THE most bizarre football transfer story I have ever reported on didn’t actually come to fruition!
It concerned West Bromwich Albion striker Peter Odemwingie, 31, who infamously drove 125 miles down to London trying to personally force through a move to Queens Park Rangers. It ended up with Odemwingie being abruptly locked out of the Loftus Road stadium!
Let me take you back to deadline day of Thursday 31st January 2013.
I was sent to Premier League drop zone strugglers QPR as the designated talkSPORT Radio correspondent covering the club’s transfers. A host of other journalists and TV cameras were present too.
Late in the day at 7.15pm, I spotted Odemwingie arriving in his immaculate Range Rover. Strong rumours circulated amongst the assembled media huddle that a £3 million swoop was due to be clinched by QPR boss Harry Redknapp.
So I spontaneously grabbed an opportunity to interview the Nigeria international player. It became quite a coup!
Odemwingie told me: “It is a new chapter to start in my life in Queens Park Rangers colours. I am very pleased by the trust and chance Harry Redknapp is giving. It is a good move for me.
“Every football fan is interested to see if QPR can prevent relegation and I am really optimistic about it. A few excellent players have already arrived here. I don’t think the owners would spend so much money to recruit top quality footballers if they didn’t imagine the team could stay up.
“My transfer is not 100 percent sorted yet though. I just hope it can be resolved in the next few hours and West Brom will be happy with the fee received.”
Even so, it seemed extremely strange to me when Odemwingie was turned away from the stadium offices entrance on South Africa Road. He proceeded to hang around in his car for some four hours.
It transpired Albion hadn’t accepted an offer for his services and Queens Park Rangers were thereby not granted permission to speak to Odemwingie.
Thus officials at QPR felt morally duty bound to keep him outside the premises to avoid disrespecting West Brom. Then once the transfer window eventually slammed shut at 11pm, Odemwingie’s move had completely fallen through.
I discovered the main drawback was the reluctance of QPR winger Junior Hoilett to join West Brom on loan within this entire package.
The millions of radio listeners could barely believe what was occurring while I reported live from the dimly-lit pavement in West London.
So I spoke to Redknapp who said: “It is rather frustrating. There was a mistake because Peter Odemwingie travelled down here believing the two clubs had agreed the deal.
“But we hadn’t and it was all a bit of a mix-up really. I am genuinely sorry for the lad and the way matters unfolded. It wasn’t any of our doing at Queens Park Rangers.
“There was nothing malicious in Peter’s actions either. He probably thought: ‘I’ve got to go to QPR, have a medical and get the transfer forms signed.’
“For us, there wasn’t a problem with anything. We wanted to sign Peter although negotiations dragged on for nearly three weeks.
“It was just that one of my players was going to go the other way to West Brom on loan but then decided he didn’t want to leave.
“Peter is now facing a tricky situation of returning to West Brom and getting on with the rest of his life. What disturbed me is he is a nice boy and not a bad lad so it is a tough task for him.”
I also interviewed the QPR chief executive Phil Beard. He said: “It was a difficult scenario. Before we can talk to a player, we need the two clubs to approve overall terms.
“Therefore we spent the last few days in dialogue with West Brom regarding Peter Odemwingie and we remained totally keen at our end to finalise everything.
“However if two clubs cannot agree, ultimately we cannot speak to the player. It seems there was a misunderstanding and Peter came down to London hoping the deal would be brokered. We didn’t reach that stage unfortunately.
“So we were not able to talk to Peter at all and we had to ask his representatives to take him away. One thing which is a big challenge is if you have other people involved in a transfer sequence trying to make it happen.”
West Brom subsequently fined Odemwingie two weeks’ wages following the incredible unprecedented saga. He moved on to join Cardiff City seven months later.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
