It seems the media are finally cottoning on to the fact that “moneybags QPR” might not be wildly buying up every mercenary footballer going this summer after all. To fill their column inches instead, they’ve turned to Adel Taarabt.

If you’ve nothing nice to say…

QPR are currently advertising for a new media journalist to join the club's PR team ahead of life in the Premiership. Perhaps Ian Taylor and the boys have finally decided that Adel Taarabt cannot be allowed to roam Europe without a press minder any longer and are taking somebody on specifically for the role. The winning candidate would go wherever Taarabt goes, and sit on his shoulder like a little angel to try and somehow counteract the devil on the other side that constantly makes him open his mouth and say things he shouldn't.

Storming out of the Moroccan national team camp for the second time in a year because, once again, the manager had the nerve to only start Adel on the bench was, for instance, an example of where a more mature voice may have been useful to our loveable loose cannon. He admitted a couple of days later that he'd been a bit silly, acting in the heat of the moment, and would quite like to be involved again but I give it six months at most before he’s retiring from international football for a third time.

Likewise when he opened his mouth last week to say he'd quite like to play for Chelsea (I'd like to climb into the shower with Kelly Brook Adel but it's not going to happen), or that Arsenal have been in touch about acquiring his services (they haven't) perhaps a quiet word in his lughole wouldn't have gone amiss.

It's these outbursts and behaviour, allied with incidents like the Hull away game last year, that restricts Taarabt's popularity among the QPR fans. It's a farce that the best player we've had for 20 years was beaten to the Player of the Year award, in a season when he scored 19 and set up 23 others, by the goalkeeper but you can see why it happened. Taarabt simply cannot hide the fact that he believes he's doing QPR a favour by being here, only occasionally stopping to acknowledge that for the last two and a half seasons Rangers have been the only side willing to indulge him.

Harry Redknapp drew smiles this week when he said Luka Modric was "still recovering" from the experience of playing in the centre of midfield with Taarabt in a pre-season friendly game in America last summer. Needless to say Redknapp doesn't anticipate Taarabt tearing his Tottenham team apart in Arsenal colours next season, although he does believe Taarabt will start with a bang in the top flight when the action gets back underway in August.

Neil Warnock, too, seems keen to laugh off Taarabt's outlandish quotes. "I'll sell him in January," said Warnock, "I'll be sick of him by then."

Taarabt is a journalist’s dream, and a supporter’s nightmare, because you’ll never ever find him in the mood to ‘no comment’ questions about his future. Either he, or his agent, or both, have very grand ambitions for his career to the extent where he almost seems to think he has a divine right to be pulling the strings at the heart of the Real Madrid midfield. His quote from the start of last season where he said he made a mistake going to Spurs and should have moved to Arsenal instead was laughable on so many levels – not least because he’d been available twice on loan and then once on a permanent transfer for a tiny fee and the only takers on all three occasions were QPR.

He’s back on with the Arsenal line again this week, his agent telling French sports paper L’Equipe that the Gunners are showing an interest. They’re not. Last week journalists threw balls in the air and Taarabt knocked them away – Chelsea, Newcastle, Arsenal and others all apparently interested in him (according to Taarabt) and he very much interested in them.

Taarabt said: “I like the London clubs. I do not hide my liking for Chelsea . I would prefer to play regularly at QPR to being on the bench for a season at Chelsea . Now, if they told me I'd play 20 games per season, I think I'd be very tempted. The idea (Arsenal move) is very appealing. Especially since there is also Samir Nasri, who I know very well, but after that, there is a real possibility of playing the minimum. Today, I have a two-year contract with QPR. Yes, there is contact, but I cannot say more, as you can imagine."

Supporters don’t like this attitude from footballers. After a defeat supporters go home and mope, and at the end of a poor season supporters grumble and moan about what’s to come in the new campaign. And they like to think that players do the same. They like to think that after a big home defeat by Middlesbrough the players will send a round robin text out to their friends calling off the planned evening of clubbing because they are too annoyed with their own performance to go and get trashed, or that at the end of a bad season they summon new resolve to put things right rather than get their agent to scout around potential options for a move elsewhere. They like to think that when players kiss their badge they mean it, and when the team loses it hits the players just as hard.

The reality is very different indeed. While team spirit will vary wildly from club to club, and therefore some groups of players will take defeats a lot harder than others, the reality is that for the vast majority of players this is just a job. There is no loyalty in football because there is no loyalty in the work place. If you’re earning 30k a year now and a rival employer offers you £45k a year to move to them are you going to consider how your former employers would feel with you moving to a rival? Are you going to consider the frosty atmosphere should you ever come across them at an event? Are you going to remember that it was this employer that gave you a break in the first place? No, you’re going to think of mortgages and pensions and foreign holidays and be on your way. Granted work is slightly different, because there aren’t 30,000 people who have an emotional attachment to companies and spend thousands every year following them to conferences to offer vocal support, but essentially from a player’s point of view it’s the same thing. This is their job, and it’s a short career, so they want as much money as they can get and as many medals as possible.

And supporters, particularly QPR supporters, cannot really grumble too much at this attitude. After all does loyalty not work both ways? Football supporters demand undying loyalty from players who, chances are, grew up supporting another team entirely and yet they’re all too quick to trot out stuff like “his knees have gone” or “he’s 32 now get rid” towards players who have served them well for many years.

QPR fans have been blessed in recent times with a number of players in the team who do actually support the club – Marc Bircham, Kevin Gallen and Lee Cook the most high profile, although even Cook left for Fulham when the money and opportunity was too good to refuse. To his credit he waived the signing on fee, allowing it to go to QPR instead at a time when they were destitute, but even that hasn’t saved him from supporters of the club now saying his career is all but over and he should be moved on as soon as possible. Likewise Martin Rowlands, not a QPR fan but certainly a tremendously loyal servant, who fans seem happy to see cast aside because he’s getting on a bit, has proved to be injury prone in recent times and perhaps isn’t as good as Shaun Derry. Is this not exactly what Taarabt is doing now? I mean if you examine his other quotes this week it’s actually hard to disagree with what he is saying.

He told the Mail: “I helped QPR win promotion but they will not offer me a better contract. They say I am already on big wages. They want me to stay four years on the same terms. But I don't want to sign for four years then after one year I am going to be back in The Championship. No disrespect, but if we keep the same players, it will be very difficult to stay in the Premier League when you are playing Man United and Chelsea. I understand that QPR have changed my life. People had almost forgotten me when I joined from Tottenham. But I don't think they are being fair to me."

At the moment who can disagree that QPR are almost certainly destined to return to the Championship at the first attempt? Ticket prices are through the roof, Amit Bhatia and Ishan Saksena have left leaving Neil Warnock without his two key boardroom allies and anybody actually running the club and making decisions on transfers, Wayne Routledge is back at Newcastle, Warnock has missed out on Danny Graham who he wanted and risks suffering the same fate with two other signings he has agreed and ready to go pending a boardroom rubber stamp which he can’t find anybody to give and so it goes on. If you were Taarabt would you sign up for another four years on the same money at the moment, knowing that in 12 months he could well be back in the Championship tied down to another three more years?

I know the done thing is to just trot out mild clichés and talk about how exciting it’s going to be playing against Chelsea and Manchester United (and by the way it’s only a week to renew those season tickets) but isn’t it quite refreshing to hear a player actually telling it like it is? Breaking down Taarabt’s quotes that have caused such mirth on the message boards this week all he has really said is we’re not good enough to stay up as it stands (he’s right), he’d love to play for Chelsea or Arsenal if he thought he would get on the pitch and if not he’d rather stay and play regularly at QPR (fair enough), and he doesn’t see why he should sign up for four years at the same money when we could be back in the Championship this time next year (again, hard to disagree with him).

This brings me back to a conclusion I’ve often reached with Taarabt since we first clapped eyes on him – don’t view the things that annoy you about him as a problem. Yes it’s infuriating when he takes that extra player on and loses the ball when there was a great option on for a pass, yes it’s highly embarrassing when he throws all his toys out of the pram and asks to be substituted, yes it’s cringeworthy when he walks out on Morocco every six months and no I don’t like picking up the papers and reading quotes from one of our players fluttering his eyelashes in the direction of Chelsea and others – but these are the things that keep Taarabt with us. If he passed every time he should do, if he behaved himself 100 per cent of the time, if he kept his head down and let the football do the talking then he wouldn’t have to flutter eyelashes at anybody, he’d already be gone. In fact, he probably wouldn’t have even been here in the first place. The fact he’s too stupid to realise this means he’s still a QPR player, and in a summer when our club seems to be absolutely desperate to destroy all the good will built up by the title winning season of 2010/11 and place ourselves well and truly behind the eight ball before the new Premiership campaign has even kicked off a good quality player remaining with us is no bad thing.

How to solve a problem like Adel? Don’t view him as a problem to be solved.

Speaking of which…

Having busted the myth that footballers see their football clubs as anything other than employers who pay their bills, that brings us neatly onto the subject of Wayne Routledge who will now return to pre-season training with Newcastle United this summer after a deal to join QPR permanently fell through. The transfer fee, of around £1.5m, has been agreed between Newcastle and QPR and Routledge is happy with the personal terms on offer in W12 but by all accounts the player is unhappy with the pay off he has been offered to leave St James Park. You wouldn’t think that considering he’s earning £20,000 a week and has accumulated four hefty signing on fees already in a career that has moved through eight clubs in as many years that another pay off would be that important. Particularly when it would mean him being the first name on the team sheet at a Premiership club close to his London home as opposed to playing reserve team football with a manager who doesn’t want him 250 miles north. But apparently it does. Please see earlier comments about footballers, loyalty and money.

Routledge is clearly out for the best deal he can get. Leicester, big spending, are rumoured to be sniffing around and it surely cannot be long before Swansea and Norwich show interest. For a player who has never succeeded in the top flight, except for possibly one season early on with Palace, despite opportunities at Spurs, Fulham, Portsmouth, Villa and Newcastle, he’s certainly earned a lot of money from the game.

It’s this lack of top flight pedigree that has seen the QPR fans on message boards pretty much shrugging their shoulders and moving on after hearing the news that he may not return – for the record, I still expect to see him back by the end of the transfer window. However if he doesn’t return I do think it is bad news. No he’s never torn up any trees in the top flight but at the moment I’m willing to dock at any port in this storm.

Routledge has pace, which we are in dire need of before the big kick off, and his game seemed to have developed a hell of a lot when he returned for a second spell with us last season when compared to his first 12 months in W12. His tracking back and defensive work in particular was poles apart from anything we’d previously seen from him – he scored five goals, set up another six besides, and in just 20 starts those are impressive numbers. He improved us – people are relishing the return of Jamie Mackie and his work rate and attitude were sorely missed when he was out but Wayne Routledge is a better player in my opinion, and played better than him last season.

His top flight history may be mediocre at best but at £1.5m is there anybody better out there? Norwich have spent £7m this summer and for that they’ve got James Vaughan, who was mediocre in the Championship last season in a poor Palace side, Steve Morrison who has only one season in the Championship to his name in a career otherwise spent exclusively in the lower and non leagues, and Elliott Bennett who plays in Rotuledge’s position and cost more than Wayne would do despite only showing promise (and nothing more) for Brighton in League One when he was surrounded by the best team in that league. In the current market Routledge should be worth at least twice the money we’re being quoted for him, and we’ll have to pay at least £3m if not more to get a similar player.

Back in May I was very much take him or leave him with Routledge, but our summer business so far and the shambolic list of players we’re being linked with means I’m now disappointed that we can’t seem to get that deal tied up.

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Photo: Action Images

R_in_Sweden added 10:01 - Jun 27 Nice summing up of the Taarabt saga, if he could just introduce the phrase "no comment" into his vocabulary when dealing with journalists it would smooth things out a bit. Just waiting for him to claim that Barcelona are after him now (who would one be looking to shower with in this scenario?). Love him or loathe him I still want to see him in a hooped shirt in August! As far as Routledge is concerned I feel that he is replacable. Am just hoping that our wise man Warnock gets to splash out a few bob before the team travels down to Cornwall. After all this is where Warnock says that the important pre-season bonding and building of team spirit takes place. Some positive news out of W12 since the lifting of the trophy and the marathon post match piss up is now overdue. Enjoy your summer!

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dodge_stoke_r added 10:10 - Jun 27 "It's these outbursts and behaviour, allied with incidents like the Hull away game last year, that restricts Taarabt's popularity among the QPR fans. It's a farce that the best player we've had for 20 years was beaten to the Player of the Year award, in a season when he scored 19 and set up 23 others, by the goalkeeper but you can see why it happened. Taarabt simply cannot hide the fact that he believes he's doing QPR a favour by being here, only occasionally stopping to acknowledge that for the last two and a half seasons Rangers have been the only side willing to indulge him." I think that paragraph sums up why I don't think he will be going to any "big" clubs this summer. We all know what a "loose canon" or I prefer "mardy arsed little shit" that he is and so does every manager in the premiership, and they wont want him rocking their boat. He really does need to get his head out of his arse and realise that he isn't footballs equivalent to the messiah.

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Northernr added 10:27 - Jun 27 Routledge is definitely replaceable, but probably not for £1.5m.
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isawqpratwcity added 12:39 - Jun 27 Agree absolutely about Taarabt. Anybody thinking of buying him would not pay full tote odds for the risk he does a giant dummy spit. That, and the 40% heading back to Spurs, means QPR selling AT is a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot situation. No-one but NW has been able to handle him anyway, so it would be a pretty quick way for AT to stuff his career back on the benches or reserves. With Routledge, it seems if you're giving up one contract to go to another, I can't quite see the necessity of a pay-off, but then I don't know what rich footballers feel entitled to these days. Is the pay-off a chunk of the remaining contract, or is it a percentage of the transfer fee (or something else)? How much do you think he's been offered and what would you think he'd settle for? Would it be a faux pas for QPR to supplement it? I want to see a purchase, especially one that I thought we should have wrapped up a while ago. The owners have to get used to the idea that they are going to stump up sooner or later. Can I start a rumour about another take-over? No basis in fact, just wishful thinking.

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jamois added 17:37 - Jun 27 Totally agree Clive on Taraabt - keep pissing people off Adel - we're lucky to have you. Particularly in the current self-imposed economic shambles we appear to be in. As for Routledge, again totally agree - the way it's looking we need him. For me this biggest folly so far this off season has been missing out on Danny Graham. We're likely to end up spending more for worse quality in a late August panic at this rate. Despite being able to reconnect with Brendan Rodgers, surely if we'd offered another half mill (as swansea did) Graham would have stayed in London??

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jo_qpr63 added 23:07 - Jun 27 Routledge has probably spent it already on some sports car or sumfink!. The problem is, if the board do not show any intent then why will the players. no one wants a relagation battle but it seems ineveitable when we havnt improved the team. I think the senior players will relish the chance to play premier football but the younger players still want to live the dream! and who can blame them.

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