What Neil Warnock said when QPR signed Adel Taarabt - it was a rollercoaster | OneFootball

When Neil Warnock arrived at QPR in March 2010, he got a warning about Abel Taarabt. Warnock ignored it, and got the best out of him.

When Neil Warnock arrived at Queens Park Rangers in March 2010, there was a warning waiting for him concerning Adel Taarabt - but he ignored it, and got the very best out of a player who could be combustible at times.

When Neil Warnock arrived at Queens Park Rangers at the start of March 2010, they were in trouble, in 20th place in the Championship table, having already burned through two managers that season.

Warnock stabilised the team and got them to 13th by the end of the season, but there was one player in particular about whom he was warned, when he first arrived at Loftus Road.

Warnock was given warning about Adel Taarabt at QPR that he chose to ignore

Adel Taarabt arrived at Spurs from Lens on loan in 2007, making his move there permanent but failing to break through as a first-team regular.

He went to QPR on loan in March 2009. A lavishly talented but occasionally combustible attacking midfielder, managing his temperament could be a challenge, but one which could bring huge rewards if successfully reined in.

When Warnock arrived at Loftus Road, he was warned about Taarabt by one of the coaching staff, who told him that he'd already got two managers sacked that season. The manager ignored the advice, instead telling Taarabt that he was going to build his 2010-11 team around him, regardless of whether he paid badly.

Speaking to Talksport in 2022, Warnock revealed his first conversation with Taarabt by recounting: "I said 'Hey Adel, come here. Everyone tells me you'll get me the sack.'

"He said 'no, no, no'. I said 'Well everyone tells me that's what you'll do.

"I’m going to play you against West Brom, and if you’re poor, I’m going to play you the next game. And if you’re poor the next game, I’m going to play you the next game, do you understand?"

"He's thinking 'if I'm poor, I'm going to play every game?' He didn't quite understand it.

"I said 'you're going to win me things son, I'm going to love having you'."

Neil Warnock's man-management of Adel Taarabt at QPR was a masterclass

To say that the playmaker repaid Warnock's faith in him would be something of an understatement. Rangers made his loan permanent at a cost of £1 million that summer, and Taarabt scored 19 goals in 44 games that season, as QPR roared to the Championship title, earning a return to the Premier League following an absence of 15 years.

Neil Warnock didn't last at Queens Park Rangers. He was sacked in January 2012, with the team 17th in the Premier League. Rangers stayed up that season, but were relegated in bottom place at the end of the 2012-13 season with just four wins all season to their name and have only spent one season in the top flight since.

Adel Taarabt would never scale such heights as a goalscorer again, though his career would go on to take in a loan spell at AC Milan and five years in Portugal with Benfica, where he won the Portuguese league in 2019 despite the fact that it took him four years to make his debut for them.

The player was certainly appreciative of what this particular manager had done for him. Speaking to Talksport as he was confirmed as the Championship Player of the Season for 2010-11, he said: "God has brought Neil Warnock to me. We have a fantastic relationship as I’m a very difficult guy to control and he can deal with me. I have not just found a home, I’ve found a family and to have a manager like this is fantastic."

High praise indeed, and a demonstration of how the best form of man-management is often to understand who you're dealing with, rather than to merely dismiss them on the say-so of others.