QPR chief executive Philip Beard has lifted the lid on a hectic transfer deadline day and claims Bobby Zamora was always a top target.
Chief exec Beard insist club only ever targeted four players
Queens Park Rangers chief executive Philip Beard has lifted the lid on a hectic transfer deadline day and claims Bobby Zamora was always the club's 'Plan A'.
The Loftus Road outfit signed the striker from Fulham on Tuesday, while Djibril Cisse, who scored on his debut in Wednesday's draw at Aston Villa, was brought in from Lazio.
QPR, funded by new and ambitious owner Tony Fernandes, had earlier in January been linked with an audacious move for Manchester City's Carlos Tevez, while Alex and Christopher Samba were also targets.
But Beard was delighted with his club's business and insists Zamora was always the priority deadline day target.
The QPR official told the
Daily Telegraph: "Zamora was Plan A and everything was geared to him. But we had to think of a Plan B, C and D.
Concern
"The transfer window is a bit like a chess game. As we were trying to bring Zamora in, we could see how that could work, because Fulham were trying to sign a player in Germany (Pavel Pogrebnyak).
"But if that didn't happen, did we go for Nikica Jelavic, who looked like he was going to Everton, say, or Hugo Rodallega? Or change tack and go for Steven Pienaar?
"I focused 100 per cent on Bobby, but in the back of my mind I had to be prepared. We agreed Bobby should go for a medical.
"At that stage I was in discussion with his agent but our figures were miles apart. I was seriously concerned about whether we would find common ground."
QPR earlier in the winter also signed Nedum Onuoha from City and loaned Federico Macheda, Taye Taiwo and Samba Diakite from Manchester United, AC Milan and Nancy, respectively.
Crazy
Despite being an endless rumour mill, Beard is adamant the club only ever targeted three or four players.
He said: "Throughout the transfer window I have tried to focus only on the players on our wanted list. Being newly promoted and under new ownership, we are a buying club.
"As a result, I get hundreds of calls from hundreds of agents about hundreds of players. The phone did not stop. Yet, in our minds, we had three or four targets.
"Some crazy numbers been bandied about over what we have to spend. Most are fictitious, some ridiculous, but the squad read about them.
"So I have had a lot of conversations with players explaining that, though ambitious, we are also running a business that has to be realistic."
