IT’S NOT been the greatest week for football and twitter, with the FA charging Rio Ferdinand for retweeting a message about Ashley Cole and Port Talbot Town midfielder Daniel Thomas arrested after homophobic tweets were sent to diver Tom Daley from his account.
But one picture from the ‘social media Olympics’, uploaded by Great Britain weightlifter, Gareth Evans, was illuminating, as it showed how far a former Non-League footballer has come in two years.
Evans is a Wrexham fan and took great delight in tweeting an image of himself and Team
GB full-back Neil Taylor from the opening ceremony nine days ago.
Taylor, 23, has always been popular with the Racecourse faithful, having come through their ranks after joining as a 15-year-old Manchester City reject, so it’s understandable that Evans holds him in such awe.
But it seems even bigger names in the British sporting family are feeling the same with Taylor’s stock rising with every game he has played, whether on the right or left side of Stuart Pearce’s back four.
Sky Sports told us after the 1-0 win over Uruguay on Wednesday that Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea are all interested in signing the man the Dragons sold to Swansea City two summers ago for £150,000.
Last year Newcastle United offered more than £1m for Taylor after an impressive first Swans campaign in the Championship, while Arsenal were rumoured to be interested last January.
Now, having proved himself in 38 top-flight appearances, not to mention adding to an international CV that now includes nine full Wales caps and five Team GB outings, Swansea would command a much higher fee should Taylor move on.
And that is great news for Wrexham, who stand to bank ten per cent of any profit the Liberty Stadium club make on the player who, by his own admission, is ‘on a bit of a wave at the moment’.
Any money they make, if and when Taylor does move, can help the Dragons stay debt-free under their supporters’ trust ownership for another year.
Unbudgeted footballing fortune comes in different ways, and a windfall of anything like the six-figure sums they banked last term from Curtis Obeng’s sale to the Swans and run to the FA Cup third round would be most welcome in north Wales.
That it might come from a product of their youth system, one of the most fertile on these shores, makes a mockery of the fact that ex-League clubs are still not entitled to the £180,000 Football League Youth Development Funding after they’ve been in the Blue Square Bet Premier for two years.
When 13-year-old Nathan Brown moved to Manchester City recently, he became the 15th Wrexham player aged 16 and under to move to a Premier or Championship club in the
last two-and-a-half years.
When he swapped north for south Wales in 2010, Taylor joined a long list of senior age alumni to progress including Brian Hughes, Neal Eardley and Andy Fleming. Wales age group keepers Danny Ward and Chris Maxwell, who have moved to Liverpool and Fleetwood this year, are the most recent.
Taylor played for Wrexham as a schoolboy at Under-16s, did his two-year scholarship and made his senior debut in their League Two relegation campaign of 2007-08, aged 18.
It was in the Blue Square Bet Premier, however, that he really found his feet, making 34 appearances in 2008-09, the same season that boss Dean Saunders littered his squad with higher level loanees, including Taylor’s current Swansea and GB team-mate Joe Allen, then 25 in 2009-10.
I watched him in a 2-0 defeat at Cambridge that year, when Wrexham were woeful. I gave Taylor a rating of seven out of ten, however, for his efforts at left-wing-back. It was the highest of any Dragons player, so it was no surprise to me to see him go on to Swansea that summer.
When he curled an effort just wide at the Millennium Stadium in midweek, BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce mentioned that his last goal came for Wrexham.
It actually came in his last appearance for the club, in the rather less salubrious surroundings of Grays Athletic‘s old Recreation Ground on April 10, 2010.
The following morning, says Dragons head of youth Andy Davies, Taylor was at their Colliers Park training ground coaching the Under-10s and 11s. “He used to do that voluntarily two nights a week and every Sunday morning for two years,” says Davies.
“Neil’s a great lad who just wanted to give something back to the centre of excellence.”
In a year when ‘legacy’ is a buzzword, Taylor has already bequeathed plenty to Wrexham. But a big-money move for the Olympic hero would be further reward for both player and his grateful former club!
German Efficiency Is Just The Ticket For Thomas
WE’VE all heard the old football joke about a flair player wanting a ball to himself, but Hinckley United manager Dean Thomas says that was the case with every footballer in Germany.
The 50-year-old spent five years with Fortuna Dusseldorf after leaving Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang in 1983.
He told me this week: “We trained twice a day, three times a week and we all had our own ball with our name on it. You took it out at the start of the session and made sure you brought it back in afterwards. We were ten years behind the Germans.”
As a Notts County fan, I loved watching Thomas help the Magpies from the old Third to the First Division in the late 80s and early 90s. Despite a disappointing last couple of years, he’s added to that legendary status in my eyes for becoming one of the longest-serving managers outside the League.
About to start his 16th season at the Knitters’ helm, Thomas says: “All I can do now is pass my experiences on to the players. We haven’t got all the answers here, but for anyone who aspires to become a better player, it’s a good place to be.”
Andre Gray, scorer of 39 goals in 86 Hinckley appearances and now one of Luton’s main men, would no doubt concur!
My Tips For The Blue Square Bet Premier 2012/13
Champions – Luton Town
Play-offs – Mansfield Town, Grimsby, Wrexham and Cambridge United
Dark horses – Newport County
