He began his youth career with Canvey Island,[1] and had trials at Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace[2] before signing as a junior with Southend United in 1971.

[2] Southend gained promotion to the Third Division in 1972 and Taylor's part in their success brought him to the attention of Crystal Palace manager, Malcolm Allison, who signed him on 11 October 1973[3] for £110,000.

At the end of the season Allison resigned and was replaced by Terry Venables, and on 30 September 1976[3] Taylor was allowed to depart for top-flight Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £400,000.

[5] Taylor made his England debut as a substitute versus Wales and scored the winning goal in the 80th minute of that game.

[6] Taylor was the last English footballer to score two goals in his first two international games before Rickie Lambert repeated the feat in 2013.

In this time, England finished ninth in 1998 European Championship and qualified for the 2000 finals comfortably, winning every match without conceding a goal.

They stayed at the top of the league for two weeks (Taylor having been voted Premier League Manager of the Month for September 2000) and were in contention for a UEFA Cup place for well over half a season, but nine defeats from their final ten games sucked them down to 13th place in the wake of a shock defeat by Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup quarter-final.

He handed David Beckham the captain's armband for the first time and used six players then still eligible for the Under-21s; Gareth Barry, Jamie Carragher, Kieron Dyer, Rio Ferdinand, Emile Heskey and Seth Johnson.

Taylor guided Brighton to the Division Two championship (marking their return to the upper half of the English league after eleven years) but resigned from his job at the end of the season, citing a low budget and the delay to the new stadium.

England comfortably progressed from their qualification group for the 2006 finals but lost to eventual semi-finalists France in a play-off over two legs.

He only lasted sixteen months at Selhurst Park as he was sacked in October 2007 after a run of poor form left the Eagles hovering dangerously above the bottom three.

[12] His first purchase in this role was Junior Lewis, a player he had previously brought into five other clubs (Dover, Gillingham, Leicester, Brighton and Hull).

On 28 April 2008, Taylor left Stevenage Borough after six months in charge when his short-term contract expired and he had failed to get them into the end of season play-offs.

[15] On 16 February 2010, Taylor replaced Stuart McCall to become manager of League Two side Bradford City, initially on a three-month contract until the end of the 2009–10 season.

[16] In January 2011, Taylor turned down an offer from Premier League Newcastle United to be assistant to their new manager Alan Pardew.

[17] After three successive defeats later in the month, Taylor came under pressure but vowed to carry on, saying: "I'm not a fool, I can tell that I'm probably not the most popular manager Bradford City's ever had.

Two months later, Taylor successfully led the Bahrainian team to clinch football gold in the 2011 Arab Games in Doha, beating Jordan 1–0 in the final with a last-gasp goal by striker Ismail Abdullatif.

[25] In October 2013, Taylor was appointed Gillingham manager for the second time, on an interim basis, following the club's sacking of Martin Allen.

[34] Taylor left Dagenham & Redbridge in December 2019; the club stated that a change was required due to recent results.