I can't remotely lay claim to "knowing" Martin Taylor. But I do know it was hard to spot a malicious bone in his body; rather he seemed a thoroughly decent lad and a more than half-decent footballer to boot.

Not someone that deserves the kind of death threats reportedly coming out of Croatia this week following that challenge on the luckless Eduardo.

The whole experience has, said his Blues boss Alex McLeish, left the long-time Norwich transfer target "mentally shattered by the whole experience".

"He has had personal phone calls and there have been emails to the club," McLeish said this week.

"As for death threats, I've heard about them. You are going to ridiculous proportions if that is the case and you've just got to get on with it and dismiss those things. There are some crazy people in the world."

Irrespective of that, as one of the more thoughtful footballers, Taylor will wince at the memory for years to come. It might even dull the defensive edge to his game and make him a lesser player for it.

And yet it could have all been so different. Had Gary Cahill opted to just swap one side of Birmingham for another and not gone to Bolton, Taylor could have been a Norwich player and he would have never run into Eduardo on Saturday.

But it is here that fate takes an even more curious turn. For had Taylor come, would Roeder have taken Alex Pearce out of Reading on loan? Particularly when he had already agreed to give Middlesbrough's Matthew Bates a spot of intensive rehab?

Possibly not. And one of the potential key components of an on-going push for the play-offs might still be knocking around in Reading ressies.

Football managers make much of that "fine line" that separates them from one extra win here, a crucial defeat there.

But in football, as in life, that fine line works in many a direction – with many an unforeseen consequence.

And as Martin Taylor looks to rebuild his reputation and Eduardo looks to rebuild his shattered limb and career, so two little words may well be firmly lodged in Taylor's mind.

'If only...'

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