Adel Taarabt continues to divide opinion among QPR fans with some still writing him off as a show pony while others believe we should spend the alleged £4.5m asking price to buy him permanently.

A once in a generation talent, so get off his back
Imagine for a moment that you’re a member of the Hampton Hill cricket team. It’s a lovely summer evening and you’re just walking out onto the pitch just off the High Street in Bushy Park for a knock against Richmond in a league fixture. The opening batsmen for the visitors looks familiar, though you cannot remember facing him before. As he cuts through your first delivery while barely moving from his guard sending the ball spiralling over the clubhouse and through the window of the passing R70 bus the face clicks – it’s Sachin Tendulkar.

In the same way it might do should Tiger Woods turn up at your local club for the Tuesday night clutch, or if you found Fernando Torres pulling on his Astroturf boots for the Friday night fives under the Westway, the word that should immediately come to mind is ‘unfair’.

Last Saturday at Preston it was unfair. For QPR, a bum team in the Championship, to turn up to play another mediocre side from the same division with Adel Taarabt in that form playing up front was simply unfair. The prosecution and defence barristers in court cases are expected to disclose the key thrusts of their arguments, and if Neil Warnock had any clue that Taarabt was going to play like that at Deepdale he really should have done the decent thing and phoned on ahead to advise Darren Ferguson that a man marker, or three, might be appropriate. Mind you, the form he was in, Preston might have had to shoot him to stop him.

The performance, and Neil Warnock’s post match assertion that Tottenham want £4.5m for him and he is therefore unlikely to be returning next season, sparked much discussion on the message board. The general thrust of the debate was; now we’re into this post Flavio Briatore era where we may actually be allowed to have a sensible and quite reasonably backed transfer policy rather than picking up complete tat like Patrick Agyemang and paying it £12,000 a week, should we push the boat out and pay what Tottenham want? Taarabt seems to have his heart set on La Liga for next season but while Spurs cannot fathom where exactly to include him in their starting eleven there must surely be a chance of him building a successful career in this country starting with us if we are willing to get him.

Then true to form, Taarabt was anonymous against Sheff Wed and dire up at Leicester on Monday leaving everybody wondering whether it was the same player of the week before. There have been times this season when if offered him for £450k many fans would have turned Taarabt down, never mind £4.5m. He’s wildly inconsistent, infuriatingly so. Winning us points almost single handedly one minute, losing us them the next.

When I was at secondary school in Scunthorpe (vile school, vile place) the best footballer there was a lad called Nathan Jarman. He would stand behind the canteen smoking at break and lunch, breaking off occasionally to seize possession of the ball in whatever kickabout was taking place on the tennis courts and dribble around what seemed like hundreds of hapless chavs unable to get anywhere near him until he’d tire/run out of breath and retire back to the rear of the canteen for another cigarette. He plays for Grimsby Town now. Taarabt reminds me a lot of him – when he wants to turn it on there’s no stopping him, when he has, as my granddad would have said “a monk on” there’s nobody worse to have on your team.

Personally if Warnock’s valuation is accurate I’d say leave him be. That may turn out to be a terrible mistake if he goes on to fulfil his potential because if he can harness his unbelievable talent into a team and add constancy to his game then he could be worth £20m or more, but at the moment I would say we’d be better getting two players for £2.25m than one for all that money. Our team has many holes to fill even with Taarabt in it, so blowing the vast majority of your summer budget on one luxury player does not make sense really.

It’s all relative though. Last week talk of James Beattie coming to Loftus Road was quickly scotched when it was suggested the Stoke reserve team striker wanted £42k a week, or 10 per cent of QPR’s annual turnover for a player with dodgy knees to put it another way. Our interest ended, and so it should have done. Or, to look at it another way we could have had a player that recently played for England and was far too good for this division when he played in it for Sheff Utd for the money we’re currently paying Agyemang, Rowan Vine and Fitz Hall every week. When you put it like that maybe we should have bummed those three off, given their money to Beattie and laughed all the way to the play offs. It’s one thing to say that the transfer fee or salary is too much for one player at QPR, but if the four players you get for the same money instead are useless then perhaps you’d have been better off splashing out.

I’d be tempted to lash out a fair amount of money on Taarabt despite his many faults. He’s temperamental, he is lazy, he doesn’t pass enough, he cannot keep his mouth shut, he does dive, he is inconsistent, and he does disappear from games. But then how much of Lionel Messi did you see in the first game against Arsenal? Look what he did in the second. I wouldn’t for one moment compare Taarabt, or any other human being that’s ever lived, to Messi but what I’m saying is even the greats are not great all the time and if we ever did get Taarabt playing like he did at Preston every week he wouldn’t be with us for more than 20 minutes. The fact he has all these faults is the very thing that brought him here in the first place.

It is easy to believe when looking at videos of Rodney Marsh and Stan Bowles in QPR’s heyday that they were brilliant all the time. Every second of every minute in every match they were on the ball tormenting opponents and inspiring awe in the crowd. That might well have been the case, I don’t know as it was before my time, but I’d be willing to bet they had off days. I bet Stan had games when he just didn’t do it, I bet Rodney disappeared from matches sometimes. Nobody is brilliant all the time. Earlier this season Taarabt beat five Preston players and scored from 20 yards, a fortnight before he’d attempted to beat five Barnsley players when he could have passed to Buzsaky and lost the ball in the process bringing boos and catcalls from the crowd. If he beat five men every time he took them on he’d be playing for Real Madrid. What people don’t seem to understand with Taarabt, and players like him, is that for that moment of magic against Preston to happen he may have to try it nine or ten times and fail first. What makes him great is that he would only have to try t five or six times to get it right, whereas somebody like Rowan Vine may do it 300 times in a season and never manage it. Is it not worth the failures for the successes?

This season prior to the Easter weekend Taarabt has had 49 shots on target, 54 off, and three off the woodwork, for a return of just seven goals. He is, in cricket terms, expensive. He also, in the same Riquelme did at Villareal, demands you fit the team around him because he doesn’t have the positional sense or discipline to sit in a rigid structure. Villareal recognised the value of Riquleme and structured a midfield with two work horses either side of him to give him the freedom to guide the team around the park. It’s such an English disease to write off such luxury players and look at the drawbacks rather than the positives. For me Taarabt brings far more to our team than he takes away.

If you’re looking for consistency then look elsewhere. If he was as good as he was at Preston consistently then he certainly wouldn’t be playing for us. But rather than labour on the negatives let’s savour the positives. We have a tradition of maverick players and for me Taarabt has the potential to be every bit as good as, maybe not Bowles or Marsh, but certainly somebody like Wegerle. He will excite and frustrate in equal measure. Football is about being entertained at the end of the day and he’s bloody entertaining. Forgive him his failings and off days and relish the brilliance he can bring – be that for an extended spell, or just the final few matches.

Tiger feet
I’ve got to be honest seeing us turn out with the Hull City mascot on the pitch instead of the wonderful Jude still rankles with me every home match. But one thing we can all agree on is that the Tiger Cubs Down’s Syndrome team to which our unfortunate mascot lends its name and support is one of, if not the, best thing about QPR over the past few seasons.

My mum taught children with Down’s syndrome and my ex-girlfriend’s brother had it as well – every one of them smashing people, who thrive on positive reinforcement and encouragement. To see the faces on the QPR Tiger Cubs when they get to come out at half time at Loftus Road and take shots at the Loft End goal is an absolute joy. Certainly one of the things I remember best about last season is one of the youngsters breaking off from the shoot out to conduct his own break dancing routine by the corner flag to the delight of the crowd.

And so I would urge anybody who reads this to support a sponsored walk taking place this Saturday from Loftus Road to Selhurst Park. BBC blogger, QPR fan and message board poster Chris Charles (I won’t embarrass him by revealing his sign in name), board regular Metallica Hoop and freelance QPR writer and occasional LFW board poster Dave McIntyre are all taking part aiming to raise money for the QPR Community Trust, and in particular the Tiger Cubs.

You can visit Chris Charles blog o the Tiger Cubs and see video of the team in acion at th BBC website and add your support to the walk via the Just Giving site at this link.

Photo: Action Images

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