Neil Warnock explains why he fined QPR players for passing ball to Adel Taarabt | OneFootball

Neil Warnock has explained how he managed to get the best out of Adel Taarabt during his time as Queens Park Rangers manager - and revealed why he fined his players if they passed the ball to the mercurial playmaker inside their own half.

Taarabt was instrumental as QPR secured promotion to the Premier League at the end of the 2010-11 campaign, scoring 19 goals and providing the same number of assists for that season’s Championship winners. Blessed with extraordinary technical ability, the Morocco international was previously on Tottenham’s books before making a permanent switch to Loftus Road in 2010 following a season on loan.

Warnock recalls first impressions of Taarabt

English coach couldn't help but like him - despite warnings

After failing to convince Spurs boss Harry Redknapp that he possessed the required attitude to play for one of England’s top clubs, QPR snapped him up and Warnock still remembers his first impressions of the attacking midfielder following his arrival during the latter stages of the 2009-10 season. Speaking on the Peter Crouch Podcast, the veteran manager recalled: “This is a red hot day and there’s a kid with black gloves on. Black woollen gloves.

“I said to a member of staff: ‘Who’s that with gloves on?’. The guy says: ‘You don’t want to know him, gaffer. That’s Taarabt. He’s a Moroccan from Tottenham. He’ll get you the sack. He’s already got a manager the sack. Waste of space’.

“I watched this game and QPR couldn’t score goals then - that was their problem. So I’m watching this kid and I’ve never seen anything like it. Some of his ability. But what he was doing was getting the ball off the centre-half, nutmegging someone, losing it and them scoring.

“You sometimes get gut-feelings as a manager. I just liked him straight away, even with his gloves and all that. He had that little bit of arrogance. So I pulled him over on the pitch and said: ‘Are you cold, Adel? We play West Brom on Saturday, top of the league, my first game. I’m going to play you - understand? And if you’re s***e, I’m going to play you the next game. And if you’re s***e, I’m going to play you the next game. Do you understand? Because you are going to save us’."

Warnock fined players £50 for passing ball to Taarabt

QPR players couldn't pass to Moroccan inside his own half

Warnock continued: “So then I got all the other lads, without him, and said: ‘Right, anybody who gives him the ball in our half, it’s a £50 fine’. And I said to Adel: ‘Adel, if you come over the halfway line and pick a ball up, I fine you £50 - okay?’.

“I think one player passed it to him and we fined him £50, but that was it. You give him the ball in the [opponent’s] half… oh my God.”

At the end of the season, QPR signed Taarabt in a cut-price deal worth a reported £1 million, along with the likes of Paddy Kenny, Shaun Derry and Clint Hill - all of whom would have been more obvious choices for the captaincy than the Moroccan magician. However, Warnock pulled the rest of his squad to one side and explained why he’d made the questionable decision to hand Taarabt the armband.

Recalling his conversation with QPR’s players, Warnock said to his squad: “‘Listen, I’m going to make Adel captain’. There were five or six other players who could have been captain. ‘If I can get 10 or 20 per cent more out of Adel, he’ll get us all promotion and you’ll all get good contracts - you’ve got to bear with me’. We had a couple of hair-raising moments in the season but he got us promotion. He was unbelievable.”

Crouch, who played alongside Taarabt at Tottenham, was left cracking up as Warnock confirmed the story about fining his players if they passed the ball to the skilful midfielder inside his own half. Watch the funny clip here:

What happened to Taarabt after QPR spell

Moves to AC Milan and Benfica followed

Taarabt shows flashes of his world-class ability with QPR in the Premier League but struggled for consistency. He went on to spend time on loan at Fulham and AC Milan before securing a permanent move to Portuguese giants Benfica in 2015. The 34-year-old currently plays for Al-Nasr SC in Dubai.

"Adel Taarabt would be up there," Crouch wrote in his Daily Mail column in 2020 when asked to name the most talented but inconsistent footballers he played alongside. "I was with him at Tottenham when he was a young lad and while he had all the tricks and skills, he was more interested in trying to nutmeg a defender than play the sensible pass. He had so much ability but never put it together."