SwansFan

My views on Taylor... hopefully they're quite balanced.

He's only ever played left back for us to my recollection. He had a couple of games at RB in the Olympics in 2012 but none since.

I saw someone say he could play in midfield. God knows where they got that from. Unless they mean wing back where he's played for Wales. He started there earlier in the season against Chelsea and was taken off after about 40 minutes he was so bad.

He's never been booed by the Swans fans to my knowledge. He's probably had fans having a pop and getting on his back out of frustration over the last season or so but never booed. Certainly not roundly.

That said, he's not the most popular player in our squad. Part of the reason for this i think is firstly because his agent seems to stir up stories linking him away quite regularly, he is seen as being a bit of a trouble maker around the squad (general consensus is that he's a bit of a dick and has undermined past managers) and there was quite a big backlash against him when he threw his toys out of the pram when being taken off against Chelsea by Guidolin.

There is also a belief that he has been spared criticism by the local press due to them wanting him to do interviews for both Swansea and Wales but also the fact that they seem to get "exclusives" on him... usually "Taylor linked with [insert poor Premier League club here]" only for him to sign a new contract shortly afterwards. That story about the Spurs game is the prime example- he was just as bad as everyone else... he's got the same agent as Ashley Williams who used to do the same and whilst he was a great player for us, did come with a certain amount of hyperbole in the local press.

What is quite telling is that even after the euphoria of the Welsh effort this summer, not many Swans fans wanted him to start for us come August.

He had a good season in the championship in 2010/11 after we signed him from Wrexham. He played quite well in the first season in the Premiership then got injured 3 or 4 games into the following year (Sept 2012) ruling him out for pretty much the entire season. As the window had just closed, Ben Davies stepped up from our youth team and was a revelation.

Taylor didn't get a look in until Davies was sold in the summer of 2014. Since then, it's pretty much been accepted by Swans fans that a LB is required to replace him, mainly due to his total lack of attacking prowess or crossing ability and being part of a leaky defence.

This season he has been pretty poor and at times Stephen Kingsley has been preferred to him. He's mainly been first choice, though I have to say he's probably one of the worst first choice full backs in the league. There's also a belief that if we hadn't chopped and changed managers, he'd have had less games than he has. Just as it was felt that Guidolin had worked him out, he went and Bradley came in and Taylor became a regular starter again... Clement took him off 70 minutes into his first game.

He's reasonable enough in his defensive duties but prone to making a glaring error or two. He seems to try quite hard in fairness and is a battler. Not blessed with much pace but not noticeably slow either.

Swans fans are jumping for joy that he's going although the reaction is probably a bit over the top. I think he'll do okay for you guys but without being spectacular. If he's been valued at around £4m, that's probably about right.