Maik Taylor article

[Badger]

Good article on Maik Taylor for those who remember him.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cjw7ey4y5e4o
 

Was a good signing by Souness. I thought it was a shame we didn’t keep him as he was a better GK than Paul Jones but of course Dave Jones wanted his own man. 

[Saint_clark]

Was a good Prem keeper for a long time after he left Saints so in that regard you'd have to say it was a mistake, but I doubt we sign Niemi if he stayed.

[The Kraken]

I always remember, I played in a charity golf day shortly after Dave Jones was appointed / Paul Jones was signed and MLT did a brief Q&A session. He was asked about the keeper situation and he said the players were all very surprised about the news as they all thought they already had a very good goalkeeper.

[Miltonaggro]

Remember he was a Saints fan Maik Taylor, army family (Bordon), big powerful, commanding, goalie even as a youngster and a good deal better than Dave Jones’s right hand man Paul Jones. Think he made his international debut at 27 but still won nearly 90 caps for Northern Ireland. 

[Badger]

3 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Was a good Prem keeper for a long time after he left Saints so in that regard you'd have to say it was a mistake, but I doubt we sign Niemi if he stayed.

I always thought Niemi was a player Strachan wanted and his signing. Impossible to say how things might have turned out had we kept Taylor.

But glad we later had Niemi, one of, if not my preferred first choice Saints GK in the years I’ve followed them (including the Shilton years). 

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, The Kraken said:

I always remember, I played in a charity golf day shortly after Dave Jones was appointed / Paul Jones was signed and MLT did a brief Q&A session. He was asked about the keeper situation and he said the players were all very surprised about the news as they all thought they already had a very good goalkeeper.

Paul Jones was a strange signing as he was no where hear as good as Taylor. Even stranger was the signing of Lee Todd who remains one of the worst players I’ve ever seen in a saints shirt, which is some achievement given the company he’s in. 
 

that same window we signed the much forgotten Stig Johansen, a Norwegian striker who I remember starting at Old Trafford midweek and was also absolutely shit but gave him a pass given the opposition. He didn’t get much better. I seem to recall he barely played for us again after that night 

[Turkish]

22 minutes ago, Badger said:

I always thought Niemi was a player Strachan wanted and his signing. Impossible to say how things might have turned out had we kept Taylor.

But glad we later had Niemi, one of, if not my preferred first choice Saints GK in the years I’ve followed them (including the Shilton years). 

We didn’t sign Niemi until 2002/03 season IIRC meaning we have 5 years of Paul Jones as first choice glovesman due to the Dave Jones poor choice of goal minder

[saintstowin]

I was shocked it was 11 months, my memory of him was that his stay was longer. Really good keeper. He even popped up in the amazing game at Millwall with the two late Ricky Lambert pens. As did Harry Kane bizarrely enough.

[stknowle]

7 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Paul Jones was a strange signing as he was no where hear as good as Taylor. Even stranger was the signing of Lee Todd who remains one of the worst players I’ve ever seen in a saints shirt, which is some achievement given the company he’s in. 
 

that same window we signed the much forgotten Stig Johansen, a Norwegian striker who I remember starting at Old Trafford midweek and was also absolutely shit but gave him a pass given the opposition. He didn’t get much better. I seem to recall he barely played for us again after that night 

I recall Stig’s debut off the bench during a turgid opening day of the season 0-1 loss against Bolton. Didn’t do much in his brief cameo. However Andy Williams (who started) imo looked very useful before running out of steam and I remember walking away from the Dell thinking ‘hmmm we may have lost but we’ve got a player on our hands here……’

Edited 20 hours ago by stknowle

[Turkish]

38 minutes ago, stknowle said:

I recall Stig’s debut off the bench during a turgid opening day of the season 0-1 loss against Bolton. Didn’t do much in his brief cameo. However Andy Williams (who started) imo looked very useful before running out of steam and I remember walking away from the Dell thinking ‘hmmm we may have lost but we’ve got a player on our hands here……’

He was terrible he had a pretty decent scoring record in Norway I guess we thought we’d got the new Tore Andre Flo, saints going cheap the find the next superstar some things never change 

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Paul Jones was a strange signing as he was no where hear as good as Taylor. Even stranger was the signing of Lee Todd who remains one of the worst players I’ve ever seen in a saints shirt, which is some achievement given the company he’s in. 
 

that same window we signed the much forgotten Stig Johansen, a Norwegian striker who I remember starting at Old Trafford midweek and was also absolutely shit but gave him a pass given the opposition. He didn’t get much better. I seem to recall he barely played for us again after that night 

Lee Todd was always going to struggle for us as they could never find any kit that fitted him, poor bloke not his fault nearly tripped over his sleeves 

[Football Special]

33 minutes ago, Turkish said:

He was terrible he had a pretty decent scoring record in Norway I guess we thought we’d got the new Tore Andre Flo, saints going cheap the find the next superstar some things never change 

Our scouts liked a  Norwegian didn't they, Egil Ostenstad, Jo Tessem, Lundekvam, Trond Egil Solvedt , think we'd had Flo on trial and of course young Stig 

Edited 19 hours ago by Football Special

[Badger]

19 minutes ago, Turkish said:

He was terrible he had a pretty decent scoring record in Norway I guess we thought we’d got the new Tore Andre Flo, saints going cheap the find the next superstar some things never change 

Tore Andre Flo was strongly linked with us the season before. Souness wanted him and Lawrie as DoF tried to negotiate a deal. Can’t recall the specifics as to whether Flo wanted to come to us, but his club wouldn’t sell or if he rejected the move. Chelsea offered more later and signed him.

We signed Ostenstaad instead. Story was that Saints spotted Lundekvam whilst watching Flo or Ostenstaad. 

[Football Special]

8 hours ago, Badger said:

Good article on Maik Taylor for those who remember him.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cjw7ey4y5e4o
 

Was a good signing by Souness. I thought it was a shame we didn’t keep him as he was a better GK than Paul Jones but of course Dave Jones wanted his own man. 

Nice article that, he was well liked by our fans and I thought he'd been with us longer than that, remember watching him keep a clean sheet for Northern Ireland against England as well, think a game Chris Baird also did well in 

[SW11_Saint]

2 hours ago, saintstowin said:

I was shocked it was 11 months, my memory of him was that his stay was longer. Really good keeper. He even popped up in the amazing game at Millwall with the two late Ricky Lambert pens. As did Harry Kane bizarrely enough.

Yeah, it’s mad… I’d have sworn he was here for a couple of years. He actually only played for us 18 times. Very decent goalie.

 https://www.saintsplayers.co.uk/player/maik-taylor/

Edited 18 hours ago by SW11_Saint

[Golactico]

1 hour ago, Badger said:

Tore Andre Flo was strongly linked with us the season before. Souness wanted him and Lawrie as DoF tried to negotiate a deal. Can’t recall the specifics as to whether Flo wanted to come to us, but his club wouldn’t sell or if he rejected the move. Chelsea offered more later and signed him.

We signed Ostenstaad instead. Story was that Saints spotted Lundekvam whilst watching Flo or Ostenstaad. 

My recollection is that we had Flo on trial at the same time as Egil. Souness wanted to sign both, but the board (I.e. Rupert Lowe) would only fund one. We opted for Egil who was great for us, but history shows that Flo would've been the better option.

[Badger]

7 hours ago, Golactico said:

My recollection is that we had Flo on trial at the same time as Egil. Souness wanted to sign both, but the board (I.e. Rupert Lowe) would only fund one. We opted for Egil who was great for us, but history shows that Flo would've been the better option.

I think you may be right about Souness wanting both, but not that we had to choose. We couldn’t sign Flo for whatever reason, either him or his club rejecting it. 

Not sure but I thought this predates Lowe by a few weeks/months, although Secure Retirement * did arrive that season. 
 

*Big warning: beware of potential owners with initials S R 

[CB Fry]

12 minutes ago, Badger said:

I think you may be right about Souness wanting both, but not that we had to choose. We couldn’t sign Flo for whatever reason, either him or his club rejecting it. 

Not sure but I thought this predates Lowe by a few weeks/months, although Secure Retirement * did arrive that season. 
 

*Big warning: beware of potential owners with initials S R 

Yes the timings don't quite add up.

We signed Egil for far more than double Chelsea paid for Flo (by the time Flo joined Chelsea, Egil had been with us a year or so). 

Flo just a player we maybe missed out on like lots of clubs do and we saw on players like Dennis Wise or Kevin Phillips.

[Midfield_General]

A fine custodian

[OldNick]

I think it is a harsh some of the comments on Paul Jones. Im sure he made a very imortant save when it was 0-0 at Dellhurst Park. 

[Paul Chuckle]

I am sure when we signed Stig Johansen that Newcastle were also in for him that summer, so only being 14 at the time I thought it was a real coup.