Graham Taylor

[dave.woodhall]

Was there once a quote from him about the then players thinking they could turn up, and eat Fish and Chips, and then play on a Saturday....

I think he said something about them eating fish and chips on the coach home.

[Malandro]

Funny really, Taylor was let down by his England players in much the same way as Villa are at the moment.

[martin o`who??]

God we need someone like him now, I will always have a mountain of respect for Sir Graham and will never forgive that twat of a ref who fucked him/us over in the Holland "do I not like that" game. - yet another example of the war footballing officialdom seems to have waged against England over the years.

[john e]

I love Taylor, but the England job was to big for him same as it has been for every England manager we have had over the last 40 years
you can blame who you like, players, press, the FA, Thatcher, Bono, but the job has made of mugs of them all

[robbo1874]

I don't think it was too big for Bobby Robson. Sven had early promise too, but his social life probably contributed to his downfall. The rest of them that I've seen from Greenwood onwards, I agree it was too big for them. Taylor was a great club manager, but not cut out for international football, clearly. If cloughie had got the job when he was being touted for it, I reckon he would have won something.

[SheffieldVillain]

I don't think it was too big for Bobby Robson. Sven had early promise too, but his social life probably contributed to his downfall. The rest of them that I've seen from Greenwood onwards, I agree it was too big for them. Taylor was a great club manager, but not cut out for international football, clearly. If cloughie had got the job when he was being touted for it, I reckon he would have won something.

Agree with Sir Bobby. I'd also add Venables to that. If he hadn't left because of off-field issues I think he'd have taken us forward from that brilliant Euro 96 tournament.

[fredm]

It is an entirely different ball game being the England manager against being a club manager.  For England it is a case of selecting who you want and then on the few training sessions you have, trying to coach them into the system you want them to play/how best to negate the opposition.  With a club you have all the background stuff like buying/selling; players coming to end of contracts etc.

[pbavfckuwait]

Great manager for Watford and Villa, but the one thing I had against him and it happened after he had gone, I remember him being a commentator on a Villa game towards the end of the season, we were doing reasonably well, sure we were there or there abouts for the title, but for the life of me can not remember the manager, but his words were along the lines of it was ours for the taking and we bottled it, he obviously forget how we bottled it under him, was it against Oldham at home??

[castlefields_villan]

2 monumental defeats in that 1989-90 season (when we were going for the double) were losing 3-0 at home to Wimbledon - when a win would've put us 5 points clear at the top - I felt we never properly recovered after that in the league that year - and also a 3-0 FA Cup 6th Round defeat on Oldham's plastic pitch.

[saunders_heroes]

Great manager for Watford and Villa, but the one thing I had against him and it happened after he had gone, I remember him being a commentator on a Villa game towards the end of the season, we were doing reasonably well, sure we were there or there abouts for the title, but for the life of me can not remember the manager, but his words were along the lines of it was ours for the taking and we bottled it, he obviously forget how we bottled it under him, was it against Oldham at home??

He was criticised the season after he left when he was co commentating at the away leg of the Inter Milan game where we lost 3-0. He laid into the team and criticised the defending and said he would "kick their backsides" for defending so deep.

[pbavfckuwait]

As Gary Neville is finding out, alot easier sat in that chair in the studio than in the dug out.

[peter w]

Great manager for Watford and Villa, but the one thing I had against him and it happened after he had gone, I remember him being a commentator on a Villa game towards the end of the season, we were doing reasonably well, sure we were there or there abouts for the title, but for the life of me can not remember the manager, but his words were along the lines of it was ours for the taking and we bottled it, he obviously forget how we bottled it under him, was it against Oldham at home??

He spoke as a fan not a neutral pundit/co-commentator. That should endear him more to us, not less.

[pbavfckuwait]

If he is co-commentator he is there in a professional capacity and as stated found it easy to slag off who ever was the manager at the time, but forget his own failings the season he was in the same position, sure it was Oldham at home and Tony Casc had not long signed if memory serves.
PW great manager and has the good of the club central most of the time, but as for Gary Neville those studios are alot easier than the dug out.

[dave.woodhall]

If he is co-commentator he is there in a professional capacity and as stated found it easy to slag off who ever was the manager at the time, but forget his own failings the season he was in the same position, sure it was Oldham at home and Tony Casc had not long signed if memory serves.
PW great manager and has the good of the club central most of the time, but as for Gary Neville those studios are alot easier than the dug out.

It wasn't Oldham. They were in division two at the time.

[Chico Hamilton III]

It's funny, but I always think that Taylor goes out of his way not to be critical of managers when he is punditing ( is that a word?). It's like he has an empathy with managers and doesn't want to add to their stress levels. Although he did criticise us a bit when we played Inter under Venglos. Forget what he said now, but he had a bit of a go at our formation

edit, just read SH's post about this