OOH Shaun Taylor

[ciderwithtommy]

12 hours ago, pongo88 said:

You may laugh at Karleigh Osbourne but he was a regular in the team, and ahead of Flint, until he had a terrible injury on the pre-season tour of Africa. By the time he had recovered the City defence had become settled and he couldn’t get back into the team. He was a skilful player 

It’s all about opinions, but if Taylor was , “better than most you list here comfortably”, which of the list were worse than him? (Rogers, Carey, Collier, Newman, Merrick and Ayling all played in the top division in England and Magnússon was an Iceland international and played for CSK Moscow. Even Fontaine played approx 250 games for City and he was going to sign for Southampton (?) until he failed a medical.  It was only at the end of his time at City did his form suddenly go) 

 

Of course saying a player is better is opinion based, so we may not agree - but firstly Taylor played in the top flight (scoring a lot of goals in Swindon’s promotion season - pretty skilful!). Better than Fontaine, Osbourne, Flint, Magnússon and Ayling as a central defender. More influential to us then Carey when they both played together. In fact he better than all bar Newman that I have seen, barely remember Newman but he was a hero in my eyes! I bow to your knowledge on some of the players on the list.
 

 

[pride of the west]

Let's not forget he used to wear a gum shield as well. I cant remember anyone since wearing one. Strikers must have crapped themselves the minute he put one in in the tunnel. 

[Silvio Dante]

Loved Shaun Taylor. I started watching in the mid 80s, and the one thing that’s never changed since ST played for us is that he’d be in my all time City team. First pick.

When people compared Flint to him it was laughable. Whereas Flint played in his bubble, Taylor made players around him better by his leadership - we’ve already pointed out Carey but there were more. Was he limited technically? You bet your ass he was, but he was the best CB in the league and what he brought to the team couldn’t be understated. It’s just a shame we got him at 33.

Sean Dyche and Julian Watts weren’t the best players. But they were made to look worse by what they were replacing. If Shaun Taylor hadn’t got injured, we might have been able to play with Akinbiyi, Thorpe and Andersen in the same team as we’d certainly have conceded far less.

If you look up leader in the dictionary, it should just say “Shaun Taylor”

[Steve Watts]

19 hours ago, 22A said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Taylor  In January 2018 Shaun Taylor returned to Torquay United as their new Head of Academy Coaching.

He left in September 2019 to "seek pastures new and spend time with his family".  Obviously 6 months later, covid really took hold, and so probably not the best time to take a sabbatical.  

Best central defender I've seen play for us.  Carey wouldn't have made half the appearances he did if it wasn't for the leadership shown by him.

[RedHienz]

18 hours ago, pongo88 said:

I think we have a bit of rose tinted glasses regarding Taylor just because he was a hard player. He was a good lower league player but never a top flight player.  He was good at “getting stuck in” but lacking in real skill  compared to David Rogers (yes he had skill), Louis Carey, Gary Collier, Rob Newman, Geoff Merrick, Liam Fontaine, Aiden Flint (yes he had skill as well) , Karleigh Osborne, Luke Ayling, Magnússon etc.

Yet he played in the top flight which is more then a couple that you mentioned. To say Osborne was anywhere near his level of reading the game which is perhaps the biggest skill a defender can have posses is interesting but its all opinions.