It’s an image once seen, never forgotten.
Hours before the January window closed on February 1, 2013, Peter Odemwingie likely thought little of the Sky Sports cameras and fans clustered by the gates at Loftus Road as he drove to sign for Queens Park Rangers. Instead, he was full of confidence as he spoke of the ‘new chapter’ at the London club.
‘I think every football fan is interested in if it’s going to make it,’ the forward told Sky Sports News, buoyed up at the prospect of his current club, West Bromwich Albion, thrashing out a deal with his apparent new one.
But there was no deal, and instead of being welcomed with open arms, Odemwingie would be shut out of QPR and forced to circle the block before returning north, to the very team he said goodbye to the day before.
Mr Transfer Deadline Day Jim White called the experience a ‘standout’ of his career in an interview with Mail Sport in August, so unheard of was it for a player to be looking to force a move in such brash style.
Peter Odemwingie’s supposed move to QPR from West Brom has gone down in history as one of the greatest ever transfer deadline day stories
The former Premier League forward gave an optimstic interview to Sky Sports as he waited outside the gates at Loftus Road
Now retired from football, Odemwingie is pursuing a golf career and sharing his musical talents on TikTok
But Odemwingie was only the victim of crossed wires, the urging of his agent, and an understanding that at the end of the day, he really would be pulling on QPR’s blue and white hoops.
Needless to say, it wasn’t to be – nor was their much left in his stint at the Baggies, who were understandably furious with the late turn of events. At the end of the season to no one’s surprise, the club’s Premier League record scorer moved on to Cardiff City.
Things had started well at the Hawthorns after the Uzbekistan-born Russian-Nigerian player’s 2010 move from Lokomotiv Moscow, with the Nigeria international netting 15 times and providing a further nine assists during his 32 Premier League appearances in his first season.
But after an average second season and acrimonious third, which saw his goal tally reduce to a third of what it had been two terms earlier, the aborted move to QPR helped speed up West Brom’s plans to call time on his stint in the West Midlands.
Up next was a move to Cardiff City, which also started brightly, only…