QPR: Harry Redknapp lauded "unbelievable signing" but 10 appearances tell a different story | OneFootball

Defender Christopher Samba failed to live up to manager Harry Redknapp's expectations after his move to QPR in January 2013.

After an incredibly disappointing start to the season, it looks set to be another battle for survival for Queens Park Rangers in the Championship this campaign.

QPR secured safety last term following a remarkable turnaround under Marti Cifuentes, but they have not kicked on in the way they would have hoped in the early stages of this season.

The R's are now in their 10th consecutive season in the Championship since suffering relegation from the Premier League in 2015, and they have failed to seriously challenge for a return to the top flight over the past decade.

While the Hoops would no doubt love to be back among the elite in English football, they will not have happy memories of their previous two seasons in the top tier, with both ending in relegation.

The first of those relegations was in the 2012-13 season under Harry Redknapp, and it was a campaign characterised by disastrous high-profile signings, with defender Christopher Samba one example of a major transfer flop.

Christopher Samba failed to live up to Harry Redknapp's bold QPR prediction

Having already brought in the likes of Robert Green, Julio Cesar, Jose Bosingwa, Esteban Granero and Park Ji-sung during the summer transfer window, QPR took an ambitious approach once again in January, with six big-name signings arriving at Loftus Road, including Samba.

Samba joined the R's from Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala, who have since been dissolved, for a fee of £12.5 million, and he was said to have been given a contract worth around £100,000-a-week.

Given that Samba had made 185 appearances in a successful five-year spell at Blackburn Rovers between 2007 and 2012, establishing a reputation as a solid Premier League defender during that time, he looked to be a strong signing for the Hoops, and that was certainly Redknapp's view.

"This is an unbelievable signing," Redknapp told the club's official website.

"Tony Fernandes deserves a lot of credit for this one – he has worked so hard on bringing him in.

"I was speaking with him a month ago and he asked me who I would want to sign if Ryan Nelsen left, he asked me to give him a couple of names.

"I said to him, ‘Well, these aren’t possible to get but if you’re asking me who I’d have, I’ll give you a couple of players.’ One of them was Chris Samba.

“The next thing I know he’s telling me that he’s working on bringing him in! It’s amazing.

"Chris is just what we need. He’s a monster. Great in the air, quick, a leader, strong, fantastic in both boxes, hard as nails. He’s a proper centre-half."

The R's sat bottom of the table with just two wins to their name at the time of Samba's arrival, so supporters would certainly have been encouraged by Redknapp's comments about their new addition, but the defender's spell at Loftus Road turned out very differently to the way the veteran manager expected.

Christopher Samba deal was a nightmare for QPR

While Samba seemed like a decent signing for QPR on paper, the warning signs were there from the start, with Anzhi Makhachkala director German Tkachenko claiming that the R's had "lost their minds" for breaking the bank to sign the defender.

Redknapp revealed that the Hoops rejected a "massive offer" for Samba from a Russian club less than a month after he made the move to Loftus Road and he quickly established himself as a regular starter at the heart of the defence.

It initially looked as though Samba was making an impact, with the R's securing back-to-back wins over Southampton and Sunderland shortly after his introduction to the team to breathe new life into their survival bid, but it would not be long until his relationship with the fan base declined.

After Samba was responsible for two of the goals conceded in his side's 3-2 defeat at Fulham in early April, he took to social media to apologise for his first-half performance, but he also told supporters to "get over" the issue of his high wages.

With Samba already struggling to win over Hoops fans, it is fair to say his comments did not go down well, and he would only feature three more times before suffering a season-ending injury.

QPR went on to be relegated to the Championship with a dismal total of 25 points, and after making just 10 appearances for the club, Samba returned to Anzhi Makhachkala for a fee of £12 million that summer, but while the R's would have been relieved to recoup much of the money they paid for him, it did little to ease their frustration about the failed transfer deal.

Reflecting on his horror spell at Loftus Road, Samba described the Hoops' dressing room as the worst he has ever been involved in, and while he insisted that Redknapp did not lose the players, he admitted the club's unequal wage structure contributed to their problems.

"Let me put it this way, that's the worst dressing room I've been in, in football," Samba said on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast in September.

"I don't think he lost the dressing room.

"I think the wages being structured was not really good. You know, you have a player on £10,000 [per week] playing with one who is on £50,000 [per week], you have a player on £20,000 [per week] playing with someone who's on £100,000 [per week].

"So, it's a lot of resentment a little bit, you know, if that player plays better than the one who is on more money on that day, he feels some type of way.

"I think the way the squad had been constructed was just our downfall really."