Adel Taarabt Rubbishes Harry Redknapp’s Claims

Adel Taarabt. Flickr Creative Commons

Adel Taarabt has hit back at QPR manager Harry Rednkapp. After a heart-wrenching loss to Liverpool on Sunday, Redknapp launched a tirade at the Moroccan midfielder, claiming that he was lazy and overweight. Taraabt has since spoken out in rebuke.

Things can’t get any worse for the Queens Park Rangers, after securing a return to the Premier League last season, they are headed straight back down. The poor run of form has sparked a feud between Head Coach Harry Redknapp and his midfielder Adel Taarabt.

When questioned on his exclusion of the player in the team vs Liverpool, Redknapp claimed that Taarabt was unfit and that he had no desire to train.

"“He’s not injured. He’s not fit. He’s not fit to play football unfortunately. He played in a reserve game the other day and I could have run about more than he did.” Source: sbnation.com“"

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The manager went on to say that the Moroccan was “three stone overweight.”

"“I can’t keep protecting people who don’t want to run about and train, and are about three stone overweight. What am I supposed to keep saying? Keep getting your 60, 70 grand a week and don’t train? What’s the game coming to?” Source: sbnation.com"

Redknapp could be forgiven for making such statements; he wants the best for his club and if he doesn’t believe that players are contributing, he has every right to criticize.

Taarabt has come out and spoken in defense of himself, he has strongly refuted the manager’s claims.

"“I am a professional – this is not about retaliation, this is about protecting my reputation, I played in that reserve game for 90 minutes and if he didn’t think I was running he could have taken me off. Maybe I didn’t perform like I could because it was a reserve team game and I was protecting myself. Just because we are losing games I am not going to kick the ball in the stands. My job is to create, bring goals to the team. Maybe he expects me to make more tackles. I am not this type of player. I can only get fitness playing Premier League. You can train six or seven hours, but you won’t be fit.” Source: dailymail.co.uk"

Taraabt has also slammed Redknapp’s methods, he alleges that the manager does not use a hands-on approach when it comes to training, but spends most of his time at a desk.

"“He spends most of the time in his office but when he gets off the phone he comes down to watch for five or 10 minutes – he never takes a session”"

"“Almost every time we lose the ball the opposition score. We need to do something about it.”“If you work as a team you run less. If somebody sprints 100 metres they play a triangle round him and you are never going to get the ball.”If everybody runs 10m, 10m, 10m, then you are in shape, but we never do that. He doesn’t understand that. The coaches don’t have any influence on Harry – none. They are there just to be there.” Source: dailymail.co.uk"

The team is already in a bad enough shape as it is, they need to start winning football matches. What they don’t need is drama, and right now that is about all they have. It is very likely that Taarabt will be sold in January, but till then, this team needs to get together to devise a way to uproot themselves from 20th place.