Graham Taylor - Newstalk Pundit

Graham Taylor OBE

Graham Taylor OBE is probably best known for managing Watford Football Club when Sir Elton John was the Chairman at time the club went from the Fourth Division to the First in the space of five years. His other high profile role was as England manager. 

Born in Worksop Graham Taylor grew up in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, a place he still regards as his hometown. The son of a sports journalist with The Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, Graham found his love of football in the stands of the "Old Show Ground" watching Scunthorpe United, a team he still supports and is often seen at home matches. 

The style of football his teams played was often criticised by purists as being focused on the 'long ball' style of getting the ball quickly to physically powerful forwards, although unlike many long ball advocates, Taylor also liked to play with skilful wingers, who could beat defenders, hit the by-line and produce dangerous crosses into the opposition's penalty area. 

John Barnes was perhaps the archetypal Taylor player although viewed as being aesthetically unattractive by the often losing opposition, Taylor's style proved incredibly successful, even if less so when applied to international football. 

His last managerial role was manager of Aston Villa, which he left at the end of the 2002-03 season and Taylor now works as a pundit for BBC Radio Five Live and is chairman of Watford F.C.. 

In early 1965 Graham Taylor married Rita Cowling and had two daughters, Joanne and Karen. 

Managerial career 

Graham Taylor is the only manager to have twice led teams that amassed over 70 points in one Football League season under the League's original scoring system of two points for a win and one point for a draw. He achieved this with Lincoln City (74 points - 1976) and Watford (71 points - 1978). 

Lincoln City (1972–1977) 

Taylor was the youngest person to become a FA coach, at the age of 27 and became manager of Lincoln City, being the youngest manager in the league at the age of 28 in December 1972. Taylor led Lincoln to the Fourth Division title in 1976, during which the Imps set the league records for most wins (32), fewest defeats (4), and most points (74) (when 2 points were awarded for a win). 

Watford (1977–1987) 

In 1977, as a 32-year-old Taylor was hired to manage Watford by new owner Elton John having turned down an approach from First Division West Bromwich Albion in favour of a Fourth Division club, which caused a major surprise among many observers. Taylor led Watford from the Fourth Division to the First Division in only five years. 

Taylor also led Watford to the 1984 FA Cup Final, which they lost to Everton 2-0. 

Aston Villa (1987–1990) 

In June 1987, Taylor left Watford for a new challenge at Aston Villa, who had just been relegated from the First Division. It was a setback for the Midlanders, who had won the European Cup just five years earlier and had been league champions six years earlier. 

Taylor managed Villa back to the top flight with his first attempt, securing their safety in 1988-89 with a win on the final day of the league season. During his third season at the club Villa finished runners-up in the first division. 

England (1990–1993) 

At the 1992 European Championship Taylor took the highest managerial job in English Football without ever having won a major trophy - even though he had taken teams to second place in the league twice and an FA Cup final once. 

Despite some unease at his appointment, England lost just once in Taylor's first 23 matches (a 0-1 defeat to Germany at Wembley Stadium in September 1991). 

England struggled to qualify for Euro '92 and once in Sweden draws to face France and Denmark England needed a victory over Sweden to advance to the Semi-Finals. Howveer Taylor's poor relationship with striker Gary Linker was hurting team morale. 

In the last game of the tournament, a 2-1 defeat to the hosts, Sweden, Taylor substituted Lineker in what was to become his final game for England preventing him from possibly equalling Bobby Charlton's record of 49 goals for England. 

This led to media vilification of Taylor, including the "turnip" campaign by The Sun, which began the morning after the game under the headline: "Swedes 2 Turnips 1". During that campaign the back page featured an image of Taylor's face superimposed onto a turnip. 

In the 1994 World Cup campaign Taylor's relationship with the press was partially restored when he admitted his mistakes a few weeks after the finals. Honesty did not spare him a roasting from the press when England played a four-team Tournament in the U.S (United States Cup), which began with a 2-0 defeat in Boston to the USA and was reported by the tabloid press in Britain as "YANKS 2 PLANKS 0!". 

When the 1993-94 season began with a much improved performance and a 3-0 win over Poland it raised the nation's hopes going into what was now the crucial match against the Dutch in Rotterdam. The game was played at a furious pace and late in the second half with the game locked at 0-0 David Platt was fouled by Ronald Koeman as he raced in on goal. 

The German referee failed to sending the Dutchman off for a professional foul and just minutes later Koeman took a free kick outside England's penalty which was scored at the second attempt. With Dennis Bergkamp scoring just moments later the score was 2-0. 

Although England still had a chance to qualify if they failed to get a big score against part-timers, San Marino, and Taylor was to suffer the ultimate humiliation as after just 8.3 seconds of play they were a goal down. England took another twenty minutes to find an equaliser and eventually won 7-1, but the Dutch had won in Poland and England had failed to qualify. 

Taylor resigned on 24 November 1993. 

Wolverhampton Wanderers (1994–1995) 

Sir Jack Hayward appointed Taylor as manager of Wolves in March 1994, replacing Graham Turner even though he had been an unpopular figure in English football since his unsuccessful reign as national coach. 

But he took the Midlands club to fourth in Division One to qualify for the playoffs - their highest league finish since their last top division season 11 years earlier - where they lost out to Bolton Wanderers. They also reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup after a memorable replay penalty shootout victory over Sheffield Wednesday. 

After a poor start to the following campaign, winning just 4 from the 16 opening league games, he resigned in November 1995 due to supporter pressure. 

Watford (1996–2001) 

In February 1996 Elton John, who had recently bought Watford for a second time, appointed Taylor as General Manager at Vicarage Road and just over a year later he had appointed himself as the club's manager succeeding Kenny Jackett, who was relegated to a coaching capacity at the club. He won the Division Two championship at his first attempt. 

The following season Taylor won the Division One Play-off Final, beating Bolton Wanderers 2-0 at Wembley, and with it promotion to the Premier league, although Watford were relegated after one season. During this final season Taylor had become only the third manager to manage 1,000 league games in England, after Brian Clough and Jim Smith. 

Aston Villa (2002–2003) 

Taylor came out of retirement in February 2002 to return to his old job at Aston Villa, but retired for a second time after Villa finished the 2002–03 season in 16th place in the Premiership. 

He subsequently cited tensions in his relationship with the club's chairman Doug Ellis and argued for an overhaul of the club's upper management to allow the club to be more competitive. 

Post managerial career 

In 2003, Taylor became vice-president at League One club Scunthorpe United, his hometown club. Since 2004, he has worked as a pundit on BBC Radio Five Live, and has managed a team of celebrities for Sky One's annual series, The Match. 

His time at Scunthorpe has seen a turnaround in the club's fortunes. In his first season on the board, they narrowly avoided relegation to the Conference. The following season, they were promoted to League One. Two years after that, they were promoted to the Football League Championship as League One champions. 

Taylor returned to Watford on 23rd January 2009, being appointed to the new board as a non-executive director and was appointed interim chairman on 16 December 2009 

In Ireland Taylor is a regular Pundit for Newstalk.