Former Newcastle United defender achieves managerial feat with 'unique' squad

Taylor – who played 268 games for his Newcastle United, his boyhood club – has led Gulf United to promotion from the United Arab Emirates Second Division League.

The 37-year-old – who hung up his boots in 2021 after a second spell with A-League club Wellington Phoenix – had guided the Dubai club, which aims to give young footballers a start in the professional game, to the Third Division title a year ago.

Head coach Taylor said: “100% of the credit deserves to go to the players. Across the two seasons, they’ve been phenomenal.

"The success we’ve had is no accident, the boys work extremely hard day in, and day out, sometimes in blistering hot conditions, but there are never any excuses.”

Old Bhoy

Ex-Celtic striker Gary Hooper – who played alongside Taylor in New Zealand – leads the line for Gulf United.

“When you have a group of players who are willing to give everything it takes, it’s quite refreshing,” said Taylor. “Sometimes in the modern game, young players can get distracted before they’ve played a minute of first-team football. For us, we’re trying to give these players a platform to go and show the world what they do – and they can’t take the opportunity for granted.

“We’ve gone toe-to-toe in friendlies with Sharjah, Al Ain and Al Jazira, and proved that clubs like ours have a place in the league system.

“Of our 27-man squad, 22 players are aged 25 or younger, 21 of our players resided in Dubai before joining us, and our players represent 14 different nationalities. A unique squad.

“We look forward to going up to the UAE First Division – and we’re excited. When we went up from the Third Division, people told us we’d struggle in the Second Division, and we won it. We’ll go up and give it our best go, that’s for sure.”

Howe’s ‘plan’

Meanwhile, Eddie Howe will take his Newcastle squad to Dubai for a training camp next week.

United’s head coach said last week: "We'll have quite a few players away (on international duty), so we'll have quite a small group, but that is the plan."

Newcastle played a series of training games against a Gulf United team in Dubai last year.