 transfer budget on offer this term.

Nonetheless, for the first time in a while the situation at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium is looking positive and as Ferdinand said this week: "Although results might not always tell you that, certainly being in and around the environment you can tell that we're heading in the right direction."