Roker Roundup: “I would have earned more at Sunderland” says former transfer target Lyle Taylor

‘I would have earned more at Sunderland’

Lyle Taylor moved to Nottingham Forest on a free transfer last week, bringing to an end a successful two-year spell for the player with Charlton Athletic.

The striker decided not to turn out for the Addicks once the Championship resumed their season, so as to not risk potential injury ahead of a summer move and Charlton were subsequently relegated.

Talking to the South London Press, Taylor expanded on his reasoning for doing so and also revealed that he fully bought into Lee Bowyer’s vision for Charlton, proving it by saying he would have still earned more at Sunderland in League One than he did with Charlton in the Championship, despite a 50 per cent pay rise via a promotion clause in his contract:

We were talking about an extension before the play-off final and it would have been weighted on us going up because I wanted to play at the highest level I can possibly get to but the play-off final came and went and we were asking for a new deal through pre-season.

Nothing was forthcoming. It wasn’t until Brentford put £4million on the table that Roland thought maybe I should be earning a little more money.

It’s a lot of money in the normal world but I had a 50 per cent pay rise from League One to the Championship. It still wasn’t in football terms a very big contract – I still would’ve earned more at Sunderland in League One than Charlton in the Championship. That says it all – I bought into the manager and his idea.

It was like ‘you’ve already got a promotion clause’ – but that isn’t a reward for being promoted. It should have been about building the club and trying to sustain it in the Championship. I genuinely believe Roland would have preferred to have kept the club in League One because it would keep costs down. I don’t believe the budget changed. It said it all about his vision for the club, or rather that he didn’t have a vision.

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Salary cap unfair on Sunderland

Scunthorpe United may have voted for the recent EFL salary cap but the club’s chairman, Peter Swann, does not believe how it was implemented was a good idea.

Swann told the Iron Bru podcast that his club voted for it as a show of unity and so the clubs can all work together going forward.

He went on to explain that it is unfair on Sunderland that they will be brought down to Scunthorpe’s level and that he believed any financial restrictions brought in should have been based on club turnover, rather than a salary cap:

The league voted on a salary cap. We weren’t of the mind that it was a good idea but, in unity, we have agreed with the other clubs so that we can all work together now going forward.

Over the years it has been necessary for there to be more financial control in the divisions. The Premiership have gone off on this fantastic journey of billionaires and multimillionaires playing football. The EFL and the Championship have this dream of getting to the golden land and people have overspent.

The EFL in all their wisdom can and have always had the ability to stop those things happening. They’ve always had the ability to take points or fines, but over the years have never really been strong enough on penalties and that was my argument.

We were in a very good position, because we’d already got a break even sustainability model ready for the season.

Actually the salary cap was above where we were going to have our wages, so we are actually in a really good position and even though I argued that it should be based on turnover as a salary cap, this benefits clubs like us.

If you have a break even point at your football club and you can afford five million budget, you should be able to do that. If you can afford one and a half million, you should be able to do that.

I think it’s unfair for a club like ours to have a budget only a million less than Sunderland or a million less than Rotherham or whoever’s in the division at the time.

I think if your club can break even, genuinely break even then that’s the way it should be done. It’s about monitoring from their point of view.

It has basically levelled the playing field for clubs who don’t have a lot of income. Ourselves, the Accringtons, and all the clubs that have small grounds can now have a budget well within and close to other clubs.

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Duo sign new deals

Sunderland academy product John Egan has signed a new long term deal with Premier League club Sheffield United.

After a stellar season in the top flight with the Blades, which saw the club finish 9th and end the season with the fourth best defensive record in the division, Egan has penned a new contract which will keep him at Brammall Lane until 2024.

United manager Chris Wilder was delighted to see Egan sign his new deal, telling the official club website that was just reward for his performances:

It’s a reward for the influence John has on the team and at the football club. He’s been part and parcel of our climb over the last two years and he’s taken his game to the next level.

He’s a rock-solid character who produces performances week in, week out against world-class players and on the international stage I know how much he loves playing for his country and he’ll take his career on to the next step there as well.

We’ve got to reward and secure our best players and John is certainly one of those, we have to thank the Board for their support in allowing us to put this deal together.

John has been outstanding and knowing the boy as we do, we know John is not a comfortable footballer, he wants to establish himself and continue to improve at the highest level.

Ex-Sunderland midfielder Darron Gibson has also signed a new deal that will keep him at Salford City until the end of the 2020-21 season.

Gibson initially signed a short-term deal with Salford in February but only managed four games before the Coronavirus lockdown curtailed the season early. Salford manager Graham Alexander told the club website that despite only playing those four games, he saw enough to believe Gibson warranted an extended stay:

We saw what Darron is capable of in only a handful of games towards the end of last season and we just felt he was getting into some good momentum when the break happened.

After having a conversation with him, I explained the situation at the time that I wanted to re-engage him but we had to wait until we got through the break.

We know what he is capable of as a player and we are delighted to have him on board for another year to see his impact on the team; his quality and experience is invaluable not just in the senior squad, but for the younger players too.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images