Arsenal could've scuppered QPR's Adel Taarabt delight: View | OneFootball

Adel Taarabt's career could've looked very different...

Adel Taarabt rightly occupies a place on the Championship's pantheon.

Often labelled as a 'streets won't forget player' - the terminology used to identify memorable crowd-pleasers who provided brief, but long-lasting moments of joy - the Loftus Road legend is more than just that if you ask supporters of the second-tier.

He didn't have the longevity of other Championship greats such as Billy Sharp and Cardiff City icon Peter Whittingham, for example - but that doesn't diminish the legendary status that remains intact to this very day.

However, had the dominos fallen in a different direction then Taarabt's brilliance may never have graced the division.

QPR hero Adel Taarabt could've joined Arsenal instead of Tottenham Hotspur

Snubbing Arsene Wenger's advances for their bitter North London rivals surely dictated the trajectory of Taarabt's career.

Despite earning rave reviews for occasional cameo appearances from the substitutes bench, Taarabt, who joined Spurs at the age of 17 from Lens and claimed he could've moved to "any of the big three (teams) in any league), failed to establish himself in the first-team foray.

Speaking on the Arsenal transfer collapse in 2021, Taarabt told talkSPORT: "To me it was almost all done that I would go to Arsenal and then after Damien Comolli, who was working at (Tottenham), convinced me to come.

Indeed, at the time of his Spurs exit, Taarabt publicly expressed his regret at opting to join Spurs over Arsenal.

Given the variety of options available to Taarabt at the time, you could cynically - but not wrongly - say that his move to Spurs was an ill-fated one.

But then again, we wouldn't be left with eternal memories of Taarabt making the division his own playground, would we?

Wenger's esteemed expertise with working with young players, particularly mavericks of Taarabts' ilk, makes you wonder if the pathway to senior stardom would've been more tangible at the Emirates Stadium - ruling out moves to the Championship.

Taarabt initially joined QPR on a season-long loan deal for the 2008/09 campaign, which was extended to the following season after scarcely featuring through injury, and it's actually rather understated how impressive that season was, too.

Overshadowed by his future exploits, Taarabt's return of seven goals and 11 assists at the age of 19 makes for seriously impressive reading.

Admittedly, though, it does pale in comparison to the wizardry that he conjured up to single-handedly orchestrate QPR's Premier League promotion the following year.

Adel Taarabt revived his career after eventual QPR disappointment

Unfortunately, Taarabt was the architect of his own eventual downfall at QPR, with issues pertaining to the former Moroccan international's temperament and application sparking a sorry state of affairs well after the dust had settled on his promotion heroics.

And there are few who would deny that Taarabt should've had a superior and more-sustained career than he really did, a reasonable school of thought given the mercurial and often mind-bending ability in his possession.

He never quite hit those same heights as he did in West London again, but a 2015 transfer to Portugese giants Benfica did offer some much-needed stability and resurgence to a career that was at real risk of falling away altogether.

Frequently utilised in an unfamiliar yet surprisingly-effective deeper midfield role, Taarabt racked up over 100 matches for Benfica across a seven-year stay, all of which came after his first three seasons with the club.

He's still kicking it at the ripe old age of 35, currently plying his trade in the United Arab Emirates for Al-Nasr SC.

Taarabt, who weighed in with eight goals and nine assists this past season, is accompanied in the Pro League by familiar faces on English soil such as Allan, Manolo Gabbiadini, Neeskens Kebano and ex-Swansea City playmaker Alejandro Pozuelo, as well as former Barcelona duo Miralem Pjanic and Paco Alcacer.