“Well, it’s like what you would expect an old-fashioned football ground to be like,” Taylor explains “And that’s what we are I wouldn’t have it any other way. Teams go there and maybe they’re used to four or five baths and 15 showers in the dressing-rooms and it’s not like that It’s a shock for them. Everyone wants the ground re-developed but for us it’s a positive the way it is I’m sure teams don’t like playing there. How long have you been here now?”O’Neil, just 22, pauses from eating his lunch “Since I was 13. “We are English boys – and a Scot – who know how much it means to the fans,” Taylor says before nodding towards his grinning team-mate “Gaz is the longest-serving player I think he was born wearing a Portsmouth shirt. The two – along with Richard Hughes – have represented the core of the club, providing some stability during that volatile time.

Don’t get me wrong, football is no less important than before but my home life is far more important.”There were a few “bad weekends” at Portsmouth in 2005, with just eight wins – two gained after Redknapp came back – in 41 games and, as Taylor settles down in the first-floor canteen to explain what it has been like, Gary O’Neil sits close by. You shut the door and if it’s been a bad weekend she smiles at me – and it all goes away It changed my life. But now, with the birth of Georgia, football can take a back seat when I go home. His girlfriend, Hanna, gave birth four months ago and Taylor is keen to make the one-hour drive home “It changes everything,” he says of fatherhood “I used to fixate about work.

Not that Taylor’s possible departure had anything to do with his sudden training ground getaway Instead, the 24-year-old had to get back to domestic duties. At the time of writing a deal is yet to be concluded but the indications are that today’s encounter with Birmingham City, the most intense of relegation dog-fights, could be Taylor’s last as a Portsmouth player.Such is the transfer window and life under Redknapp. “Same old manager, same old Harry,” Taylor says of his return. Then the rest of the Premiership woke up to the surprising availability of the former England Under-21 international.

The names came thick and fast – Fulham put in a substantial bid, thought to be around £1.2m, which was rejected, while Newcastle United proposed a swap deal involving Amdy Faye. Indeed, hours after he volunteered that “no one player is bigger than the club” in response to the speculation concerning the transfer targets that his manager, Harry Redknapp, has lined up – and the competition for places – and it emerges that Taylor could himself be sacrificed to help finance those deals “I don’t want to lose Matt Taylor, for sure,” says Redknapp “But it depends.”
Wigan Athletic made the early running. He jumps into his black Range Rover and, with a brief wave, is off

It is a fast life at Portsmouth FC The pace of change is always unpredictable. He supported me during my ban for missing a drug test and has always played fair with me in the past. “I can’t speak for the other players but it hasn’t undermined my relationship with him.”.