The Englishman played for Portsmouth, Bolton and West Ham and embodied much of what made the Barcleys years successful.
“The Barclays”. Although the Premier League was supported by that bank between 2001 and 2016, the period that fans of any class look back on is the first decade of the 2000s.
After its first appearance in 1992, the second generation of the British Prime Minister improved after the turn of the millennium, when foreign television work appeared and the second entry of foreign stars in the league is very popular in the world. It also played host to some of the game’s newest icons, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba among those lighting up the Premier League every week.
But when fans talk about Barclay, it’s not just the famous names they’re talking about. However, these are the players who are mostly behind but die-hard fans have seen as the main heroes in the Premier League machine, while still being able to create magical moments.
These players have become known as “Barclays,” but what made them famous, and what happened to them after Barkley’s career ended? GOAL try to find out with their new series, ‘Ultimate Barclaysmen’.
One of them is Matthew Taylor. After trials in the fourth and third tiers of English football with Luton, this midfielder soon rose to the stars of the Premier League with Portsmouth, Bolton and West Ham. A hard-working Englishman with a penchant for scoring spectacular goals against mid-table teams, Taylor is a cult hero.
Taylor emerged as a youth star at Luton, making his debut in the 1999–00 season as a 17-year-old left-back in the third tier of English football. Despite his age, he looked at home in the first team and was a regular in the starting line-up, surprisingly winning the young player of the year award. The following season was a tough one for Luton as they finished in the relegation zone, but Taylor was still named player of the season.
Indeed, he stuck with Luton as they dropped down a division and helped them retain promotion with his 11 league goals. He did not join them again in the second term, as he received offers from other places, including the Premier League. Wanting to continue playing every week, Taylor decided to join Portsmouth in the race for promotion to the Premier League.
Pompey spent the previous years in the bottom half of the First Division, but in the summer of 2002 they introduced a new face, with players signed from Juventus, Aix-en-Provence, Aston Villa , West Ham and Tottenham later. Taylor, at 20 and under, may not have looked like one of Harry Redknapp’s most attractive signings, but he started and finished every game until his season was cut short in March. . He finished the season with seven goals as they went top of the table.
He told Hampshire Live years later: “Looking back, going to Portsmouth was probably one of the best decisions I made in my career. In 12 months at finishing second in League Two with Luton, we won the Championship and I was the Premier League player.
Taylor’s career in the Premier League got off to a rocky start. At the age of 21, he achieved promotion to the Premier League for the first time with the newly promoted side, but continued injury problems at the start of the 2003–04 season, which saw him decide to through the first six games.
His first Premier League goal came late in the second half when he hit the bar to equalize against Middlesbrough in a 2–1 win. He hit well, but he burned through memorable performances in later years.
The next season, Taylor proved himself in a classy display against Sunderland. The Black Cats were in front after just four minutes, but Taylor headed home Zvonimir Vukic’s equalizer and then scored to give his side the lead. Eight minutes later Vukic put himself in front in the middle of Sunderland’s half and saved a superb shot past Kelvin Davies. He then scored again in Pompey’s 4-1 win at the Stadium of Light.
His next goal was a free-kick against Blackburn before netting in a 3-1 win over Manchester United alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy. In the final weeks of the season, he hit back-to-back goals as Pompey finished four points ahead of the relegation zone.
Then there was the long drive over Tim Howard from outside the center circle in the 2-0 win over Everton, followed by a shot past Jens Lehmann from the edge of the area last week. after their 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
“It was rubbish,” he said of Everton’s goal. My first touch was terrible; I think Pedro [Mendes] played the ball to me and I lost my feet. Luckily Kano was able to get in, the landing was smooth and I just knocked it out. He can fly up. Nine times out of 10 it works. The director might say to me, “What did you do? Take it easy. But it’s good to see it flow.”
Taylor is a great striker of the ball and has scored impressive long runs for Portsmouth, Bolton and West Ham. Whether the ball is dead, 10 yards from the wall, or 40 yards from the goal, he is very good at setting up the goal. Because he also liked to choose the right time to hit the ball.
I would say to anyone, you have to keep doing what you have to do. I did it by force. But those goals, to me, are pure instinct.”
His goals from halftime were nothing short of spectacular, scoring headers, penalties and coming close to big names like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United along the way. In his 12 seasons in the division, Taylor made the most of Barkcley’s glorious Premier League season.
Unsurprisingly, Taylor took to the top of the table and was initially linked with the likes of Fulham and Newcastle. Then, in 2007, there were reports of interest from Liverpool, Aston Villa and Everton, with Pompey CEO Peter Storrie laughing off the transfer fee.
He said last summer: “He’s a defender who scored eight Premier League goals last season and the figure is said to be £5m. “Think again. You’re laughing.” It’s worth much more than that. He did a good job for us, almost every game last year and scored a lot of goals. “We don’t want to sell him, and even if we did, we wouldn’t go up to this price.”
In addition to his strong promotion in the league, he was backed by Bolton’s head coach to be invited to the England squad ahead of Euro 2012.
“Matt’s one-on-one delivery doesn’t get to anyone, he settles in, does his job and moves forward,” Gary Megson said. “You don’t want to push people forward, but if England are looking for someone in a difficult position, it’s worse than looking at Matt.”
Despite his impressive goals in the Premier League, Taylor was never able to represent his country at the senior level, only for the Under-21 team.
“The biggest disappointment in my career was not getting an England cap,” he said. “Sometimes I was close, but no. It’s easy to think that if I deserved it, I would win it. “At that time I was playing against some amazing players who weren’t like that.”
Taylor’s expert gambling profession wrapped up at Swindon Town, however even earlier than striking up his boots he had already attempted his hand at management. Midway via his debut season at Swindon, the supervisor who signed him resigned and Taylor changed into requested to take over.
“I became him down at first, however he insisted. I changed into playing my soccer then, gambling in League Two as my profession wound down, and beginning to consider how precisely I’d flow into coaching,” he said. “I wasn’t genuinely ready, however I changed into thrown in. The week changed into complex similarly when, after determining I shouldn’t play at the Saturday, and doing all of our education for the sport with out me withinside the group, we were given an injury. I needed to begin the sport.
“To be honest, it changed into a nightmare.”
They misplaced his simplest sport in price 3-zero and Phil Brown got here in as the brand new boss, permitting Taylor to head returned to gambling.
“My one sport in price of Swindon hadn’t given me the worm to emerge as a supervisor – pretty the opposite, genuinely!”
Taylor had the choice to retain his improvement as a teach and spent multiple years in price of the Tottenham Under-18s earlier than taking up at League Two aspect Walsall in 2021. He changed into, however, out via way of means of February. A 12 months later, he changed into appointed teach of Shrewsbury in League One and left the subsequent January together along with his group in risk of relegation. He is now dealing with Wealdstone withinside the National League.
A soft-spoken and easy-going midfielder, Taylor is able to perform and impress. Although he didn’t make one of the top teams in the division, nor did he represent his country, the European had many good moments.
With an eagle eye for goal and a solid left foot, he introduced many Gol Mah rivals with his 40 strikes in 320 Premier League games before being relegated to the lower leagues.
His performance is very beautiful, but he is one of the most famous people of Barkley’s Premier League era.
