Some cynics viewed Peter Taylor’s appointment as Stevenage Manager as an attempt to put himself in the managerial shop window; those inside the game will recognise it as his depth of passion for coaching. Peter Taylor has been speaking to Sue McCann.

“I think what you have got to have is players that make you feel like wanting to coach them as well. I said to the players at Stevenage that to make a good training session it has got to be them that take things on board and want the training session to be successful. There’ve been quite a few sessions (over the years) where if players are anti certain things they can make it a nightmare session. I think if you have got a hungry group of players, 9 times out of 10 younger players, that want to improve and want to listen and take things on board, it can make the coaching so fulfilling. You are looking at them thinking ‘blimey they are taking it in, they want to improve, they want to become better players’ and it makes you want to do more with them”

The Stevenage players wouldn’t have been expecting to you to be their manager.... so I imagine that they are listening with intent because they know how much experience that you are bringing to them, that they might not have got in their careers?

“As you know, players will check out managers, managers will check out jobs and even before I joined Stevenage I knew they were a hungry bunch. So I was quietly confident that when I went in there that they were going to be looking forward to things anyway. I think they do know that I am always going to try and help them and I am not going to change too much because the manager before me has done exceptionally well with them. It would be crazy of me to go in there and say all of a sudden say ‘right your system is rubbish’ because they have been doing well all season. Hopefully they have enjoyed me walking through the door, I’ve had several training sessions with them now and every one of them has been first class.

“I think they have got a tremendous togetherness and they are young and fit, they might even be too young to maybe go all the way and that’s something I might look at. I’ve had this experience before with the England U21’s that they are that young you can’t get them off the training field and you are actually not doing them any harm because they are that young that they recover anyway.”

What is the quality like in comparison like to the Championship, is it a massive gulf or is it not as huge as we might think?

“It’s definitely not massive. I can tell the difference; we did a keep ball session the other day where I know maybe at Palace it was crisper and quicker and the touch might have been better. Also 9 times out of 10 in the league you have got slightly better training pitches.....the Stevenage training pitch is fine but at Crystal Palace it is better so I think that helps training sessions as well. There isn’t a massive difference and that’s the idea that I have got, that I am going to test them as much as I can as if I was taking the full England team. I won’t do ridiculous things or expect ridiculous things from them but I am always going to test them so that will be a little target every day for them.”

You’ve been a Premier League manager and know it’s an instant results business and you are instantly getting judged. How impressed have you been with the impact that your former colleague Sven Goran Eriksson has had?

“I think to be honest with you Sven has done a superb job everywhere that he has been. He won the group nearly every time that England was in a qualification. OK, the only time we were disappointed under Sven would have been quarter finals in tournaments. That’s the only time, maybe you could say against Brazil and Portugal we were a little bit disappointing. I have no doubt in my mind that Sven and Tord and Sven’s connections know players. There’s no doubt about that so the minute he goes into a job like Man City, where it is a different job than Stuart Pearce had because all of a sudden there is loads of money to spend, you know that he and Tord know players. He fits them in perfectly and that’s where he is outstanding . I am delighted for him; I had the pleasure of working with him and you couldn’t meet a nicer man.”

He had his critics about how England were playing and whether England actually played as a team or 11 big name individuals but he’s gone into Manchester City, has gelled the team and is playing very, very attractive football....

“Of course he is now working with his players every day so that makes a big difference because then it’s your team and you can get your style across to the players. I think what people do forget is that when England went to major tournaments 9 times out of 10 we didn’t go with our strongest team. We always had major, major players that were injured; Rooney just about made it, Michael Owen wasn’t right, David Beckham wasn’t right. When you go to major world or European tournaments you have got to have your best players. Sven loves club football and did get a little bit frustrated with England because of the lack of matches, but he loves the day to day stuff and I have got no doubt he is enjoying it.”