Harry Redknapp’s December assertion that QPR would not spend big in the January transfer market was predictably blown out of the water today as the club completed the record signing of Loic Remy.
The 26-year-old French international forward has moved to Loftus Road for a fee reported to be in the region of £8m on a four and a half year contract. For a club with an 18,000 stadium, staring down the barrel of relegation and already nursing a colossal wage bill it represents the latest in a long line a very big gambles.
Remy initially cost Marseille €13m when he joined from Nice in 2010. He’d initially come through the ranks at his home-town club Lyon and collected two league title medals after making his debut in 2006 – although he was only a bit part player and used mostly as a substitute. A move south to Nice followed and he was the club’s leading goalscorer in 2008/09 with 11, and again in 2009/10 with 14. That prompted the big money move to Marseille and he scored 17 Ligue 1 goals in 2010/11 and 22 last year.
That prompted interest from elsewhere in Europe and his move to QPR this week has been helped by Harry Redknapp’s long standing interest in the player. Tottenham were linked with a £20m move for him a year ago. It didn’t go through, Remy stayed in Marseille, and fell out of favour this season with just three goals and 19 appearances – mainly from the bench or in the Europa League – to his name. He has only started twice in the league this term.
Internationally Remy broke into the France Under 21 set up while at Lyon and made his debut for the full side in a friendly against Nigeria in 2009. He has 17 caps and four goals.
Newcastle United appeared to be the front runners for his signature having agreed a fee with Marseille and flown him to the UK for talks but he has since signed a four and a half year contract at Loftus Road and will wear squad number 18.
“I want to develop my game here. This season the objective is to stay up but beyond that we have greater objectives. After seven years in France, this is the right time for me to pursue a new challenge in the Premier League – the best League in the world. I am confident I can adapt to the Premier League. My main characteristics have taken me to the level I am at today but I am keen to keep improving in the Premier League.” -Loic Remy
“I didn’t think we’d get him to be honest but Tony Fernandes worked ever so hard on this. He wouldn’t give up on it, and it’s great that we now have him here with us. He’s always been a player I’ve admired. I’ve watched him on so many occasions throughout the last few years. I actually spent three or four hours with him last year so he knew what I thought of him, and I think that was important. He’s quick, can score goals and makes great runs. His movement is excellent. He’s got the potential to be a really outstanding striker.” -Harry Redknapp
I know financially it could be crippling, and it is the opposite to the kind of direction I wanted the club to go after the last 18 months, but you can help but be excited when your club signs a talented striker. I am really looking forward to seeing him at West Ham and I hope the fans don’t hold the money issues against him. If he and any new signing bring the work rate and commitment to go with their talent, we have some genuinely good players on our hands. Taarabt must be rubbing his hands together.... -Simmo
Four and a half year contract on who knows how many tens of thousand pounds per week. Why do we give out such long contracts? We never learn. With our wage bill it's going to be totally frightening next season in the Championship, barring a miracle. Japrangers
Actually I think this signing is well worth the risk just what we need at the right time. We need a top class goal scorer and I think this fella fits the bill sometimes you have to take the necessary risks to achieve your goal. Staying up looks more possible to me every day Harry has been at the club. CarrotcrunchR
With all caveats in place that I think that Remy, and in particular M'Vila are absolutely 'triffic signings, I can't help be be slightly worried by the comments that 'Tony Fernandes worked really hard on the deal, I didn't think it would happen...' is essentially a euphemism for the following conversation:
How about 40K? no?
what about 50k? no?
I can go to 60k? no?
Alright, 70k though, but don't tell the others... no?
Fine, 80k it is...
QPR supporters have, Pavlov’s dog style, been conditioned to fear new signings over the last 12 months. When your football club goes out and buys a new player – particularly a club record purchase of a 26-year-old French international coveted by other Premier League teams – the initial reaction should be excitement and yet for many among the Rangers fanbase to news that Loic Remy has turned down Newcastle to move to Loftus Road instead has been a cause for consternation and worry.
A total of 16 players have arrived at Loftus Road over the past 12 months and the outcome has been catastrophic. The wage bill has soared while team spirit has disintegrated; the squad is bloated with many players earning colossal wages and contributing nothing at all; the relationship between players and supporters so strong after promotion 18 months ago has completely collapsed. Each new player has made QPR progressively worse. If Pavlov had smacked his dog between the eyes with a newspaper every time he rang the bell then the mutt would have come to fear the jingle whenever it sounded, and QPR fans are now incredibly wary of any new arrival in W12.
Remy is essentially everything QPR are currently crying out for; a strong, quick, focal point for the attack with an eye for goal and a powerful physique that will worry defenders. Adel Taarabt has manfully and skilfully handled his move to a lone striker position in recent weeks but even his robust frame can only take so much of the punishment it received from Michael Dawson and Jan Vertonghen against Spurs at the weekend. Remy will remove responsibility from Taarabt’s shoulders, free space for him to work in, and finish chances the Moroccan creates. With Andy Johnson out for the season, Bobby Zamora still busying himself with things other than football and Djibril Cisse seemingly on his way out it’s a crucial addition to a flagging attack.
But then not many of the 16 new arrivals that Mark Hughes inflicted on our club looked like bad signings at the time. Ji-Sung Park had been a key component to the midfield engine in Man Utd’s most difficult and important games for several seasons and seemed cheap at a starting price of £2m – as soon as he pulled on the blue and white hoops the man they used to call Three Lung possessed all the stamina and energy of a smoker outside the hospital doors. Zamora, Johnson, Robert Green, Esteban Granero and others all seemed like sound buys only to disappoint. Jose Bosingwa won the Champions League in May and arrived on a free transfer aged just 29 – he’ll go down as one of QPR’s worst ever signings.
There are warning signs with Remy that have been present with some of the other high profile disasters. He hasn’t been starting or scoring for Marseille this season – one goal from 14 appearances in a division nowhere near as strong as the Premier League – for a start. His reputation as something of a flat track bully – bolstering his goal tally by scoring regularly against the division’s lesser teams while struggling against the better ones another. And then there’s the fact that until Monday afternoon he seemed absolutely nailed on to sign for Newcastle United only to suddenly be persuaded otherwise by QPR. Now this isn’t as big a worry as it would have been last season – he’s turned down a Newcastle side that’s actually only seven points and four places better off than Rangers rather than the Champions League chasing side of a year ago – but when Harry Redknapp says Tony Fernandes “wouldn’t give up” and “worked very hard” on the deal it’s hard to believe that Rangers haven’t once again handed out an extortionate contract which they’re now tied into for four and a half years.
One concern that should be a big talking point of the forthcoming fans forum is just how on earth QPR can sustain their current wage bill if they are relegated to the Championship, and what the contingency plans are if they don’t bounce straight back within the first season or two. Even if that is all planned for and in hand, wasn’t half the problem under Hughes the split in the dressing room between the haves and the have nots?
For now, Harry Redknapp is owed some faith. He’s created a team from the shambles he inherited and I thought that was beyond the capabilities of any one man three months ago. He’s got QPR into a shape and style, organised them and made them difficult to beat and now he wants a dynamic cutting edge for the top end of the team to turn draws like the one against Tottenham at the weekend into wins. It’s hard to begrudge him that given the work he’s done so far, but this transfer will only increase the volume on the “next Portsmouth” criticism that stalks QPR at every turn.
I’m confident Redknapp knows what he’s doing, but does Tony Fernandes?
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Pictures – Action Images