Tuesday 10 August 2010

Graham Taylor Returns Home

He's not coming back to run Watford Football Club - to quote his own words - but Graham Taylor has committed his future to the Hornets in accepting a permanent appointment as chairman at Vicarage Road.

"I didn't expect to be chairman of Watford and I wasn't looking for that when I was asked to join the Board in January 2009," Graham explained yesterday.

"But everyone knows how much this club has meant to me and my whole family over many, many years."


Graham Taylor has previously reiterated the number of other commitments he has, and that he hasn't retired full stop - that decision only related to football management.

"I wanted to give myself time do a number of other things; some football-related, some not. So when I was originally asked to stay on in an interim basis it wasn't an easy decision, primarily because of everything else I was doing."

Graham has also made it clear he's not going to be what fans would regard as a full-time chairman.

"My role is as a non-executive chairman. I have great confidence in the executive staff we have here.

"So I want the people employed by Watford to be able to make their own decisions within the clear framework that the Board have already created."

This point emphasises GT's desire to help bring continued stability at Vicarage Road. Although this stability, he points out, can be interpreted as a lack of ambition.

"If people are thinking that way, then they don't know me very well. It is possible to, for example, get promoted again. But it is also true to say that the very future of this club has been at stake, because we were very close to going into administration.

"Watford has a great reputation of being a community, family club - and also of being successful. It's vital the club maintains the reputation it has. I believe it belongs to the people of Watford and I don't want that to change."

The word stability can suggest that there isn't necessarily progression, but the chairman doesn't see it that way.

"It's not a lack of ambition, it's about recognising who we are and what we are in the present-day circumstances.

"Things are as good as they can be right now - and yes, I do want to play my part in helping to move things forward.

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see everything right, like the stadium. It is extremely disappointing to look across from the Rous Stand towards the east side of the ground.

"We're a town of about 90,000 people with a catchment area of nearer half a million. But we share that area with some far bigger clubs.

"There's nothing to stop ambition, nothing to stop us wanting to succeed again. But don't forget we had to be rescued not so long ago, so if it means we have to work one step at a time, then so be it."



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