What Adel Taarabt did at QPR was "an absolute joke" - he would've cost more than £20m player West Ham signed | OneFootball

FLW's Hoops fan pundit puts a new number on Adel Taarabt's brilliance

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Queens Park Rangers may have spent years wrestling with the financial fallout of their Premier League ambitions, but one transfer still stands out as a rare stroke of genius.

When the club secured Adel Taarabt from Tottenham Hotspur in 2010, few could have imagined the chaos and sheer joy that would follow.

At his best, Taarabt was a showman. His flicks, feints and fearless swagger electrified Loftus Road and left defenders spinning in his wake.

During QPR’s 2010/11 promotion campaign, he produced 19 goals and 21 assists in 44 league appearances, performances that still feel mythical over a decade later.

Under Neil Warnock’s trust and indulgence, Taarabt turned into the Championship’s unplayable conductor, inspiring a cult-like devotion among supporters.

But while the Premier League proved a trickier stage, the Moroccan’s legacy in West London was already cemented.

In a footballing world that has since become dominated by system players and data-driven efficiency, Taarabt’s brand of audacious, unpredictable genius feels almost extinct.

Adel Taarabt at QPR could command £35 million in today’s football market

Ask any QPR fan what that season meant to them, and the response comes laced with nostalgia and awe. But how do you even begin to measure a season like that in today’s game, where transfer fees and player valuations dominate almost every conversation?

That’s exactly the question Football League World put to Louis Moir, our resident Hoops fan pundit. What would a player like Adel Taarabt - at the absolute peak of his Championship powers - be worth in the modern market?

“I think in today's market with some of the players going for silly fees really, I think Adel Taarabt would probably have been sold for a lot after the season he had with us in the Championship,” Moir told FLW.

“I think we would have done well to keep him really, if the market was what it is now, back then. Because for what he did, in my opinion, the best player to have ever played in the Championship.

“And that season, the numbers he put up goals, assists, what he did was a joke, an absolute joke. Like, I'd be lucky to see anything like that again.

“You look at certain players who've done really, really well in the Championship, have gone for big money. The likes of Benrahma when he left Brentford to go to West Ham and, yeah, cracking season, but nothing compared to Taarabt, and he went for £20 odd million.

“So for me, after that season alone, like, I think you'd been looking at £35, £40 million. That's not even a joke, because it was just impeccable what he did and something you won't see for a long time, for a very long time, if that.

“It would have been great for us, selling him for that money at the time. But, you know, ideally you want to keep him in the Premier League, which we did, but then it all went a bit wrong.

“So, yeah, what a player, what a player - clearly the best player I've ever seen played for QPR and it was just a pleasure to watch him that season. But yeah, he would have been worth a lot - and I'm saying 35 million minimum.”

Ranking Adel Taarabt among the Championship’s most expensive transfers

A £35-40 million estimate might sound optimistic, but within the context of today’s Championship market, it’s far from unrealistic.

Romeo Lavia joined Chelsea for £53m after a single Premier League campaign, James Maddison went to Spurs for £40m following relegation, and Ollie Watkins moved to Aston Villa for £28m after an especially prolific season at Brentford.

By comparison, Taarabt’s 2010/11 output - 19 goals, 21 assists, and a division title - dwarfs most of those returns.

Creative midfielders now attract premium fees, particularly those capable of deciding games on their own.

Players such as Georginio Rutter, Joao Pedro, and Crysencio Summerville have each moved for sums in the £20-40m range based on flashes of potential or short bursts of form.

Taarabt, in that sense, would fit comfortably in that bracket. His numbers, combined with his ability to dictate games almost single-handedly, would make him one of the most expensive Championship exports ever - likely somewhere between tenth and twelfth on the all-time list, alongside the likes of Tino Livramento and Moussa Sissoko.

Of course, modern recruitment departments would also weigh up his volatility and inconsistency, factors that might cool interest at the very top level.

But at his 2010/11 R's peak, the data and the spectacle align: Taarabt was an elite creator operating in a league he had effectively outgrown.

QPR may not have capitalised financially, but in footballing terms, that £1m signing remains one of the best pieces of business the Championship has seen.