Neil Warnock reveals he fined players £50 for passing to Adel Taarabt and how coach warned Moroccan would get him sacked
NEIL WARNOCK has revealed that he would FINE players for passing to Adel Taarabt in their own half.
The veteran boss managed Taarabt at Queens Park Rangers.
Warnock, now 75, arrived at Loftus Road in March 2010 and didn’t initially receive a particularly glowing review of the attacking midfielder.
Recounting the first time he encountered the mercurial Moroccan, Warnock told Peter Crouch on the ex-striker’s podcast: “This is a red hot day and there’s a kid with black gloves on. Black woollen gloves.
“I said to a member of staff: ‘Who’s that with gloves on?’.
“The guy says: ‘You don’t want to know him, gaffer. That’s Taarabt. He’s a Moroccan from Tottenham. He’ll get you the sack. He’s already got a manager the sack. Waste of space’.
“I watched this game and QPR couldn’t score goals then – that was their problem. So I’m watching this kid and I’ve never seen anything like it. Some of his ability.
“But what he was doing was getting the ball off the centre-half, nut-megging someone, losing it and them scoring.”
Taarabt, now 34, first joined QPR on loan in March 2009.
He played under Paulo Sousa, Jim Magilton, Paul Hart and Mick Harford before Warnock’s arrival the following January.
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Despite Taarabt’s flaws being clear, Warnock couldn’t help but be impressed by his strengths.
He added: “You sometimes get gut-feelings as a manager. I just liked him straight away, even with his gloves and all that. He had that little bit of arrogance.
“So I pulled him over on the pitch and said: ‘Are you cold, Adel? We play West Brom on Saturday, top of the league, my first game. I’m going to play you – understand? And if you’re s****, I’m going to play you the next game. And if you’re s****, I’m going to play you the next game. Do you understand? Because you are going to save us’.”
Despite holding huge belief in Taarabt, Warnock felt the need to take drastic action in order to mask his weaknesses.
He added: “So then I got all the other lads, without him, and said: ‘Right, anybody who gives him the ball in our half, it’s a £50 fine’.
“And I said to Adel: ‘Adel, if you come over the halfway line and pick a ball up, I fine you £50 – okay?’.
“I think one player passed it to him and we fined him £50, but that was it. You give him the ball in the [opponent’s] half… oh my God.”
Taarabt went on to produce one of the all-time great Championship campaigns by an individual player in the 2010-11 season.
Missing just two matches, the former Tottenham youngster scored 19 times, often in spectacular fashion, and laid on 21 assists as his side lifted the title and sealed promotion to the Premier League.
He went on to play two seasons in the top flight with QPR, before spending the 2013-14 campaign on loan at Fulham and AC Milan.
Taarabt returned to Loftus Road for the 2014-15 season back in the Prem, but only played seven times.
The 30-cap Moroccan joined Benfica before later plying his trade back in Serie A with Genoa.
He signed for Dubai-based Al-Nasr in 2022, where he still plays to this day.
