Big Interview -
Bristol City’s Taylor Moore on his long journey
TAYLOR Moore is thriving in the Championship. Yet had things worked out differently, the Bristol City defender might be playing in the Champions League.
Born in Essex but raised in France, the 22-year-old cut his teeth at RC Lens and made his Ligue 1 debut in May 2015.
Moore’s performance in that game - a hotly-contested derby against bitter rivals Lille - alerted scouts across the country and swiftly prompted a bid from Olympique Lyonnais.
According to Wikipedia, the proffered amount was €10m, which would have made Moore one of the most expensive 17-yearolds in football history alongside luminaries like Alexandre Pato and Sergio Aguero. But was it true?
“Not exactly,” laughs Moore. “Lyon were very interested in taking me. They wanted to put me in the Under-23s and develop my game, gradually integrate me into the first team.
“It was obviously really attractive. Lens had a great academy, but Lyon was better. Unfortunately, the clubs couldn’t actually agree on a fee.
“Lyon had an initial bid turned down because Lens wanted a ridiculous amount of money considering what I’d done. I was 17 and had only played five games.
“They never came back in, and certainly not with that kind of offer. So while I would love to say somebody bid €10m for me, it never happened - whatever Wikipedia says.”
Moore’s time at Lens would end barely a year later, his value decimated by a season in the cold under unpopular manager Antoine Kombouaré and the club’s ailing finances.
When Bristol City offered £1.5m in August 2016, the club’s bean counters practically snapped their hands off.
“I’d been at Lens from the age of 12,” he says. “I came through all the academy ranks, was captain of the youth team and did fantastically well. Then I hit the first team, and nothing quite went as planned.
“There came a point when I had to kick-start things and that’s when the challenge of Bristol City presented itself.”
Moore returned to England after 12 years full of youthful enthusiasm. “I turned up at 19, desperate to play and confident I could,” he says.
Yet it would be three years, three loans and a difficult period of deep self-reflection before Moore figured in Lee Johnson’s plans.
“To all intents and purposes, it was like a foreigner coming over,” he admits. “Playing in a French academy, the technical side of the game is paramount. Growing up, it’s drilled in: technique, technique, technique. Every hour of every day.
Demanding
“Then, all of a sudden, you join the most competitive and physically demanding league in the world. Here, technique isn’t everything. You’ve also got to be tactically aware. You’ve got to be physically robust. You have to manage games.
“When you’re 19 and you haven’t got any experience, that’s very difficult. Looking back now, I can clearly see I wasn’t ready for the Championship when I joined Bristol City.
“I didn’t even know what I
didn’t know, if that makes sense. It wasn’t until I went out on loan that I realised how much I needed to learn to become a Championship player.” Initially, Moore spent six months at Bury. Then, in 2017, came a switch to Cheltenham under Gary Johnson, father of City boss Lee. Coming so soon after the big time had beckoned, it was a chastening experience. “That one I found very, very difficult,” he admits. “I’d made my debut for Lens in Ligue 1. Two years later, I was playing for a team near the bottom of League Two. “Physically, you have to adapt. But it’s also a big mental challenge. You have to accept where you are. It was like ‘Right, I need to go from boy mode to man mode or this won’t work’.
“It does take time, and it wasn’t pretty when I did play. But I came out of it stronger in many different ways.
“The next season I went to Southend under Chris Powell, who I knew from the various England age groups, and completely rediscovered my form. It was like everything I’d learned came together and I ended up playing more than 40 games. I absolutely loved it and it’s a club I could never speak highly enough of.
Form
“In hindsight, I needed those loans. To grow up. To work out what I needed. To get my head right. After Cheltenham, I had to take a long look at myself in the mirror and say ‘OK, I need to up my game here’.
“I look back on it now and I can’t say it was totally enjoyable. But, standing here today, I think to myself ‘Thank God it was difficult’. Because I learned so much about myself, and from a footballing point of view.”
Moore was initially enticed to Ashton Gate by Tammy Abraham. The pair were England teammates at the 2016 Under-19 European Championships, by which point Abraham had already agreed a season-long loan to City that would eventually yield 23 goals.
Like Moore, the 21-year-old has spent subsequent years out on loan, but is now back at Chelsea and taking the Premier League by storm.
“I’m delighted for Tammy,” says Moore. “He’s worked for that opportunity and I think his success shows just how far English academies have come, even in the last five years or so.
“When I was in France, the English youth system wasn’t well regarded. Now, they are developing better players than anybody else in Europe.
“You look at Tammy, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden. The talent coming through is incredible.
“I could name more - Patrick Roberts, Lewis Cook at Bournemouth. Dom Solanke, Josh Onomah, Joe Gomez, Freddie Woodman. The list is endless, and I’m so proud to have been able to share a team-sheet with some of those boys.”
City, too, have played their part. Recent Premier League graduates include striker Bobby Reid, full-back Joe Bryan, centre-back Adam Webster and defender Lloyd Kelly.
It is a production line that has made millions for the club, but also offered opportunities to men like Moore.
Nor has it proved a detriment to performance, with City starting the weekend just two points off top spot after a six-game unbeaten run.
“There is a pathway here,” adds Moore, whose mother and two younger brothers have now relocated to Essex after 14 years in France. “It just shows the belief this club has in young players.
“It’s a great place to play and we’re always pushing each other. There’s complete clarity in the group. Complete honesty. If somebody’s doing something wrong, we aren’t afraid to tell them.
“And we always want to push each other. If we can keep this up - our style of play, our hunger, the relationship between staff and players - then there’s no reason we can’t go up.
“That’s our aim, however it comes. Top, second, sneaking play-offs on the last day of the season. We don’t care.”