Taylor: It's Chris Hughton who makes us tick

Jan 17 2010 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

STEVEN TAYLOR’S ears are still ringing from more than five years of big-talking managers, screaming headlines, fans’ unrest and dressing-room whispers.

So it’s little wonder that he now pays tribute to the quiet man now leading Newcastle United out of the wilderness.

From almost impossibly barren beginnings, Chris Hughton could see his side take a massive step towards the promised land of the Premier League by beating West Brom tomorrow night.

But what is less predictable is Taylor’s long-term perspective on the task being performed so admirably by United’s unsung manager.

For the homegrown defender insists relegation will yet prove to have been a blessing in disguise for Newcastle; a painful but necessary process of purging the club of bad blood.

“To be honest, it (relegation) is probably what this club needed,” said Taylor, young tyro turned mainstay of the Magpies’ starting XI.

“We will now move forward for the better. This club has turned around.”

And while outsiders may mock Hughton’s Mr Nice Guy image, Taylor insists the former caretaker’s brand of gentle diplomacy has paid an essential dividend . . .

By building sturdy bridges between a formerly disparate, at times desperate, squad.