Taylor wants stability.
Posted on December 27th, 2010 | 82 Comments |
This will hopefully end speculation regarding the future of the player and will allow the press, the club, the player and the fans to move on.
Taylor had been on the transfer list since late last summer when contract talks between the club and Taylor’s agent, Paul Stretford, broke down. There was a lot of rumour and speculation with regards to why the talks broke down, but I guess we will never know now why they did, not for a while anyway. Love him or hate him, Paul Stretford has done his job and got his client the deal that was required for Taylor to stay at the club for the forseeable.
Apparently Taylor wanted to see signs of the club moving forward and signs of stability at Newcastle before committing himself to a new deal. He has obviously seen enough of those signs since Alan Pardew took over three weeks ago to warrant him signing on for the long term, although I would argue that a lot of this stability was instilled under Chris Hughton back when any agreement with Taylor looked to be dead in the water.
Still, I suppose people will swallow that load of bollocks. Personally, I don’t. I think it was money related, but hey-ho, it’s all about opinions isn’t it?
Anyway, Taylor thanked Paul Stretford, Alan Pardew and the club for the new deal. He talked to The Shields Gazette earlier and had this to say:
“The board have been absolutely fantastic – I’m absolutely delighted with a five-and-a-half year contract.I wanted an extension to my contract. This club’s going forward now, and I want to be part of that.”
“The new manager’s came in, and he’s had a massive part to play. The first day he came in, he sat me down and said he wanted it resolved. I was over the moon, and I was glad he got the ball rolling.”
“My agent, Paul Stretford, has taken a lot of flak, but I owe so much to him. He’s kept me here for the majority of my career, and hopefully the rest of my career.”
I wouldn’t worry about your agent, Steven, as I feel pretty certain that he isn’t doing too bad out of the deal! Taylor continued:
“For me to get this contract means so much. I want to be part of this football club for the next five-and-a-half years. I’m absolutely delighted. I’ll be happy running out in front of 52,000 for the next five-and-a-half years – I’ll be grey and old!”
You may well be aware that I don’t have a lot of time for Taylor. I see him as no better than average in the Premier League. He could get better, but I don’t think he has improved since he burst on the scene all those years back. He seems to have plateau’d early on in his career, although as I said, that could obviously change.
I also don’t like the way he runs his gob off to the press all the time. At least whilst all of these negotiations had been ongoing he had kept quiet, but now we will get the tubthumping rhetoric on an almost daily basis.
He likes talking to the press does wor Steven. I remember a time, a time that appears to be forgotten, when the Greenwich born defender’s camp leaked a few stories to no other than Louise Taylor to assist in a previous round of contract talks. I had just about got over that, but then it all kicked off again with this round of talks. Now Taylor has a long way to go to get back in my good books, but if he keeps his head down, actually improves and stops going missing then he will get there eventually.
Anyway, back to the interview…..
“I’ve never once criticised the club. I’m not one of those players you see in football who, if things aren’t going well, or if they don’t get a contract, have a moan,” Taylor protested. “I’ve never once said I wanted to leave this football club. All the time I wanted to stay – it was between my agent and the board.
“It was totally business at the end of the day. They were just trying to get something sorted.”
Business…
“The club’s going forward now. A few players have signed five-year contracts. I wanted stability at this football club, and they’ve proven they wanted me for the next five and a half years. That’s all I cared about. There’s a structure at this football club, and I’m happy with that.”
As I wrote earlier on in the article, the club was moving forward by Taylor’s own definition under Hughton, so the groundwork had been laid by the very man that Taylor appeared to not want to sign for, the very man that had given us some stability.
Funny eh?
Still, it’s just business……
just about sums my feelings up m8,we will just move on,nice thread,small drink hasnt done you any harm ;)