Queens
Park Rangers manger Harry Redknapp admits he was hoping to retain the
services of striker Loic Remy, who is now on the verge of joining Premier
League rivals Chelsea.
Redknapp revealed Remy was in his starting XI to face Sunderland at Loftus
Road on Saturday, before a phonecall at midday informed him the French
marksman was on his way to Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea triggered Remy's release clause and, although the France
international was willing to play, he was withdrawn from the squad.
The 27-year-old failed a medical at Liverpool at the start of the summer,
but is now set to complete his Stamford Bridge move to replace AC
Milan-bound Fernando Torres.
"I didn't see it coming at all," Redknapp told Sky Sports in the wake of
Rangers' first victory of the season. "Maybe I'm a bit naive but I was
hoping he would be with us, he's a good player and he's important to us.
"He didn't refuse to play today, I just felt when people rang me up at 12
o'clock - I didn't know anything before 12 - I needed 11 people whose mind
was on getting points for QPR and to be fair to him his head is not going to
be right today."
Redknapp remains coy on his transfer targets but admits Rangers are hoping
to make additions to their squad before Monday's transfer deadline.
"We are looking around, we've got some irons in the fire," he added. "The
chairman has been fantastic, he's worked hard and we have brought some good
players in, the board have been really supportive.
"We have a couple more irons in the fire and if we can bring in a couple of
players we're wanting I think we'll have a good season."
Diarra 'deal done'
Former Real Madrid midfielder Lassana Diarra, who left Lokomotiv Moscow
after a disagreement with coach Leonid Kuchuk, was spotted at Loftus Road
during the second half and Redknapp is excited to be reunited with the
29-year-old after claiming a deal has been reached.
"He's signed," Redknapp insisted. "I think everything is agreed. He was down
with the chairman last night and I am just delighted to have him.
"I signed him at Portsmouth and he was a fantastic player, when I left they
sold him to Real Madrid for £22 million.
"He's a top, top, top player."
Rangers full-back Armand Traore was dropped to the bench for the visit of
Sunderland, but Redknapp remained non-committal over the Senegal
international's future.
"We had an offer from Palace but whether it goes through or not, we'll wait
and see," he said.
Deserved win
Charlie Austin's maiden Premier League goal was enough to fire QPR to their
first win since returning to the Premier League, the former Burnley striker
ending the club's 315-minute top-flight drought in first-half stoppage time.
"When you're sitting there with no points from two games you're looking to
get a win and I thought we were excellent today and deserved the win,"
Redknapp reflected.
"It was a tough game last week, the problem we've had - and I've said it all
along - is that we started way behind everyone else, we had no team when we
reported back for training.
"We brought players in very late and they didn't have time to settle in and
get up to match speed and even today I was worried, but I thought [Leroy]
Fer, [Jordon] Mutch and [Mauricio] Isla came on an awful lot today."
Redknapp had started the campaign favouring the 3-5-2 formation, but
abandoned wing-backs in favour of 4-3-3 for the visit of Gus Poyet's Black
Cats and it proved a successful formula.
"We can play the three all the same, it's just systems," he said. "Whatever
system you play it's about the players and today it worked well for us,
everybody worked hard and put a shift in for us and when you have that you
can win football matches whatever system you play."
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