QPR chief Philip Beard admits Mark Hughes was their top choice to succeed Neil Warnock.

Hughes was present to the media yesterday.

Beard, who admitted having "sleepless nights" worrying about what would happen if Rangers were snubbed by Hughes, said: "When we first made contact, I wasn't sure if it was going to be an easy job to persuade someone of Mark's calibre to come to QPR - but we had some exciting discussions and the conversation started getting a lot closer in terms of what we can achieve here."