QUEENS PARK RANGERS boss Harry Redknapp was at a loss, at a press conference to unveil new signing Rio Ferdinand, to explain why Liverpool backed out on their proposed transfer of R’s striker Loic Remy.
Liverpool have cited a failed medical as the reason the forward, who spent last season on loan at Newcastle United, would not be signing for the club.
“Well, he’ll come back here,” Redknapp said when asked about the failed move. “I only know what I’ve seen and heard. I can’t see how he has failed a medical because he has took a stringent medical here, had another one at Marseilles, had another at Newcastle and one with the French team before the World Cup.” Redknapp added:
He’s never had a problem with his fitness. You couldn’t meet a fitter lad. I’ve seen that story break but I don’t see how there could be any issue over his fitness. None whatsoever.
“Listen, their loss is my gain. I’ve got a fantastic striker. I said last year when he went [to Newcastle] that I’d lost a 20-goal-a-year striker. He could get you that in the Premier League. That’s what we need him to do. Come back now, get 20 goals for QPR next year and we’ll be delighted.”
Redknapp warmed to a theory, suggested by a journalist at Monday’s press conference, that the Remy move collapsed because Fabio Borrini was refusing to move to Sunderland, from Liverpool, for £14m.
He told Sky sports, “There has to be some [reason] other than a medical one. He’s never failed a medical; there must be other reasons… It’s not fair [on Remy] because he has never failed a medical and the message it sends [false].”