Harry's only regret? Not signing Odemwingie
Harry Redknapp’s only regret this year is not trying harder to bring West Brom’s Peter Odemwingie to relegation-bound QPR.
Rangers are facing up to life in the npower Championship after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at home to Stoke left them 10 points adrift of safety with only four matches remaining.
It has left previously upbeat manager Redknapp conceding defeat in his battle to stave off relegation from the Barclays Premier League but with few regrets.
The only thing the QPR boss wishes he had done differently is to have brought in Odemwingie, who saw a January move to Loftus Road collapse after his bizarre deadline day actions.
“I would not have changed an awful lot, really,” Redknapp said.
“I’d have probably tried harder to get the boy from West Brom, Odemwingie.
“He might have really given us something up there with Bobby Zamora not being 100 per cent fit. He might have scored four or five goals that make the difference.
“He did no different to what about 50 other footballers did on the same day.
“He made one big mistake. He was too honest, he turned up at the football club, he was silly.”
Another of the strikers Redknapp tried to bring in during the January transfer window was Stoke’s Peter Crouch.
As fate would have it, he helped condemn his former club to the drop by putting the Potters ahead late in the first half before winning the penalty which Jon Walters fired home.
Just over two years ago, Crouch scored the winner for Redknapp’s Tottenham against AC Milan in their Champions League last-16 tie at the San Siro. Now it is the Championship that awaits the QPR boss.
“That’s life,” Redknapp said. “I started off at Bournemouth for 10 years and I loved every minute of it. I love football.
“The San Siro was great. I loved it. Fantastic.
“It was great going to Milan and winning but this is where I am now and I will get on with the job.”
Redknapp played down suggestions he was uncertain about staying with the west Londoners, reiterating that any decision on his future lied with QPR’s owners.
“I’d rather us have the challenge of building another Premier League team here which I would have done and we wouldn’t be in trouble,” Redknapp added.
“If I had started at the start of the year and we’d have been where we are I’d have gone ’Yeah, I put the team together lads and I’m sorry I’ve put a bad team together and that’s where we are’.
“But this is where we are. I’ve tried my best with what we’ve had and it’s not been good enough.”
