He talks a good game doesn't he, but Adel Taarabt will surely never don the lily white of Tottenham again. He's a player that at one stage or another I think we have all prayed would get a grasp of adult life on the football pitch and realise, as Peter Parker's uncle once said, "With great power comes great responsibility". Well, a couple of years on from dazzling and frustrating the faithful in equal measure and we are still in square 1.Is this boy one for whom we will eternally be waiting to mature? Judging by his recent comments he still believes 90 minutes of football is all about how many step overs, nutmegs and Rocky 360's you can perform and to hell in a handcart for anyone with the audacity to do anything other than spontaneously combust in sheer admiration.
“England is not for me, I think La Liga is the best League for me,” he said. “I don't like how they play in England, I like to play football! I look at teams like Bolton, Stoke or Wolves and say: 'There is just no point for me'. I hate that style of football."Hmm, it sound a bit like the kind of "it's my ball and I'm not playing" nonsense one might hear from a 10 year old who gets kicked in the park. I don't know if he catches anything other than Barca vs Madrid, but for every Seville there's a Getafe.
"[Coming to Spurs] was a big mistake for me. My friends in England — like Armand Traore and Abou Diaby at Arsenal — told me Tottenham were not the right fit for me. The big mistake was to sign for Tottenham and not go to another club when I first came over.”Let it be noted here that he never actually says he should have signed for the Scum. That is the kind of truth bending that the press love to manufacture. It makes for good, provocative headlines, sells papaer, generates clicks etc. Nonetheless, it still smacks of a calculated attempt to engineer a transfer doesn't it?
Look, here's my take: Adel's a decent player, Warnock will be good for him, he's being shown some love and given the free role he craves. But I can live without him. Adel will NEVER be a great player because he's too wrapped up in his own greatness before he's even achieved any. Trust me, he's the kind of guy that will have us on our feet at the brink of orgasm once a month and effing and blinding at him for the rest of it. I've read people say that Ronaldo was the same when he first came to Man Utd. Yes, but he was 18 at the time and by the time he turned 20 he was World Class - ergo he responded to the hairdryer and learnt how to control his ability.
We've been banging our heads against brick walls with Taarabt for 3 years now - the boy is pushing 21 and he still fails to consistently impress fans of Championship football. Can you see him doing anything in the next 12 months to have Harry suddenly recall him and put him into the first team? Not renowned for our patience us Yids are we? Thank you, good night, all the best in the future, Have a great time in Tenerife.
Now, what's happened to that Dos Santos fella...
