By HARRY REDKNAPP
Let me buy for QPR who I want
thesun
Let me buy who I want for QPR and Ill carry the can if it goes wrong
FOOTBALL is not all about money thankfully even these days.
To get a team promoted from the Championship to the Premier League does not rely on the chairmans bank balance.
Once you are in the top flight money becomes more of a factor but even then it is not vital.
As manager of QPR, who have just been relegated, I am not looking for loads of cash to throw at the transfer market.
All I want the owners of the club to do is back my judgment.
I do not want to spend all their money either. I dont have to.
But the one thing I am asking for is to be given the authority to make the decisions about which players we go for.
Then I know its been my handiwork and my ideas.
And also if it goes badly wrong then it is nobody elses fault except mine and I will take full responsibility for it.
When I was last in the Championship, with Ports-mouth, we did not chuck money at transfers.
What we invested in were characters. The likes of Paul Merson, Arjan de Zeeuw, Tim Sherwood and Steve Stone.
Players coming to the end of their careers but who still had that hunger to want to achieve something.
Players who could back me up and get us playing the right football and to win matches of course. That didnt take fortunes.
Most of it was done with free transfers and loan deals, where the parent club was paying a large part of a players wages.
But boy, did they repay me by the bucketload.
In that respect, I want to have the same powers to choose where we go in terms of playing staff now.
I know what I am doing, I know the game and know what QPR need to get back into the Premier League. It will be a difficult task but a challenge I am excited about undertaking.
And one which I believe the owners of the football club want to support me in.
They are nice people, good people. And when you work for good people, you want to work hard for them and produce something for them.
I went out for dinner recently with Milan Mandaric, a shrewd businessman who doesnt throw his money around.
I worked for him at Portsmouth and he trusted in me and let me get on with the job of building a team which was capable of getting us out of trouble.
When I arrived there I think the club was in the bottom six of the Championship and so I started piecing together a team.
We built it on free transfers and has-beens as many people thought they were.
But those players knew what it took to win a match and they knew what it took to keep a dressing-room highly charged and enthusiastic.
Last week, we had been working on trying to sign Wayne Bridge. He had been released by Manchester City after a season-long loan at Brighton and a player of his calibre cannot be left alone for too long or else he will quickly get picked up.
And thats what happened as Reading stepped in to get him.
Thats the kind of bloke I am looking for.
He is a hugely experienced left-back and clearly still up for a game every week.
He was exceptional at the Amex last season.
I dont need to spend loads doing it and I dont want to spend all the owners money.
I believe the future is good at QPR. Obviously, there are quite a few players we need to shift this summer.
But they are still good players and will do a job for someone else. Thats football, every manager has his personal requirements.
I am committed to QPR. I want to do well for the club and I want to take it back where it belongs, in the Premier League.
I understand what it takes to get a team out of the Championship character more than anything.
The kind of players who will be up for it every Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, without flagging and without complaining.
Thats what I need and money is not a factor in that.
You will find as much character at the bottom of League Two as you will at the top of the Premier League, if not more.
It will be one of my biggest challenges to get QPR back up again, that is for sure. The Championship, after all, is seen as the toughest league.
But it will be right up there with my biggest achievements in the game if we do it next season.
I am happy to be at the club and am excited about what we can do.
All I ask for is that the people at the top end trust me and acknowledge I have good experience and know-how.
I think last season showed that just chucking money at the team is by no means a guarantee of success.
But I am still hungry, as I hope the players who stay with me are and those who join me at the club will be.
FOOTBALL is not all about money thankfully even these days.
To get a team promoted from the Championship to the Premier League does not rely on the chairmans bank balance.
Once you are in the top flight money becomes more of a factor but even then it is not vital.
As manager of QPR, who have just been relegated, I am not looking for loads of cash to throw at the transfer market.
All I want the owners of the club to do is back my judgment.
I do not want to spend all their money either. I dont have to.
But the one thing I am asking for is to be given the authority to make the decisions about which players we go for.
Then I know its been my handiwork and my ideas.
And also if it goes badly wrong then it is nobody elses fault except mine and I will take full responsibility for it.
When I was last in the Championship, with Ports-mouth, we did not chuck money at transfers.
What we invested in were characters. The likes of Paul Merson, Arjan de Zeeuw, Tim Sherwood and Steve Stone.
Players coming to the end of their careers but who still had that hunger to want to achieve something.
Players who could back me up and get us playing the right football and to win matches of course. That didnt take fortunes.
Most of it was done with free transfers and loan deals, where the parent club was paying a large part of a players wages.
But boy, did they repay me by the bucketload.
In that respect, I want to have the same powers to choose where we go in terms of playing staff now.
I know what I am doing, I know the game and know what QPR need to get back into the Premier League. It will be a difficult task but a challenge I am excited about undertaking.
And one which I believe the owners of the football club want to support me in.
They are nice people, good people. And when you work for good people, you want to work hard for them and produce something for them.
I went out for dinner recently with Milan Mandaric, a shrewd businessman who doesnt throw his money around.
I worked for him at Portsmouth and he trusted in me and let me get on with the job of building a team which was capable of getting us out of trouble.
When I arrived there I think the club was in the bottom six of the Championship and so I started piecing together a team.
We built it on free transfers and has-beens as many people thought they were.
But those players knew what it took to win a match and they knew what it took to keep a dressing-room highly charged and enthusiastic.
Last week, we had been working on trying to sign Wayne Bridge. He had been released by Manchester City after a season-long loan at Brighton and a player of his calibre cannot be left alone for too long or else he will quickly get picked up.
And thats what happened as Reading stepped in to get him.
Thats the kind of bloke I am looking for.
He is a hugely experienced left-back and clearly still up for a game every week.
He was exceptional at the Amex last season.
I dont need to spend loads doing it and I dont want to spend all the owners money.
I believe the future is good at QPR. Obviously, there are quite a few players we need to shift this summer.
But they are still good players and will do a job for someone else. Thats football, every manager has his personal requirements.
I am committed to QPR. I want to do well for the club and I want to take it back where it belongs, in the Premier League.
I understand what it takes to get a team out of the Championship character more than anything.
The kind of players who will be up for it every Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, without flagging and without complaining.
Thats what I need and money is not a factor in that.
You will find as much character at the bottom of League Two as you will at the top of the Premier League, if not more.
It will be one of my biggest challenges to get QPR back up again, that is for sure. The Championship, after all, is seen as the toughest league.
But it will be right up there with my biggest achievements in the game if we do it next season.
I am happy to be at the club and am excited about what we can do.
All I ask for is that the people at the top end trust me and acknowledge I have good experience and know-how.
I think last season showed that just chucking money at the team is by no means a guarantee of success.
But I am still hungry, as I hope the players who stay with me are and those who join me at the club will be.
