Stuart Taylor Bio Send To Friend  

One of the game's perennial reserve stoppers, Taylor moved to Eastlands when his Aston Villa contract expired having previously played for Arsenal.

He had moved through the ranks at Highbury to be rated as a highly-promising goalkeeper. But he was never given the chance to make the number one position his own and in his last two seasons with the club struggled to make an appearance.

Taylor spent ten years with Arsenal, helping the Gunners youth team to a championship, but largely had to rely on loan spells with Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace, Peterborough and Leicester to gain first team experience.

He did earn a championship medal when coming on as a late substitute for Richard Wright in the final game of the 2001-02 season.

Taylor ultimately opted to leave Arsenal in the summer of 2005 having not featured for the Arsenal first team for two years. With Arsene Wenger constantly looking for new options between the sticks, Taylor agreed to move to Villa Park for an undisclosed fee.

But despite making the switch to Villa, Taylor was unable to shift Thomas Sorensen and then the on-loan Scott Carson from the #1 jersey.

Villa signed Brad Friedel in the summer of 2008 to leave him in the shadows. He was loaned to Cardiff City in March 2009 and seemed to be set for a permanent move to the Bluebirds before opting to move to Manchester City.