Steve Cotterill was driving factor in Bristol City defender’s move to Shrewsbury

Taylor Moore has revealed the part that Steve Cotterill played in his move from Bristol City to Shrewsbury Town.

Moore has joined the Shrews on a season-long loan which will see out the remainder of his contract at City.

The centre-back has one year remaining on his deal and his time will now be spent away from the club he had hoped to break into.

He has dropped down a division to League One and has become the sixth signing of the summer at The New Meadow.

Asked by the Shropshire Star on why Moore made the move to the Shropshire outfit, he said: “The manager – definitely the manager – and the ambition the club is showing with the signings that they’ve made over the past few weeks just shows the direction that the club wants to go but yeah, it was definitely the manager.

“Steve Cotterill is someone that I know from Bristol, I’ve met him a lot over the years so I know that the move was something that he’s eyed up and that he’s wanted to get done as quickly as possible but I’m obviously still contracted to Bristol City so it wasn’t as straight-forward.

"I definitely took my time and wanted to make sure I made the right decision but the more time I had, the more I realised that when you’ve got a really good manager like Steve Cotterill and a club that’s showing a lot of ambition and really want you, you’ve got to go.”

Moore joined Bristol City back in the summer of 2016 which was six months after Cotterill was given the axe after a poor run of results, later being replaced by Lee Johnson.

He joined for a fee rumoured to be around £1.5m but had to wait his time to break through with loans at Bury, Cheltenham Town and Southend.

Moore was eventually given his chance in the 2019/20 season and played 21 times and was also played regularly by Dean Holden when he replaced Johnson.

Not fancied by Nigel Pearson when he began his first full season, he spent most of the 2021/22 campaign on loan at Hearts, but they passed up on the opportunity to re-sign him and now he will look forward to another season back in England.

Whilst there paths didn’t directly cross Cotterill however has remained in and around Bristol despite going on to manage Birmingham City and Shrewsbury since.

The 57-year-old has often called upon the club that he led to a League One and EFL Trophy double for some of their younger players.

Last season, he took young forward Saikou Janneh on loan and he ended up getting a move to Cambridge United.

Moore will also get to reunite with George Nurse, who he could find himself playing alongside in Shrewsbury’s defensive back line.

Nurse failed to make a senior appearance at City in the three seasons he was contracted to the club as a senior player, but has made a big breakthrough at the New Meadow.

The 23-year-old, who City recouped a fee from last year, played 45 times in League One for Shrewsbury, getting six assists.