As QPR head to Charlton on Wednesday evening, we reflect on the Rangers career and legacy of Adel Taarabt who has announced his retirement from the sport this week.

Charlton (3-1-1 WWLWDL 6th) v QPR (3-1-1 DWDWWL 3rd)

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First experiences with Adel Taarabt were often memorable, and Mel Johnson certainly didn’t forget his.

The veteran scout played such a prominent role in QPR’s rise from the ashes in the early 2000s he ended up leading European scouting at Tottenham. From sitting around whiteboards with Ian Holloway and Kenny Jackett cobbling together a team of free transfers on an administration budget - carving out rough diamonds like Danny Shittu, Martin Rowlands and Lee Cook - Johnson was suddenly part of a machine overseeing one of the Premier League’s biggest transfer budgets.

As Christmas approached in 2005, Mel found himself in a cold and foggy suburb of Paris watching France’s U17s take on the Netherlands. There were promising boys there, shining through the gloom of a December night – Morgan Schneiderlin would go on and play for Manchester United, David Ngog for Liverpool – but there was one outstanding talent of Moroccan descent that set the scout’s pulse racing. On a page of scrawled notes from the back of the stand four words stood out in caps, with a double underline, “SIGN THE NUMBER TEN”. Adel Taarabt was that ten, and Mel – who rarely paid much attention how he was going to get back from these games as long as he got there in the first place – couldn’t race home to London quickly enough to tell Damien Comolli what he’d found.

“A foggy, horrible, shitty night, but I was in love with the number ten,” Johnson told LFW. “Talented, talented, talented boy.”

Mel was dispatched for a second look at a Lens reserve game. The French were reluctant to provide team sheets to scouts from the Premier League, such was the scale of the talent drain across the channel post-Arsene Wenger, so he lied to a receptionist about being on holiday with his wife and wanting to take in a game. Taarabt’s “tricks, and drag backs, and passing, and vision, and he’s strong isn’t he?” were there all over again. Spurs did the deal.

“He was in and out at Tottenham. There were times he’d come on and change the game, one at West Ham, Chelsea, Man Utd,” Johnson says. “Martin Jol was so-so about him, because he’s not a manager’s player. But what he is, is he’s a QPR player. He’s a Rangers player. End of. When they were loaning him out and he went to Rangers I just thought… that’s you, that’s you right there.”

You can listen to Mel tell us this story in our Patreon deep dive with him from 2024… here.

It didn’t immediately appear so. Paulo Sousa, perhaps unsurprisingly, barely used him – five starts and two sub appearances in the back half of 2008/09. He scored a close range winner at home to Bristol City but was, by the standards of what was to come, unremarkable. Returning for the whole of 2009/10, the special stuff started to flow. A goal at home to Preston, taken down on his chest inside his own half and dispatched into the top corner after beating four opponents, was silly good. Rangers won that game 4-0, beat Reading at home 4-1 in the midweek, and came from two down to win 4-2 at Derby on the Saturday with another Taarabt strike. Jim Magilton’s R’s playing some of the best football in the country, for about a week and a half (before he headbutted one of the players).

It fell apart, naturally enough, for Magilton, and for Rangers. Taarabt’s talent suffocated by oh so much typical bullshit as Paul Hart and Mick Harford both tried and failed to kickstart a season that by the spring threatened a dip into League One. Neil Warnock proved a saviour for both club and player. There was a late-season 2-2 draw at Preston from two goals down, inspired by Taarabt’s brilliance, that hinted at what might be possible if Warnock could get a harness on him for a year or so. Warnock’s story about the coach who said Adel would “get him the sack” is well worn, even by his standards, but the new manager was so keen to add Adel to his roster for 2010/11 he spent a good chunk of that summer traipsing around Morocco looking for him (unsuccessfully).

What happened in that 2010/11 campaign was special. Yes, QPR won the title – and watching Rangers lift a pot into the air is not to be downplayed or sniffed at given our general incompetence over 130+ years. Yes, it was far from a one man team – Paddy Kenny, Clint Hill, Kaspars Gorkss, Ale Faurlin, Shaun Derry, Wayne Routledge, Tommy Smith, Heidar Helguson all arguably the best players in their positions in the league that season. But it was Adel. It was all about Adel. You just wished and longed and hoped for the week to zip by so you could get back to wherever QPR were that weekend and watch him.

The brazen public theft of Joe Allen’s soul is the most publicised, but I remember him showing Norwich’s Zak Whitbread the ball over by the R Block and then appearing on the other side of him seemingly with another football entirely with such outrageous deft I think the defender is still out there looking for him/it now. Robbie Savage would Tweet about how he’d kept him “in his pocket” in a game where Adel came within a whisker of lobbing the Derby goalkeeper, with the outside of his boot, from 30 yards out.

When things got nervy – at home to Coventry, away at Barnsley, or in a do-or-die Good Friday at Cardiff – Adel would not only turn it on and score you a goal to swing the tie your way, but it would be a goal of such breath-taking brilliance you’d scarcely believe your own eyes that he’d done it. He scored a winner at home to Cardiff where he successfully shifts the visiting defence out of his way to create a clear path to the top corner through movement of shoulders alone - never touches the ball once, until the shot. Didn't need to. Ever cheery Bluebirds manager Dave Jones (who had a £40k p/w Craig Bellamy on staff at the time) never missed an opportunity to say QPR wouldn’t be half as good, or doing half as well, if they didn’t have Adel Taarabt. Yeh, well, we do, so pop that in your fucking pipe mate.

To go with 19 goals, there were 20 assists for teammates - outside-of-the-foot efforts for Smith at Coventry, and Routledge at home to the same opposition, were sexual experiences.

Still, there were times a season-long indulgence threatened to wobble off the tracks. Taarabt was a captain in name only – Shaun Derry de facto wore the armband. In a draw at Hull he decided he’d had enough before half time amidst an unsympathetic refereeing performance, much to the delight of the locals. For a defeat at Scunthorpe he didn’t turn up at all, only to resurface at Barnsley during the week with a goal in the first minute. These, and many more (almost certainly embellished) stories, have kept Neil Warnock in after dinner speeches long into his retirement. But they also kept Taarabt at QPR, and therefore kept QPR at the top of the league – all the way to Watford in the penultimate match where Taarabt was on hand with a deadlock breaking opener. It remains the most ridiculously contrary act of a support base which has known a few that Adel was voted the division’s best player - that opposition fans say they were more excited to see him than their own team and still consider him the best ever at this level - and we gave our Player of the Year award that year to the goalkeeper.

Taarabt left that awards dinner in a huff (I don’t blame him, to be honest) and that wasn’t the first or last time. His attitude and lifestyle was not that of a committed professional footballer. He would hang around Edgware Road too late, too often. He would go missing. He could, allegedly, be quite rude to the staff. When substituted in a 6-0 shellacking at Fulham early in the following Premier League season he took selfies with the general public at a nearby bus stop he was using to get home, while the game was still in progress. He argued over a crucial winning penalty in a game against Chelsea with Helguson. His weight ballooned. He frequently behaved like the whole thing was beneath him, touting himself for this move or that. But when we say “if you’re playing for QPR there must be something wrong with you” there is a picture of Adel Taarabt’s face next to that.

Adel could have played for any club in the world, if he’d had his head screwed on right. The fact he didn’t meant he played for us. It would frequently be touted as a negative when, for QPR, it was an enormous plus. He was one of the best players in the world, and yet he was playing second tier football at Loftus Road. It says something of his ability that a career which later took in AC Milan and Benfica, Champions League football as a deep lying central midfielder, is seen to be something of a waste. And something of his outlook that he still doesn’t seem to care. "Good moments, difficult moments, mistakes, great nights... everything. That was my journey and I wouldn't change it."

A club that adored Rodney Marsh and Stan Bowles had its modern day equivalent. What a shame we allowed him to be drummed out of the side, and eventually the club, by a new cohort led by the likes of Mark Hughes, Harry Redknapp and Joey Barton – a man so committed to standards in sport and public life he remains on remand for weighing a fella in with a baseball bat after an argument at his local golf club.

As a footballer, Taarabt was worth a thousand of him. I think I’d rather us have gone down playing the way we did in 10/11, than stay up for one more year the way we did – although, again, it was Adel coming back into the team with typically brilliant goals at home to Arsenal and Spurs that helped seal that. He was worth a thousand of pretty much anyone, in truth. An absolute one off, and as he announces his retirement this week I just think… thank you for bringing us so much joy. For making me so, so happy.

Insanely brilliant, deeply flawed, mesmerically magical, totally spellbinding and for one, brief, glorious moment… ours. “He’s a Rangers player. End of.”

Links >>> Surprise! – Oppo Profile >>> Bolder goalder – History >>> You again – Referee >>> Charlton official website >>> South London Press — Local press >>> Charlton Live — Podcast >>> Into The Valley — Message Board >>> Forever Charlton — Blog

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Below the fold

Team News: Julien Stephan was always taking a chance proclaiming the club’s “very clever plan” to manage loading and minutes after the Cardiff victory, and sure enough Richard Kone and Ilias Chair broke down in the first half of the weekend homer against Middlesbrough. Particularly galling as they were two of the players who’d been rested for the midweek round, and then recalled at the expense of Rumarn Burrell who scored twice against the Welsh side on the Wednesday but was still left out on the Saturday. It caps a weirdly poor start to the season for Kone, and puts Chair back at square one with the Moroccan now reportedly not likely to be seen until well after the international break. With Boy Kemper a medium term absentee and Karamoko Dembele long term, we wait with interest to see which 11 the wheel of rotation turns up for us tonight.

Charlton have a sizeable absentee list of their own, led by our former charge Charlie Kelman who is yet to play this season because of a shoulder problem. Collins Sichenje (knee), Kayne Ramsay (ankle), Matty Godden (hamstring), Billy Koumetio (hamstring), Josh Edwards (ankle), Will Mannion (shoulder) and Nathaniel Chalobah (thigh) are all sidelined while Danny McNamara is suspended against the club that tried to buy him under Mick Beale’s stewardship following a red card at Stoke on Saturday.

Elsewhere: One goal up away to a similarly unimpressive Watford side, Preston’s crash to a 2-1 defeat may have ramifications for QPR. Knob End have now lost five of their first six games and sit rooted to the bottom of the fledgling Championship table. With Lincoln to come at home on Saturday it’s likely anything other than a victory will see Paul Heckingbottom dismissed before the Lilywhites head to Loftus Road the week after. The newly promoted Imps are proving to be no pushovers, and took a good point from Southampton at the weekend, but with everybody expecting to beat them they could turn out to be real manager killers this season.

Preston are yet to be cut seriously adrift with near neighbours Burnley continuing to endure a nightmare start to their Championship return. A scarcely deserved draw at Wrexham on Tuesday leaves the Clarets still searching for a first win and sitting second bottom. It’s 25-man squad week and following relegation they’ve chosen to leave Marcus Edwards, Mike Tresor, Ashley Barnes, Michael Obafemi and Bashir Humphreys out altogether.

Cardiff still await their first win after a home draw with Stoke, Blackburn are heading in exactly the direction we expected after giving up a lead to lose at home to Sheff Utd, and Swansea’s surprise unbeaten start is over after a 3-1 loss at Southampton.

It’s a bit of a truncated midweek round this one because you had the likes of Millwall (v Newcastle) and Lincoln (v Bournemouth) in League Cup action this week but there are two other games this evening besides our own. Norwich host Birmingham while West Brom head to Derby.

Referee: Tom Nield in charge, exactly as he was for this fixture in February. Harvey Vale perhaps lucky not to be sent off in the opening stages of that one. Details.

Form

- After winning three and drawing one of their first four league games, QPR lost for the first time this season on Saturday at home to Middlesbrough in round five. It’s their longest unbeaten run to begin a season since 2021/22 when Mark Warburton’s side went six without loss, and ten points from the first four is the best return since 2013/14 when the team was last promoted from this level.

- QPR could win their first three away games of a league season for the fourth time in their history - 1927-28, 1962-63, and 1987-88.

- Prior to this midweek round QPR and Boro were joint top for most shots in the Championship (86), however only Lincoln, Cardiff, Bolton and Preston have a worse conversion rate than Rangers’ 8.14%.

- Charlton also made a surprisingly good start to the campaign. Tipped by many for a relegation struggle they won their first three games, including an away win at West Ham, before getting a creditable draw at fellow fast-starters West Brom. The Addicks also lost for the first time at the weekend, going 4-0 down before half time at Stoke and never recovering.

- Having already beaten Derby and Preston at The Valley, Charlton are looking to win each of their first three home games of a league season for the first time since 2017-18 in League One, and first time in the Championship since 2014-15.

- The ridiculous stat around possession continues to grow, with another win against Cardiff achieved with 36.3% making it 69 games and 23 victories since QPR last beat a team while holding more of the ball than their opponent. With 52.1% of the ball against Middlesbrough, Rangers have now lost the last 20 games in which they’ve dominated that stat.

- That defeat at the weekend means QPR have only won one of the last seven games at Loftus Road in all comps.

- Charlton’s three league wins this season have all been by a single goal (2-1, 2-1, 1-0). Since returning to the Championship last summer the Addicks have won 16 league games and 13 of them have been by a one-goal margin – nine of them 1-0 and another four of them 2-1. The only side they’ve beaten at The Valley by more than a goal is a 3-0 against Blackburn a year ago next week.

- Another unhappy hunting ground alert. Charlton have lost just one of their last 14 home games against QPR, winning nine and drawing four. Rangers’ only win in that time was six trips ago when Adam Bolder scored the only goal of the game in October 2007. This game finished 0-0 the last time we played here at the start of February and the R’s haven’t scored at The Valley in four league games going back to Boxing Day 2008 when Dexter Blackstock and Lee Cook netted.

- Nathan Jones has lost more games against QPR as a manager than any other club - he is 1-3-6 from ten matches.

- Tyreece Campbell is the top scorer at Charlton with three goals in five league starts. Ilias Chair and Rumarn Burrell share the top scorer rights at QPR with two each.

Prediction

In our Prediction League for 2026/27 we’ll once again be handing out prizes for being top at Christmas and overall winner from The Art of Football - sample the merch from our sponsor’s newly extended QPR collection here. JB007007 won both prizes last year and has kindly agreed to keep up tradition and offer his irrational dislikes of each of our opponents this year…

“With the exception of Saturday’s thumping at Stoke, Charlton have made a very good start to the season including an impressive win at West Ham - what’s that saying about ‘possession can do one’? What a shame they are managed by this odious little turd. I’ve tried to think if he’s a type of Warnock character where you love him when at your club and despise him if not. I don’t think so, just an unlikable little gobshite.

“This game between the two of us comes on the back of both losing for the first time in the league last time out so will be interesting to how we both respond. I would expect them to come at us early doors and we’ll need to be fired up and continue the good work left off from the second half against Boro. I’m going for a 1-1 draw and Harvey Vale to net his first of the season.”

JB’s Prediction: Charlton 1-1 QPR. Scorer – Harvey Vale

LFW’s Prediction: Charlton 0-2 QPR. Scorer – Rumarn Burrell

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