Sir Graham Taylor

[The Man With A Stick]

I know its not about Villa, its Watford but theirs a fantastic podcast out called Enjoy the Game, its Watfords rise under Sir Graham, its fantastic, what a amazing human being he was.

There's a decent new book out too about the same subject called Watford Forever, read it last month and it's well worth a look if you're a fan of SGT.

[go on the dog]

Thank You

[Risso]

Martin Keown was being interviewed on R5 by Adrian Chiles (the real one, not our beloved lookalike Paddy) earlier today, and he had some nice words about Sir Graham. Nothing ground-breaking, but said that when Graham walked in to Villa, he announced that he was a winner, and that anybody who wanted to be successful could come along for the ride, and people who didn't could fuck off. (Paraphrasing, obviously). He said that Emery was doing a great job these days, but it was nothing to what SGT managed back then, as the club felt like it was going to nosedive through the leagues.

[john e]

I think the turn around Villa made under Graham Taylor was probably bigger but Unai Emery has a higher ceiling
If that makes any sense

[Risso]

I think the turn around Villa made under Graham Taylor was probably bigger but Unai Emery has a higher ceiling
If that makes any sense

Perfect sense.

[jon collett]

I think the turn around Villa made under Graham Taylor was probably bigger but Unai Emery has a higher ceiling
If that makes any sense

It makes sense but also means the ceiling has to rise above 2nd place and FA Cup Quarter Final (robbed by plastic pitch).

[Demitri_C]

Even though the second time was a disaster he is still a hero here

[Clampy]

Even though the second time was a disaster he is still a hero here

How was his second time a disaster? It wasn't good obviously but hardly a disaster.

[pauliewalnuts]

Even though the second time was a disaster he is still a hero here

How was his second time a disaster? It wasn't good obviously but hardly a disaster.

you could argue that, relative to the high standards he set the first time around, it was.

[Exeter 77]

I think the turn around Villa made under Graham Taylor was probably bigger but Unai Emery has a higher ceiling
If that makes any sense

Yes. A club which was destined for a second successive relegation in the summer of 1987 due to a chairman's wilful neglect was back in Europe three years later. Unai Emery inherited a decent but poorly coached squad. He improved the coaching and the squad began to achieve in line with it's ability.

[Clampy]

Even though the second time was a disaster he is still a hero here

How was his second time a disaster? It wasn't good obviously but hardly a disaster.

you could argue that, relative to the high standards he set the first time around, it was.

To his standards, I'd say it was a massive disappointment. Getting relegated twice is what I would call a disaster.

[Steve67]

If I recall correctly, SGT just couldn't get the players in that he wanted.  He was after a midfield pairing, who had some experience of playing next to one another and just couldn't persuade them to come.  Matt Holland was one of them. Instead we had to take Kinsella and Leonardsen instead.  I think that way the league had moved on had caught SGT out.  I remember him speaking to a paper or TV programme about it.  At least he kept us up, oh, and had Ellis to contend with!

[PeterWithe]

Martin Keown was being interviewed on R5 by Adrian Chiles (the real one, not our beloved lookalike Paddy) earlier today, and he had some nice words about Sir Graham. Nothing ground-breaking, but said that when Graham walked in to Villa, he announced that he was a winner, and that anybody who wanted to be successful could come along for the ride, and people who didn't could fuck off. (Paraphrasing, obviously). He said that Emery was doing a great job these days, but it was nothing to what SGT managed back then, as the club felt like it was going to nosedive through the leagues.

Yeah, I listened to that in the car today, took me far longer than it should have to work out that it was Keown speaking as I missed the intro. He was pretty engaging.

[PeterWithe]

If I recall correctly, SGT just couldn't get the players in that he wanted.  He was after a midfield pairing, who had some experience of playing next to one another and just couldn't persuade them to come.  Matt Holland was one of them. Instead we had to take Kinsella and Leonardsen instead.  I think that way the league had moved on had caught SGT out.  I remember him speaking to a paper or TV programme about it.  At least he kept us up, oh, and had Ellis to contend with!

Didn't Holland and Kinsella play together for Ireland? My recollection was that we got Kinsella who he wanted, but the more highly rated Holland never came off.

I didnt think either were pretty inspiring to be honest, even at their best.

[eamonn]

Yep, my one time ever on a football phone-in and Matt Holland was the guest pundit. My main point was a laughable assertion that maybe Paul Lambert's young and hungry model could work and FFP would make things fairer to which the presenter rebutted with "FFP is like Communism. A nice idea in theory but..."

Anyway, I caught Holland by surprise, by asking him how close he was to joining the Villa back in the day. He said he held talks but he was quite settled in Suffolk at the time and that was that.

He and Kinsella had done well for Ireland but I'm not sure there was much mileage in them being a pairing in the middle of the park that would help take us higher than midtable.

SGT's transfer targets were a bit MON-esque - grafters, proven in the British leagues with the odd punt on a youth prospect (ie Crouch with Taylor, Ashley Young with O'Neill) but they were quite risk averse, I thought.