Maybe he just felt that he really could save the team from the drop. Or perhaps he was simply attracted by a no lose situation. If he failed, he didn’t fail – Mark Hughes did. And if he succeeded, then it would be all thanks to him.
For a short while it looked like QPR might just recover enough to escape the drop but now relegation seems a formality. Yet Redknapp has been quick to start laying the blame elsewhere. No sooner had his team lost to Everton at the weekend than he had begun to talk of how difficult it would be to get players off the wage bill and how he wished he had a group of players with pride to play. It was classic ‘it’s not my fault, guv’ stuff from the former West Ham and Tottenham coach.
It was also quite ironic for Redknapp to start talking about players being on high wage bills and having players it is difficult to shift. Redknapp is usually responsible for the mass recruitment of overpaid short term signings at most clubs he manages. At QPR he has done his best not to be out done in that respect by his predecessors – Christopher Samba and Loic Remy were brought in this January. Both are good players, but QPR paid huge money for both.
Remy, ironically, should be easy enough to shift, as he is a genuinely quality player who will want to play at the top level and has a release clause in his contract enabling him to leave in the event of relegation. But Redknapp must start to take some responsibility. He has been manager of QPR for a few months now and got them to play well against Tottenham and Chelsea. Why not now against other sides?
And this is the thing about Redknapp. He is likeable because he is straight talking and perceptive in most of his comments. Yet he is dislikeable because he claims to disown the very things that characterise him as well. Short termism, looking out for oneself, looking to shift blame onto others – these are all typical traits you would associate with Harry Redknapp.
So whilst his QPR side may be sliding into the Championship where they do frankly belong, in spite of the disgusting amounts of money they have lavished on overrated players in a bid to avoid that fate, Redknapp must face up to the idea of collective responsibility. It’s not something that he would be usually associated with, but perhaps some leadership coming from the manager would be a good place to start for QPR.
