Gillingham FC fans will always thank Tony Pulis for £500k Brentford deal - Man City made him Gills record-breaker | OneFootball

Gillingham spent a club-record fee on Robert Taylor in 1998, and trebled their investment in just over a year.

When Gillingham splashed out a club-record half a million pounds on Robert Taylor in 1998, they were taking a bit of a gamble. But it paid off for them in spades.

For lower division clubs, the decision to spend money on a player is always something of a gamble. But when Gillingham missed out on a Division Two - now League One - play-off place on goals scored in 1998 after having only scored 52 in 46 matches, the decision was made to push the boat out on a new forward.

Robert Taylor was already a well-established face in the Football League of the time.

He started his career with Norwich City but failed to break through, and after another unsuccessful move to Birmingham City, finally got his chance at Leyton Orient before moving to Brentford in 1994. Over four years at Griffin Park, he made over 200 appearances for the Bees.

Robert Taylor won the Gills over after a slow start

But the Gills' manager of the time, Tony Pulis, knew what he was doing. Taylor was experienced and well-loved at Brentford. He was worth spending a club-record £500,000 to entice the forward to Priestfield.

But to say that Taylor had a slow start at Priestfield would be something of an understatement. He was later described as “unfit, overweight and clearly lacking match fitness” and a player who “struggled to overcome his detractors who clearly thought he was overpriced!”, but he did start to turn fans around as the team moved towards the top of the table.

His defining performance for them came at the end of February 1999, away to Burnley, when Gillingham won 5-0 and Taylor scored all five by the time 48 minutes had been played, including four goals in the first half; it was a record away League win for the Gills. Having finished fourth at the end of the season, the Gills were dramatically beaten on penalty kicks by Manchester City at Wembley in the play-off final at Wembley after Taylor had scored their second goal in a 2-2 draw.

The following season, Gillingham went one better on all accounts, finishing third in the table and then winning the play-offs, but by this time Taylor had left the club, with Pulis having left the club to be replaced by Peter Taylor. A £1.5 million offer was received for him from Manchester City which was accepted by the club, trebling their original £500,000 investment.

Gillingham trebled their record-breaking investment on Taylor

Taylor only made twelve appearances for Manchester City, but they were significant. He scored five goals and City ended the 1999-2000 season by getting promoted back to the Premier League. But with his game-time options limited, that summer he was off again, this time to Wolves.

But injuries prevented him from making an impact at Molineux, and Taylor only scored one more League goal over the last three years of his League career before dropping back into the non-league game, including an 11-game loan spell back at Priestfield during the 2001-02 season.

Over the course of less than a year and a half with the club, Robert Taylor certainly left his mark on Gillingham. He was their Player of the Year for the 1998-99 season, and scored a total of 31 League goals in 58 games for them. And then, when they sold him on, it was for £1.5 million pounds, trebling their money with a record transfer fee which still remains a record for the club, more than a quarter of a century on. Not a bad bit of business, all things considered.