Chris Powell said sorry for beating QPR at the end of last month because he genuinely likes Rangers.

Charlton should be sorrier still for sacking a fine coach and setting the rumour mill going that links him with Harry Redknapp’s job at Loftus Road.

Powell was linked twice with Rangers and once with Fulham a player, but ironically for a QPR side embroiled in a debt crisis – wages were a problem back in 2005.

Harry went ballistic at a recent press conference when the journalist who wrote he was on borrowed time brazened it out by sitting in front of him.

Queens Park Rangers v Brighton & Hove Albion - Sky Bet Football League Championship
Under fire: QPR boss Harry Redknapp has come in for criticism

Full marks for courage you have to say, and although the manager rubbished the story with a sprinkling of industrial language, the rumours won’t go away.

Chelsea legend Franco Zola is the latest linked with a move that suggests Harry will get more leisure time at his seaside home on the south coast.

Of course, all this gets washed up with the tide if QPR go on the type of scoring spree that’s so far eluded them.

That and twin Burnley strikers Sam Vokes and Danny Ings get crocked – as suggested by Robert Green after Tuesday’s set-back at Brighton – but the keeper said it tongue firmly in cheek.

Queens Park Rangers v Huddersfield Town - Sky Bet Football League Championship
Big miss: QPR have struggled without top scorer Charlie Austin

Redknapp has protested he’s spent very little money while at Rangers – but the numbers don't stack up. There is £8million-worth of players getting treatment right now in Charlie Austin and Matt Phillips.

And even if hard bargains were struck I would love to know the wages for Kevin Doyle, who takes home around £40,000 at Wolves, Benoit Assou-Ekotto from Premier League Tottenham, and Aaron Hughes ex of Fulham also on a top-flight wedge?

Factor in most of the other previous high earners since August, and they all come with designer price tags.

Danny Simpson was said to have scoffed at a new £25,000-a-week offer from Newcastle in April 2012, to name but one.

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Harry says Rangers fans have no divine right for an immediate return to the Premier League.

Yeovil boss Gary Johnson might disagree when his side visits this weekend with an entire budget amounting to less than half a Charlie Austin.

If, and I say ‘if’ carefully, Rangers were to look to another man, it would have to be someone ready to rein in the spending. Mr Powell got by on practically nothing if the one tin of biscuits in The Valley’s press lounge is anything to go by.