Stephane Mbia pulls no punches when asked who is to blame for the turmoil that has left Queens Park Rangers at the bottom of the Premier League.
‘Should the players feel guilty about Mark Hughes’ sacking? Yes, I think so,’ says Mbia. ‘He gave everything for everybody at this club. I think it’s the players’ fault. I think if the players had the same mentality under Mark Hughes they have now, we would not be in this position.
‘The manager was never the problem. Mark Hughes has quality, Harry Redknapp has quality.
‘Harry Redknapp gives the players confidence, but Mark Hughes is the same. But the players didn’t want to give their best for Mark Hughes.
‘I don’t know why it’s like that. We should have done the same when the previous manager was here. Maybe they are more afraid of Harry.’
Such honesty might not sit well with everyone at Loftus Road, but the 26-year-old Mbia is someone who cares. He is passionate about the game and his club. Even more so, given that only a few weeks ago he feared his career might be over.
Playing against Aston Villa on December 1, Mbia collided with Gabby Agbonlahor, whose elbow hit him in the neck. The midfielder lay motionless on the turf as a stunned silence fell over Loftus Road. Mbia feared he was paralysed.
‘I remember passing the ball and then trying to turn quickly, but I didn’t see the guy and I felt his elbow on my neck,’ he recalls.
‘I fell. I only had a small pain — but then I couldn’t feel anything. I couldn’t feel my legs. I thought my football career was over.
‘I was so scared because I’ve got kids and a wife. I thought football was finished for me. I was crying, that was a difficult moment.
‘Thank God it is OK now. That was the first time I have had anything like that, I was so worried.’
Fifteen minutes later as he was being rushed to hospital he began to get some feeling back into his legs. Later he was able to tell his 21,000-plus Twitter followers he was fine.
So fine, in fact, that he made a miraculous recovery to play for QPR in the 2-2 draw at Wigan just seven days later.
But once you spend some time with this larger-than-life character, you understand why the game means everything to a player who admits that, as a boy, he stole his first football.
From a humble upbringing in his native Cameroon, Mbia’s life has been a roller-coaster journey that has included sharing a small family home with seven brothers and sisters, the devastation of his parents’ separation and the reluctant decision to leave his family home in the central region of the country to follow his dream of becoming a footballer.
After joining Rennes as a teenager he was transferred to Marseille in 2009 for £10.4million, switching to Rangers last August for £7m as part of the deal which took Joey Barton in the opposite direction.
Now Mbia faces one of the biggest fights of his footballing life — trying to save QPR from relegation.
Ever since watching his all-time hero, the former Real Madrid and Argentina midfielder Fernando Redondo, for the first time he knew football would be his path — even though he did not always have the means to follow his dream.
‘My earliest football memories are of playing outside my house in my home town of Biamese,’ he says. ‘We came from a simple background. It was very difficult. My father did everything, if we needed something he would try to get it for us.
‘But at first we could not afford a ball, so my friend and I took some paper, scrunched it up into a ball and just started kicking it around outside, I must have been about four years old at the time.
‘When did I get my first ball? Well, I have to confess, I stole it. It wasn’t mine. Someone kicked it towards me so I just grabbed it and ran.
‘My mother never wanted me to play football, she wanted me to concentrate on my studies. But I pleaded with her to buy me my first pair of boots. I remember when she came home from work one day with the boots and I was so happy. I gave her so many kisses.’
However, that loving relationship with his mother has not always been so apparent.
‘My mother and father had a problem, so my mother left,’ remembers Mbia. ‘I didn’t see her for 10 years. It was very difficult.
‘When my mum was there, my life was more simple. She spoke to me, gave me a bit of money.
‘Did I miss her when she left? No — I was angry. I was angry because she didn’t call. She never told us where she lived.
‘I wasn’t alone, my brothers had the same sentiment because she left us with no news about her.
‘My father had another woman — she was OK — but she was not my mum.
Psychologically it was difficult for me not to see my mother.
‘But when I signed for Rennes when I was 17, she saw me on TV and we reconnected.
‘I forgive and forget — that’s life. I think those bad times have helped my character in football. I’m happy now.’
In the latest instalment of the battle for Barclays Premier League survival, Rangers face Redknapp’s former team Tottenham at Loftus Road this lunchtime.
Mbia might be happy now but he’ll be even happier if he can still call himself a Premier League footballer in May.
By SAMI MOKBEL
