Lyle Taylor could have signed for League One Sunderland in 2018 – but he chose Championship high-flyers Charlton Athletic instead.
If Sunderland had a prolific, lower league goalscorer, Jack Ross might be coaching a Championship team right now. Someone like Lyle Taylor, perhaps.
Speaking to London News Online in May, the sweet aroma of promotion-winning champagne lingering in the air, the Charlton Athletic striker admitted that turned down an offer from The Black Cats when his contract at AFC Wimbledon came to an end the previous summer.
But rather than try and re-awake the fallen giants of North East football, Taylor simply couldn’t turn down the chance to work under Lee Bowyer, a coach who is cultivating a reputation for helping raw talents fulfil their potential.
A year on, it would be nigh-on impossible to suggest that was the wrong decision.
Taylor was already an accomplished goalscorer when he arrived at The Valley but a man whose clinical finishing saved Wimbledon from relegation has reached another level entirely under Bowyer.
In 37 starts, he scored 21 goals in League One last season. He even netted in the play-off final as Charlton beat (guess who?) Sunderland at Wembley. And anyone who suggested that Taylor would struggle to make the step up to the Championship have been made to eat their words.
It’s five goals in six games so far in the second tier as Taylor, and Charlton as a whole, have made the transition look easy. In Addicks colours, Taylor has averaged a goal every 1.8 league games.
In contrast, Sunderland’s Will Grigg, who cost a whole £4 million more than Taylor, has scored every six games since moving to the Stadium of Light. For Charlie Wyke, the injury-hit, Middlesbrough-born targetman, it is one every 5.6. Marc McNulty, meanwhile, has looked lively since joining Sunderland but he is yet to open his account in League One.
The numbers don’t lie. Taylor’s stats will continue to haunt The Black Cats until they find a striker who is equally prolific.
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