May 13
It has been very quiet on the jungle drums ignoring bookies odds and those reckoning they are in the know on forums.
But yesterday Rich Cawley posted that Exeter City’s Matt Taylor is in the running and is “thought to be under consideration.”
Please click for morePhil Parkinson’s recent appointment at Sunderland and Gary Rowett’s move to our south-east London neighbours got me thinking of other Charlton connections currently in managerial positions around the leagues.
We all admire Parky, who quietly and almost successfully attempted to rebuild the damage caused by his old mate Alan Pardew with a millionth of the budget. But even the Roman’s would have had difficulty rebuilding the destruction Pardew left behind. The Spiv’s moved him on and replaced him with a certain Chris Powell, and the rest was history. Powell is now part of the England coaching set-up.
Always sad to see players get released although Waggy was very upbeat about his imminent departure when I spoke to him last week. He felt, rightly so in my opinion, that being a free agent will make him more appealable to clubs and he is hoping for another crack at The Championship. His attitude over the years since his debut in 2008 has been exemplary and he deserves the opportunity to make a good career for himself and I know all Addicks wish him every success.
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Matt Taylor this afternoon became Chris Powell’s 10th signing of the summer on the 2nd day of pre-season training. Taylor was out of contract at Exeter and has signed a 2-year deal. This is a player that I did see last year and at 29 Taylor has taken the long road in his career.
As recently as the middle of the last decade Taylor was a goalkeeper and wore the gloves again recently in the sad testimonial for Adam Stansfield. Like Bradley Pritchard, Taylor played for the England Universities team and was then converted to a centre half. Paul Tisdale signed him as a centre-half for Team Bath and then took Taylor with him to Exeter City where he had four very successful years, twice winning the player of the year award, two promotions and captaining the side for the last two seasons including when my son lined up alongside him on the halfway line when he was mascot in February at The Valley.
Chicago Addick 