Goalkeeper Stuart Taylor joined City in late June having most recently played for Aston Villa, but City now boast connections to his early days with Arsenal as well as more recently at Villa Park.
First team coach Eddie Niedzwiecki looked after Stuart in the Arsenal reserve team when the keeper was just starting out, and Stuart was enthused by the thought of hooking up with him again when the possibility of the City move came around.
He say, “Eddie was my reserve team manager back in the day at Arsenal, he’s a fantastic coach who really knows his stuff. Linking up with him again was a big attraction for me to come to City, he’s a nice guy and was one of several reasons why I knew it was the right thing to come to City.
“It’s nice for me to get a chance to come to a club like this, I believe I am still good enough to do a job with a team like this, and the club feel that as well.
“We’re getting a fantastic squad together now, if we gel together and do it as a team on the field, it’s looking good.
“The strike force we have coming together is frightening, we can chop and change it for anything we need and it looks like there will be a lot of goals.”
Stuart, 28, arrived at City shortly after another Villa team-mate Gareth Barry, and is another reason why the keeper thinks there are so many reasons to be excited about the forthcoming Barclays Premier League season.
“Gareth’s a fantastic pro”,he adds, “there are no airs and graces with him, he’s a nice guy who just gets on with it. He has bags of ability, a great left foot and he’s another one adding to the mix.”
The addition of the former England under-21 international to City’s goalkeeping ranks lends a touch more experience to an already impressive roster, headed by Shay Given, who also gets the thumbs-up from Stuart.
“He’s an outstanding goalkeeper, and he has proved it year-in, year-out in the Premier League for a long time. He’s another consistent performer, always puts in a solid display, you need players like that to build a team around. It will be great for me to work for him,” concludes Stuart.
