Mark Hughes has revealed Queens Park Rangers’ bid to sign Tottenham Hotspur defender Michael Dawson has stalled.
The Hoops had a £9m offer for Dawson accepted by Spurs on Wednesday but the England defender was unable to agree personal terms with the club.
The QPR manager conceded that the transfer is now looking unlikely, but the 48-year-old refused to rule out a renewed attempt to sign the former Nottingham Forest centre-half.
“At the moment it’s not where I hoped it would be,” said Hughes. “It may change closer to the transfer window closing – perhaps we’ll revisit it – but at the moment it’s not progressing.”
Hughes also revealed QPR are prepared for a busy transfer deadline day should they be unable to complete any potential deals before next Friday.
“Deadline day is very hyped up these days. The excitement of it is always there and I’ve done some great deals in the past on the day,” Hughes added.
“Hopefully we’ll have done our business by deadline day, but if we haven’t we’ll be part of that process once again.”
QPR suffered a demoralising 5-0 defeat by Swansea City in their opening Premier League game, leaving the west London outfit propping up the Premier League table.
The Hoops make the trip to Norwich City this weekend and Hughes says his side must put that loss behind them at Carrow Road on Saturday.
“Our season starts now,” Hughes added. “We’ve worked exceptionally hard this week. We’ve had a good response.
“We disappointed ourselves and our fans last week.”
He added “Norwich will want to put a show on for their fans and will want a response [from their 5-0 defeat at Fulham].
“We need to forget what happened last weekend. We’ve got to really focus on the Norwich game and start our season now. We were caught in the traps against Swansea. We know we have to do significantly better.”