Phil Taylor recently announced his retirement from competitive darts and has now outlined an intention to purchase League One football club Port Vale with singer Robbie Williams. The pair are local to the area and could mimic Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s purchase of Welsh team Wrexham.
Taylor is yet to speak with Williams about a plan to purchase Port Vale, but confirmed that he would like to take over his hometown club with one of his close friends – the former Take That frontman. “Me and Robbie are good friends,” Taylor told OLGB. “And his dad is like my second dad, Peter is, and talkSPORT mentioned that Robbie was interested in investing into Port Vale and, if he does would you be interested?
“I said well, yeah I think so, but we’d have to see what it is and how much they want and stuff like that. But I’ve heard nothing from Robbie. So, no I think it’s just a rumour. I haven’t (spoken to Williams about buying Port Vale). I know he was in Australia, so I don’t bother him with the time difference.
“I’ll probably text him when I get home tomorrow morning and I’ll give him a text in the week because I want an update on his dad because his dad’s not very well. He lives in one of my bungalows. So, I’ll just give a little update on his dad, just to keep him informed really.”
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Port Vale are in the bottom half of League One, having dropped outside of the top two divisions in 2004 and are yet to return in the nearly two decades since. But Taylor would have promotion in his sights should he and Williams take over the club, with former boxing and snooker promoter Barry Hearn to be tasked with advising the pair.
“Get them to the Premier League,” Taylor replied when asked about his ambitions at Port Vale. “I don’t know in all seriousness to be honest with you, I haven’t got a clue. I’d probably give Barry Hearn a ring and ask his advice. You know, Barry was my ex-manager and because he owned Leyton Orient, he knows a lot more about running a football club than I do, so I’d ask him for a bit of advice.”
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Wrexham’s new owners Reynolds and McElhenney have taken a very hands-on approach, but Taylor has already insisted that he would not want to be involved in the day-to-day running of the club as chairman.
“No,” he replied when asked about potentially becoming chairman. “That’s the only thing that’s worried me about investing in Port Vale because I live round that area whereas Robbie doesn’t.
“So, if I go to the matches, I’ll be the one that gets all the stick because I’ve had it before you see. ‘You’ve got plenty of money, get your money out and buy us a player!’. Yeah, I will yeah!”
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