After taking Watford, a venerable but hitherto unremarkable club, from the Fourth Division to the First Division, where they finished runners-up to the mightiest of Liverpool sides, and to the FA Cup final, Graham Taylor deserves to be remembered as the football manager who enlivened the English game between 1977 and 1987. He did this by guiding Watford to the FA Cup final, all the while being encouraged by an enthusiastic chairman, the pop singer Elton John, who was a fan of football.
This accomplishment was comparable to that of Brian Clough, who won the European Cup twice with Nottingham Forest, and Claudio Ranieri, who won the Premier League title with Leicester City the previous year. Both of these individuals were successful in their respective fields.
The passing of Graham Taylor, a former manager of England, occurred at the age of 72.. Keep reading. Rather than that Taylor, who passed away at the age of 72, will be remembered by the public as one of the many England managers who failed to make the national team live up to its supposed potential.
He was also one of those who was eventually driven to distraction by the demands of the job. After the squad had failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1994 (having reached the semi-finals under Bobby Robson four years earlier), Taylor was included in a television documentary that showed his anxious attitude in the dugout during a vital match in the qualifying campaign. The documentary was broadcast before the team entered the World Cup. “Do I not like that!” became a catchphrase as a result of the film An Impossible Job, which held him up to ridicule. This was his curious expression of fury and exasperation, and it became a catchphrase.
He had been offered the job in 1990 not just because of his outstanding performance with Watford, but also because in his subsequent job, with Aston Villa, he had performed almost as well in resurrecting the fortunes of a group of players who had recently been relegated and were not very motivated. However, when he was working for England, he was unable to implement the clarity and simplicity of his working techniques with the same level of effectiveness. This is likely due to the fact that the manager of a national team is not allowed to have the same day-to-day interaction with the players and the same regular work on the training ground that he so enjoyed.
Taylor was a man who was always nice, humorous, and helpful. He had a comprehensive understanding of the game and a genuine passion for it. In spite of this, he was destined to become a figure of fun in the columns of the tabloid press. His dissatisfaction with England’s dismal performances translated into a vengeful delight in his own discomfiture. After suffering a loss that prevented them from advancing to the semifinals of the European Championships in 1992, the Sun published a remarkable headline that read “Swedes 2 Turnips 1.” The title was accompanied by an image of Taylor’s face superimposed on the root vegetable. The image was replicated on the main page of the newspaper, and the headline read, “That’s Yer Allotment.” This was done when it became clear that they would be eliminated from the World Cup, and the manager later resigned.
