Redknapp wary of 'scary' agents

Redknapp has flown across the continent this month trying to bring in the players he feels he needs to drag QPR off the foot of the Barclays Premier League.

The Rs boss is desperate to make more signings before Thursday night's deadline, having only brought in Loic Remy and Tal Ben-Haim so far this month.

Redknapp puts his lack of success in the window so far down to the tactics of agents, who he claims are employing underhand tactics as they bid to secure the biggest commission fees during an increasingly frenetic market.

"This transfer window, I have never seen anything like it. Every agent seems to be trying to screw each other," the QPR boss told a press conference this morning.

"It's like gang warfare out there - it's scary.

"If you're trying to get a player, another agent will try to scupper that deal if he's not involved in it to try to get you to have one of his.

"It's unreal, unbelievable. They're all fighting for big money - that's the problem."

Redknapp went to France to speak to Remy and M'Vila and also travelled to Porto to see if he could persuade Rolando to join his quest to keep QPR in the Barclays Premier League.

He will not partake in a last-minute tour across Europe in the coming days, however, as he refuses to get involved with agents anymore.

There was a big smile across his face when he compared the situation to the so-called Ice Cream Wars - a deadly 1980s turf war that broke out between rival gangs in Glasgow who used to sell drugs and stolen goods from inside ice cream vans.

But there was no mistaking Redknapp's seriousness when he declared his annoyance at the network of agents clubs have to deal with these days - a scenario he never encountered when he first went in to management 30 years ago.

"It's a bit like ice-cream sellers in Glasgow," said Redknapp, speaking of the 1980s conflict which cost six lives.

"If someone has nicked their pitch, someone's gonna' shoot them or something!

"It's not just the person who deals with the players, it's dealing with the person who controls the player, who wants to be in on the deal as well," Redknapp added.

"I have left it to the chairman, it was doing my head in. It's crazy.

"I signed Tony Pulis one night at Newport. I turned up to watch him three hours drive, I got there and he wasn't even playing. He was sitting having a cup of tea in a little hut ten minutes before kick-off. He didn't have an agent. I took him on a free transfer."

It is not just agents who Redknapp thinks are desperate to earn a big wad of cash during the window. The Rs boss thinks players are also out to get more than their fair share this month.

M'Vila, a tough-tackling France international, has been coveted by several Premier League teams, but his decision to move to Russia, where huge wages are on offer, dismayed the QPR boss.

"It was money in the end, that was the key for him," said Redknapp reflecting on his failure to capture M'Vila.

"I think this would have been the best move for him - to come and play in the Premier League.

"He was up for coming here and it looked like we had him, but they (Rubin Kazan) came in late and blew us out of the water with the money they offered him.

"It's a shame because he's a good player. He's only 22."

Redknapp, whose team are rooted to the foot of the table, some five points from safety, said that he is looking to bring in "a few" new faces before 11pm on Thursday.

He cast doubt on a potential move for West Brom striker Peter Odemwingie following his Twitter rant over the weekend, and ruled out signing either Fulham's Brede Hangeland or Jonas Olsson of West Brom.

"I would like to have them, but I don't see their clubs selling them. They would be impossibilities," Redknapp said.

Ryan Nelsen's imminent departure to Toronto means the Rs will be short in defence, but Redknapp still wants Anton Ferdinand off the books, with Turkish side Bursaspor currently in talks with the west London club over a potential loan move for the former Sunderland man.

"I am just looking to change things around," Redknapp said by way of explaining why he was willing to let Ferdinand go.

"I have a few irons in the fire this week so I am willing to let a few go to bring one or two in."

Of his current squad, Jose Bosingwa is perhaps the player Redknapp wants to get rid of most.

The Portuguese refused to sit on the bench for Rangers against Fulham and has not featured for the club since.

However, with the former Chelsea right-back earning £65,000 a week, Rangers are struggling to get the player off their books.

"I have not had an enquiry for him so at the moment nothing is happening there," Redknapp said of Bosingwa.

"No one has rang up so it doesn't look like (he's going)."

Redknapp also played down talk of Jamie Mackie joining either Fulham or Norwich.

"I have read in the papers that we have had offers for him, but they must have got lost in the post," Redknapp said.