Stevie Taylor’s £9 million summer Blues move?

Posted on February 15th, 2010 | 80 Comments |

Taylor: Blues Pop target?
Taylor: Blues Pop target?
It’s nice to see the transfer rumour mill is back in business, with Steven Taylor yet again being the subject of it’s ramblings. The rumours are that Chelsea are eyeing up a £9 million move for the adopted Geordie stopper, I say adopted to halt the “Steven Taylor was born in London” remarks but in my mind the lad is a Geordie!

Anyone remember Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson? Our former striker? Well apparently he has been sent to St James’ Park a few times this season to do scouting missions on Taylor as Chelsea seek to bolster their squad with the aim of getting around next season’s ‘home-grown’ ruling – where 8 players out of a 25 man squad must be registered who have spent 3 entire seasons under the age of 21 training with an FA affiliated club.

Now it’s from The Mirror, so perhaps it isn’t the most accurate of musings, but Steven Taylor is a player that is always linked with a move away from us. Just a few months ago he was being hotly tipped for a move to Everton, something that either didn’t materialise or the player said “no” to. Either way £9 million this time around is a lot of money, but is it enough? Taylor has been instrumental at the back for us this season and was one of the only players to actually show any emotion on that fateful day at Villa Park. Over the years he has built an affinity with the fans, perhaps he likes the feeling of being among his own.

How much of his desire to stay was aided by the need to try and get Newcastle back into the Premier League is an open question. At the time Taylor said;

“I could not have lived with that. I stayed ­because I wanted to be in the team that came back up. I owed the club that.”

Fair play to him for that, but what if we dont get promotion? What if we do? If it’s the former then I guess we will see the back of Taylor this time around as Ashley strips the club down further. If it’s the latter, then there is still no guarantee of Taylor stopping, perhaps because he has done what he said and helped get the team back up? Maybe he’d even stay and play one season in the Premier League with us? Maybe more? All these questions will only be answered by time.

I hope he does stay, for one thing it would help us get around the ‘home grown’ rule, something that we would need to contend with ourselves if we do win promotion and also the fact that Taylor has vital Premier League experience, something that could give us a headstart over other teams in the fight for survival. Yes, survival in our first season back would be success!

I’m hoping this is paper guff, in fact it probably is. ‘Pop’ Robson’s last recorded job was at Birmingham City where he was doing some scouting for them! Perhaps the paper got Chelsea and Birmingham mixed up? They are both nicknamed ‘The Blues’ after all.

I’m sure there will be plenty more rumours over the coming months!

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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80 Responses

  1. I think if we stay in the fizzy league he will go – along with a fair few others, defo smithy, nolan and the two argies. this season is a big one for us cos if we dont make it up we will get disbanded even further and we will become a fully blooded CCC team only.

  2. Can’t see this happening, myself.
    Don’t get me wrong Taylor is a good player, for us, but Chelsea?
    He’s not THAT good.
    The cynic in me says that if this IS true and DOES happen, then he will just be there to fill the quota of home grown players and will only ever get a run out in the domestic cup games.

    What next? Carroll to sign for ManU?

  3. Agree Micky. Press guff. I also think that Taylor has been a huge miss at the last two games where spirit has been lacking.

    He won’t go. When it comes to appreciating the importance of home loyalty he learned from the best – Big Al. Home club hero or benchwarming number-maker for a Russian crook? Not difficult.

  4. Yeah Whumpie he would rather play in the championship for a cockney crook they are both adopted geordies as well…a match made in Heaven :)

  5. got to be honest with you, i really like taylor, the only thing is we do have four top centre halves, terry, carvalho, alex and ivanovic with mancienne waiting (maybe for ever?) in the wings at wolves. there are rumours that both alex and ivanovic are targets for european clubs and carvalho is getting on a bit so there may be room for him next year.

    anyway, good luck to the toon, one of my favourite fan bases, despite nearly getting my head kicked in outside the supporters club in 1983 (1-1 speedie scored for us can’t remember who got yrs). see you next season.

    By the way, how is Van Aanholt playing?

  6. chelsea ant says:
    February 15, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    “By the way, how is Van Aanholt playing?”

    Pretty well actually, chelsea ant. Can be quite attacking like your other fellas and has whipped some decent crosses into the box sometimes. Any chance of getting Lampard on loan when he goes back? We could do with someone like that in the middle ATM.

  7. @chelsea ant – cheers, think this is paper guff but if we don’t get promoted this season I’d imagine we’ll be selling all the high earners which means we’ll lose smith, nolan, barton, jonas, enrique, collo and maybe guthrie and taylor.
    All depends on offers I suppose but we def can’t afford to keep those guys if we dont get promoted

    Van Aanholt has done okay and looked very good in spurts however he does tend to get caught upfield a lot and sometimes his inexerience shows – personally I’d like to keep him till end of season if poss as he’d be great backup for enrique – however he’s at the toon to play games and it’s pointless from his perspective if he’s just sitting on the bench waiting for Enrique to get injured

  9. thx steve, now cashley has been injured on the pitch and in the bed we need another left back, so my guess is he’ll come back. i think his loan was only for a month anyway?

    i’ve seen him for our reserves and he looks like he has something. the other good dutch kid we have is jeffrey bruma, who’s 17 but already playing for the dutch u-21s. he’s a central defender and would make a great loan signing til the end of the season.

  10. chelsea ant says:
    February 15, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    “thx steve, now cashley has been injured on the pitch and in the bed we need another left back, so my guess is he’ll come back. i think his loan was only for a month anyway?”

    Yup, Chelsea ant. It was for a month and it definitely looks like he’s going back for the reasons you mentioned.

  11. One of yesterday’s redtops had the £9m potential bidder as Birmingham.

    They wear blue so it’s a simple mistake for a journalist who likes to report facts!

  12. From what i’ve seen of Van Aanholt he looks promising. Inexperience shows at times but thats to be expected from a lad his age, he’s still learning his trade and seems to have a natural attacking mentality that is being bred throughout fullbacks these days. Puts a decent ball into the box and seems to have a canny left foot on him judging the few occasions he’s had a pop at goal.

    Like Worky has already said, should he be recalled, I’m sure Lampard and Drogba should soften the blow. Y’know, a gesture of good will n all that :)

  13. is my comment being moderated or has it just not appeared? I didnt mention scunny so i’m scuppered, lol

  14. i’ve seen him for our reserves and he looks like he has something. the other good dutch kid we have is jeffrey bruma, who’s 17 but already playing for the dutch u-21s. he’s a central defender and would make a great loan signing til the end of the season.

    I don’t think we need cb’s we have taylor, coloccini, williamson, fitz hall on loan and after that we have tamas kadar who has imo done well for us, however if you don’t want to loan us lampard, drogba would be a decent signing for us.

  15. van aanholt didn’t have a great game against either derby or swansea. agree he’s looked ok at home. shame we couldn’t keep him for longer, he could’ve been decent cover and learned a thing or 2 from enrique. never mind, kadar will benefit.

    can’t see chelsea being interested in taylor in all honesty. birmingham and everton more likely.

  16. van was average at best last game but then again, the entire team was pants!!
    I think coleman’s coventry will turn us over if we dont do something drastic to stop the rot.

  17. good luck geordies, looking forward to seeing yr fat tattooed bare, beer filled bellies down the bridge next year.

  18. Paper talk, same player, same story, same price, lazy ignoramus who can`t differentiate between Chelsea and Brum.
    Just bullshit !

  19. Same story every year.

    Wonder if we’ll get that Obladee Marins from ac milan if we sell Taylor(again?)’
    :)

  20. I think Best should be our number one striker. He is the only well rounded striker we have. He can hold up the ball better than Carroll, pass the ball better, link up better with midfielders, and is actually proven at this level. He just needs a run of games to start scoring.

  21. He can cross too.
    As any striker worth jack should be able to, a la, this is where ‘i’ want it.

  22. Whats this about a Premier League play-off to decide the 4th Champions League place? Are we American? How droll! Yet another move of pandering towards the current top 4!

    “Liverpool, you weren’t good enough over 38 games to finish in the top 4, but it’s ok because the league will give you another chance”

    How fair is that? I disagree with play-offs entirely. It should be top 4 only. Same with championship, top 3 should go up etc etc. If your not good enough to finish in them places then why should you get another chance?

  23. CLiNT @ 21 – Aye, most strikers know where they want a cross to be so they put it where they would want it when they cross, Shearer being the best example of this! Some of his crosses were superb, right on the money!

  24. Clint

    I’m serious, mate. I really like certain elements of his game, but it just seems as though he is trying too hard and is a bit nervous. He clearly needs to bag himself a goal or two to calm the nerves. Our focus should be blending him into the squad as Carroll will never score regularly for us. 9 times out of 10 he is useless unless the ball is in the air. Also, whats with that silly trick he keeps doin before passing a ball? The one where he lifts his leg up and sort of feigns to pass? It is embarrassing and is yet to fool anybody. This lad thinks he is better than he is.

  25. Spyro – Carroll is also scoring most of our goals at the minute.

    People forget he is only just turned 21 and in his first real full season.

  26. Yes he is scoring most of our goals, but thats only because he is the only striker getting a solid run in the side. He is the easy option for both the management and players alike, “just hoof it up to Andy”. It will get us nowhere in the long run. He is far too one dimensional. Regardless of his age, i just don’t see enough potential. He will develop into a poor man’s Peter Crouch.

  27. Dragonera,
    i agree about Best mate. A bit of nerves, as you say, nowt the odd goal won’t fix. Glad he’s a bit nervous, that means he wants to do well.
    toonsy,
    Shearer is an excellent eg mate.
    Great defensive headers at corners/free kicks too.
    Carroll, pay attention lad.

  28. CLiNT – I think Carroll does come back for corners mate.

    Spyro – So what would you do with 16/15 games left? Drop the lad who is scoring goals that are picking points up for us or risk unsettling the team and bringing in a player who may not settle or score goals.

    Don’t get me wrong, I know watching Carroll is far from pretty but at the minute it’s effective, and time is ticking along. If we were to change things now and it didn’t work then we have very little time to recover from it.

  29. Toonsy

    You make a good point and if i’m honest i would have to say i agree with you. However, i just don’t like the idea of going back into the prem with our current setup. It doesn’t exactly fill me with hope. Frustrating times.

  30. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    February 15, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    “Shearer is an excellent eg mate.
    Great defensive headers at corners/free kicks too.
    Carroll, pay attention lad.”

    Carroll HAS been learning a bit from Shearer, Clint. Didn’t you see him elbow Gary Monk’s face shortly before the goal?

  31. Now I’m all depressed thinking of some of the great stuff Shearer used to do and trying to relate it to our current bunch of stiffs.

    Worky – and he could even get that right. At least Shearer would have made sure he got good contact and smashed the lads face into next week. ;)

  32. Worky :)
    If he was really watching, we wouldn’t have seen that.
    ;)
    Coulda hoofed him right in the clock though. :)

    toonsy, aye, he does get back for corners, but Shearer headed just about everyone out.

  33. Spyro – Me neither mate, going up with what we have frightens me but similarly we only have to look at the like of Stoke, Birmingham to see it is possible to survive despite not being fancied to.

    I think what people are failing to recognise are the dire consequences of not going up this season. If we dont the we can say goodbye to some of our more influential players like Jonas, Enrique, Taylor, Colo plus other such as top scorer Nolan, Barton, Ameobi, Lovenkrands. We will become a bog standard CCC team. As Chuck points out, TV money for the prem next season is the highest ever, and that means the gap between us and the Premier League gets wider as teams above us will be swilling with cash. Rememeber Leeds, they didn’t properly fall until they failed to get promoted straight back to the Premier League.

  34. Yeah doubt if we have seen what Best is capable of,
    He`s got size,pace,a certain physicality and hopefully he will develop into a goalscoring machine.
    I have to say that having touted him prior to his signing.

  36. Best must start against Coventry, with his inside knowledge he is the one who can exploit any defensive weakness they have, Carroll is also a certain starter for me, he scores goals and works the defenders, his touch isnt perfect but its down to the other players to get the ball to him, feed off him instead of leaving him isolated up front.

  37. Anyone else think that Simpson as looked pretty poor when he’s played against decent Championship wingers?

    I remember him having a poor game against Routledge, Thomas (WBA) and again on Saturday against Coterill.

    Bit of a concern imo.

  39. Coincidence then that his off games have been against the better Championship players, spread over 3 months?

  41. Aye,
    he’s just back.
    It could be said also that it coincides with us playing crap as a team.

  46. I like Simpson and I dont think I have seen him have a shocker yet. The whole team were bad on Sat but Simpson wasn’t one of the worst imo.

  47. I see it’s young player bashing time again, what about that rubbish winger we had last year, you know the one who went to Aston Villa.

    For what it’s worth I will repeat what I have said many times Andy will not only score 20 goals this season, he will improve as he gets older and more savvy and play for England. Don’t forget he has already played for them in the younger teams and was good as any he was playing with. FFS if he doesn’t OK but at least lets give hin a couple of years more at least before we hang him.
    Taylor is another who was getting stick for not being good enough, now he is (supposedly) getting scouted by the top clubs. I really despair sometimes, do some of the people on this blog really know owt about football.

  48. Haven’t been on here in good while, very nice scene here lads, KIU :)

    As for Tayls moving, no thank you. Ivanovic, Alex, Carvalho, Terry is surely enough for them.

    Dooce :)

  49. Big Willy ;) your right mate, but I think alot of people when they judge him get clouded by his off-field stuff. I think he has good potential as has young Ranger but the only worry I have for Ranger is that he wont get playing now and will end up moving which is what Lua Lua might do

  50. big willy @ 47 – the majority of your posts are a load of crap & to suggest carroll will play for england then they dont seem to be getting any better – but keep trying m8.

  51. Roy, don’t sit on the fence mate, tell me what you think.

    It’s nice to get a response from such an obviously well informed person such as yourself.

    We will have to wait and see if I am right or wrong.
    Tell you what, if in 3 years you are correct then I will bow to your superior knowledge. :)

  53. willy , nice post lol – keep your syrup on i was just pulling your plonker.

    though i very much doubt carroll will ever be pulling on the england shirt i do think he has a lot of potential , but he seems to be needing some guidance to progress him into a proper centre foward.

  54. Roy – I think Carroll needs a hand on and off the pitch! If Shearer was a coach mate, Carrol could be a cracker!

  58. toonsy says: > I think Carroll needs a hand on and off the pitch! If Shearer was a coach mate, Carrol could be a cracker!

    Toonsy I think Big Al would be a good influence on him and young Ranger

  62. CLiNT – Ahh, the DVD :lol:

    Not sure on Shearer/Carroll. I’m sure Shearer would have trained with Carrol whilst he was a player and at the back of last season though.

  63. I was just thinking that he must’ve done a bit of training with Shearer when he was coming through the ranks as a kid.
    He must’ve been his hero. How long has Carroll been at the Toon?
    Surely, he ‘s seen every goal Shearer ever scored for us

  65. Rangerman – Wasn’t their embargo still in place until really recently though? Like last week or the week before?

  67. And we think we’ve been knocked down a peg or two. Derby actually release DVDs when they win matches against a fellow fizzy pop side. Anyway roll on Saturday first time in toon in god knows how long!

  69. You rip it out of Derby, but is it any different to the VHS we released in 1996 when we beat ManU 5-0, with the dreadfuly Howay 5-0 title.

    Philip Alberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt…..

  70. Just read through the True Faith article and it’s nothing different to what has already been said on here.
    The only difference is that you have to pick and chose which comments you take notice of.

  72. aye, true faith spot on, summarized the swansea game nicely. their stance on ashley seems to have softened considerably, for now. probably not a bad thing.

  73. Off topic but, HOLIDAY WEEK OFF RUINED!!!!

    By me and the wife arguing over who should check pockets before clothes go in the washing machine! She says I should before I put things in the washing pile, i say she should when she puts things in the washing machine!

    All this to the background noise of my shiny new phone rattling around inside the washer! ANGRY!

  74. You’re not alone toonsy have the same argument all the time she even moans that I should turn my gear inside out before putting it in the wash basket!! I’m sure she washes my money for fun.

  75. Micky Toon says:
    February 16, 2010 at 9:14 am

    “You rip it out of Derby, but is it any different to the VHS we released in 1996 when we beat ManU 5-0, with the dreadfuly Howay 5-0 title.”

    “Whey’aye 5-0!” would have been a better.

  76. I’ve got to admit that I did think the same thing about the video and that we did it with the Man U game. Maybe this means what Leon Best said is right and other teams do look upon us as the Man U of this division. Lets just hope we we can do something like them and win the title

  77. workyticket says:
    February 16, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    “Whey’aye 5-0!” would have been a better

    ——-

    I remember picking up the newspaper the day after and the headline was “Howay 5-0”. Think it was The Sun.

  80. toonsy says:
    February 16, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    “I remember picking up the newspaper the day after and the headline was “Howay 5-0″. Think it was The Sun.”

    It used to be a crap joke when I was a bairn and “Hawaii 5 0” was a popular TV show. Something like “What’s a Geordie’s favourite TV programme?… Whey’aye 5-0!

    Or something like that. As I wrote, I was only a little bairn at the time.