Taylor rejuvenated by Nix challenge
Steven Taylor isn’t in Wellington for a working holiday.
Speculation is often rife about the motivation of imports who come to the A-League north of the age of 30.
It’s somewhat well founded, given for every Bobo (Sydney FC’s top-scorer the last two seasons), there is a Jacques Faty (who phoned in his last A-League season with the Central Coast Mariners).
But it quickly becomes apparent when talking to Taylor that he has come to New Zealand’s capital for the right reasons.
The 32-year-old’s passion is infectious. He wants to win and has found a manager in Mark Rudan who matches his ambition.
‘‘It’s refreshing when you’ve got a manager who is as passionate as Mark and is a winner,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘He’s got that into the players and has given us massive confidence to go and express ourselves.’’
It could have been a lot different for Taylor had he arrived a season earlier and worked under former coach Darije Kalezic.
Taylor, like many of the Phoenix’s new signings, has heard the horror stories from last season from the players who remain at the club, but said those days are behind them.
‘‘A lot of players are still hurt from last year, the negativity that was going around. It didn’t finish off well. Everyone has a point to prove.
‘‘I think last year was a quiet team and the gaffer [Rudan] has made sure in this side, everyone is on it.
‘‘You can see that on the pitch. Everyone is at it, shouting and giving positive feedback instead of negative stuff, because you can go the other way, where some people can go over the top and shout for the sake of it, throwing their arms in the air.
‘‘We had a great game against the [Melbourne] Victory, winning 3-1, and all over the park, everyone was on. That’s the identity we want to get for the Wellington Phoenix. A difficult team to play against, when teams come across to play us, it’s going to be hard for them. We’ve got a lot of fire in our bellies now.’’
Taylor has embraced his role at the club, not only being an onfield leader, but the face of the club off it.
He was their club ‘‘hero’’ for the A-League launch on Monday, taking his seat at Fox Studios in Sydney alongside the likes of Melbourne Victory’s Keisuke Honda and Sydney FC’s Adam Le Fondre.
Taylor notched up 194 appearances for Newcastle United in the Premier League, before moving to Ipswich Town and Peterborough United.
He worked under some top managers during his career and said he saw similar characteristics in Rudan to two of them.
‘‘He’s a hard-ass. He takes no prisoners. He’s got a bit of Graeme Souness in him, he’s got that feistiness. I remember with Souness we went on an eight or nine-game winning streak, got into a Uefa Cup quarterfinal, semifinal of the FA Cup, but he was the best at getting it out of you with that feistiness.
‘‘His training methods are very similar to Kevin Keegan. He wants exciting, front-foot football. Training sessions are very hard and high tempo. I always remembered with Kevin Keegan, he was always very good with his hands-on management. That’s similar to the gaffer [Rudan], there are times he gets the players in a room one-on-one and everything stays in between them two, but he knows what makes them tick.’’
That toughness has been seen from Rudan across the preseason.
Double sessions have been the norm many weeks, while a boot camp with the army in Trentham, north of Wellington, last week tested the squad’s mettle. ‘‘He’s testing us,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘It’s not the normal routine of we know what’s going to happen today, we haven’t got a clue what’s going to happen every time we go to training. We know we’re probably going to get absolutely beasted, but it’s brilliant.
‘‘You can’t complain man, you go in there with a big smile on your face and say ‘what are you going to throw us today?’ No problem, come on.
‘‘He asks you after training how you feel and you say ‘no problem’. He’s trying to crack you and you just say ‘no problem’. I love all that.’’
Rudan’s approach what Taylor wanted.
He didn’t want to come Down Under and coast through a season picking up up his wages. Nor did he want any special treatment because of his status as an import.
‘‘For me, it’s all new. I’m relishing all the new challenges.
‘‘It’s good to be part of, hopefully, something special.’’
The quest for something special starts today in Wellington against the Newcastle Jets in round one of the A-League season. was just