Source: Telegraph
Newcastle's relegation still haunts me admits Steven Taylor
The Newcastle defender has been struggling to recover from the trauma of the club's fall from grace, his melancholy deepening thanks to subsequent turbulence remarkable even by Tyneside standards. [LNB]"It's a horrible thing to be part of a team that went down it's worse than being kicked in the crown jewels," Taylor said. "It's been a very long summer. [LNB] Related ArticlesNewcastle disaster now a crisisAshley urged to quit by MPNewcastle takeover in balanceTottenham sign BassongFans urge Moat to hire ShearerSport on television"It has been the lowest point in my career and I've not been able to go away and enjoy myself because every day you are reminded about what has happened. That's what it's like living in a football-mad city like Newcastle. [LNB]"In London they don't talk about football all week but they do in Newcastle. But I'm speechless when I see people. How can you say sorry so many times, and do people believe you? [LNB]"The worst thing a professional footballer can have on his CV is the word 'relegation'. I was the last player to kick a ball for Newcastle in the Premier League [in the 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa]. There was just a feeling of anger. I just could not believe it. [LNB]"I looked across to the fans and I saw six hard nuts, skinheads just crying their eyes out. They clapped the lads off. I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd booed. [LNB]"You get reminded of it every day. I go out with my mum and dad and people come up all the time and say, 'You are a Championship team'. I am still devastated."[LNB]Taylor missed the European Under-21 Championship due to Achilles trouble. Personal disappointments were eased only by the prospect of Alan Shearer leading the club back into the Premier League. [LNB]But Newcastle owner Mike Ashley decided not to appoint Shearer as manager following his rein as interim manager so he could focus on selling up and Taylor suggested it could have been down to financial rather than football reasons. [LNB]"Alan spoke to us when he left at the end of the season and said he would be back and would do it his way," Taylor added. "I guarantee if he was still manager now all our big players would still be here. [LNB]"He commands that much respect and he would take us straight back up. Everyone thought he'd be back in place at the start of the summer. That's why I missed the European Championship. I had a knock on my Achilles and I thought it needed rest so I would be right for the start of the season. [LNB]"Alan, or any manager, needs the backing of the chairman. If Alan Shearer came out and said, 'I need this and that' then you just give it to him. The season is kicking off but we still haven't got a manager."[LNB]As team-mates are sold off, Taylor's preparations for the start of the Championship campaign at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday have been undermined by uncertainty. [LNB]"It feels like us against the world," Taylor said. "But there are no big 'I ams' now because we are Championship players. Why have that swagger when you are in the Championship? [LNB]"I feel sorry for the gaffer [coach Chris Hughton] because he doesn't know what's going on himself. [LNB]"Who will give the motivational talk before kick off? It depends which players are left." [LNB]Where will they be at 3 o'clock?[LNB]Alan Shearer: His return to St James' park on ice, Shearer could be back on the day job, swapping his tracksuit for a tight pair of slacks and easing back on that BBC couch, aptly, just in time for their Championship coverage.[LNB]Joe Kinnear: Still mulling over the self-announced job offer he swears blind he received, Kinnear, who says he won't return to football until November, is as likely to be at home watching the cricket as he is to be at the Hawthorns.[LNB]Kevin Keegan: With no third or is it fourth now? coming on the cards, yet, Keegan may instead be celebrating the recent end of a six-month driving ban with a road trip (though avoiding roadside stops for forty winks, presumably).[LNB]
