Sir Graham Taylor

[remy]

When I first started supporting AVFC, Sir Graham was the Villa manager. He excuded great respect amongst his peers, the fans, the players and the people around him. I saw him many times bellowing infront of me in the lower Trinity at a misplaced pass or a shanked cross. Wish'd that I had actually met him and was gutted when he left us for England. When he came back, I was delighted.

He always had that respect a thoroughly decent man with great affection for the club. I am gutted he has passed. RIP Sir.

[WarszaVillan]

Platt, Yorke and McGrath were brilliant signings. Chose us and took us up and then left for the job he really wanted. Great football man.

Arguably our best 3 players over the last 30 years

And resigned Sid. All four for less than 1m quid. Thanks for everything SGT.

[puppyfeat]

Very very sad news. Villa legend and a true gent. As others have said, the club owes him so much for winning that promotion. I didn't begrudge him taking the England job - how could you after what he did? - but I wished he hadn't as I felt sure we'd have gone on to win the league with him in charge.

As for his second stint, he probably shouldn't have done it, but I think he took it on because of his decency and his love of the club. We were poor that season, but without GT in charge - and credit where it's due, without Gareth Barry - we may well have gone down otherwise.

RIP Sir Graham

[exigo]

Been in meetings all day, and just opened the internet for the first time. What horrible news to find.
Thoughts with his loved ones. He truly epitomised everything we want our club to be.

What a tribute it would be if we could get ourselves promoted again this season.

Holte Ender In The Sky.

[auntiesledd]

'Absolutely gutted to learn of GT's passing. I will always be grateful for his honesty; decency; and for turning us around to bring pride & joy back to VP. My sincerest condolences to his family & many friends in the footy community. Rest Peacefully Sir.

[dave shelley]

Only just heard about this terrible news.  A real JFK moment for me as I can remember exactly where I was when I heard he'd become our manager.  We'd just moved to Ireland and I could only get reception for BBC radio 2 in certain hotspots.  I was driving from A to B when I knew I'd be hitting one just prior to the 2pm news.  I pulled over tuned the radio and listened.  When the sports news announced it you could have heard me cheering back in Brum.  My first trip home after leaving was in November 1989 and the match I got to see...Everton 6-2!

Our club has been built on many foundation stones and Graham Taylor deserves his recognition as one as much as anyone else.

RIP Graham Taylor, you will be remembered long and fondly.  Thank you.

[dicedlam]

A genuine legend in every sense of the word.

Rest in peace Sir Graham Taylor.

[Godfrey Brian]

It's striking the number of individual acts of kindness and recognition that are recorded here.   He was a warm courteous and funny man with a intelligence the press often overlooked.He was also never afraid to take responsibility -one of the bravest things I've seen at Villa Park was him taking the microphone at the end of his second spell  and trying to talk to the supporters about a poor season. Thank you Sir Graham you will always be one of our Villa family.

[Broughty-Villian]

Saddened by the news. A real Villa Legend. 

[PeterWithe]

I've told this before but....

We had a bad start to the last relegation season (87?) and hadn't had a win as we travelled to Leicester, we got off the train at around midday and, in those dark days, the Old Bill didn't fancy a load of Villa fans in Leicester City centre and promptly frog marched us to the ground about two and half hours early. We sat down bored and a few Villa players eventually appeared and started to warm up, after a bit SGT popped his head out and was about to go back inside when the 50 or so of us sang 'One Graham Taylor' to him, he looked round and promptly jogged over, hurdled over the hoardings and sat down amongst us for a chat. He was an absolute gent and had a laugh and a joke for 10 mins before concluding with 'right lads, you all behave yourselves today and get behind us, anyone got any final questions?'

'Yeah Graham, when are we going to fucking win?' came an enquiry.

'Today lads, today'

And we did, and kept on winning.

God bless him.

[Jimbo]

I've told this before but....

We had a bad start to the last relegation season (87?) and hadn't had a win as we travelled to Leicester, we got off the train at around midday and, in those dark days, the Old Bill didn't fancy a load of Villa fans in Leicester City centre and promptly frog marched us to the ground about two and half hours early. We sat down bored and a few Villa players eventually appeared and started to warm up, after a bit SGT popped his head out and was about to go back inside when the 50 or so of us sang 'One Graham Taylor' to him, he looked round and promptly jogged over, hurdled over the hoardings and sat down amongst us for a chat. He was an absolute gent and had a laugh and a joke for 10 mins before concluding with 'right lads, you all behave yourselves today and get behind us, anyone got any final questions?'

'Yeah Graham, when are we going to fucking win?' came an enquiry.

'Today lads, today'

And we did, and kept on winning.

God bless him.

Great stuff, pw.

[Jon Crofts]

My Dad just rang me to see if I'd heard the news and he reminded me of this story of great kindness and humility from SGT.

Ian, a friend had cystic fibrosis which meant although he was an avid Villa fan his condition wouldn't allow him to get to a game.  My Dad wrote to Villa, Steve Stride if he remembers rightly, to see if Ian could get along to Bodymoor Heath one day for a bit of a behind the scenes visit. Ian had several complications with his CF and wasn't expected to live into his 30s.

Graham Taylor replied personally to my old man (I'm now hoping somewhere at their home he's kept that letter, I did ask him!) promising to fulfil Ian's dream of meeting some players and watching them play & train.  Well, I can't even begin to describe what SGT ended up doing with Ian.  I know he spent the day at BH and was put up at The Belfry by Villa for a couple of nights with his family.  They were picked up on the Saturday and travelled with the team on a Flights coach to an away game, memory is failing, can't remember which one but we think it was Middlesborough.  Ian sat next to SGT all the way there and back, I've seen some old Polaroids of him playing cards with some of the players.  This meant Ian was away from his family for about 24 hours, CF sufferers need to be massaged and helped with dealing with the mucus build up in the respiratory tract & lungs.  Ian's Mum usually helped with this but SGT said if she showed him how to do it he'd make sure him and the physios dealt with it, she can have the day off.

Ian died about 6 months after that amazing experience.

SGT came to Ian's funeral, no mean feat considering it was in Surrey.  On Ian's coffin was a picture of him laughing and smiling with SGT.

[AV82EC]

RIP Sir Graham Taylor. I started supporting Villa in September 1990 just after he'd left but I would like to thank him for the playing staff he left who I enjoyed immensely for my first few seasons. He was a proper football man and a true gentleman.

[sid1964]

Such sad news

I remember the TV interview on his 1st day in the job, and he described the place as a shambles

A fantastic man, we owe him so much

RIP Graham

[PaulTheVillan]

Gutted