Crystal Palace co-chairman Steve Parish admits he is frustrated that a late move to re-sign Andy Johnson fell through.
The former England striker (above), who left Palace in 2006 after four seasons there, went to the club’s training ground last night only for Queens Park Rangers to pull out of the deal.
The situation was made even worse because they had also missed out on Arsenal’s Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner earlier in the day.
Parish said: “We thought we had an agreement on the player [Johnson] and a fee agreed but these things are very fraught.
“We were going to take Andy back on a three-year deal. We thought that would be very exciting for the fans, for me personally and for AJ but it’s not to be.
“I think he’s happy to play for QPR — they’re a great club — but Palace and Andy’s relationship is special, isn’t it?”
Palace’s bid for Bendtner failed after Chelsea blocked Arsenal’s attempts to sign Demba Ba on loan from Chelsea.
Arsenal did not want to let Bendtner leave without signing a replacement as Lukas Podolski will be out for three months due to a hamstring injury.
Parish said: “Nicklas wanted to come, we had a deal agreed with Arsenal. Maybe we should have got our act together a little bit sooner but we thought Nicklas was going to come to us.
“But Arsenal did say if they didn’t get another striker in it may be a bit difficult. We thought they’d get a striker, being who they are.”
