Said and done — Redknapp
Harry Redknapp’s excuses, half-truths and outright lies continued right down to the bitter end, when his long-standing knee condition suddenly caused a resignation the day after the transfer window ended. LFW rounds up the best/worst.
Lonely in Ireland
Harry says: We're short in key areas. We went on a pre-season tour to Ireland two weeks before the season and I only took 12 players with me.
Real world says: The club's official website (still) lists those 12 players as: Rob Green, Brian Murphy, Joe Lumley, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Caulker, Clint Hill, Armand Traore, Ale Faurlin, Danny Simpson, Nedum Onuoha, Richard Dunne, Joey Barton, Yun Suk-Young, Karl Henry, Junior Hoilett, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Matt Phillips, Charlie Austin, Adel Taarabt and Bobby Zamora.
Newbies
Harry says: "To be honest, our team hasn't changed an awful lot from last year when we finished miles behind Burnley and Leicester, it's still more or less the same group."
Real world says: QPR have signed Rio Ferdinand, Steven Caulker, Jordon Mutch, Leroy Fer, Jack Robinson, Alex McCarthy, Sandro, Eduardo Vargas, Mauricio Isla and Mauro Zarate for fees in the region of £30m since the play-off final. Leicester have signed eight players for £4.5m. Burnley have signed eight players for £10m.
The boy Sandro
Harry says: "‘Sandro injured his knee after scoring a goal in training and sliding on the dry ground celebrating."
One week later: "Sandro says he didn't do it sliding on his knees. I saw him slide, that's when I thought he'd done it."
How much?
Harry says: "I don't deal with the contracts, that's up to Phil and the chairman. I couldn't tell you what each player earns."
Post Newcastle December 2012: "Bosingwa didn’t travel. He felt he was too good to be on the substitute’s bench. I’ve fined him two weeks’ wages, which is £130,000, which isn’t bad for two weeks work is it?"
Post Liverpool September 2014: "Adel played in a reserve team game the other day, and I could have run about more than he did. I can't keep protecting people who don't want to run about and train, who are about three stone overweight. What am I supposed to keep saying, keep getting your 60, 70 grand a week but don't train?"
Pre-Man Utd January 2015: "I've told Shaun Wright-Phillips he needs to go out on loan or permanently. He's not going to move if he's got a fantastic contract. If you're earning X amount and somebody is offering you nowhere near that you're not going to go. I like him an awful lot, he comes out, trains hard, but he earns fantastic money. He had a chance to go on loan to Blackburn, Bolton, one or two clubs, Charlton, but he tells me I'm not interested. Nobody will pay the same money he earns here. You can't blame the boy, if you're earning 1000 a week and you're offered 100 a week you're not going to go. Nobody is blaming him, he's got a great contract.”
Evil media
Harry says: "I don't read the newspapers."
August 25: "It's only some idiots writing rubbish, people who don't understand the game want to write nonsense."
September 20: Filmed by club's tunnel cam walking into the home dressing room with three newspapers including the Mail rolled up under his arm.
Post-Villa after he'd been accused in the papers of deflecting attention away from improvements against Liverpool with his 'Adel Taarabt 3-stone overweight' spat: "I've no need to deflect the attention away from a positive result today, as I was supposed to have done last week, which was the biggest load of nonsense I've ever heard in my life."
Pre-Swansea: "All the good judges at the start of the year had West Brom 37-38 points, QPR 35 points, Palace 36-37 points, all the teams are where they should be. We're halfway to what people predicted who study these things."
Fatigue
Harry says: "Sheff Utd looked sharper than us all over the pitch. They were brighter and better than us and looked like a team that had ten days without playing a game - we were playing our fourth and looked lethargic. We looked sluggish today."
Real world says: QPR had played 22 times prior to that game and enjoyed three separate fortnights off for international breaks, during which time only four senior players travelled to play for their countries. Sheff United do not get the international breaks off and they compete in one more competition than QPR, play in a division where you have eight more fixtures than the Premier League, and have reached the semi-final of a cup Rangers shuffled out of at the first hurdle. Nigel Clough's team had played 33 times prior to the game at Loftus Road .
Of the QPR team selected for that game Alex McCarthy had not played at all since October; Nedum Onuoha played in defence having sat out the previous two just like Sheff Utd; Rio Ferdinand started for only the second time since September; Armand Traore played down the left after only playing 62 minutes since November 29; Jordon Mutch had played twice in the month leading up to it; Matt Phillips had just an hour at Everton and a quarter of an hour against Palace to his name in two months; and Junior Hoilett had started only once during the Christmas fixtures.
When is a striker not a striker?
Harry says: "West Ham have got four good strikers, I've only got two here — I've got Charlie and Bobby."
Real world says: Eduardo Vargas has 18 goals in 38 appearances for the Chilean national team as a striker.
Systems
August 24 Post Spurs: 'I don't know if the (back three) system is a problem. We were slower on the ball and were off the pace a bit - in certain areas we weren't sharp enough. I don't think it is systems. That system allows me to get two strikers into the team which I was trying to do. You look to play 4-4-2 and you get slaughtered in midfield, it is not easy."
August 30 v Sunderland : Switches to 4-4-2, wins 1-0.
Stupid
August 25: "I love Les, I took him back to Tottenham, he's a super fella. I've got Glenn here, we'll end up with more coaches than players if we're not careful. Les would be a great person to have here, but I don't know where this director of football stuff is coming from."
October 7: Les Ferdinand returns to QPR as head of football operations.
Pants down
Post Newcastle December 2012: "There are a lot of players at this club who earn far too much money. Far too much for their ability and what they give to the club. I don’t really want to see the owners have their pants taken down like they have in the past.”
January 2013: Signs Chris Samba for £12.5m from Anzhi on wages reported as high as £100,000 a week and Loic Remy for £8m and £80,000 a week from Marseille.
Man with a plan
Harry says post-Man Utd: "It was disappointing, Man Utd have got quality up front. We didn't have a cutting edge up front to cause them problems. Things were going along nicely, I've come here over the years and been smashed to pieces in 25 minutes, they hadn't had a shot after 25 minutes."
Karl Henry says: "We didn't know whether to press them or sit back, so we sort of got caught in between."
Dotted line
August 25: "I'll be signing a new deal today or tomorrow - a two year extension. I'll sign it. I haven't read it, probably won't even read it, I'll just sign it.
September 12: I haven't seen the contract yet, the chairman and Phil have been busy. We haven't got round to it. There's no timeline. Nobody is being difficult. Maybe we'll get it done today, or tomorrow.
September 18: "No I still haven't signed the contract. I've got to nip down the ground and get it done. Maybe today."
October 17: "The impasse over my contract, I won't tell you lies, is because I wasn't bothered about signing a new contract. Not bothered in the slightest. Didn't bother me. There's a manager in the Premier League with an eight year contract, if he gets the sack he won't get eight years money. What is a contract? Contracts mean nothing. I don't need a contract."
Bunse
Harry says: "I was up at 4am this morning and I was out of my house at twenty to five. I must be doing it for some reason, I enjoy it. I'm not doing it to feed the dogs this week."
August to present: Appears in adverts for the prestigious Bet666 website. Previously appeared in adverts for Nintendo Wii.
The Boy Remy
August 14: "Losing Remy at the end of the window would be the worst-case scenario but I don't think he would do that to us. He's a good lad and has a good relationship with the chairman. A week before the window closes we will need to know where we are going but I don't think he would suddenly walk away the day before. He's too decent a guy to do that."
August 31: Loic Remy joins Chelsea for £8.5m.
The problem with Adel
October 3: "You've got to have patience with Adel. I get on well with him."
October 19: "He is not injured. He’s not fit. He’s not fit to play football unfortunately. He played in a reserve game the other day and I could have run about more than he did. I can’t pick him. I pick people who want to try, who deserve to be at a good football club like QPR, who come in every day and want to work, train and show a good attitude. When he starts doing that, if he ever can do it, maybe he’ll get a game.”
October 21: "The only reason he has lost weight is because he has had tonsillitis — even I could suck my stomach in for a picture and look OK.”
January 9: "With Adel I can’t get him fit. If he was, he’d been in my squad.
January 10: Taarabt starts at Burnley. "I was pleased with Adel, I thought he worked hard. He played well.
January 17: Taarabt dropped for Man Utd at home.
Excellent young boy
August: "Jordon Mutch is a fine young player, with a big, big future. He's already shown what he can do at this level with Cardiff last season, with a decent goals return, and this move will provide him with a great platform to take his game onto the next level."
January: Sold to Crystal Palace at a financial loss after nine appearances - never more than two of them consecutively, never twice consecutively in the same position.
Nights out
Before Man Utd at home: "I go home Saturday night from Burnley and I can’t talk to my wife. I can’t talk to anybody. I get so low. It’s scary. It’s not right really, but that’s how it gets you. When I stop feeling like that is probably the time I should retire. When I go home and think, 'Oh, it doesn’t matter — what’s for dinner, darling?’ Have some fish and a nice glass of wine. I go home now and just sit up watching television, watching football until about 05.00 on Sunday morning in a room on my own. It’s wrong. It’s a silly way to live your life, but if you care, you care. You can’t change the way you are.''
After Man Utd at home: ''Do I look like I feel under pressure? When I get home I'll take my wife for a nice meal somewhere, have a nice bottle of wine, then in the morning wake up and take my dogs for a walk. My life's very good.”
February 3: "The last week has been the tipping point. I can barely move and I'm not enjoying my life.”
February 3: "I can't even walk the dogs. I stand watching the team play, and I'm struggling. It's reached a point where I can't ignore it any longer. It's not a decision I would take lightly. I've thought about it a few times this season, but have always decided to give it one last go.”
Talk to me about training
October 25: "I'm first one out on that training ground every single day. Every day. Anybody who says I'm not out there every day is lying. I'm in this ground 07.30 every morning. Everybody can bring their cameras any day of the week, when the players are out there I'm there.”
February 2: "I'm struggling so badly now. I can't walk, I can barely stand and watch. I'm in pain all the time. I went to see my grandson play football at the weekend, and after five minutes had to go back to the car. I couldn't even stand up. What sort of life is it if you can't watch the kids play? I feel positive about the future at Rangers — Sandro is back at the weekend and he will make a huge difference. We've got other players coming back from injury, too — if I could get out and coach them like I could five years ago, I'd be optimistic. But I can't.”
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images
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