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Not to my tastes as a football manager but his passion for the game shone through regardless . Never heard a bad word said about him . Seems to have been a thoroughly decent man. That's sadly becoming a rare thing these days and we could all do a lot worse than have that as our epitaph.

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Incredible what he did for Watford. Surely a statue will be in the pipeline.

His first spell there and his stint at Villa just after were without doubt Taylor at his best. Taking all style of football out of the equation, he made Watford into a top division regular , returned Villa to the top flight and made some players famous in the process. John Barnes, Luther Blissett and Mo Johnston at Watford , David Platt and Alan MacInally at Villa.

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When England failed to qualify for USA 94 it felt like the abuse he got was unprecedented, I was probably at an age where I noticed it more. Either way it was nothing short of disgraceful. Cracking club manager, failed with England, we'll whuppy f***ing do. No different to near enough everyone else who's managed England then.

 

RIP. Like someone else said, he maintained his dignity under unbelievable stress, pressure and abuse.

 

just a friggin ronald koeman red card away.

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Came across as one of the game's gentlemen. As Watford manager he laid into their fans for abusing shearer en masse during a game at Vicarage Rd (99/00??) He didn't have to do that, but he felt it was the right thing to say.

 

A little unfortunate in qualification for USA 94 with the Koeman incident and Norway turning up out of nowhere with a blinding qualification campaign, but on the other hand he probably made his own luck with too much geoff thomas, carlton palmer, playing batty at full back etc

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Came across as one of the game's gentlemen. As Watford manager he laid into their fans for abusing shearer en masse during a game at Vicarage Rd (99/00??) He didn't have to do that, but he felt it was the right thing to say.

 

 

Yeah, I remember that. :thup:

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Absolutely gutted.

 

Came into our club when it was a fucking shambles, stood up to Ellis, turned it around, and so very nearly won the league.

 

Just saw this, elsewhere. Says it all.

 

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.

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Absolutely gutted.

 

Came into our club when it was a f***ing shambles, stood up to Ellis, turned it around, and so very nearly won the league.

 

Just saw this, elsewhere. Says it all.

 

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.

 

Wow  :clap:

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Don't really have much memory of him other than really annoying pronunciations of foreign names whilst commentating.

 

Thanks for letting us know.

 

Hmm yes that does read callously and in bad taste - apologies there. He seemed a good man, RIP to him.

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Absolutely gutted.

 

Came into our club when it was a fucking shambles, stood up to Ellis, turned it around, and so very nearly won the league.

 

Just saw this, elsewhere. Says it all.

 

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.

 

Great story. Thanks for sharing. When people in football really get what a football club should be for the community and area they can do so much good. Well done Graham Taylor .

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