Re: **Official Other Games Thread, Season 2012/13**
QPR’s training break in Dubai last month became a “stag party” according to first-team players.
In claims that will embarrass the club’s hierarchy, members of Harry Redknapp’s starting line-up told Mirror Sport the week-long camp in the Middle East descended into a “joke”.
Manager Redknapp did not stay in the same hotel as the players and his coaching staff.
Early-morning training sessions lasted barely 90 minutes before the squad were left to their own devices, which saw all-night benders for some and huge bar bills run up, according to accounts given by three players to Mirror Sport.
Some players were said to be incapable of training as a result of their partying, resulting in reprimands from Redknapp.
In a series of astonishing and candid admissions, players broke ranks to reveal the Rangers camp is split into dressing-room cliques, with jealousy over the massive wage differences and anger at a perceived lack of application by some of the squad.
With just two wins from 27 Premier League games, Rangers require a near-miracle if they are to avoid relegation.
But what was supposed to be a team-building break instead became a glorified “holiday”.
One player admitted: “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. It would have been better if we’d stayed here in London.
“We had training very early in the morning. We’d start at 8am and be finished, every day, by 9.30 at the latest.
"It was very warm and after that we would just go out.
“Then in the evening some players were out, until 3am, 4am, 5am – and then went to training at 8am. It was like a stag party.
“Some looked at it as if we had a five-day holiday. It wasn’t one or two of us. That’s the problem.”
Redknapp and his wife Sandra stayed in a different hotel from the Royal Meridien in which the squad and coaching staff were housed throughout the week.
Another senior member of the team added: “I’ve never known anything like what happened in Dubai.
“We had all day to ourselves. That meant shopping, the pool, nightclubs. We were on holiday, it was just a party.
“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.
“We have to take the blame for what we did. We know that.
“But some of us think that if the manager had been in the same hotel he could have controlled what was going on.
“What sort of club allows a team with 17 points and only two wins all season go and do this?
"It’s impossible to survive like that and so this club isn’t going to survive.”
Redknapp confirmed on Friday night he had stayed in a separate hotel and that the players had only trained for 90 minutes each day.
Quizzed over the specific allegations of drinking, he replied: “If it happened they must have done something I didn’t see.
"I don’t believe what you’re saying. I can’t see it.”
The claims appeared damning and set to cause outrage among QPR fans