Armand Traore EXCLUSIVE: Former Arsenal and QPR defender hits back at ‘bad egg’ verdict and reveals Turkey frustrations may lead to early retirement
A career which promised so much is now at something of a crossroads for former Arsenal and QPR left-back Armand Traore.
It seemed Traore would be the latest youngster to come off the Arsenal conveyor belt when Arsene Wenger, who knows a fantastic talent when he sees one, handed him his first-team debut against West Bromwich Albion in 2006.
Let’s not forget, Traore was playing in a team which included the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Gilberto Silva and Kolo Toure at the time, and he would go on to make 33 appearances in all competitions for the Gunners, while also enjoying positive loan spells at Portsmouth as well as Juventus.
For one reason or another, though, it hasn’t worked out for the Senegal international in recent years, and he is now contemplating retirement following a ‘nightmare’ move to Turkey which has left him battling to save his career.
The 30-year-old, who also enjoyed a stint with Nottingham Forest, has played just one competitive fixture since March 2018 and wasn’t paid for ‘months’ having joined Caykur Rizespor after helping Cardiff gain promotion to the Premier League during a loan spell in Wales.
After his contract in Turkey was torn up, Traore looked like he had been given a lifeline when Neil Warnock handed him a short-term deal back at Cardiff last November.
However, his second stint with the Bluebirds didn’t go to plan, with Warnock leaving just two days after his return and Traore being released at the end of his short-term deal in January as managerial successor Neil Harris didn’t view the former Arsenal defender as part of his plans.
Traore has been without a club ever since, and it’s fair to say the past two years have hit the 30-year-old hard mentally.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, he said: “It’s been very hard. We were talking to clubs before lockdown and clubs were coming back and saying, ‘we will definitely look at it in the summer.
"Tell him to keep fit and then we’ll talk after the season has finished and during pre-season'.
"Then Lockdown happened and [now] clubs are probably going to have to change how they sign players, and they’re talking about salary caps and a lot of things.
“Eventually, during the lockdown I started to be proactive about, potentially, having to hang up the boots, because I cannot keep staying fit in the hope that somebody signs me. I’ve not played for a while.
“I have had times where I’ve been close to being really down. You wake up in this situation and you feel like you’re useless. You feel empty. You question if you’re ever going to play again [and] what am I going to do, [as] I did not prepare for this.
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“It would be a shame, if you ask me, if I have to stop because I do believe that I can help teams, in terms of experience. I am extremely fit and fitter than I was before because lockdown has helped me correct certain things.
"For instance, my personal trainer took a video of me and told me that I over stride when I run and that can create certain injuries.
“I would love to help young players as well, because I suffered terribly on the mental side of the game when I was younger, because I was not prepared.
“I would love to go back out there and be happy again playing football. I’m training hard every day to get back out there. I’m dying to play again.”
Traore, is particularly frustrated at his time in Turkey and feels he was ‘naive’ in believing an agent who claimed that he would eventually end up at Fenerbahce by making the move to Rizespor.
“I just thought it would be a new adventure and pretty much straight away, it was an absolute disaster,” the 30-year-old continued. "I was doing the training sessions for my team.
"The assistant manager was coming to see me and asking me, 'what should we do tonight?’ and ‘what did you do at Arsenal?’ and ‘how was Juventus and Nottingham Forest?’. I’d tell him what we were doing in training and he would go and do the training two or three hours later and I was thinking 'where am I?’
“I didn’t get paid for months and months, so I had to use a lawyer and they didn’t like that. So, they sent me to the Under-23s and it was just a battle from then. I was thrown out of my accommodation. They just made life hell for me.
“When it was the internationals and the whole club had days off to go and see their countries, I had to go in at 3 o’clock every day on my own to do a 20-minute jog.
"I was asking for permission to go and see my kids – I’ve got three boys – and it was refused every time.
“They were just a nightmare. They just wanted me to leave without getting paid basically. In the end, we won with the lawyer.
“But the Turkey experience has taught me that money is not everything.
"When you find yourself locked in a city on the outskirts of Turkey, in some grubby hotel all on your own for months and months, money cannot do anything for you. It might get you a nice car or watch that you get bored of after two weeks, but money is not everything.”
As well as the support from family and friends, the left-back has also been helped by former Arsenal boss Wenger, whom Traore cites as a father figure, with the Frenchman regularly keeping in touch during his difficult time abroad.
One thing Traore is desperate to put to bed, though, are question marks over his attitude.
He was one of five branded a ‘bad egg’ in the QPR dressing room by one newspaper in 2015, after Joey Barton had hit out at some members of the squad following the west London club's relegation from the Premier League.
At that time, the QPR dressing room was a difficult place to be, with the R’s spending big and placing some of their new signings on big wages, something which had a detrimental effect on squad morale. They finished rock bottom in the top-flight that season and are still dealing with the financial consequences to this day.
However, that newspaper report is one Traore wholeheartedly disagrees with, believing the ‘bad egg’ tagline has held him back ever since.
“I truly believe that I am misunderstood," he finished. "A lot of people don’t know what I have been through.
“When I was 18, I had to look after my father who had cancer. Seeing your father weak, picking him up in his bed full of wee and taking him to the bathroom, and hearing him screaming when you’re 17 or 18 years old, will scar you. He then passed away.
“People need to remember that when the bad egg story came out, the QPR squad was ridiculous; it was full of egos and it was full of cliques everywhere.
"It was bad. For whatever reason, I was friends with the players who were plastered on the back of the paper and my name came up and I feel I still suffer from that.
“I’m not a disruptive character at all. Even when I spoke to Joey Barton about the whole bad egg story - because he was the one who started saying there was bad eggs in the squad - he said to me when it was published that he never had me in mind.
“If people actually came and sat down and tried to understand certain things, I would explain to them. I’m not trying to find excuses. I’m not saying I was a saint.
“At times, I was lost. Being in London as a young man and having just lost my dad, I had a bit of money and I was out of Arsenal.
"At Arsenal I had huge pressure while at QPR there was less pressure, so I felt a bit free. For two years, I might have been a bit wild going out and being unprofessional, but things have changed.
“This bad reputation thing happened over ten years ago. I’ve changed and I’ve had three kids since. I’ve done a lot of soul searching and I’ve worked on myself. It’s been a constant battle, but I’ve changed.”
