QPR boss Redknapp rubbishes reports of heavy drinking during Dubai trip

The Rs manager admitted his players may have got drunk once but dismissed notions of ill discipline, insisting he worked the squad "to their knees" at training every day

Harry Redknapp has strongly denied reports that the QPR squad went on "all-night benders" during their mid-season Dubai training camp, insisting an agent trying to "disrupt" the club was behind the story.

A report in the press on Saturday morning claimed that numerous members of the Rs team had told of huge bar bills in nightclubs as the squad drank every night and barely trained, with some players missing sessions altogether.

But Redknapp hit out at the claims, describing them as "an absolute load of nonsense".

"There was six or seven teams out [in Dubai] and we were the only one that trained every day," he stressed to reporters.

"We did not have one day off. We trained on the Tuesday and the sport scientist came to me and said 'we shouldn't train tomorrow, you worked them so hard this morning'. I said 'no, we're going to train every day'. I had them on their knees they worked that hard.

"I let them go out one night. When they went out they told me there was five other teams in the same place.

"Why has no-one wrote about the other teams going having a night out? You know why? This story has come from somebody who is trying to disrupt the football club.

"I know exactly who he is and I know his reasons for doing it. We all know, the chairman knows. It's not come from players, it's come from a football agent.

"Every day at half-past eight, there wasn't one player ever late for the coach. We worked absolutely to the maximum."

Redknapp then indicated that the players was also outraged by the story and hopes that Saturday’s long-overdue victory over Southampton will make the "fabricated" claims blow over quickly.

"They were disgusted with it," he continued. "They had a meeting last night. I called them in and the couldn't believe it.

"Today's performance and result has shut everyone up after such a fabricated story in the press this morning.

"We've let our football do the talking. The article in the paper was a total non-story. Write us off at your peril. It will be fish and chip paper tomorrow."