Rangers boss Harry Redknapp insists they could not afford to keep Loic Remy in the Championship.

The £8million striker was loaned out to Newcastle at the beginning of the season, and Harry is at pains to point out had he been able to keep some of the relegated Premier League squad, Rs would be skating the second tier right now, rather than almost certainly having to depend on the play-offs for promotion.

“Half of the squad had to go out on loan because they were on too much money,” he said. “Do you think we would be up there if Remy was still here?

“Where do you think we’d have been if we could have kept hold of him? But we couldn’t – he was earning too much money, and we had to build a new team.

“(Manager) Nigel (Pearson) has built a team at Leicester over the last three years.”

QPR expect eight players out for the trip to Middlesbrough tomorrow with the manager calculating bar a miracle Leicester and Burnley had nailed down the automatic promotion spots, with four from the next six contesting the play-offs.

He added: “Reading and Brighton outside the top six are looking good.”