I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion to suggest that the manager got it right when he stood up for Greg Taylor yesterday. For all we know, Taylor himself was upset, and the manager was simply standing up for a guy who is a little too used to hearing screaming from the stands whenever he does something wrong.
Taylor has been a good soldier for this club, and I cannot praise him highly enough for his mental strength and attitude. He deserves huge credit. And if this is a time when he decides to leave, then he deserves our thanks and our best wishes for his future.
But Greg Taylor cannot have this both ways. Reports yesterday said that he wanted to leave. Then other reports surfaced that he wants to stay. But the reports that suggest he wants to stay don’t suggest that he wants to sign a new deal in order to stay. In fact, they do suggest that he wants to see out the remainder of his contract and play a game of wait and see. And that’s why I say he can’t have it both ways.
Because it’s asking a lot to play wait and see when we need to be able to make plans. We need to be able to lay down our own priorities and sort them out. The manager himself has said that we can’t wait indefinitely for players to make decisions like this. We need to know in time to be able to put our planning in place.
If Taylor is not going to sign a new deal, he needs to be crystal clear on that. If he wants to stay to the end of the contract, that’s fine. But I don’t think Celtic should be depending on a guy whose contract is running down to go through brick walls for us. I wouldn’t do it in his position, and I’m not saying that it will be wrong for him to choose not to. That’s why I don’t think we should leave it up to chance.
Greg has to decide what he wants to do. I understand that maybe he doesn’t know what he wants to do yet, but he needs to make up his mind soon, and he needs to convey that information to the Celtic coaching staff. It isn’t like he’s not had a long time to think about it. We’ve all had a long time to think about this, but the staff can’t start to make concrete plans until they know where we need to make signings.
I think Brendan has probably been honest with the player as well. I think Greg knows that if he is going to stay, more and more he’s going to play a backup role because Brendan will want an Alistair Johnston type for the left side. And no harm to Greg Taylor, but he is not that. There are limitations with Greg Taylor as a player, and we all know what they are, whilst also recognising that he has been good enough to keep out all comers so far. I am a fan whilst recognising that we can do better, and I love him as a squad player because he’s exactly the kind of squad player every club wants.
But the only real conversation that has to take place now is that Greg has to tell us where he wants to be. This should be a fairly easy problem to solve. He knows that he can ask for the earth in order to stay, and the club should be able to come to an agreement with him as our backup player, as our squad player, and move forward based on that. Or, if he wants to stay for the rest of this window, there have to be consequences. We have to start thinking about who his replacement is going to be. If he wants to stay for the rest of this window, he can’t be first choice.
We have to be ruthless. The game is ruthless. The game is not fair all the time. Taylor has given us good service, but even if his contract situation had been solved many months ago and he’d signed a new deal, Greg Taylor should not be our number one left-back. Because as good as he’s been, and as good a soldier as he’s been, there are better players out there, and we all know that there are.
It is not unfair to say it. It is not disrespectful to acknowledge it. And that’s why we need to know where we stand and what he wants to do. Let us know, and we can lay our plans, which look as if they involve Tierney, whatever your views on that are. We can also start thinking about not only the rest of this campaign but the next one as well. That’s crucial. Rodgers is right. You cannot wait for the future before you start to plan for it. We need to get in front of this right now.
Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
I wish Greg Taylor all the best wherever he’s going…..as long as he’s going.
He is ok domestically but struggles in Europe.
Celtic need to sign Tierney now and a back up in the summer.
Am not sure what the debate is here. We have made it clear we wanted a better full back since the guy more or less joined the club. So hes quite right to sit it out. If we sign Tierney with his track record re injuries more than likely we will be calling on Taylor to fill the void. He’s clearly looking at the best deal he can get given its likely to be his last big contract. Conversely as you said in a previous blog we try to sqeeze Norwich re transfer fee for Idah and that plan went south when Kyogo got injured and we had to pay over the odds. We wanted the best deal for Idah and Taylor looking for the best deal he can get so seems a fair cop to me.
I’ve never thought Greg Taylor should be playing for Celtic, still less at international level. However, if he leaves now that could pose problems for the club: any incoming left back wouldn’t be eligible to play in the next two Champions’ League matches, and of course there’s the requirement to have a minimum number of home grown players.
I think most of our support understand his limitations, but he gives you everything when he’s out there. He is a big presence in that dressing room and has that steely winning mentality that’s required to survive at our club. That same attitude may well be what is holding him back from signing an extension. I can’t see him being happy with the back-up role if he feels he has a lot of football left in him. He’s only 27 after all, I wish him all the best whatever he decides
Decent enough wee player and worker for Celtic…
It’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds in the end –
The Sevco Hun Hoards hate him racking up medal after medal at Celtic as they think that he’s “one of them”
Mildly amusing and mind boggling is that for sure…
But more importantly he was / is steady for Celtic !
For me if he is sitting in limbo then Rodgers needs to take him out the team & make the point if you aren’t committed to the club long term then you aren’t in the team. I still think there is a player in Valle that can grow. Maybe he has made it clear that at the end of the loan he doesn’t have any interest in returning but unless that is the case I think he deserves a run in the starting line up. Brendan must be a fan to a degree with the fact he is a regualr choice as a sub. I don’t get the same feeling of a player shunned as I do as the likes of Palma, Welsh & the other CB.