I heard that Graham Taylor had died through one of those Sky Sports alerts on my phone – I don’t normally read them as rule.
They usually contain some rubbish about the transfer market, suspensions or some other over-hyped football pap, but this time it was different.
I thought Taylor was still about 50 odd or 60ish. Total nonsense of course.
The passage of time gets to us all in the end. It just goes to show how long it has been since I had thought about him – eventually, age phases us all into the background.
Taylor partook in a bit of punditry and, relatively recently, the management of the celebrity team on a television program called “The Match.” A total waste of time format featuring third-rate celebrities – Big Brother rejects and all who had been rounded up to play pretend competitive football for charity in a manner commensurate to their third-rate status.
I was never entirely sure why Taylor was there. It certainly wasn’t for the money. Aside from it being a safe assumption that it was a freebie for charity, I am absolutely certain that he did it for the fun of it.
A chance to relive the old days, while ultimately doing his bit for charity as befits a profoundly decent man.
The reports suggest a suspected heart-attack. Age 72. Not old and not young.
I will sleep with one eye open tonight or maybe not at all. I am decades behind him but it reminds you of just how fleeting everything is. Awake at breakfast and gone by lunchtime. Horrifying.
Taylor was, and is, rightly revered at Watford. He took them up four divisions through the Football League, to an FA Cup Final and a second place finish in the top flight.
Wonderful glory days with Elton John back in the 70s and 80s, Taylor returned to Vicarage Road at the end of the 90s and partially rekindled the glory by earning the club a promotion to the Premier League.
With his death, Watford would rightly be talking about naming a stand after him. But, they did that already back in 2014. The absolute measure of the man, that he received this honour in his lifetime and among his people.
Graham Taylor also achieved some great things at Aston Villa.
He took them from promotion to runners-up in the old Division One in the space of a couple of years. He made a later return to Villa Park, as well, and ended his managerial career there.
He appeared fond of retreading old steps. Going back to the tried and tested and warming his hands on the old goodwill. The cynics among us would say that it was indicative of a limited, small-minded or unambitious mentality.
But, these people will never get it. It was all about loyalty. He never betrayed them so they never betrayed him. Everyone understood one another and worked to the common goal. The antithesis of the prevailing football culture of transience, insincerity and false camaraderie.
He never betrayed England either. If anything, it was the other way around.
What with all the sneering and braying insults that were volleyed at him. He was the standout candidate for the role and most people’s top pick to replace Bobby Robson. A man ultimately revered as “Sir Bobby” but himself the subject of so many cheap insults.
It didn’t work out for Taylor. The script is well documented and doesn’t need revisiting here. A poor Euro ’92, although slightly better though than Robson’s in ’88, a non-qualification for the ’94 World Cup, Ronald Koeman, a German referee and red card that never was.
Let’s not go back there. The game was in Rotterdam but let’s leave it deep in the past among the rubble of the old Wembley.
He had fairly average players to work with and an unfortunate run of injuries. Some very forgettable players like Carlton Palmer. Taylor always seemed to like him. He probably saw him as a limited but honourable player – we saw something else.
There’s a fair chance that he regretted all those touchline shenanigans as the end game played out. But, it was just kids stuff compared to today’s antics.
The press used it to continue their unrestrained vilification – calling him “Taylor the Turnip” and all. Juvenile cobblers written and read by idiots. People beyond shame who have moved on and distanced themselves to take aim at fresh targets.
When all is said and done, Taylor cared and showed that he cared in word, action and deed. It is this that is at the centre of everything.
It wasn’t about the money or the personal glory or pride – although his own perceived failure to do himself justice probably hurt. It was simply that he wanted England to do well as a proud Englishman.
Contrast that with some of what followed.
Taylor did his best and never less than that. This is all that any of us have to give – and for that alone we should remember him.
There will, in all likelihood, be a round of tributes and silences at English Football grounds this weekend. This is Football’s chance to prove that it has grown up from Turnip jibes and a chance for non-Watford and Aston Villa fans to say to Graham Taylor – “thanks for trying.”
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