Peter John Taylor
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Peter Taylor (born January 3, 1953 in Southend-on-Sea) was the English national football team manager on a caretaker basis in 2000. He had previously been coach of the England U-21 side, a role to which he later returned on a part-time basis whilst manager of Hull City A.F.C.
Taylor had enjoyed a successful playing career as a winger, playing for Southend United, Crystal Palace, Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient, as well as winning four international caps for England, before embarking on a career as a coach and manager.
At club level, Peter Taylor spent two years (1993-1995) as manager of Southend United but quit at the end of the 1994-95 season after failing to get them beyond the middle of the Division One table. He returned to club management two years later with Gillingham, and at the end of the 1999-2000 season guided them to victory over Wigan Athletic in the Division Two playoff final which marked the club's promotion to the upper half of the English league for the first time ever. A few weeks later he walked out on the club to take charge at Leicester City in the Premiership and for a few months he appeared to be doing very well. For 2 weeks in October, Leicester were Premiership leaders and there was much debate as to whether they could win the league championship for the first time ever. But 9 defeats in their final 10 Premiership fixtures (following a shock FA Cup quarter final defeat by Division Two strugglers Wycombe Wanderers) saw Leicester plummet down the Premiership table to finish 13th.
Taylor was sacked two months after the start of the 2001-02 season with Leicester rooted to the foot of the Premiership but returned to management within two weeks, ironically to take charge at Brighton whose previous manager Micky Adams had become the new assistant manager of Leicester City. Taylor guided Brighton to the Division Two championship (marking their return to the upper half of the English league after an 11-year exile) but resigned from his job because he was frustrated at the club's lack of ambition and financial resources.
In November 2002, Peter Taylor was appointed manager of Hull City who were weeks away from their big move to the 25,000-seat KC Stadium (Kingston Communications Stadium). Taylor was unable to guide Hull to anything higher than a mid table finish (although they drew some of the largest crowds outside the Premiership) but in 2003-04 they achieved promotion as Division Three runners-up. They finished League One runners-up the following season, 2004-05, and will be in the Football League Championship in the 2005-06 season - their first appearance at that level since 1990-91.