Taylor cuts a lonely figure

For a man who travels to Arsenal today knowing it could be his last match in charge of Leicester, Peter Taylor is in surprisingly high spirits.

He may have set a record in finding his job under threat after one match but a 5-0 home defeat by Bolton has hardly left him wallowing in self-pity. "If I was a supporter," he says, "I think I'd have written in to the manager as well."

As Taylor peers across his office he is reminded of how quickly life has changed. On the wall are pictures of him collecting a manager of the month award when Leicester topped the Premiership last October. A photograph of him making David Beckham the England captain hangs close by. "To Pete," the inscription reads, "thanks for giving me the chance."

When Taylor led England into a friendly in Turin last November and handed Beckham the armband he can hardly have imagined the scenario he faces now. Leicester were flying and he was hailed as an international coach of the future.

Yet a run of 10 defeats in 11 games at the end of last season and the Bolton fiasco on the opening day of this campaign have set the clock ticking. Key figures at the club are losing patience and chants of 'Taylor Out' filled Filbert Street last weekend. The former Tottenham player could be dealt a fatal blow by Arsenal.

Given that Taylor's team were beaten 6-1 at Highbury last December he might be expected to sound nervous. Instead he is upbeat, bullish and honest. Many managers in his predicament would retreat into silence or hide the truth, but that is not Taylor's style. He jokes about his hair turning greyer, talks candidly about the threat to his future and stresses his determination to turn things round.

"As a manager, last Saturday was the hardest thing I've been through," he says.

"My wife and daughter were upstairs watching so I was thinking of them quite a bit. On the performance and the result I understand a lot of it, but I can honestly say I haven't lost confidence. I feel I'm exactly the same person as last November. When I'm doing my coaching I feel I'm coaching as well as ever.

"I've still got my sense of humour with the players. I live and breathe this job 24 hours a day. I think a lot of people here have lost patience. But what I would say to that is the supporters who shouted 'Taylor Out' were probably the ones who shouted 'Martin O'Neill out' when he first joined. So Martin went through the same thing. I'm hopeful people are patient and I get through it. Hopefully I can look back in four years and say 'Christ, when I first joined that's what was going on'."

Patience, though, seems in short supply. Thursday's Leicester Mercury made grim reading for Taylor. One season ticket-holder for 37 years was advertising his seat for "any reasonable offer". Another long-serving fan described Taylor as the "worst manager I have seen at Filbert Street". The organisation, motivation and tactics were questioned. "The manager has lost the crowd and there is no way back," one man opined.

Taylor strongly disagrees but knows from the chairman, John Elsom, he has little time. "I've got a very good relationship with the chairman," he says. "He's a good man, a nice man and a Leicester City supporter, and in his polite way he has said to me: 'Look, we can't put up with much more of what happened on Saturday.' "

One suggestion is if Taylor does enough to survive today without winning, only victory at home to Ipswich in the next game on September 8th will suffice.

That his future is already in such doubt upsets the 48-year-old, who believes he is being unfairly punished for a poor, injury-affected end to an otherwise successful season. He insists he should be judged when his summer buys - Dennis Wise, Ian Walker and James Scowcroft - are in the side and believes he can challenge for sixth place. Only Wise played against Bolton.

"People are still thinking of last season and to me this is a completely new start," he says.

"Last season was about not having my best players available. That's why we won only one game in the last 12. If we have everybody fit and available and we get the same results then I will definitely accept the consequences. That's not a problem. But not after one game where only one of my new signings was playing. People have got to be more patient."

The calls for his dismissal hurt Taylor all the more because of the commitment he feels he showed the club in stepping down this summer from his coaching role with England, an added responsibility blamed by some for the club's slump. "I used to love going away with England," he says. "It was an honour. But after talking to John Elsom I decided that it would be best for my Leicester City future if I left that alone.

"I've shown my commitment on that and it's amazing to do that and then see that after one bad result people want you out. You can't win in that respect. It was frustrating because to me nothing would have got in the way. The things I was doing with England - watching other people coach, watching them work, and coaching other players - were only going to benefit me."

Taylor knows much rests on his players' attitude. After last season's hammering at Arsenal he accused them of taking a "day off", and he cannot afford that this time. He says he is less concerned by the result today than he is by signs of the fight absent against Bolton, and believes the squad is on his side.

"After Bolton they couldn't look in the mirror and say they had done everything they could," Taylor says. "They dropped their heads when the first goal went in and didn't believe they could get back. I'm very hopeful they are going to perform because they don't want to go through that again. It hurt them a lot."

So successful in recent years with England's under-21s and Gillingham, this barren patch is a reminder to Taylor of harder times at Southend and Dover. He has been castigated for buying too many lower-division players, such as Ade Akinbiyi, Lee Marshall and Trevor Benjamin, but stands by his decision.

"I would still sign those players again at the time I did," he says. "A lot of them were for the future and as squad players, but because of injuries they had to play straight away, so there were a lot of young, inexperienced players playing in the Premiership. We weren't good enough; they weren't ready then. But they will be better for it."

Taylor, too, believes he can benefit from this experience. "I really enjoy it here and I'm determined to get it right," he says. "I'm confident I will but I need other people to be patient."