Those 9 were taken from non league to the Prem, they were just examples .. there will be dozens more that have gone from league one to the prem and flourished.. The suggestion that they can't is complete nonsense.. no one knows how Matty Taylor will perform in the Championship including himself until he gets the chance to do so. Lambert was widely slated as not being good enough for the second tier when at Rovers and ended up with an England call up. People making assumptions about players not being able to step up are quite frankly clueless.. they simply cannot know.. invariably a goal scorer will do that at the level above particularly when they are scoring for fun in the division just below!!
No one is suggesting that they cant just that you see more cases of players failing to step up than those that are making it. Its possible that if Taylor was playing for any other team then its likely he wouldn't even be mentioned by City fans. Its just that people see him on our doorstep. He's not even the top scorer in League One and a quarter of his goals have been penalties. I personally feel that they are better and less risky options to go for. Again its just my opinion so feel free to rip them apart.
The statement by the EPost that Taylor would be the first ever player to move from Rovers to City is absolute rubbish. In the 1950's both goalkeeper Bob Anderson and forward Andy Micklewright were transferred from Rovers to City.
Hi guys Here is my honest assessment on Taylor, you know, someone who actually watch him every other week and its not as biased as you think either With the amount of goals he has scored in the last 2 and a bit seasons, in this day and age, a fee of over 2-3 million would easily be a minimum figure (unless there is a release clause of a lower figure of course). I would expect it would cost a lot more if there is a desperate club trying to buy the player and if the selling club play dont actually have to sell the player and therefore if they play their cards right, they could get £5 million or more. Like what happened in the summer with your striker who went to Villa. You didnt have to get rid as you are financially sound. You only sold him because you had a desperate club in Villa who made a ridiculous offer and quite rightly you snapped up their offer. We dont have to get rid so if a desperate club comes calling for him, they need to put their money where their mouth is, like Villa did with yourselves When it comes to Taylor though, there was more to his game than just goals, he is not the fastest but got very good pace and got a good pass/assist on him. He is a good header too getting a fair few goals with his head even though he aint the tallest. Good powerful shot as well.... He worked very hard chasing down the defence. He was a real team player. You may notice that I said words such as "was" and "worked" here. I say this because this season, especially in the last month or so, he doesnt come across now as a team player (and I may upset a few gasheads saying this) and I have seen a lack of effort in his game. Now he could have been told to play this way by DC of course and if thats the case then I apologise Taylor. But to me he just looks like his head is somewhere else. He doesnt chase down the ball now or if he does its a light hearted attempt! He just expects someone else to do it and doesnt pull his weight. Well thats how he now comes across to me. Also, he is very much a confidence player. If he scores a goal then everything just seems to go right for him like defensive mistakes happen in front of him or rebounds fall in front of him or miss hits go in or decisions go in his favour like penalties etc. It is not just luck though. When he is on form, he manages to make passes that someone our level shouldnt even be attempting and no way would he even try them if he had gone a few games without a goal and when he is on form, he just manages to be in the right place at the right time. His weakness to me are 1 on 1's with the keeper. When he has time to think about where to finish the ball, he fluffs his chance. Most of the time he would miss the target when 1 on 1. He also needs tons of chances to score. I would love to see the ratio of how many shots per goal he has with us. I dont think it would look good if im honest. Basically, he frustrates the hell out of me. He has scored some great goals but often misses the real easy simple chances. He could easily miss 3 or 4 golden chances per game, which a top striker at our level who is on form would easily put away. Then he would score a goal that he had no right in scoring! He is head doing sometimes! He has DC to thank for where he is now, which is in the shop window for teams at championship level. Most managers wouldnt give a striker 10 games or so without scoring a goal. This happened to Taylor at the start of last season. DC stuck with him and then Taylor got a bit of luck and then the goals didnt stop coming until xmas time. He then had a bad game and confidence was lost and he again went about another 10 games without a goal. DC continued to stick with him and DC got rewarded as Taylor found his form again banging in more goals than any other player in the football league. A lesser manager would have given up by the 4th or 5th game without a goal and then Taylors confidence would have been shot to death and he wouldnt have got half the goals he got last season. He can be a great player at championship level if given time to get goals like DC gave him and if the fans dont get on his back when he misses a fair few chances. But can any teams take that chance? If they are desperate then they want a striker capable of scoring straight away. With Lambert, I knew he would make it easily at your level. With Taylor, he could score straight away and be brilliant but my experience with him, I think he needs time to settle and then time to find his feet and the goal. I just dont think he would get the time that he needs. Therefore although if given time I think he would improve under better coaching and playing with better players and therefore could be a great player at your level, I just think he is more likely to be an expensive flop because I cant see any manager/fans giving him the time and he would quickly find himself on the bench and then not even in the squad. Then add the scenario of him joining your club, I think your fans are grown up enough to give him a chance and not boo and hate him before he kicks a ball. You will say things like "he has seen the light" etc. But if he doesnt score straight away in his 1st 2/3 games, I think he will quickly fall out of favour with your fans and it would make it impossible for your manager to pick him. It got that way with Akinde when he was on loan with us but we stupidly gave him over 20 games without a goal and we got relegated that season! Personally... If I was a fan of any other club at championship level and I seen him play as much as I have, I wouldnt take the gamble on him, especially if Rovers want over a million. If a club came in for him who is happy to spend the money and is not really fussed about starting him as a regular but is more interested in taking the time with improving him and then giving him a chance, then what a player he could be and could then be a bargain at £2 million. But that happening is just unrealistic to me. As a Rovers fan, if an offer came in for £2 million, I would hope the club snataches that with both hands. If he decides to stay with us, then I would continue to be frustrated and enjoy the highs and suffer through the lows I hope this makes sense ps.. Sorry about the essay
Hello Captain Jack! Would be very surprised if he was anywhere on Citys radar. I am sure there is a reason why he has not moved already. I think other championship clubs have looked at him and come to the conclusion that he would not have the same impact in this division. I think he is better off staying with your lot, rather than bench warming at best in the championship.
I think a lot of championship clubs thought the same about Lambert. No one gambled on him from the championship. Southampton took him when they were in league 1 with us. He moved up the league with them. In hindsight, I bet every championship club wished they took a gamble on him back then. Players from the lower leagues have made the step up to your level and some havent. We will only know if they can make that step up if someone takes a gamble on them, obviously. So it is all guess work from us. Championship clubs were interested when Taylor was available for free in the summer. Not much of a gamble if they get the player for free. Now that clubs will have to part with money could put off all those interested clubs off completely. Or the fact that he has continued to score goals and a new high level for him, could keep them interested and may even make others interested too. I guess, we will soon find out in the next 6 weeks. But I agree with you that it would be in his best interest to stay with us. I just cant see a championship club willing to spend a good amount on a player who needs time and improvement and not in any rush to use him straight away. So it will be a gamble if someone wants him to make an immediate affect on his arrival. He could be amazing and score consistantly. But knowing him like I do, I think its more likely that he wouldnt get the time he needs to set fire to your league and then end up being a bench player at best
