Adel McTaarabt?

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Forget Paris or whichever major football city Adel Taarabt believes he should be lighting up, the best place for him might be Glasgow.

It’s probably not an option he or his advisors have considered while dreaming of moves to Milan, Barcelona, Manchester or up the road to Chelsea.

Think about it though.

Here’s a man who is – as many good judges inside the game expected – finding it hard to make his electrifying attributes work for him in the Premier League.

The Championship was tailor-made for him in so many ways. It’s a different story in the top flight, not only on the pitch but in the dressing room.

At the next level, Taarabt has found that his team-mates are less willing to induldge him not only on the pitch, but off it too.

“He could be a sensation in Glasgow and have the kind of impact and profile achieved by the likes of Paolo Di Canio.”

Being indulged to the extent he was last season enabled him to enjoy star billing and QPR to win promotion. But it in no way equipped him for the next stage of his career. As a result, that career is now in danger of stagnating.

Neil Warnock knew this could happen, which is why he has always sought to play down how far Taarabt will go and has subtly hinted that the player may find that in many ways last season was as good as it’ll get for him.

It’s also why Rangers spent the entire summer trying to negotiate his sale to Paris St Germain and would have accepted any half-generous offer that came their way.

Despite talk of interest from Europe’s elite, Taarabt’s best route out of QPR has always been to a rich overseas club where non-football people have a major influence on footballing decisions.

PSG fitted the bill. It was no accident that it was them Rangers spent so long in talks with and did seem to finally be edging towards an agreement before the whole thing collapsed.

So the notion that Rangers are now willing to sell Taarabt and have slapped a price tag on him is a bit daft. They spent weeks trying to sell him and his stock has gone down since then.

And the issue with Taarabt isn’t only his attitude or immaturity. That misconception is one that flatters him greatly. There are also question marks over his actual ability.

What now, then, for the man who lit up W12 last season?

Taarabt wants to play on a big stage, to be adored, and to mix it with Europe’s best. What he needs, however, is to grow up, and to play at a level where his naivety isn’t exposed while he matures as a player.

One way he might get all of that would be to join the other Rangers or the other Hoops.

Warnock will listen to offers for Taarabt.

Taarabt has spent years under the deluded impression that he would grace a top English or Spanish team. He would certainly grace Rangers or Celtic’s.

The standard of the SPL is more similar to the Championship and is a level at which Taarabt would undoubtedly rip sides to shreds and hog the limelight in the way he did last season.

But this isn’t about taking a swipe at the standard of football north of the border or Taarabt himself. And, despite the surname, I have no Scottish blood or links to Scotland. I just think it would have a lot to offer him.

Both the country’s top clubs could give him big stages to play on, the possibility of European football, and the starring role he craves.

He could be a sensation in Glasgow and have the kind of impact and profile achieved by the likes of Paolo Di Canio – in some ways a similar type of player and character, whose spell in Scotland was the platform for an impressive Premier League career.

It would also offer Taarabt a totally different environment and football culture to play in. One that could well make a man of him.

In the absence of hooking PSG back in, a fresh start at Loftus Road or the big move he wants, an initial loan deal may well be an option QPR would consider – and is one Celtic and their city neighbours Rangers should be alert to.

It would give them a chance to sign a potential star of their league and him an opportunity to showcase his talent.

Further down the line it may also give him the prospect of either Champions League football or a return to west London as a better and more mature player.

The imminent arrival of more new signings at QPR and the potential impact on Taarabt’s already dwindling first-team chances ought to deal even his advisors a much needed dose of reality.

He is at a crossroads in his career and, whatever his shortcomings, has ability that should not be allowed to go to waste.

 

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