HARRY Redknapp is not a Lancashire Telegraph reader then.

For if he was, the QPR boss would never have needed to address the West London press about his apparently doomed pursuit of Rovers’ top scorer Jordan Rhodes.

Rovers, according to Redknapp, ‘want their money back – they want their £8m or £9m for him’.

That contradicts what Gary Bowyer told us just two weeks ago.

“I was never very good at maths but we paid £8m for him, then he goes and scores the most goals in the calendar year – more than Luis Suarez – and yet he is still valued at £8m,” Bowyer said.

“That doesn’t quite add up to me – but then again I’m no Carol Vorderman!”

Then again even if Redknapp had seen his Rovers counterpart’s memorable comments, it is unlikely they would have prevented him from putting his admiration for Rhodes on record.

This is what Redknapp does at this time of year – he talks about players from other clubs.

But while his words may be lapped up by the media – and let’s not be hypocritical here, as soon as what he said about Rhodes emerged yesterday they went straight on to our website – that does not excuse him for what is really poor form.

Not that his thinly veiled attempt to drive down the prolific striker’s price publicly is likely to work. Why would it?

Why would Rovers be tempted to sell Rhodes – a player who has scored an incredible 44 goals in 76 appearances since his £8m move from Huddersfield Town – for a similar amount for which they bought him?

And even if a club comes in with – to quote Bowyer – an ‘astronomical bid’, they should resist as he is critical to their hopes of promotion.

If Rhodes remains a Rovers player come February 1 then the club’s January transfer window dealings will have been a success – especially given what has happened up to now.

They have completed the signings of Tom Cairney and Rudy Gestede – with the £600,000 paid for the former an absolute steal – while managing to shift more than 10 players not in Bowyer’s first-team plans off the books.

Crucially, however, the vast majority of those players have gone out on loan rather than on permanent deals.

And with Rovers facing the very real prospect of Financial Fair Play penalties next season there is no getting around the fact that they will, eventually, have to sell a player who they do not want to lose – and maybe sooner rather than later if Crystal Palace follow up their long-held interest in captain Scott Dann with an official bid.

But sorry to disappoint you, Harry, that player is not Rhodes.

Certainly not, as he says, at ‘£8m or £9m’.