Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp has described newspaper allegations his players indulged in a late-night drinking session during a training camp in Dubai this week as “disgusting” and “fabrication”.
The Premier League's bottom club boosted their chances of survival with a 2-1 victory at Southampton on Saturday but Redknapp was furious about a story in Britain's Daily Mirror quoting three unnamed players as saying the camp descended into a “stag party”.
“It was a disgusting story full of untruths,” said Redknapp who turned 66 on Saturday.
“I took the team away and we trained every morning I was there. We were on the bus at 8.30 every morning for training and we never missed a session,” he told BBC.
“They had one night out when they went out with four or five other clubs who were there. I know where this story's come from...and they are trying to make problems for the club,” added Redknapp.
“It didn't come from the players, as sure as I can be it came from a football agent and I know who did it.”
Redknapp said the performance of his players at Southampton, where they narrowed the gap on fourth from bottom Wigan Athletic to four points, was the perfect response.
“It answered all the questions,” he said.
“Today we worked our socks off. The players I took away couldn't have worked any harder.
“It was the hardest I've ever worked a team in Dubai so when I read that it really hurts. It's completely and utterly fabricated and has no truth or substance whatsoever.”
Redknapp was quoted in the Mirror as saying he had stayed in a different hotel to the squad.
An unnamed player quoted in the same story reportedly said: “Dubai was a week when we had the chance to sort out the problems. Everybody wanted to do that. But we ended up going there for a holiday.
“In the evening some players were out, until 3am, 4am, 5am -- and then went to training at 8am. It was like a stag party.”
Another unnamed player was equally scathing.
“Some of the bar bills were enormous, huge, in the tens of thousands of pounds for one night. Two or three players couldn't train the next day. It was that bad,” he was quoted as saying.
QPR owner Tony Fernandes congratulated the team for the victory at Southampton.
“Proud of my players and my manager. Happy birthday Harry,” he said on Twitter.
