He still has the pulling Power but I’m twice as good as Phil
MVG hails third world crown by taunting Taylor
IT would be the duel in the crown, a shoot-out for the ages to settle the biggest argument in darts.
After Michael van Gerwen’s third world title in six years established him, beyond any doubt, as the best player of his generation, comes the final frontier.
Is he the greatest player of all time – or will Phil Taylor’s feats remain untouchable and set him apart for eternity?
The Power, who handed in his Tour card a year ago, revealed last month he would consider coming out of retirement for a one-off encore – like his PPV ‘Showdown’ against Andy Fordham in 2004 – if the price was right “and above all if the public wanted to see it.”
On the evidence of the PDC World Championship at the Ally Pally, where van Gerwen was easily the best player, there are few shoot-outs the huddled masses want to see more than a final Taylor-MVG face-off.
Taylor’s 16 world titles have not been forgotten by the crowds who chanted his name most nights at a largely disappointing tournament.
And van Gerwen, whose £500,000 prize money after a 7-3 win against Michael Smith in the final took his career earnings beyond the £7m mark, was happy to throw down the gauntlet.
He said: “Phil won’t do it, he won’t. He doesn’t want to play me in a one-off match because if the format is too long he will get absolutely hammered.
“I know that for a fact – I can’t say the facts but I just know.
“He’s twice as old as me now ... and I’m twice as good as him! Seriously, though, Phil Taylor is phenomenal but he has retired and this is my time now.”
Although Taylor, 58, has won 34 of their 62 meetings in all competitions, including the 2013 World Championship final, van Gerwen would not duck one last duel to offset Brexit’s damage to his earning power.
The Dutchman said: “Brexit will hit me really hard. I get paid all my prize money in sterling and look how much it has fallen against the euro already.
“If it falls another 10 per cent, that’s 10 per cent of my prize money gone. Brexit is horrible – I hope you didn’t vote for it.
“I don’t like it. I hope I’m going to get a visa to come back and defend my title.”
The night before Theresa May’s hopeless government is due to lead Britain out of Europe in March, at least van Gerwen won’t be in any danger of being stranded in the queues at Dover.
He’ll be defending his Premier League title on home soil in Rotterdam but if he can get back in the UK he plans to dominate the PDC circuit again.
He said: “A whole decade of domination – why not? I’ve been the king of darts for the last five years so I need to keep the positivity going. There are loads of good young players but they’ve not taken my crown because they’re not good enough yet.”