Peter Taylor (soccer player, 1928)

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Peter Taylor
Brian Clough and Peter Taylor Statue Derby.jpg
Statue of Brian Clough (left) and Peter Taylor in
front of Derby County Stadium
Personnel
Surname Peter Thomas Taylor
birthday July 2, 1928
place of birth Nottingham ,  England
date of death 4th October 1990
Place of death Mallorca ,  Spain
position goalkeeper
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1950-1955 Coventry City 86 (0)
1955-1961 Middlesbrough FC 140 (0)
1961–1962 Port Vale 1 (0)
1962-1965 Burton Albion
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1962-1965 Burton Albion
1965-1967 Hartlepool United (assistant coach)
1967-1973 Derby County (Assistant Coach)
1973-1974 Brighton & Hove Albion (Assistant Coach)
1974-1976 Brighton & Hove Albion
1976-1982 Nottingham Forest (Assistant Coach)
1982-1984 Derby County
1 Only league games are given.

Peter Thomas Taylor (born July 2, 1928 in Nottingham , † October 4, 1990 in Mallorca , Spain ) was an English football player and coach . His greatest successes were as assistant coach to Brian Clough with Derby County and Nottingham Forest .

Career as a player

Peter Taylor was active in the youth team of his home club Nottingham Forest before starting his playing career . However, he began his professional career at Coventry City . He spent the time between 1950 and 1955 in the second and third highest English division. In 1955 he moved to Middlesbrough FC , who were relegated from the first division in the 1953/54 season . At his new club, Taylor met Brian Clough , who was one of the best strikers in England at the time. But even his goals did not lead to a return to the English first division and so Middlesbrough still played in the Second Division when Taylor moved in 1961. After a season at Port Vale , he was active from 1962 to 1965 as a player-coach at Burton Albion .

Career as a coach

After three years at the lower class club Burton Albion, Taylor took over in 1965 as assistant coach for Brian Clough, who was now working as a coach for the fourth division Hartlepools United . Hartlepool had regularly played against relegation in previous years. In his last season 1966/67 in Hartlepool , the coaching team reached an eighth place in the table with his team. After the season Taylor decided together with Brian Clough to move to the English second division club Derby County .

Derby County

Derby had also fought relegation in previous years and got a new boost under the coaching duo. The new coaching team and especially Peter Taylor signed players like Dave Mackay , Roy McFarland , John McGovern and John O'Hare in the following time . After 18th place in the first season, the team in 1968/69 sovereignly reached promotion to the Football League First Division 1969/70 as first in the table . There the newcomer managed an unexpected fourth place in the table. Due to financial problems, the club did not get the right to start the European Cup, but in the Football League First Division 1971/72 the big hit succeeded by winning the English championship. For both the coaching duo and Derby County, it was the first championship achieved. On the final day of the match, Derby was only one point ahead of pursuers Leeds United , Liverpool and Manchester City . With the title in the championship, the team qualified for the national championship in 1973 and only failed there in the semifinals at Juventus Turin around Dino Zoff , Fabio Capello and Helmut Haller . In the period before that, Brian Clough had repeatedly expressed himself negatively in newspaper and television interviews about his own club management, fans and opposing coaches. He was especially enmity with Don Revie of Leeds United.

Clough's arrogance and high-handed demeanor towards the football establishment meant that he fell out with the club's management and left the club at the beginning of the 1973/74 season. Peter Taylor would have liked to stay in Derby and was therefore not particularly happy with the new situation. Nevertheless, he continued working with Clough and convinced him to move to Brighton & Hove Albion , which at that time only played in the third division. After an unsuccessful season, Brian Clough moved a season later as a coach to Leeds United , one of the most successful clubs in the English league at the time. Leeds' very successful coach Don Revie had become the new coach of the English national team and the board decided on the old coach's greatest critic. His tenure in Leeds only lasted 44 days; the players had resented the allegations against coach Don Revie and the players from the past. Current Leeds players like Billy Bremner , Norman Hunter and Johnny Giles also couldn't get on with Clough and after a false start with just one win after six games, Clough was fired. Peter Taylor feared this development and decided against moving to Leeds. He stayed in Brighton and led the club as head coach for the next two years. In the 1975/76 season he reached with his team a fourth place in the table in the third division and just missed promotion to the second division. After the season Taylor decided to work again with Brian Clough and followed him to the English second division club Nottingham Forest .

The Damned United

In 2009 the British feature film The Damned United was made , in which the actors Michael Sheen and Timothy Spall play the coaching duo. The film describes the close collaboration between Clough and Taylor at Derby County, the rivalry with Don Revie and the move and failure of Brian Clough at Leeds United. In 2006 a novel by David Peace was published under the title dealing with this topic. The novel and the film created a great public discussion about the veracity of this published story. Many players and especially the family of the late Brian Clough and Peter Taylor expressed themselves very negatively.

Nottingham Forest

Already in the first year together in the 1976/77 season, as third in the table, they were promoted to the Football League First Division 1977/78 . In the following season in the first division Taylor reached with his team the win of the English championship and also the victory in the League Cup. In the following season he signed the English striker Trevor Francis for a little over 1,000,000 pounds and thus achieved a record transfer fee in English football. Francis was able to convince in his new club and scored the winning goal in the final of the national championship cup 1979 to 1-0 against Malmö FF . In addition, the team won the league cup again with a 3-2 win against Southampton FC . A year later, Forest defended his title in the national championship cup with a 1-0 win by John Robertson in the final in Madrid against the German champions Hamburger SV . No other English club has succeeded in this until today.

Between November 26, 1977 and December 9, 1978 Forest remained in cross-season 42 league games without defeat, a record that was only increased to 49 games by Arsenal in August 2004, shortly before Brian Clough's death . After this very successful time, the coaching duo had to change the team because players like Tony Woodcock , Peter Shilton and Martin O'Neill left the club. After the 1981/82 season Taylor finished his work in Nottingham and announced his exit from the coaching business. Contrary to this statement, however, he took over the coaching post at his former club Derby County six months later . In January 1983, he eliminated with his new team Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup with 2-0. After a midfield position in the second division of the 1982/83 season, Derby rose to the third division in 1983/84. Taylor had been fired from the board before the end of the season.

His friendship with Brian Clough came to an abrupt end in 1983 when Taylor signed John Robertson of Forest without telling Clough beforehand. The rift had not been resolved until the death of Peter Taylor in October 1990. Taylor died at the age of only 62 while on vacation in Mallorca . When Clough learned of the death of his longtime companion, he burst into tears. He dedicated his biography, published in 1994, to Taylor.

successes

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Taylor, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taylor, Peter Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Nottingham
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1990
Place of death Mallorca , Spain