Adel Taarabt won over by Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp, who once called him a "fruitcake" Taarabt has already had "face-to-face" conversations with Redknapp, now in charge at QPR, and a man he deeply admires, just as he calls his predecessor, Mark Hughes, "a great manager." "He has something that not a lot of managers have," Taarabt says of Redknapp. A lot of managers can organise the team and so on but Harry wants a player to feel he is the best. Taarabt gives a simple example - before last weekend's 2-1 victory at home to Fulham, QPR's first win of the season in the Premier League, at the 17th attempt. Taarabt scored both goals. "He came to see me and said, "I think you've nothing to learn from Berbatov because I think you can be better than him." "So I'm thinking, "If he thinks that then I'm going to show him he's right and that I am better." And this is Harry. He will tell you, "I won't change you for anyone." And not just me. He's said the same to the other players and when a manager says this to you and you go on the pitch you want to show him he was right. I saw it at Tottenham also. Modric was there and Juande Ramos didn't play him. We played at Stoke and Luka was put on the floor. He wanted a free kick and Ramos turned and said, "He's not a player for English football." Harry arrived and just said "fantastic player." And after that Luka, game after game, wow. Taarabt also has that "wow" factor, which was honed on the streets from the age of four. Born in Morocco, his family moved to Berre-l'Etang near Marseille in the south of France as his father, a builder, pursued work. "I didn't learn my skills in a football academy," he says. They taught me to turn this way, that way, control. But they didn't teach me step-overs, nutmegs. They were natural. They came from God, I think. Balls were improvised, scrounged - and sometimes stolen. Taarabt and his friends would stand outside the wall of the local football club and any wayward shot meant a ball was lost - and taken to the nearby high rises where the boys played four v four day after day. "Five or six teams, three goals and you stayed on," Taarabt says. You hated to lose. When you went out you knew it would be 20, 30 minutes before you played again. You would go crazy. From Lens, his first club, he went to Spurs in January 2007. There, after Jol and Ramos, Redknapp encouraged Taarabt to go on loan to QPR, who he helped finally raise from the Championship and save from relegation last season. The situation had appeared dire - and although it appears even more perilous this campaign, Taarabt says he would not swap the scenarios. "Last year with the last 10 games you saw the teams we were going to play, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City, and everyone thought "no chance." But now we have more than 20 games left and I prefer that," he says, drawing hope from last weekend's win. Taarabt explains what that victory felt like - and the frustration at the team's mistakes this campaign. "You are playing, lose a goal and then you are watching the time - 75 minutes, 80 minutes and, ah, it's hard," he says. When you are winning 1-0 you control the game, you are calm. That run of matches without a victory added to the pressure he felt to make a difference. "Everyone is waiting for you to do something but it's not easy to go past three or four players and score," Taarabt says. "And sometimes it's not "on" and you should not do it but you try to do it because you are thinking "but I have to do something." "It means you end up "forcing" your game and you should never do that." That, he says, is changing. Maturity means he is more aware of when and when not to run with the ball. "I think I've improved a lot," Taarabt says. When I was 17 it was dribble, dribble, dribble. Now I'm mixing it much more. I think I've improved a lot and that's normal. I'm getting older. There is frustration that QPR have given away "too many cheap goals." "It's been too easy for the opponent and it's been like that all season," he says. If you play against Man United and Rooney or Van Persie put one in the top corner then fair enough but if you concede two goals at set pieces then that's not acceptable. Concede to a piece of magic but not a set-piece. Taarabt feels a crucial part of QPR. He has been continually linked with moves away - Paris St-Germain and more recently Manchester United - but states emphatically: "I've given to this club but this club gives me a lot. Every season people say "he's going to leave" but I am still here. For me, coming here was the best decision I've made in my career and I hope, I think, I can do more for the club I feel important and want to continue to be so - to score goals, win games. It's been a very difficult season but we're still in there with a chance. Everyone was thinking we were maybe out of it but I think we can do it.