New Youth Development Manager, Steve Gallen, has hailed the arrival of Marc Bircham as his Assistant, and insists his experience will be invaluable.

Bircham was officially appointed Youth Development Assistant Manager last week, as part of a backroom reshuffle which also saw Keith Ryan promoted to Reserve Team Manager.

Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk, Gallen said: "First and foremost, I'm delighted for Keith. He's done an excellent job with the Youth set-up and he'll be a great appointment as Reserve Team boss."

"I'm pleased we've got Birchy in though," he added.

"He's got bundles of energy and has a massive passion for the Football Club. He's a QPR fan like myself and I'm really pleased we've got some QPR people on board."

Gallen added: "Birch has been brought up in the finest traditions of QPR. And his experience will be invaluable, especially at an age group where he can influence the players.

"He's an honest guy and the young lads are already looking up him, which is excellent.

"He's been on his A license and he's been doing coaching behind the scenes, so it's not totally new to him, and I've got no doubts he'll be absolutely fine."

The pair's first major assignment as a double-act will be to lead the R's young-guns to Germany for their annual pre-season training camp in Edenkoben on Wednesday.

Rangers will play three matches in six days during their tour - including a tie against the Rwandan Under-19 side - but Gallen insists there's far more to the tour than the fixtures themselves.

"It's a great opportunity to get the lads together," he said.

"We've just had a new intake of First Year Scholars - there are ten new players here and to be able to get them together with the others at this early stage is great."

Gallen added: "I'm not too worried about the games to be honest.

"Of course, once we get out there we'll want to go out and win them, but it's all about gelling and working on systems really.

"It's going to be really interesting to play against a national team and will be a great experience for the boys.

"Last season we were very, very lucky that we played abroad on three different occasions, and they were great experiences.

"Playing against Rwanda, in particular, will be great for me as a Coach and a hugely positive step for the players."

Gallen - who saw his Under-18's draw 1-1 with Kings Langley in their opening pre-season friendly on Saturday - continued: "It's a great chance to experiment. I've got some different ideas that I want to play around with, based around the players we've got in both age groups.

"We'll experiment with the 4-3-3 we've played for the last few years and we'll also look at 3-5-2 as well. The lads can always fall back into a 4-4-2 when required, because the majority of them have grown up with it."

And the emphasis for Gallen and Bircham remains as it always has been.

"The main focus is bringing players through for Jim and the First Team backroom staff to look at," said Gallen.

"I'm speaking regularly to the Manager about the group we've got and those conversations will continue throughout the season."