West Brom striker Peter Odemwingie has been told not to return to training until next week.
The 31-year-old tried to force a move to QPR on transfer deadline day.
Speaking
outside the West Brom training ground on Friday, Odemwingie said: “I
have been given a few days offand will be back in training next week.”
Odemwingie
met with club board members Dan Ashworth and Richard Garlick and head
coach Steve Clarke on Friday morning and will miss Sunday’sgame against
Tottenham Hotspur.
Afterwards, a statement from the club said: “After
the events of the past week, the club decided it is in the best
interests of all parties that Peter is not involved in Sunday’s game and
he was given permission to return home.”
However, although
Odemwingie regrets his actionsin travelling to London, he insists his
long-term future remains away from The Hawthorns.
“I am a very emotional person who sometimes doesn’t think,”he told Sky Sports News on Friday.
“I will still leave the club. It is only a matter of time.”
Baggies
chairman Jeremy Peace accused Odemwingie of acting unprofessionally
over the apparent attempt to open talks without the club’s permission.
But
although Odemwingie admitted he was perhaps a “little unprofessional”
he defended himself by claiming the circumstances were not so different
to when he joined West Brom from Lokomotiv Moscow in 2010 for £2.5m.
He also put Thursday’s actions down to a misunderstanding.
“I
came to this club (West Brom) in a wholly unprofessional way. I wasn’t
given any written permission by Lokomotiv Moscow but I arrived at this
club. I did a medical, I don’t think everything went so professional
when I arrived,” he added.
Clarifying his comments, he said: “I’m saying that these things don’t matter so much when adults are dealing with each other.
“I
think there was a misunderstanding somewhere because I could have held
my goodbyes to the [West Brom] players if I was told it is not going to
happen.”
Odemwingie felt he had been given the go-ahead from West
Brom to complete his move to QPR, but conceded he did not have written
permission.
He had appeared optimistic that a deal could be reached when he was interviewed on his arrival in west London on Thursday.
“I
hope they will be happy with what they get and, of course, they want to
get in players themselves. I just hope that everything will be sorted
out in the next few hours,” he told Sky Sports News at the time.
But
Odemwingie said on Friday: “They [West Brom] didn’t give me written
permission, but you know we are in England and when you’re gentlemen you
understand each other so easily.
“In my opinion, everything wasdone
right and at the last moment, I don’t know what really happened, but I
think other people can answer this question as well.
“We were almost
there, the club were angry that I went there and it was on TV. They
weren’t angry that I went there, but when it came up on TV that’s when
they said that this deal is off and why did I dothat.
“So I understand the club to be honest, it was a bit unprofessional but we all knowour positions and we were almost there.
“I understand I have to honour any contract but the club knowI have wanted to leave for some time now.
“They
feel I can overcome that but they are not the ones who know their own
heart. They believe while I am struggling I can keep performing on the
pitch.”
QPR manager Harry Redknapp said he felt sorry for Odemwingie
and suggested Junior Hoilett’s decision not to go on loan from QPR to
West Brom was one reason why any potential move broke down.
“The
whole thing was a bit of amess. I felt genuinely sorry for him. I think
there was a mistake. He travelled down and I think he thought the
dealwas done and that is why he turned up.
“I think he thought ‘I
better getdown, have the medical, sign the forms’ – it was just a
mistake. It is now difficult as hehas to go back to West Brom and get on
with his life.
“It wasn’t easy. He is not a bad lad, he is a nice,
nice boy and that is what disturbed me last night, that he got himself
into that situation and there was nothing sort of malicious in it.”
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