New signing Paul Taylor will become a fans’ favourite at Portman Road, manager Paul Jewell has predicted. The 24-year-old signed a three-year deal on Thursday after the clubs agreed an initial fee of £1.5 million with top-up clauses understood to take the price to £2.5 million.
Jewell says the striker’s battling qualities will endear him to the Portman Road faithful: "He’s aggressive, he’s quick, he’s hungry and he looks like he’s ready for a fight.
When I say a fight, I’m not talking about going around trying to get sent off, fighting in the right way — he’s hungry.
"He’s had a tough upbringing in football. He’s played for Vauxhall Motors, he’s been over to Anderlecht, so he hasn’t had a silver spoon in his mouth and he won’t be talking to the media too often.
"He wants to do his talking on the pitch. He’s quite a shy boy but when he gets out on the pitch, once he’s settled in, he’ll be a fans’ favourite because he represents the supporter because he fights for every ball.
"I would imagine that fans would like him because of the way he goes about his job on the pitch," he continued. "I don’t think he suffers fools on the pitch, he doesn’t care who he is playing against. He’s not one for big reputations.
"When we showed him around here on Wednesday afternoon, he was mightily impressed with the facilities and the size of the club. We’re delighted to have him and I’m sure when he settles in he’ll be a good signing for us.”
The early stages of Taylor’s career weren’t without their problems — including a six-month ban for testing positive for cocaine — but Jewell says everyone makes misjudgements at some time in their lives and that his fellow Liverpudlian has done well to bounce back: "He’s obviously made of quite stern stuff mentally.
"I’ve said this a million times regarding other players here and myself, we’ve all made mistakes. Anyone who hasn’t made a mistake is a liar.
"We’ve all made mistakes, I’m not interested in mistakes and the past, I’m interested in the future and what he can bring us going forward and I think he’ll give us a different dimension going forward.”
Jewell says he first noticed him in the 7-1 thrashing by Posh a year ago, Taylor’s first Championship start, in which he scored twice: "He came to our attention when he played against us last season.
"He’ll bring an edge. He can play in a number of positions, he can play wide, he can play up front, he can play off the front. He’s an intelligent footballer that we’re looking forward to having here. He’s got a bit of pace in him as well and that’s a thing we’ve been lacking a little bit.”
Both Taylor and returning loanee Daryl Murphy have given Jewell options: "I think the beauty of the players is that they are versatile. Murph gives us that physical presence in either box that we’ve lacked a little bit this season. And up front, we’ve been a little bit lightweight.
"He can play wide, he can play down the middle. Same with Paul Taylor. He can play down the middle, he can play wide right, wide left, he’s an all-round good footballer.”
The lack of height has proved a problem in the early weeks of the season: "I’ve said before, we’re a small team and we’re trying to get bigger. We’re trying to improve. People say Barcelona aren’t the biggest team in the world, but they’re the best team in the world.
"In the Championship, freekicks and corners and set plays are vitally important, as we all know, and we’ve conceded goals from those because we haven’t been big enough.
"We’ve tried to get the right players in, but we haven’t been able to do that just yet. But as time goes on, we will do.”