Steven Taylor Transfer Listed
Club acts after contract talks stall
The club released a statement today confirming that defender Steven Taylor had been placed on the transfer list after talks over a new contract broke down. Taylor's contract ends next summer so the club are obviously looking to try and stop the worrying prospect of him leaving for free happening.
I have to say im really disappointed by this, im a really big Steven Taylor fan and I really hope some kind of compromise can be found. I have heard a few comments that it doesn't matter as Coloccini and Williamson are playing well but thats a very naive attitude really. I personally think those 2 are very good players but at the end of the day its a squad game nowadays and its a safe bet that at some point in the season either 1 or both of them will be unavailable for some reason or another. Taylor is a very good defender, has bags of Premier League experience for a young guy, has the potential to get better I think and on top of that he's a local lad so the passion to play for the club is there and he shows that in the no nonsense way he plays. In our current financial state I just think that there is no way we could replace him in the squad with someone anywhere near as good.
We have other options of course in the likes of Sol Campbell, Tamas Kadar and James Perch but id much rather have Taylor as an experienced option in there as well. There are obviously slight question marks on the ageing Campbell's fitness, Kadar is still fairly inexperienced and doesn't have a great injury record and im yet to be convinced by Perch myself.
Rumours seem to be flying about as to the cause of the break down of talks with the money being asked by Taylor the obvious story. Its a tough one for me as whilst I thoroughly support the club trying to cap the wages to a sensible level its extremely hard to do that when there are still players in the squad like Coloccini, Smith and Barton that are on silly money. You can half understand the likes of Taylor being a bit peeved getting offered around half of what the likes of Coloccini are on when he has a similar standing in the squad.
Like I say I really hope a compromise can be found as I really don't want to lose him and even more so I don't want to be losing him on the cheap which will probably happen if he is sold before his contract expires. I think the route to take with any future negotiations would be to offer them a basic wage and then have the potential for bonues to be able to top that up based on the teams performances in the various competititions.
I hope im wrong but this story seems to have the potential to get ugly with tit for tat comments from both sides about the apparent issues already leaking out into the press. If a deal can't be done then lets get him shipped out but as i've said I think its really in our best interests to try and find a compromise and keep the lad at the club.
What do people think. who is in the right and who is in the wrong and ultimately do people want to see Stevie Taylor stay?
