Redknapp is apparently breaking his arse at the moment to sign Peter Crouch and (surprise surprise) Scotty Parker.

How many times will this be that he's signed Crouch? Three?

It would be, yes. Odemwingie seems to be more likely at this point — as he's spectacularly burned his bridges at West Brom — and the Crouch deal is rumoured to depend on Jamie Mackie going the other way.

Today's gossip has Chis Samba flying to sign with us any minute.

Samba's apparently upset Guus by not saying goodbye.
Sounds like he's done a Pennant and left his car, engine running at the airport.
No one's done a bunk from Russia that quick since someone tripped over the spy rock.

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote:


For anyone familiar with Storage Wars, United were Dave Hester to City's Jarrod on this locker.

I've been dying to use that analogy. No, really.

[quote="Tony C" post=756914]caja-dglh wrote:


This may be what you mean but it seemed like a clear "Oi, Mr Chairman! Even more money please" message to me.

i think this would be the fourth time redknapp has bought peter crouch. he was portsmouth's director of football when crouch signed for them in 2001. he signed him again at portsmouth in 2008, and at spurs in 2009, so if you credit the first portsmouth signing to redknapp this would be the fourth time.

he has also sold crouch three times - once while he was director of football at portsmouth, again at southampton, and again at spurs.

in fact, harry has been the buyer or the seller in six of the last seven permanent transfer deals in peter crouch's career.

the total transfer fees involved were £44.5m.

edit - actually a mere £43.75m

This may be what you mean but it seemed like a clear "Oi, Mr Chairman! Even more money please" message to me.


Didn't he do the same thing at Spurs? I seem to remember him saying he could have filled it with a couple of kids, but he wouldn't have played them so what's the point?

An alternative is that it sends a message to everyone not on the bench that they're for sale.

HR said when he arrived he didn't anticipate a big influx of players in the window, as it would be unfair on the chairman who's already shelling out big money. Could still be true, in terms of personnel, only two signings so far, and Tal Ben Haim is playing for pocket money. You can bet Samba won't be cheap though.

QPR are spending an unbelievable amount of money - as they did in the summer. That's before even considering the wages, which have been reported as generous. Some of these players will turn out to be good signings and may keep them up this year. But - not unusually for a Redknapp managed club - I fear there will be a reckoning somewhere down the road.

Neither Hughes nor Warnock spent a lot on transfer fees. Many of their incomers were on free transfers (which is also why so many were injury prone, or have/had other issues.) Redknapp has spent £7 million on Remy. So far that's all. Wages are, of course, another issue and are assumed to be immense in some cases.

The new Premier League TV deal, which kicks in next season, is huge money for all involved. Fernandes has sat down, done the sums and decided that lashing out big money now will be worth it in the end -- if they stay up.

garcia wrote:


Who is Crouch's agent, do we know? I seem to recall it might have been his father at one point.

jonathan barnett.

According to transfermarkt, it's Stellar Football Ltd., which represents quite a few Premier League players, including Gareth Bale and Joe Hart (full list at the link).

this is the man

Samba is/has signed a 3.5 year deal apparently. Money not yet announced, speculation is about £8 million.

The speculation I've seen is that QPR met his £10m+ release clause.

Or is the £8m his wages over the deal? Edit, ah actually that would be "only" around £44k a week, wouldn't it?


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AB2 wrote:


Yeah, the issue of how you simultaneously plan to stay up, and for relegation has been much discussed.

It's likely the players now out, or going out, on loan: DJ Campbell, Faurlin, Bothroyd etc. are seen as important should we go down. In that eventuality the players currently being bought, Remy, Samba, have sell-on potential, like Taarabt, Granero and a few others. It's the old and infirm Hughes lumbered us with that will be the problem.

Just for the record, if you look at the link, you will see that Barnett is a principal in Stellar Football Ltd.

Harry Truscott wrote:


Yeah. I think we won't know the real numbers until the smoke clears in a couple of days, maybe not even then. (I'm still not sure how we managed to get Julio César, for instance — but I'm very glad we did.)

[quote="Harry Truscott" post=756932]Tony C wrote:


Well, to a degree, but to me it smacked more of a sympathy plea ("look at me, taking on the big boys and I can't even fill the bench with outfield players") than a demand.