I know we've all had a say on what we the club fans think of Adel and his actions of late but l thought it interesting to read an independents view.
These comments from Martin Samuel, out of the DM. I think his comments, whether like them or not, are accurate.
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Footballers are invariably surrounded by people too smitten or beholden to challenge or contradict them. Take a lightweight like Taarabt. Even if Harry Redknapp’s three-stone-over jibe was more euphemism than Speak Your Weight machine, there remains a case to answer.
Taarabt is 85kg and 1.78m tall, making him 5kg heavier than Cristiano Ronaldo, who is 7cm taller, and 12kg heavier than Gareth Bale, who is 5cm taller. Sources at QPR say he is the same weight as Kevin Bond, a 57-year-old former centre half.
Consider also how easy it is to make QPR’s starting XI right now. This isn’t Chelsea. Taarabt does not have to displace Cesc Fabregas or Eden Hazard. QPR are bottom of the league. They are going down. Redknapp is desperate for a match-winner, as the delusional Taarabt feels he is.
He kept Robinho and Kaka out of the AC Milan team; he is the natural heir to Stan Bowles. Yet, bizarrely, Taarabt cannot get a game despite the doom.
Last week, when a reserve match was laid on specifically to test his readiness for the fixture with Liverpool, he admitted not playing well.
‘Maybe I didn’t perform like I could because it was a reserve team game and I was protecting myself,’ he mused. Protecting himself from what exactly? He doesn’t play. This was Taarabt’s chance to show he merited a place in the team. ‘My job is to create, to bring goals,’ he added. ‘Maybe the manager expects me to make more tackles. I am not this type of player.’
Just what you need for a relegation battle: a forward who thinks he is too precious for a shift. As for goals, Taarabt had 90 minutes to score or create one against Burton Albion in the Capital One Cup this season. QPR lost 1-0.
He went to Fulham on loan for half of last season and scored once (against Burton in the Capital One Cup, coincidentally). His last Premier League goal was on April 1, 2013, the season Rangers went down, when he scored five in total. He scored twice in 2011-12. The only prolific season of his career — 19 goals in 44 matches — was in 2010-11, in the Championship.
So instead of feeding the fantasy that he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Kaka, Robinho and Bowles, those closest to Taarabt need to tell him to shape up, work hard, get fit and stay that way. He isn’t vital enough not to tackle. He isn’t prolific enough to stroll about.
He talks up his loan at AC Milan but the club could have made the move permanent this summer, and did not. His is a floundering career.
At his peak, Matt Le Tissier scored 24, 23, 15, 18, 25, 30 and 16 goals in consecutive seasons for Southampton. He was forgiven poor defensive work. Taarabt’s record since leaving Tottenham Hotspur, where he did not score in three seasons, is one, seven, 19, two, five and five. In that time he has made 190 appearances. It isn’t good enough. Yet who will say it?
These comments from Martin Samuel, out of the DM. I think his comments, whether like them or not, are accurate.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Footballers are invariably surrounded by people too smitten or beholden to challenge or contradict them. Take a lightweight like Taarabt. Even if Harry Redknapp’s three-stone-over jibe was more euphemism than Speak Your Weight machine, there remains a case to answer.
Taarabt is 85kg and 1.78m tall, making him 5kg heavier than Cristiano Ronaldo, who is 7cm taller, and 12kg heavier than Gareth Bale, who is 5cm taller. Sources at QPR say he is the same weight as Kevin Bond, a 57-year-old former centre half.
Consider also how easy it is to make QPR’s starting XI right now. This isn’t Chelsea. Taarabt does not have to displace Cesc Fabregas or Eden Hazard. QPR are bottom of the league. They are going down. Redknapp is desperate for a match-winner, as the delusional Taarabt feels he is.
He kept Robinho and Kaka out of the AC Milan team; he is the natural heir to Stan Bowles. Yet, bizarrely, Taarabt cannot get a game despite the doom.
Last week, when a reserve match was laid on specifically to test his readiness for the fixture with Liverpool, he admitted not playing well.
‘Maybe I didn’t perform like I could because it was a reserve team game and I was protecting myself,’ he mused. Protecting himself from what exactly? He doesn’t play. This was Taarabt’s chance to show he merited a place in the team. ‘My job is to create, to bring goals,’ he added. ‘Maybe the manager expects me to make more tackles. I am not this type of player.’
Just what you need for a relegation battle: a forward who thinks he is too precious for a shift. As for goals, Taarabt had 90 minutes to score or create one against Burton Albion in the Capital One Cup this season. QPR lost 1-0.
He went to Fulham on loan for half of last season and scored once (against Burton in the Capital One Cup, coincidentally). His last Premier League goal was on April 1, 2013, the season Rangers went down, when he scored five in total. He scored twice in 2011-12. The only prolific season of his career — 19 goals in 44 matches — was in 2010-11, in the Championship.
So instead of feeding the fantasy that he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Kaka, Robinho and Bowles, those closest to Taarabt need to tell him to shape up, work hard, get fit and stay that way. He isn’t vital enough not to tackle. He isn’t prolific enough to stroll about.
He talks up his loan at AC Milan but the club could have made the move permanent this summer, and did not. His is a floundering career.
At his peak, Matt Le Tissier scored 24, 23, 15, 18, 25, 30 and 16 goals in consecutive seasons for Southampton. He was forgiven poor defensive work. Taarabt’s record since leaving Tottenham Hotspur, where he did not score in three seasons, is one, seven, 19, two, five and five. In that time he has made 190 appearances. It isn’t good enough. Yet who will say it?
