The big interview with Lyle Taylor: Charlton striker opens up on his FA ban, how his career has been stunted in earlier years and a desire to play higher
Lyle Taylor is not shy about voicing his opinions – and admits that might not have helped at times in terms of progressing his career.
And that applies when it comes to discussing Karlan Grant’s January switch to Huddersfield Town or the FA’s decision to ban him for three matches for violent conduct.
Taylor has served that suspension now and needs to come back firing in tomorrow’s home game against Blackpool.
The Greenwich-born frontman has 15 goals since his summer move from AFC Wimbledon.
When you consider his scoring exploits for the Dons – playing a huge part in their rise from League Two and then consolidation in League One – it’s fair to say it is puzzling why he has not plied more of his trade in the Championship.
Taylor has talent. So, with Grant getting a Premier League move at the age of 21, why does he think his own career has seen success come a lot later?
“I don’t know if I was ready back then,” Taylor told the South London Press at Charlton’s Sparrows Lane training ground earlier this week.
“The difference between me and Karlan is that, because of my size, I am seen to be a certain type of player – whereas I’m not, really. I’m not a targetman, even if I can do the job.
“Most of my career in League One has been spent playing up front on my own, which didn’t necessarily suit me when I was younger. I know for a fact that I could do a much better job of it now.
“There are reasons that I have only played at this level, but to go into that would mean naming names and going into the reasons for naming those names. It’s probably best left unsaid.”
There is no simmering resentment.
“There’s nothing I can do about it,” he said. “I’m the person I am. And I will never shy away from being the person I am, simply because someone wants a yes-man or somebody wants something different.
“I am the player I am. I play on the edge – if people don’t like that, I don’t care.
“I have an opinion. I don’t mean any disrespect to anyone else playing football, but I’m not an unintelligent, run-of-the-mill footballer – I’m just not. So I will challenge people, and I don’t feel any way about doing it.
If you are a manager and you are challenged by your players, I don’t see that as a bad thing. But there are a lot of managers out there who don’t want to answer players’ questions .
“They don’t want to be asked because, for various reasons, they might not have the answers. Or they might be afraid of looking stupid in front of other people or it could be embarrassing for them.”
Taylor staying in SE7 was about the one piece of striker solace for Charlton Athletic fans. His strike partner might have gone up the football ladder, but he will be here and trying to fire them into at least the play-offs.
Taylor turns 29 at the end of next month and is either in or approaching his peak.
Another crack at the Championship needs to happen soon.
“I have aspirations,” said Taylor. “That’s what we work for, day in and day out. I can never say I want to leave, because I’m enjoying my time here. The fans are great with me.
“I’m happy. I’m home. I’ve just bought a house not very far away. It’s just into Kent, towards where my mum is. I was never going anywhere [in the last window].
I didn’t even need to speak to my agent in January, because I knew I was never going to be going anywhere. I never saw it any other way.
“But I want to play at the highest level I can possibly play at. I don’t know whether I can play in the Championship, because I’ve never been given the chance, or I’ve never earned the chance – whichever way you look at it.
“I’d love that to be here and for The Valley to be full, people singing from the rafters. It would be amazing. There are a lot of things which need to happen between now and the end of the season for that to happen.
“There are a lot of points we need to win and beyond the points, there is the big black cloud hanging over the stadium and the club in general, which needs to be lifted.
Charlton were confident their appeal over Taylor’s ban would be overturned. A melee after Krystian Bielik had headed home a corner in the 1-0 win over Accrington had plenty of disciplinary fallout.
Sam Finley was suspended for five matches for stamping on Taylor’s head but keeper Jonathan Maxted saw his ban rescinded.
“The punishment didn’t fit the crime,” said Taylor. “The FA decided to be lenient with a player [Ross Sykes] who stamped on my knee. I say lenient, he got away with it. That’s downright ridiculous. But we can’t question their decisions and we can’t comment.
We can only get on with it, because they decide what they want to do and when they want to do it. They uphold their rules and laws whenever they see fit to.
“Do I think that’s right? Not really.
“I’ve never had someone be so vicious and disgusting – trying to stamp on my head. And if you ask me, five games doesn’t fit the crime either. [Luis] Suarez got a 10-game ban for biting someone.
Are you going to seriously hurt someone by bitting them? No, but could you seriously damage someone by stamping on their head? Yeah, you could probably end their life.”
The flashpoint came as Accrington defended a corner. Maxted and Taylor ended up on the floor.
“The goalkeeper is on top of me,” said Taylor. “It’s not even a foul to begin with. It’s a legitimate goal. I don’t have to get out of the way of the goalkeeper. I tried to push the keeper off of me.
Fair enough it is with my feet, so I can understand where the ref is coming from, but if you watch the video there is no sharp movement.
“All you see is my upper body move away as my legs straighten. It’s a push, rather than a kick or a stamp. The person who wrote the appeal for us was on the panel before.
He said: ‘No way is it a red card for violent conduct’. He helped us write the appeal and submit it, but the FA turned it down.
“We asked why they said no and they basically came back and said: ‘We don’t have to tell you – so we’re not going to’. That was really nice of them.
But it’s not worked out like that. We’ve all suffered – the fans, players and the management.
“You look at Joe Aribo [being out] as well and he is the third top-scorer, so you’re looking at 34 of the team’s goals being out of the team for various reasons, which obviously is not ideal.
“We’ve kind of half-struggled for goals. I’m hoping now that we’ve got nearly all of our bodies back that we’ll be able to regain that spark and go back on the run we were on.”
Taylor has eight bookings and two more before the EFL cut-off point before matchweek 37 would see him hit with a two-match ban.
“Some of the things that happened – like Bristol Rovers at home, the fifth booking which got me banned for a game, that was a bit of mix-up. Not wrong identity, a bit of a mis-communication. I kind of have to deal with it.
“The booking against Southend away, Karlan ends up behind the goal after he’s crossed it – I go and celebrate with Karlan and I get booked for falling into the back of the net.
“I don’t really know at what point the referees make a decision to do something. It seems I’m a targeted player. But I have to deal with that better than I have. I can’t get booked more than once in the next five games, it’s that simple.
“If defenders got booked for the same stuff I get booked for, one would get sent off every weekend. They are constantly holding, pushing, grappling – fore-arming you in the face and kicking you.
“The refs just let them get away with it. I think they half say: ‘He’s a big lad, he can handle it from them’. Whereas if it was a slightly smaller lad they’d think it looked a little bit rough.
“I just don’t know where the boundaries are any more.
“I can’t put myself in any situation to be singled out.”
Lyle is quite right in what he says. He’s a big lad, fast and probably covers more of the pitch in 90 minutes than any other player. When he comes together with an opponent 9 times out of 10 the other guy will go down, not because it’s a foul but because he is bigger and faster than the other man. That is not a foul but many times the referee will think differently. Lyle, quite rightly, puts himself about, that’s his game and he should not be constantly penalised for it. Glad to see you back Lyle.
Glad to read a footballers comments that have some sense in it.
Not the normal mundane flannel you hear from footballers.
Most of them should be taken down a coal mine and shown what work is really like.
I believe it was Bill shankly who was trying to Instill a sense of showing them how lucky they were to be a professional footballer.