'QPR have lost their minds' - Anzhi director blasts Rs over Samba's big-money move

Feb 12, 2013 4:35:00 PM

The defender left the Russian outfit during January, but German Tkachenko says the relegation-threatened side are foolish to be paying the centre-back such a high wage

Anzhi Makhachkala director German Tkachenko says QPR have "lost their minds" with their big-money move for Christopher Samba.

Samba signed for the Premier League bottom club side for €14.5 million, with boss Harry Redknapp claiming the 28-year-old took a significant wage cut to complete the switch.

However, Tkachenko says QPR are paying Samba - who he rates as "one of the top five defenders" in Europe - a similar wage to what he was receiving in Russia, and revealed he cried when leaving for London.

"At QPR he will earn almost as much as he did at Anzhi," he told sports.ru. "In my view QPR have lost their minds.

"Everybody says that he ran away from the club, but that's not true. He didn't put any pressure on the club until we received an offer from QPR for £12.5m, [€14.5m] the amount required by his contract.

"When they agreed to pay his release fee we wept. He wept."

Tkachenko says Samba's move back to England is less surprising given the apparent threat in Russia to the safety of his family, with billionaire Suleyman Kerimov's team based in the volatile region of Dagestan, but hopes he will one day return to the club.

He continued: "[The move] was linked to the threat that he would lose contact with his children. That was a big blow.

"He was a guy who loved all of us. And besides, he is a very good defender. I think he is one of the top five defenders currently playing in Europe.

"If we are successful and playing in the Champions League, I dream that Samba will become an Anzhi player again."