Sometimes, you don’t realise the value of a player until they are no longer at the club, and that’s certainly the case with Greg Taylor.
It wasn’t so long ago that Celtic fans were booing Taylor for his on-field performances, and Brendan Rodgers was having to come out and publicly back the player.
You wonder how much that contributed to Taylor opting against signing a new Celtic contract in the summer, and instead, shipping his talents to Greece and putting pen to paper by signing for PAOK.
So, how has one of Celtic’s most divided players fared in Thessaloniki for title-chasing PAOK?
Greg Taylor’s stats for PAOK
Taylor is still searching for regular minutes and starts, but when they have come along, he has produced the goods and put on several good showings.
But it’s a case of still trying to force his way into Razvan Lucescu’s first-team plans because, for the last two matches, he has been an unused substitute.
This is despite Taylor producing a healthy performance when PAOK demolished Panserraikos 5-0 in the league at the start of the month.
Whilst the 28-year-old was tasked to play like an inverted fullback under Rodgers, he has been deployed to return to a more traditional full-back role in Greece.
| Taylor’s games | Starts | Off the bench | Unused substitute | Total minutes | Goals | Assists | Clean sheets |
| 8 | 7 | 1 | 12 | 525 | – | 1 | 5 |
- Taylor’s Sofascore rating in the league: 6.90
- Key Passes: 3
- Big chances created: 1
- Accurate Long Balls: 13
- Interceptions: 3
- Aerial duels won: 5
Underwhelming Kieran Tierney return
Let’s be honest, there was a lot of hype and excitement at Kieran Tierney returning to Celtic, and it kind of made it easier for fans to accept that Taylor won’t stay on board.
But the Celtic hero has been rather underwhelming with his performances, and it can’t be argued that the loan star from Boca Juniors, Marcelo Saracchi, is outperforming Tierney.
Perhaps it’s a case of Tierney needing to get used to the nitty-gritty nature of football again, because it has been a while since he has completed 90 minutes after 90 minutes, but he is starting to rack them up in Celtic colours.
- 90 minutes completed by Tierney from 17 matches this season: 5
- 90 minutes completed by Tierney during his last two seasons: 6
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