Club sets records straight on Deadline Day reports … I am one hundred per-cent committed to QPR and will continue to give my all" Andy Johnson DESPITE reports to the contrary late last night, Andy Johnson remains a QPR player and is very much part of Harry Redknapp’s first team plans this season. As has been widely reported, Johnson’s former club Crystal Palace showed interest in the player in the final hours of Deadline Day and the club would have reluctantly agreed to let the player leave if the deal suited all parties. However, despite giving Johnson permission to open talks with the Eagles, the club failed to reach a suitable financial agreement for the player who has scored two goals in four league appearances this season. Johnson told www.qpr.co.uk: “It was a bit of a whirlwind last night, but I’m really pleased to still be a QPR player. “The interest from Palace was flattering, but I never once asked for a transfer and like I said a few weeks back, I owe it to QPR – who stood by me when I was injured last season – to stay and help get this club back to the Premier League. “I am one hundred per-cent committed to QPR and will continue to give my all to help us build on what has been a promising start to the season.” R’s boss Harry Redknapp told www.qpr.co.uk: “We reluctantly gave Andy the chance to speak to Palace, who are a club close to his heart. They were keen to offer him a two or three year deal and we felt we couldn’t hold him back from at least talking to them. “However, when it became apparent we weren’t going to be able to get sufficient cover in ourselves in that department before the deadline, we knew we couldn’t let Andy go.” He added: “Andy has been great for us in the opening month of the season and remains a key player for us. “He’s committed and looking forward to the challenge of helping us challenge for a return to the Premier League.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Little bit contradictory in that the club said it fell through due to financial reasons but Redknapp says it's because we couldn't get sufficient cover in time. Poor article really. Something smells a bit fishy.
Its all PR to try and cover themselves and perhaps a backlash from the fans with AJ. However I do believe he will try his best. I dont like the guy but he has never put less than 100% in on the pitch.
a.j wanted to go back home, palace fans love him, every club he plays for he always gives 100 per cent, who knows whats the truth. I reckon rangers needed cover in and could not get it, so priced eagles out of it. he will still be committed player, will he go in January who knows, lets hope he stays injury free, I have met him, very nice chap, he lives next door to freddy flintoff
I'm looking forward to getting behind him and us getting promoted this year. In the same way we got behind Barton on his return it's probably what made him want to stay.
Fishy? Seems pretty clear to me. While we value AJ in the championship, he probably doesn't figure in Harry's plans once we are promoted, plus like so many like to point out on here, he gets injured a lot. So we were probably trying to get in better options, which would probably have left AJ feeling less than committed had we brought someone else in. Unfortunately we couldn't sign anyone else so we didn't let him go, what's fishy about that? The important thing is he's staying, scoring and that's all that matters.
If they were going to offer him a 2 or 3 year deal we couldn't really stop him from talking to them, after all I doubt he would be with us next season let alone in 2 or 3 years time.......Now whether we priced them out of it is a different matter.....
The differing reasons given by club and manager. It is of course all just a PR thing to keep fans from thinking the worst of AJ in any event. Nice story you constructed though I must say.
Good of them to offically give their version so quickly - they are geting better at managing these sorts of things and not letting rumours run on, which is a plus.
If you take the statement at face value - AJ has one year left on his contract with us, if Palarce wanted to offer him a 2 or even 3 year deal and we do not want to do this then we are right to let a player of his age talk to them, once it became clear we wouldn't be able to bring in any cover his value to us increased and so we upped his price tag to a point that Palarce did not want to know. I dont blame anyone in this situation - its just football. Some of the comments on here last night regards AJ were disgraceful - you know who you are.
Translation: we tried to get Crouch or Defoe and lined up a move for Johnson ready for when that happened. It makes sense given he only has a year left on his contract but when we found that these other players really don't have any interest of moving to the Championship (as they had both said before) we had to backtrack fast. We're hoping this hasn't knocked the stuffing out of Johnson's good start to the season and are relying on the fact that he just loves playing. We have given him a nice PR line to reel off and hope that fans under the age of 10 will buy it.
The level of cynicism and distrust on here is sometimes staggering. Fair few paranoiacs wandering around in hooped shirts. Just a typical piece of transfer deadline malarkey, no harm done.
This. There have been some very, very negative comments in general, based on absolutely no evidence just the posters imagination and a desire to post something negative.
All very well said now lets draw a line under this! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I agree. They have confirmed what I and a few others thought last night. No problem here, it is just the way football is.
