'I've definitely changed in the last three, four years' - Steven Taylor on his successful start to management in the UAE

Sometimes you just know that a player is going to become a manager in the future; someone like Matt Ritchie, for example - currently studying for a MSc (Master of Science) in Sports Directorship and taking occasional training sessions at Newcastle United's Academy while still featuring in the Premier League - looks certain to embark on a career in coaching when he hangs up his boots. Pep Guardiola carried a notepad with him in training during his time with Mexican side Dorados de Sinaloa and would log coach Juanma Lillo's sessions, then pick his mentor's brains afterwards, while Rafa Benítez was coaching Real Madrid's youth teams in his mid-20s. Few would have seen Steven Taylor, renowned as the dressing room prankster during his 13 years at St. James' Park, in the dugout at the age of 37, though - but, impractical joker, the former Magpies defender has just achieved his second successive promotion to the UAE First Division League with Dubai-based Gulf United.

He grew up in Whitley Bay, on the Tyneside coast, but these days, after morning training sessions in Al Quoz, he can often be found on Jumeirah or Sunset Beach, which may lack some of the charm of Longsands but makes up for that with the climate. Taylor joined Gulf United - a team initially launched four years ago as an academy for youngsters - in January 2022, building a squad from scratch in less than a month and leading them to an unbeaten season and promotion from the fourth tier. Then this March they were crowned champions of the Second Division, with former Celtic striker Gary Hooper a familiar name among a roster largely comprising of talented players scouted from across Africa and Europe. 

Taylor trains on a beach a few thousand miles from Dubai in 2014

Taylor played more than 200 times for Newcastle, representing the club in European competitions, and as well as captaining England at under-21 level he earned two separate senior call-ups, six years apart, for the Three Lions. But despite his many achievements on the pitch, some of his antics - like his hilarious and unsuccessful attempt to escape a red card for a clear handball in one of his first matches by dramatically clutching his chest, or comically jumping up and down in front of Asmir Begovic moments before Yohan Cabaye curled a brilliant free kick beyond the then-Stoke goalkeeper in 2013 - gave him a reputation for frivolity, which he did little to shake off away from the field.

Fond of magic tricks and known to drive to training in an Only Fools and Horses-style yellow Reliant Regal, he once snook into Fraser Forster's hotel room while the future England international was asleep and shaved his hair into a mohican, and another time chased goalkeeper coach Andy Woodman around the training ground with a very convincing fake tarantula... and they're just a couple of the japes which are suitable for retelling on the club's official website. 

Management, though, is something Taylor takes very seriously indeed and while some of his card tricks back in the day were fairly impressive, now the former Monkseaton High School pupil is metaphorically pulling rabbits out of hats in the Middle East. He had long held a tentative interest in coaching - working at an Academy one day, maybe even at Newcastle where he came through the ranks, was always at the back of his mind - but it was only when he headed to Major League Soccer with Portland Timbers ("the best thing I did", as he describes it) then Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand, after his final three seasons at St. James' Park were blighted by injuries and culminated in relegation from the top flight, that his mindset began to shift and he started to seriously consider life in the dugout. 

"At Newcastle I was always the loud guy in the dressing room, the loud guy on the pitch, but you come away from it as you get older," he tells nufc.co.uk in his adopted city, where the Magpies visited for a training camp during the last international break. "You've got to become serious and be an example to the young lads. You start to realise 'I have to change the way I am.' When I went to America, I had to lead on and off the pitch there - these young kids, I couldn't go joking around with them. I wanted to be the example, I had to train harder and do the extras so when they watch me they're not thinking 'f***ing hell, he's 32 and he's joking around.' You realise you can't do that anymore. 

"Spending time with the All Blacks (in New Zealand) was a big culture shock to me. I never understood all that stuff but the army camps with them in pre-season - wow, your values change. I've definitely changed in the last three, four years.

Taylor pranking some of his team-mates with a plastic tarantula

"As I got older, I went out to New Zealand, Australia and India and I started to spend a lot more time with the under-23s and then the first team on a Thursday, doing defensive stuff, and I enjoyed that side of it. I was the old guy in the group - I was 32, around 18, 19, 20 year-olds, and I started to think 'I need to out-train these.' My mentality was I wanted them to think 'he's not just Steven Taylor who played at Newcastle and who wants his days off, he's a guy who trains every day and still puts the tackles in and sets the standards.'

"I knew part of it, if I wanted to go into management, was dealing with characters. I'm big on emotion and building the confidence of the players. When I'm watching, I'm always visualising myself on the pitch with them. What would I want as a centre-back? What do I enjoy (when) playing against teams? And taking from managers I played under - (Kevin) Keegan, (Sir Bobby) Robson; what would they do, why were they so good, why did the players love them?

"I find when players want to play for the manager, that's when you get the best out of them. What do the players need? Some need a kick up the arse, some need that arm around the shoulder. I always tell the story, when I was 17 years old I knocked on Sir Bobby's door and believed I should be playing. He could see I was angry, but before I could get my words out, he said 'how's your family doing, son?' and by the time I came out of the office, he's got his arm around me and I'm walking down the corridor thinking 'how has he just done that?'. There's little moments like that I try to use with my young players now.

The former Newcastle defender with his Gulf United squad

"When (players) come off the bus and someone's looking a bit tired, I get into them straight away and set the standards with the players. Getting good people is important - if anyone's negative, any 'viruses', see you later. We've got good, hungry lads and we've created a good atmosphere. That's one of the reasons why we've had success - the players love playing for each other. It reminds of the year we finished fifth (in 2011/12). We had good characters and guys who were just winners and would do whatever it took to win. There were games we were poor but as a team we were so compact and difficult to play against and that's one of the reasons we had success that year, and in Europe (the following season) as well.

"I really want to dig deep into building winners. Any player I come across, I want them to be a horrible f***er on the pitch, like when I was 18 years old and just going out and didn't care who I was playing against. To me they were just a name. To these guys I say 'don't fear anybody.' I'm very intense like that."

Taylor, whose charges were the opponents for a practice match against United in Dubai last year, has this time been invited by Eddie Howe to watch his old side train in Al Jaddaf and he's chatting on a bench on the sidelines as the United head coach's drills take place on the grass a few metres away. "Watching how he sets his sessions up, the way he is, it's great to see that," he smiles. "I would have loved to have had someone like him as an 18-year-old, someone who is that intense, because that's right up my street." 

The former favourite still watches United at every opportunity, but admits: "It kills me watching the games because of the time difference; when I've got work, I'm up at half-five so I don't get much sleep when Newcastle games are on! But it's worth it, you can't miss any of the games. I went back (to the UK) for New Year's Eve, watched the Leeds game, and being around the players, staff and the ownership was nice."

Taylor celebrates the Coca-Cola Championship title win in 2009/10 with Tim Krul

He plans to return to St. James' Park for another match between now and the end of the Premier League season, before preparations begin in earnest for Gulf United's next campaign.

"I've got good people upstairs who let me just concentrate on the football, concentrate on the lads," says Taylor, who served under 12 different managers during his time on Tyneside. "There's no behind-the-scenes circus stuff going on. You know what it's like. I'm around good guys and it helps when you've got a good bunch of leaders in your dressing room who lead by example and help the manager on the pitch. When I was a player and you've got your Shearers, your Speedos, your Woodgates, your Shays; they controlled the sessions, the intensity. I see it even watching the (present-day Newcastle) lads now - your key players, your leaders who set the standards.

"Every day we have 7.30am sessions until 9.30am. They're in the heat, training, but (the players) are all hungry and want to go to the next level, not just here, to Europe. Last year I moved six players and I'm looking for more this year. We're a very well-talked-about club now and we want to go to that next level. 

"The guys have been a different class, and for me to come down, watch a session and pick the brains of the coaches is something I'll take into next year - and hopefully win another promotion. That will be my target." No more tall Tayls; the joke, based on his first two seasons, is on anybody who doubts he can achieve it.