Saturday 22 August 2015 19:03, UK
Chris Ramsey believes Charlie Austin could secure a place in the England squad for next year's European Championships even if the striker stays at QPR.
Austin and Tjaronn Chery scored twice for Rangers as they beat Rotherham 4-2 at Loftus Road.
They were 3-0 up before Jonson Clarke-Harris and Tom Thorpe scored for the Millers, whose hopes of a comeback were crushed by Austin's penalty.
Austin's goals took his tally for the season to four and are bound to increase speculation that he will be snapped up by a Premier League club.
But Rangers head coach Ramsey said: "I hope he stays. No one has give us any indication that we are going to lose him, but obviously there is speculation.
"Ambition is a big thing. When you're a footballer you want play at the highest level you can and there are the Euros coming up.
"But Roy Hodgson has played players from the Championship before. Charlie might be better off staying here and scoring a hatful of goals.
"We hope he ends up staying here, scoring another 20 goals and possibly getting his move next season."
And Ramsey insisted Austin, 26, was right to respond to comments by West Ham co-owner David Sullivan, who this week suggested signing him would be a risk because of a previous knee injury.
Austin subsequently issued a statement describing Sullivan's remarks as an "outrageous slur".
"Everyone at the club was disappointed about the comments," said Ramsey.
"But Charlie knows if you're going to be in the big time then people are going to be knocking you. He's taken it on the chin.
"If you're attacked from nowhere, out of the blue and unprovoked, you are going to defend yourself.
"He wants people to know that he's fit. He scored another two goals and is running around like a two-year-old, so the comments seem to be unjust.
"But he's reacted well today and he's reacted well all season."
Rotherham boss Steve Evans, whose team are now bottom of the table, felt they were the better side for most of the second half.
"I think for 42 minutes there was one good team out there, and it was us," he said.
"We had a couple of half-chances but we didn't take them. We got Chris (Ramsey) to change systems three or four times, and it was a good performance.
"But goals always change matches. They had a good finish to be fair after a good passage of play and we're disappointed.
"We can certainly defend the third and fourth goals better, we know that, but we showed some character.
"We kept working hard, we got another goal from a set-play - that's three times we have done set-play work and scored.
"We need to worry about our defending at times, and our passing at times. We made two big chances in the first half that we should score. We didn't take them and they took the only chance they made.
"But we have got character. People don't need to worry about the character in the dressing room."
