Does Adel Taarabt Deserve Being Humiliated by Harry Redknapp?
Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp publicly shaming Adel Taarabt did not just burn the bridge of their trust, it obliterated it.
Was Redknapp wrong to humiliate Taarabt?
"He [Taarabt] played in a reserve team game the other day, and I could have run about more than he did," Redknapp said, per Sky Sports. "[Taarabt is] about three stone overweight. What am I supposed to keep saying: keep getting your 60, 70 grand a week but don't train? What's the game coming to?"
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Three years ago, Redknapp said Taarabt had the upside to emulate Zinedine Zidane, per Declan Taylor at The Telegraph.
Though Redknapp added a disclaimer: "It's just whether or not his [Taarabt's] head is right."
Calling Taarabt out for being fat, lazy and unprofessional is not going to improve his mental state.
Redknapp earns £3 million a season to direct, lead and motivate every single player contracted to QPR, as opposed to kicking a player when he is down.
It is not a scrub who is being embarrassed, it is a player who has flashed £20 million-valued potential.
"I never wanted to let him [Taarabt] go at Tottenham, I was scared to let him go. I always felt he had a value even if he wasn't starting," Redknapp said, per PA Sport (h/t SBS). "I'd say to him 'you're making me look a fool, Adel. I keep seeing you on telly, you're worth £20 million, I sold you too cheap'."
Taarabt trifled Atletico Madrid's defence with an array of Zidane-esque moves on loan at AC Milan last season.
A transformed player, Taarabt started in 85.7 percent of Serie A games he was involved in (12 starts, two substitute appearances).
He upped his defending from non-existent to somewhat active.
He averaged more dribbles (3.6) than Real Madrid left-forward Cristiano Ronaldo (2.2), as encapsulated with an audacious solo goal against Napoli, which started inside Milan's defensive half.
Taarabt had worked his way back into career-best form, a la the 2010-11 Championship season for QPR, when he was named the Football League Player of the Year.
Redknapp haranguing Taarabt plays into what former England international Stan Collymore loathed about managers acting ambiguously, per Team Stream Now [1]: "I used to hate managers that would walk down the corridor towards you, put their arm around your back, and then go and say something else to one of their coaching staff."
Revising history is a theme in Redknapp's career, as evident with the amount of credit he takes in Gareth Bale's development.
October 8, 2013, per Redknapp's autobiography "Always Managing" (h/t the Daily Mail): "[Bale] was regarded as a left-back and was up against Benoit Assou-Ekotto, one of the best in the Premier League. Gareth seemed too soft to be a defender so we decided to try him further forward."
November 6, 2010, per Rob Shepherd at The National: "Often when you play further forward on the left of midfield that space can become more easily closed down or other players can get across and block. In the long term I eventually see Gareth dropping back [from left-wing] and playing at left-back where he can be one of the best, if not the best."
As humans, we are not perfect, we make mistakes, we cannot predict the future, and it is OK to concede being wrong about an original stance.
But Redknapp's view on Bale has always been murky and amending the past to suit how the future views you historically is dishonest.
How seriously can you take what Redknapp says?
Defending himself against tax-evasion charges (he was later acquitted), he told police, per BBC Sport: "I write like a two-year-old and I can't spell."
Did all his ghost writers/co-authors/researchers do all the heavy lifting, while Redknapp cashed in on the following books?
In the aftermath of Liverpool beating QPR 3-2, which story is more sensational?
- QPR's defensive shape collapsing (scored two own goals and lost the game in stoppage time) due to Redknapp's tactical adjustments following injuries to Nedum Onuoha and Sandro.
- OR Taarabt earns £60,000-£70,000 per week, yet is three stone overweight and does not want to train.
The latter, hence why the Daily Mail's sport section led with it as the front story.
Taarabt has problems. What's new?
CONTEXT: QPR are bottom of the Premier League and just relinquished a game they should have never lost against Liverpool.
In addition, there is speculation Redknapp could be replaced by Tim Sherwood, per James Olley and Tom Collomosse at The Independent.
Redknapp wants to be viewed as the ordinary man on the street.
Yet, he knows he possesses the extraordinary quality of surviving and thriving (financially).
By chucking Taarabt under the bus, Redknapp has used the Chewbacca defence to avoid an all-out media blitz into his tactical ineptitude following a demoralising defeat to Liverpool.
[1] 1:03 - 1:10.
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