Don't take promotion for granted - Redknapp

READING, United Kingdom (AFP) –

QPR manager Harry Redknapp gestures to his players during the match against Reading on April 28, 2013. Redknapp warned that his club have no divine right to come straight back up from the Championship after a 0-0 draw sent both teams down.

QPR manager Harry Redknapp warned that his club have no divine right to come straight back up from the Championship after their 0-0 draw at Reading confirmed their relegation from the Premier League.

Redknapp, who was also relegated from the top-flight with Southampton in 2005, couldn’t save QPR in the 22 games he has been in charge, in which they have picked up just 21 points.

And the 64-year-old doesn’t expect it to be easy for QPR to regain their place among the English game’s elite clubs.

“QPR are not a super power going into the Championship. You look at the Championship and you see 14 or so big clubs,” Redknapp said.

QPR striker Loic Remy applauds the fans after the 0-0 draw at Reading on April 28, 2013. Remy, who signed earlier in the season from French football, could be among the players to leave the London club in the summer.

“Notts Forest, Leicester Derby, Blackburn, Burnley it is full of quality teams – all big clubs. It will be hard to get out of it, make no mistake of that.

“QPR have no divine right to come back up, it will be very difficult.

“At the end of the day we were short. There are problems within the club, it’s not been easy, but if it had been I wouldn’t have got the job and I wouldn’t have been the manager.

“I’ve got to sit down with the owners and see what their plans are – whether it is with me or not. It’s not a problem with me, whatever they want me to do I will help them with that.”

Redknapp insists he inherited a difficult situation at QPR after replacing Mark Hughes in November with the team already bottom of the table.

“It has been difficult. We have been in very game this year, apart from Liverpool who murdered us,” Redknapp said.

“I just felt we lacked up front and have been short of quality to win games.

“It was a mundane sort of game, it was as if both teams knew they had gone down. We lacked that spark in certain areas and that was how it looked.

“I knew how hard it would be when I walked in, it’s not easy when you’re sitting on four points after 13 games.

Reading’s Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak (L) skips away from Jermaine Jenas during the match against QPR on April 28, 2013. A stale 0-0 draw sent both teams out the Premier League.

“The balance of the team has never been quite right. It’s a difficult job, we were short of quality.

“I don’t worry about myself, I’m only concerned about the owners and the football club.”

Sunday’s stalemate at the Madejski Stadium also condemned Reading to life back in the second tier, just 12 months after winning promotion.

New boss Nigel Adkins, who replaced Brian McDermott in March, has yet to win after five games in charge, taking just two points in the process.

“The fact of the matter is we’re down. We needed to win and we haven’t, what we have to do now is get ourselves ready for the Championship,” said Adkins, who was sacked by Southampton earlier in the season despite guiding them to promotion to the Premier League and to a series of good results at the top level.

“We know where we are going to be for next season now. We have players who have experienced the Championship, but like all clubs there will certainly be players coming and going.

“We learnt the lessons from being in the Premier League and the object will be to get back to the Premier League. I said that to the players.

“It was a very sombre and quiet dressing room. Over the course of the season people have had regrets, but we have to bottle that and make sure we don’t experience that again.”

Unlike Redknapp, Adkins is more upbeat about his side’s chances of promotion next season.

“I’m very positive. There is not a great track record of teams bouncing back, but I’ve done that before at Scunthorpe, albeit at a different level,” he said.

“The drive and ambition will be there for everyone to see next season. I’ve been here for five games now. What happened previously is something that was not in my control.

“All I can do is look at the players, their attitude and application – there are a lot of positives.”