Bristol Rovers expect to hear “very shortly” whether Matty Taylor will accept a new contract to remain at the club. Thank goodness for that. This has been dragging on quite long enough thank you very much. Hopefully, “very shortly” means tomorrow. At least that’s what we were hoping when this story appeared in the Bristol Post on 16th June.
Rovers chairman Steve Hamer said on 23rd June: “I presume we will hear sooner rather than later. We’ve still not heard. The sands of time are running out for both him and us. We’re getting close, wherever he’s going to be.”
And today Rovers are being “tight-lipped” about the situation. Good. I like tight-lipped, especially when there is genuinely nothing to say.
Taylor, I gather, is getting a fair bit of grief from folk who accuse him of messing the club about. (Stronger words have been used, but this is a family website.) “We turned him into a player,” said one Gashead, “And this is how he is paying us back.” There is much to disagree about with this statement. Firstly, it was Darrell Clarke who turned Taylor into the player he is today and secondly this is the way things work in football these days. It’s also been a two-way street. Clarke turned Taylor into a high class striker in League Two and I would argue that his goal tally for last season was his way of paying us back. There is no other way.
Professional footballers, like professionals in any other field, try to obtain the most money with the best contract. It is even more important in the short life of a professional footballer whose career is over by the time he reaches his early thirties. I do not buy the idea that some players are more loyal than others. It is more to do with a footballer being happy where he is in his and his family’s life.
This is also because players are not usually fans of the clubs they play for. Of course, they love to play and they will play with professional pride for the club which employs them, but they will not be there in a decade’s time, standing on the terraces. And that’s where we come back to Matty Taylor.
His contract is up and he can do what he wants now. I would rather like it if he either signed a new contract at the Rovers or upped and packed his bags, but he is 26 and this will be the biggest contract of his career. The next one, if there is a next one, will not be as big as this one, which could be why he is biding his time in a silent auction.
My question to him would be very simple: do you want to play for Bristol Rovers next season? Just give me a straight answer, yes or no. If it is yes, then sign up and get on with it. If it is no, then move along as soon as you can.
He doesn’t owe us the decency of letting us know now, apart from morally, and that matters little these days.
I have great faith in Darrell Clarke and Steve Hamer who seem to shoot straight from the hip with a minimum of bull excrement. Things will be in hand and what they will already have will be a new Plan A.
If Taylor leaves us now, he won’t take away the very heart of me. He’ll leave with my qualified best wishes and he won’t be remembered as a Rovers legend. If his next contract is worth a million quid a year, I doubt that he’ll be too bothered about that.
1 comment
A little bird has been talking of a deal where Chelsea are going to allow us players in a feeder club situation. I both like and dislike this but then again, I am still on a big buzz from the last 2 seasons and the ousting of the person who would have dragged the club down and out of existence in my opinion.
Matt Taylor has Danny Coles as an agent, I don’t know if this is good or bad for Rovers but it seems he is willing to gamble as time runs out.
I feel that Steve Hamer is not a man who will allow the club to be messed around and that if we do get the Chelsea player then Matt has blown his opportunity to stay and to be adored
I agree that he has to pick what is best for him and that football is a short career. Another point, he would not have been earning well at Rovers, not in conference and league 2.
He may now want to see how he does with better players around him and better service. Many don’t see the work he does away from the ball and the opportunities he makes for others.
One theory, from a forum, is that he is ready to wait until the January transfer window, when championship clubs in particular are willing to pay more, if they get off to a rocky start. I can’t see that myself but then I don’t pretend to be an expert.
Anyway, I can’t see him staying so I will bid him farewell and give my best wishes for the future. I do somehow feel he will regret the move though as I really do believe in our new owner and chairman.
Up the gas
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