Super Eagles outcast, Peter Odemwingie, was at the centre of a bizarre misunderstanding as the deadline day transfer that he had hoped to force from West Bromwich Albion to Queens Park Rangers fell apart. When he turned up at Loftus Road expecting to sign, he was barred from the stadium.
Harry Redknapp, the Rangers manager, broke the club’s transfer record for the second time in a little over two weeks with the £12.5m signing of the central defender Christopher Samba from Anzhi Makhachkala and he added the midfielders Jermaine Jenas and Andros Townsend from his old club Tottenham Hotspur – the former on an 18-month contract, the latter, on loan for the remainder of the season.
Yet it was the drama and controversy of Odemwingie’s failed move that appeared to deflate Redknapp, who also missed out on Stoke City’s Peter Crouch, another of his targets up front, and a third Tottenham player, the midfielder David Bentley.
Odemwingie is likely to be fined two weeks’ wages by West Brom, who said they were “extremely disappointed to witness TV footage of Odemwingie arriving at Loftus Road” when no deal had been struck. The club’s chairman, Jeremy Peace, accused the striker of acting “wholly unprofessionally” and said: “He must now accept the fact he remains under contract for a further 18 months.” Peace called the whole episode “unsavoury”.
Odemwingie had submitted a transfer request last week at The Hawthorns, which was rejected and he tweeted his frustration as his club blocked two offers for him from Rangers. A deal finally looked set to happen on Thursday, with Albion taking Junior Hoilett on loan in part-exchange, only for the QPR forward to refuse to move.
At some point the message was not relayed correctly to Odemwingie, who arrived at Loftus Road to address a media scrum and suggest that he was ready to join Rangers and begin “a new chapter” in his career. Albion, though, immediately released a statement, which said they had no agreement over the transfer and Odemwingie did not have permission to speak to Rangers.
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