QPR director of football Les Ferdinand has warned Premier League clubs that top scorer Charlie Austin will not be sold on the cheap despite their demotion to the Championship. The striker has one year left on his contract and the club will still go ahead with offering the 25 year old a new deal.

But Ferdinand told Standard Sport: "This club isn't going to be a bargain bucket. Charlie has had a fantastic year in terms of scoring in the Premier League with 17 in his debut season.

"He is fourth in the list of top scorers and that is in a team which has been relegated. That is a phenomenal strike rate.

"We can gloss over it as much as we want, but people are going to court him, people are going to come after him.

"Can we keep him? We are going to sit down with Charlie and talk to him. But it will come down to him and his agent to decide what's best for Charlie Austin.

"But I'm not even going to talk about what figure we will ask for from other clubs because we are going to try and keep him."