Harry Redknapp slams ‘disgraceful’ stories about QPR’s trip to Dubai

Harry Redknapp has slammed stories about Queens Park Rangers’ activities during their mid-season break to Dubai, branding them ‘disgraceful’ and ‘mischievous’.

The 66-year-old, who watched his side get their survival hopes back on track with a 1-0 win over Southampton, took his players away last month for a training camp in the Middle East.

But the Daily Mirror reported that the break ended up like a ‘stag party’, and Redknapp has refuted the claims, insisting he trained his players hard all week and even went against medical advice as he looked to get his team up to speed for the relegation run-in.

“The article this morning was disgraceful,” fumed the QPR manager. “It was a non-story. It was mischievous.

“I took the players away and we trained every day. Five or six Premier League clubs went out there that week because there were no games for 14 days. Two clubs didn’t train at all. They didn’t want to train, that’s fine and that’s up to them.

“They decided that it was a mid-season break, they wanted four or five days away and they were going to unwind and rest because they’d had a long, hard season. That’s how they saw it.

“We wanted to train [the players] hard every day and that’s what we did. We trained every single day.

“On the Wednesday the sports scientist and the doctor said to me, ‘Harry, you trained them so hard the first two days I think we’re going to run the risk of injuries if we train tomorrow’. I said, ‘no, sorry we’re here to train, we’re going to train’.

“I went against all the medical people and trained them again and I trained them so hard they had real session.”