Gordon Taylor: 'I feel that it's like climbing Mount Everest'

The PFA chief executive has had plenty of lows and the occasional high during a tumultuous season
QPR's Joey Barton
The actions of QPR's Joey Barton, says Gordon Taylor, make it feel like climbing Everest. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

Gordon Taylor's tenure as the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association spans four decades but it is no surprise to hear him talking about the last year as one of the most challenging. Two high-profile racism cases, Carlos Tevez's antics, the tragic loss of Gary Speed and Fabrice Muamba's cardiac arrest leave Taylor with plenty to ponder, and that is before we get to Joey Barton.

It is tempting to think Barton alone could keep Taylor's in-tray full. The 12-match ban handed out by the Football Association leaves Taylor back on familiar ground with his most volatile member. "I feel that it's like climbing Everest," Taylor says in relation to Barton. "We've nearly got to the top and then you slip down again. You've got to gather yourself together, hope the weather stays perfect and off you go again."

Taylor mentions several times that he often gets accused of defending the indefensible, although nobody could level that criticism at him when it comes to how he has responded to Barton's behaviour. He will, as ever, be at the end of the phone offering support when it inevitably rings, but Barton, as another player with a magnetic attraction to controversy discovered in the past, cannot expect his union leader's backing to be unconditional.

"At Wimbledon at times I would represent Vinnie Jones, and I would sometimes go public with Vinnie and say that what he did was wrong. He did all sorts, and he would say: 'Yeah, but we're your members, you have to support us.' I said, 'Nobody is going to listen to me if no matter whether you're right or wrong, I say you're right.' How can anybody respect the PFA if we plainly see something that's bad for the image of the game and not appreciate that it is wrong."

It is put to Taylor that Tevez's conduct in Bayern Munich must have been hard to defend, although he argues there is a key difference between refusing to play and refusing to warm up, which is why he says he called for the four-week fine initially imposed by Manchester City to be reduced.

"I made my inquiries," Taylor says. "I don't mess about. I spoke to as many City players as I could on exactly what happened and not one ever said to me that he refused to play."

Did he not feel let down when Tevez flew back to Argentina? "Yeah, I did. But it didn't mean to say I fell out with him. It's like having a family, that's what I say to Joey Barton. I say, 'Joey, I'm not just a fair-weather friend and I don't pander to the media but sometimes I have to say it as it is.' And while I was prepared to defend Tevez, like I was with Kolo Touré, which I felt was a problem that shouldn't have happened with a genuine lad [he failed a drug test in March 2011 after taking one of his wife's slimming tablets], once Carlos had gone out there, I was upset because it wasn't doing him any good."

As it turned out, Tevez's case was nothing compared to the two race storms in October. Luis Suárez was subsequently found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra while John Terry will appear at Westminster magistrates' court on 9 July after he was charged with a "racially aggravated public order offence" following an altercation with QPR's Anton Ferdinand at Loftus Road. Terry denies the charge.

"To some extent, there was a feeling that on the field of play [racism] just wouldn't be an issue," says Taylor. "Now it has arisen it causes even more concern because of the backlash that there has been. Will it deter any of our black players from making complaints because there is such intimidation with social networks? It will certainly make them think twice.

"But we've got to have enough confidence in the system that it just needs players to stand up and be counted. Then it's up to the whole of the football world to support them.

"When any compliant is made against any player or a club, there seems to be a circling of the wagons – the rest of the world is wrong and they're right and it becomes a them and us situation. That is part of the complexity of a team and a manager needing his players to be loyal and to motivate them and to make them feel that, no matter what, they'll always support them. But sometimes the issues of right and wrong get clouded then.

"The same from our point of view. The Joey Barton situation is a good example. We feel we've encouraged him to have treatment and counselling with regard to anger management, and then something happens and people say, 'Are you going to support him?' I just felt what happened at City, in such a big game, was a backward step."

Taylor frowns as he recalls how Speed's sudden death left everyone at the PFA feeling "totally depressed and upset" before smiling at the memory of Muamba's miraculous recovery. "That was a real feeling of quiet satisfaction that a lot of things that we had helped to put into place with the co-operation of the clubs helped to save his life," he says. "So things like that more than compensate for the time when you've got your tin hat on and are getting battered."

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