Ex-England boss who helped Beckham become a superstar takes 17th job as manager

Just a fortnight before he turns 70, former England caretaker Peter Taylor slipped into the cockpit for his 17th job in club management.

The man who handed David Beckham the Three Lions captain's armband, in between Kevin Keegan and Sven-Goran Eriksson's reigns 22 years ago, has taken over at lowly Maldon and Tiptree in the Isthmian League North.

Give or take a billion quid and 179 places on English football's ladder, Taylor insists there are few differences between Manchester City at the Premier League summit and his new beat in Essex hinterlands. It's still the same game, except the Jammers won't be cursing VAR every week and you won't find Salt Bae sprinkling his seasoning in the clubhouse at the 2,800-capacity Wallace Binder Ground.

"Once the game is in your blood, you can't just flush it out," said Taylor, who won his first promotion as a player with Southend 50 years ago. "Apart from a new knee, I've been pretty lucky to stay fit and stay connected.

"I would be telling a lie if I said that I'd turn down the Tottenham Hotspur job if they called me, but something like that is not going to happen. I'm not big enough to say I'm not going to work at a lower level, so when Maldon & Tiptree got in touch and asked if I was up for it, I didn't hesitate.

"There is potential to help some good young players to develop, and push them towards careers in the League, which is right up my street.

"I was enjoying scouting for Northampton, but the chance of going back on the training pitch again, and getting the boots on two or three days a week, appealed to me. I've got four grandkids who keep me occupied and this suits my lifestyle."

Like every Englishman, Taylor is still trying to compute the colossal sadness of that World Cup quarter-final defeat by France.

He remains optimistic about the national team's long-term outlook but, after being at the sharp end of a shoot-out heartbreak with England 24 years ago, he can scarcely believe their latest grief from the penalty spot.

"Normally I'm not a fan of the same player taking two penalties in the same game," said Taylor. "But in Harry Kane's case, if England had been awarded 10 penalties against France, I would have asked him to take all 10.

"If that penalty goes in, I would have fancied us to beat the French - and to go on and win the World Cup.

"Afterwards I just felt sad for the players, in the same way everyone was distraught in St Etienne after the penalty shoot-out against Argentina in 1998.

"I was part of Glenn Hoddle's coaching staff that night and then, as in Qatar, I believe England were one of the best teams in the tournament, and fate wasn't kind to us.

"But I'm not in the glass-half-empty camp after the World Cup. I'm pretty positive about the future because we are producing so many good young players and this squad has not peaked yet.

"In international football, you need a core of 26 and 27-year-olds who are at their best, and over the next couple of tournaments we'll have a squad with a nucleus in their prime."

Taylor's interregnum as England manager may have lasted only one game, a 1-0 defeat against Italy in Turin, but his decision to invest in youth by making Beckham captain was prescient.

He said: "I'm delighted that one worked out but, hand on heart, I'm not surprised. When David puts his mind to something, he always does it seriously.

"He didn't just want the captaincy so he could wear an armband - he took it on like a head of state. That's why he was such a fantastic set-piece specialist. He spent hours and hours practising dead balls on the training ground.

"Whatever he achieved, he worked hard for it."

Including his stints as England Under-21 coach, 18 months in Bahrain and a stopover with Kerala Blasters in India's Super League, Taylor's first game in charge of Maldon and Tiptree - at Heybridge Swifts, managed by his old Southend midfielder Steve Tilson - will be his 850th as a manager.

He has won four promotions, two of them at Hull City, saying: "They were 18th in League Two when I walked through the door, a massive club not achieving as much as they should, and I still get a bit teary-eyed about the good times up there. And as a player, it's hard to look beyond playing for your country as a Third Division player.

"I didn't play particularly well, but the gap between the third tier and England was massive. These days you are drafted into the Under-21s, who are set up to play the same way, and the transition is easier.

"Maldon & Tiptree is a different level, but it's still the game I love."