Queens Park Rangers don’t deserve the blame for hijacking Loic Remy’s move to Newcastle United because etiquette left football a long time ago.
Loic Remy agreed that he would meet with Newcastle United officials last Sunday evening to talk through personal terms ahead of a permanent move, but he didn’t show up as QPR matched the £8 million asking price requested by Marseille.
They are also thought to have instantly matched the wage requests of Remy’s representatives which means it’s now a matter of time before the move to Loftus Road is completed.
QPR will be heavily criticised over the coming days but they’re just acting around something which has been in football for a long time.
The classic example has to be Roy Keane signing for Manchester United. Keane agreed to join Leeds United on a Friday, met Alex Ferguson over the weekend and then signed for the Old Trafford club on the Monday.
There is no sportsmanship in the game, no order of etiquette and it’s not going to change any time soon because the number of current players who are as good as their word, or their agent’s word, is very low.
Further good examples are the cases of Arjen Robben and John Obi Mikel, both originally meant to sign for Manchester United before making moves to Chelsea as soon as they set foot in the country.
Agents and player representatives are now so widespread that they can hijack deals, talk round players and stick a spanner in the works in more ways than ever before.
QPR saw an opportunity and they took it in the same way that Liverpool are reportedly trying to convince Wesley Sneijder to move to Anfield instead of joining Galatasaray.
Modern football is in such a state that until a player signs on the doted line, he is still available. It’s happened before, it’s happening now and it will happen again.
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