November 17, 1959
Phil Taylor resigned yesterday after 23 years with Liverpool as player, coach and team boss. I hesitate to call him manager – his official title for the last for years – for he never had complete charge of the team.
And I suggest that it was this lack of authority that finally drove him to walk out of Anfield yesterday, admitting: “I am tired. The strain of trying to win promotion has proved too much.”
As gentlemanly as ever, the dapper Taylor, West Country accent undimmed by his long spell on Merseyside, refused to make any complaints. As he was never under contract, he was free to finish immediately.
“At Anfield I have never created any trouble,” he affirmed, “and I am going out on that same note, for no one has ever caused me any trouble either.”
But Taylor’s job, always difficult with half Liverpool screaming for promotion, has been ever more difficult since Reuben Bennett’s appointment as chief coach caused a reorganisation of duties last Christmas.
I expect Bennett to be placed in temporary charge of the team after the Liverpool board meet tonight.
(Daily Mail: November 18, 1959)
