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Graham Taylor - Manager Date of Birth September 15, 1944 Birthplace Worksop Nationality English Capped No Previous Clubs as player Lincoln, Grimsby Previous Clubs as manager Watford, Wolverhampton, England, Aston Villa, Watford, Lincoln Nickname GT

Regardless of what people may say of Graham Taylor's recent achievements, his managerial achievements are rivalled by very very few. Both Watford and Aston Villa were brutally ripped out of mediocrity when he arrived, and guided to second place in the top flight and the following European campaign that came along with it! No other manager can make such fantastic claims, and his appointment as England manager was questioned by none except the cronic sceptics.

Graham Taylor started his playing career at Grimsby in 1961, getting a total number of appearances of 189 for the Mariners. He then moved on to Lincoln in 1968, where he played for 151 matches until 1972 before having to retire from professional football at the tender age of 28 due to a hip injury. He switched into managing almost immediately, becoming the Lincoln boss soon after retiring. He guided the Imps to fourth division championship in 1976, and was then appointed manager at Watford. They won the Fourth Division in 1978, and their 74 points total was a record at the time. Next year, promotion again to the Second Division for Watford, finishing runners up! Three years later, 1982, Watford were promoted once more into the 1st Division, and made 2nd place the following year. This was the club's first European campaign ever. Next year, the FA Cup final saw Watford as one of the participants, although they lost 2-0 to Everton. Taylor started feeling that Watford had gone as long as they could go, and in 1987, he resigned for Watford to become Aston Villa's manager.

Graham Taylor arrived at Aston Villa to change things in a major way. Since the League triumph in 1981 by the hands of Ron Saunders, and the following two years' European glory, Aston Villa had shown little to uphold this honour. In fact, it had been uphill for Villa ever since. Back in 1974, Ron Saunders was the manager to drag Aston Villa out of the gutter, which once had them all the way down in Third Division (called '2nd Division' now). He was the man who took Villa immediately into the First Division in 1975, and to the title in 1981. Tony Barton had taken over when domestic disputes had Ron Saunders leave after the 1981-82 season. Barton managed to claim the European Super Cup with two dazzling matches against FC Barcelona. Aston Villa went on to get beaten by Penarol Montevideo in the World Club Cup, and this marked the end of the early 80s' Villa domination. After two seasons, Barton was sacked after finishing 10th in the League in the 1983-84 season, and Graham Turner took over. This helped little if nothing, as Villa yet again finished 10th and then 16th in the following two seasons. Enter Billy McNeill, who will not be in the Aston Villa hall of fame. The one season with him in charge saw Villa finish 22nd and rock bottom of the First Division. Aston Villa had claimed but 36 points from the 42 matches, just 8 victories (of which 7 were at Villa Park), 12 ties and 22 defeats. They finished 8 points below the relegation line, 3 points after Manchester City and 6 after Leicester, the other two relegated teams. Billy McNeill was sacked after a humiliating 6-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, late in the season.

Graham Taylor was brought in from Watford to try and turn things around. At the 'Bees' he had been quite succesful, and Watford started having trouble very soon after he left. He arrived much too late to prevent Villa's relegation, though. In the following season, it quickly became clear that Aston Villa did not belong in the second best division. Aston Villa finished 2nd, 4 points behind Millwall after the 44 matches with 22 victories (of which 13! was away from Villa Park), 12 ties and 10 defeats. Graham Taylor's plans were beginning to become apparent : glory! Next season, the fans didn't quite get what they expected. Most people had tipped Aston Villa to reach for the skies after the convincing display in the 2nd Division. This was not to be. Aston Villa merely avoided relegation, finished just above the line with 40 points, just one more than Middlesbrough. They had claimed just 9 victories from the 38 matches (7 at home), 13 ties and 16 defeats. Doubts about Taylor's abilities began to arise. However, those soon vanished again. Aston Villa went into the 1989-90 season with great enthusiasm, and a very hard working team. David Platt, Tony Daley and Ian Olney performed blindingly up front. One of the most legendary matches was the 'workhorse-victory' over Arsenal on New-Years day. A fully packed Villa Park saw Villa win deservedly 2-1, with a blinding goal from Platt and a ditto from Derek Mountfield (Villa's last goal of the 80's for Villa). Aston Villa threatened Liverpool all the way to the end of the season. In the late part, though - as often seen in football - Villa stumbled and lost a couple of vital matches. They finished 2nd, 9 points behind winners Liverpool. However, they also finished 7 points ahead of Tottenham, with 21 victories in 38 matches (13 of them at Villa Park), 7 ties and 10 defeats. Villa looked set to bring home the title the following year.

Alas, Graham Taylor's magic had been too much. The FA approached Taylor, and offered him the job as International Manager succeeding Bobby Robson. Few managers let such a chance go, and neither did Graham Taylor. His years with the International side didn't prove themselves fruitful, though. England managed little under Taylor's supervision. They did manage to qualify themselves for the 1992 European championships, only to get knocked out of the group stage - as host-country Sweden and Denmark went on. After failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup playoffs with a dramatic loss vs Holland, Graham Taylor resigned for the benefit of Terry Venables.

Taylor was picked up to manage Wolverhampton Wanderers, and partially repeated the success he had at Villa in Wolves' first year, finishing 4th in the First Division (after the top division was named 'Premier League'), only failing to get promoted by losing the playoffs. His next season saw defeat after defeat for Wolverhampton, and after a few months of this, Graham Taylor resigned as manager. Wolves went on to merely avoid relegation to the Second Division, finishing 3 points clear of the line.

In 1996, he returned to Watford as manager. At the time, they were rock bottom in the 1st division (2nd best division now) and also here, he arrived too late to prevent relegation in 1997. However, they were promoted again the following year thanks to the brilliant guidance of Taylor. The following year, Watford were promoted to the Premier League thanks to a 2-0 victory in the final play-off vs. Bolton. The following year was very disappointing for Watford, and they clearly didn't have what it took to stick around, and they were relegated to the 1st Division again, winning just 6 matches over the season, finishing rock bottom with only 24 points in the bag. Next season, Watford did very well again, and strangely, they were on the verge of entering the play-offs for the Premier League once more, when Tayor suddenly announced his retirement on March 29th, 2001.

Soon after, in May, Graham Taylor was appointed to the board at Aston Villa in "a non-executive role". Eight months later, When John Gregory retired on January 24th, 2002, Taylor took over at Aston Villa once more on February 5th.

Alas, as the season went on, it turned out that Graham Taylor was not Aston Villa's saviour two times in a row. Aston Villa started out in mediocre fashion and soon stabilised themselves around position 14. Only seldom did they show the kind of play that would have qualified them for Champions League. A very brilliant exception was the away game at Middlesbrough. Previously, Boro was undefeated at The Riverside throughout 2002.however, on January 28, they were pummelled by Aston Villa by five goals to two.

Aston Villa went on to finish an embarrassing 16th, only three points clear of relegated West Ham. The fans were split 50-50 when asked whether Taylor should be given more time to strengthen the squad. All in vain, though. Three days later after the final game of the season, the sad announcement from Villa Park was aired: Graham taylor has resigned.

Regardless of his last spell at Villa Park, this webmaster will never forget the brilliant achievements of Graham "do I like that!" Taylor back in 1987-1990.