Redknapp defends QPR league position and denies sacking talk
UNDER-FIRE Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp has dismissed suggestions that his job is on the line as the club’s bid to return to the Premier League at the first attempt threatens to unravel.
Saturday’s late defeat to London rivals Charlton was a third loss in a row and has left Rangers in fourth place, 15 points behind Championship leaders Leicester, albeit with a game in hand.
Redknapp said he “wouldn’t take much notice” of reports that his position had become uncertain, adding that QPR ought to be content if they finished in the play-off positions.
“This is the first little blip we have had all season and it can happen. We’ve got four or five of our better players missing at the moment, and that is how it has gone,” he said yesterday.
“It is all to play for. If we end up in the play-offs then I still fancy us. We have put a new team together and if you had said at the start of the year we would make the play-offs, I think we would have been quite happy.
“When you are up there first or second, as we were, then you get disappointed when you lose a few games and start looking at the play-offs. We can still make automatic [promotion], it is not impossible.”
Since drawing with second-placed Burnley, QPR have also lost to play-off rivals Derby and Reading – a sequence that has coincided with top scorer Charlie Austin’s injury absence.