Ellis Taylor has hit the headlines since he was released by Sunderland last week.
Ellis Taylor’s future at Sunderland has remained in doubt for months, having been a vital captain to the U21 side all season.
The 21-year-old had claimed seven goal contributions in only 12 matches this term, but is yet to pick up a senior league appearance.
Despite his impact on the U21s, the Black Cats confirmed that Taylor would be leaving upon the expiry of his contract.
The youngster went onto show his boyhood club exactly what they would be missing as he netted a hat-trick in Monday’s Premier League 2 play-off semi-final – a week after scoring in the quarter-final too.
Despite playing at full-back, Taylor was ‘unbelievable‘ against Reading and took his goal tally up to nine goals in 15 matches.
Some fans were left wondering why Sunderland are offloading him, but journalist Phil Smith has now explained the ‘harsh decision’ that the club have made.
Sunderland don’t want to dent Ellis Taylor’s ‘development prospects’
Writing for the Sunderland Echo, Smith said: “Of all the decisions Sunderland’s hierarchy made around the retained list, this was surely one of the most difficult. Taylor deserves immense credit for the campaign he has been able to produce, bouncing back from what had been a difficult time both on and off the pitch.
“It is in many ways a harsh decision but one that also makes sense when you consider the senior squad’s composition heading into next season.
“He initially broke through as a right winger, and his threat in that position was summed up by the brilliance of two of his goals driving in from the right at Reading. But there Sunderland have Patrick Roberts, Abdoullah Ba and Romaine Mundle all under contract for next season.
“He can also play in either of the full back roles, and has for a while been seen by Sunderland as potentially most likely to make his career as a left wing back. There, though, Sunderland have Aji Alese, Dennis Cirkin and then Leo Hjelde for added cover. On the other flank, Trai Hume is certain to start the new campaign given his outstanding form and Timothee Pembele was starting to make progress as his understudy by the end of the season.
“Sunderland’s decision was to assess how likely that was to change next season and given that competition for places is significant even before the summer recruitment drive begins, their answer was that it wasn’t. And at 21, the feeling is that another campaign of youth football is unlikely to do his development prospects a great deal of good.”
The 21-year-old would struggle to overtake our young talent
Ellis Taylor is clearly a very talented young player and if he was in another Championship academy, he would probably have made it to the first-team now.
However, the club have done the right thing in letting him leave in search of regular football, because it would have been somewhat selfish to make him stick around just in case he overtakes our other players in his position.
The youth of our current squad makes it very difficult for all the academy players, because we know the likes of Aji Alese and Trai Hume still have years to meet their potential.
Taylor has a long way to go to catch up with them and it would be unfair for him if he was forced to sit so far down the pecking order – especially given that he will turn 22 next season.
No doubt he will be snapped up and the Black Cats will be happy to be proven wrong if it means he is enjoying his football.