| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Philip Henry Taylor | ||
| Date of birth | 18 September 1917 | ||
| Place of birth | Bristol, England | ||
| Playing position | Wing-half | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1935–1936 | Bristol Rovers | 21 | (2) |
| 1936–1954 | Liverpool | 312 | (32) |
| National team | |||
| 1947 | England | 3 | (0) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1956–1959 | Liverpool | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
|||
| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Philip Henry Taylor | |||
| Born | 18 September 1917 Greenbank, Bristol, England |
|||
| Batting style | Right-handed | |||
| Role | Batsman | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1938 | Gloucestershire | |||
| Only First-class | 22 June 1938 Gloucestershire v Kent | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | First-class | |||
| Matches | 1 | |||
| Runs scored | 14 | |||
| Batting average | 7.00 | |||
| 100s/50s | 0/0 | |||
| Top score | 12 | |||
| Balls bowled | 0 | |||
| Wickets | 0 | |||
| Bowling average | – | |||
| 5 wickets in innings | – | |||
| 10 wickets in match | – | |||
| Best bowling | – | |||
| Catches/stumpings | 0/0 | |||
| Source: [1], 12 December 2009 | ||||
Philip Henry Taylor (born 18 September 1917) is an ex-English footballer who played for and managed Liverpool.
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Phil Taylor played for his hometown club Bristol Rovers as an apprentice (in 21 league matches, scoring twice) before he was signed by Liverpool manager George Patterson for £5000 plus Ted Hartill in March 1936, he made his debut on the 28th of the same month in a league game at the Baseball Ground, Liverpool shared the points with Derby County in a 2-2 draw with Taylor scoring a late equaliser, his first goal for the club.
Taylor joined Liverpool as a young inside-forward with a lot of potential but was reverted to wing-half by George Kay where he developed into a stylish, composed defender.
Taylor was a member of Liverpool's 1946-47 Championship winning team making 35 league appearances scoring once Taylor represented England 3 times making his debut on the 18 October 1947 in a British Championship match at Ninian Park, Cardiff, England legends Tom Finney, Stan Mortensen and Tommy Lawton made it a memorable day for Taylor scoring the goals in a 3-0 win.
Taylor was handed the captaincy during the 1949/50 season and led the side to the FA Cup final on the 29 April 1950, he appeared 7 times in the cup run. Arsenal spoilt the day for the Reds by beating them 2-0.
Overall Phil played 345 games for Liverpool, scoring 34 goals which included 312 league appearances and 32 goals).
Taylor was also a first-class cricketer,[1] and played a single game for the Gloucestershire first team in 1938, as well as three games for their second eleven.[2]
Upon his retirement in 1954 he joined the backroom staff as a coach. He became manager of Liverpool in 1956 when former manager Don Welsh was sacked after failing to gain promotion back to the 1st Division.
Taylor took over reins with a determination to put Liverpool back where they belonged immediately signing Alan A'Court, Tommy Younger and Liverpool legend Ronnie Moran who ended up spending five decades at Anfield.
Taylor, however, failed to achieve what he set out to do and after an unsteady start to the 1959/60 campaign he resigned stating "the strain of trying to win promotion has proved too much," a very sad Taylor spoke to the Liverpool Echo newspaper about the difficult decision to resign as Liverpool manager, he said "No matter how great has been the disappointment of the Directors at our failure to win our way back to the first division, it has not been greater than mine. I made it my goal. I set my heart on it and strove for it with all the energy I could muster. Such striving has not been enough and now the time has come to hand over to someone else to see if they can do better."
Taylor's legacy for Liverpool was the back room team he assembled of Reuben Bennett, Joe Fagan and Bob Paisley. All three were retained by succeeding Manager Bill Shankly who together built a multiple trophy winning club.[3]
Now in his 94th year, he is believed to be the oldest living England international footballer,[3], one of the last surviving players to have played before World War II, and one of the oldest surviving players to have seen Football League action.[4]
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