Sam Allardyce thinks that 21 year-old Steven Taylor has the strength of character to win back his place in the Newcastle United starting line-up.
The Greenwich born center-back, whose family moved to Whitley Bay when he was 2 weeks old, has found himself out of the team and not even on the bench in the last 2 games.
But Sam has said it seems not to have affected Steven’s spirit at all, since the youngster has been giving 100% in training and still seems to be so upbeat about his football and the Newcastle club.
Steven Taylor – first-class attitude and potentially great career ahead of him at Newcastle United
Sam has readily admitted that Steven has shown a first-class attitude in training, and he seems confident the Newcastle Academy graduate, who captains the England Under-21 team, will fight tooth and nail for his place in the side.
Sam said today:
“Steven will fight for his place – I’ve no doubt about that whatsoever,” “I had a chat with him on Saturday morning (before Reading) and he’s taken it very well.â€
“I know he’s very disappointed not being involved at the moment, but he’s a young player for the future for us, and I think he’ll get back in.â€
“If he does get back in, and when he gets back in, I hope he keeps the shirt.”
The way Steven has taken this adversity has surely impressed big Sam, who likes his players to be mature. In fact Sam just will not take any BS from his players – full stop. We know the next time Steven gets his chance – which may be sooner than we think, he will be more determined than ever to keep his place. We’ve seen this before from young Steven and surely he will have learned from the mistakes he made in the Manchester City game. But hey, he’s still only 21 years old, and he will make a few mistakes as he improves into the great player we think he can become.
Sam added:
“It wasn’t about Steven Taylor, it was about the whole back four being poor on the day,”
“The Steven Taylor situation isn’t just Steven Taylor – it’s him, David Rozehnal and Charles N’Zogbia.–They were all moved out of the back because of that performance, which wasn’t good enough on the day.â€
“It wasn’t just Steven Taylor, like everyone’s making it out to be. I said it was about the whole back four on the day.”
Sam speaks straight about his players and we think they appreciate that. As soon as Sam heard that people were interpreting his comments on Friday to mean that he thought Steven Taylor was cr**, he moved quickly to correct that view, and made sure he met with young Steven about the situation on Saturday morning in Reading.
Players appreciate that and they know they will get a fair crack of the whip with Sam. That’s one reason Sam has been so respected by his players over the years – he keeps his word. It’s as simple as that.
Comments welcome.
5 comments so far
Kash
Oct 29, 2007 at 3:32 PM
Comment #1A bit of adversity, always helps to strengthen character and add steel to ones determination!
Kash
Oct 29, 2007 at 3:33 PM
Comment #2Ed – any chance of doing a summary of possible players we have/were linked to with chances of signing them. It may lead to a few more comments!
malaysian youngster
Oct 29, 2007 at 5:06 PM
Comment #3he have a true defender spirit. which will throw the body to block the ball.very brave lad just lack of experience.
Rich
Oct 29, 2007 at 5:43 PM
Comment #4Kash – What id like to see in January is realistically
Out
Ameobi £2m
Carr £500 k
Babayaro £500k.
£3m
In
Emannuelson£6m
Edmilson Free
Giles Barnes/Diouf £5-6m
Young promosing right back £4m.
I think wed have a good squad then
Leo
Oct 30, 2007 at 12:10 AM
Comment #5i would go for krol from real madrid rather than urby, he is too soft for the epl
edmilson wont be free but wont cost much
giles barnes would be good i would prefer diouf because his work ethics are brillient
right back… hmm that is tricky, someone said go for glenn johnson but he is prone to lapses in concentration, but strong also… difficult one there
i would try and sign deco or the sporting lisbon clube ‘creative central midfilder’
maybe a striker like kerzakov or anelka, but may have to wait till summer.
in the summer if spurs havnt improved then go for berbatov…