Source: FOOTYMAD
Have Toon Prorities Changed - Or Are We Fooling Ourselves?
Steven Taylor has made just 14 Premier League appearances in the last 12 months, but the defender is determined to retain his place in the starting line-up at the start of next season. He said today that avoiding relegation was a priority this season ... but what about next term? Have we REALLY moved on so much we can forget about relegation next term? We finished 7 points away from relegation ... and 34 from title winners Manchester United! Steven Taylor: “It’s a strange time to be finishing the season because I feel as though I’ve just really got my fitness back. "I haven’t played anything like as many games as I would have liked, but the manager has been fantastic with me and, when I got my chance in the last three matches, I’d like to think I took it. “Who knows who might arrive in the summer, but having ended the season in the team, I’d like to think that shirt is mine at the moment. “I wanted to end on a high, and that’s what I did. Hopefully, I’ve let people know that that’s my spot, and I’m not about to let anyone take it off me. “It’s been a difficult season because injuries have kept me out of the side. “When I’ve been fit, I’ve generally been fairly happy with how I’ve been playing. “It was obviously a bit of a nightmare to get injured right at the start of pre-season, but my first game back was the home draw against Chelsea and I had a little run where I was just starting to feel comfortable again. “Unfortunately, I got another injury against West Ham, and that’s what kept me out of another run of matches. “It was a setback at the time, and then when I came back, I always felt like I was playing catch up in terms of getting back to everyone else’s level of fitness. When you’ve been out for a while, it’s never easy to pick up the pace straight away. “When we were in Ireland as a team (last summer), we all agreed that the priority had to be avoiding relegation. “That was the minimum requirement and we achieved it. “For our first season back in the Premier League, we have to accept that as a decent performance. We know how it difficult a league it is, and we can be proud that we weren’t one of the five teams fighting for their lives on the final day. As we know here at Newcastle, that’s not a nice position to be in.”
