Graham Taylor (football manager)

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Personal information
Graham Taylor

Full name	Graham Taylor
Date of birth	September 15, 1944 (age 62)
Place of birth	Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1962-1968 1968-1972	Grimsby Town Lincoln City	189 (2) 150 (1)
Teams managed
1972-1977 1977-1987 1987-1990 1990-1993 1994-1995 1996 1996-2001 2002-2003	Lincoln City Watford Aston Villa England Wolverhampton Wanderers Watford Watford Aston Villa
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Graham Taylor OBE (born September 15, 1944, Worksop, Nottinghamshire) is a football manager and a former player. He grew up in the industrial steel town of Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, a town with which he still has many connections and regards as his hometown. The son of a sports journalist with The Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, Graham found his love of the beautiful game in the stands of the "Old Showground" watching Scunthorpe United F.C, who he still supports. He is still seen at many home matches. His most recent job has been manager of Aston Villa, which he left at the end of the 2003 season. He now works as a pundit for BBC Radio Five Live. He has most notably been the manager of the England national football team. His teams played a trademark "long-ball" style based upon quickly moving the ball up to big powerful forwards. Although aesthetically unattractive, Taylor's long ball style proved partially successful.

1 Playing career
2 Managerial Career

[edit] Playing career

His playing career began with Grimsby Town in 1962 for whom he went on to play 189 games at fullback, scoring twice. He was transferred to Lincoln City in the summer of 1968, he scored 1 goal in 150 appearances. Taylor was forced to retire from playing following a serious hip injury in 1972.

[edit] Managerial Career

[edit] Lincoln City (1972 - 1976)

Taylor was the youngest person to become a FA coach, at the age of 27. Following his retirement from playing, Taylor became manager of Lincoln City, he was the youngest manager in the league at the age of 28. Taylor led Lincoln to the Fourth Division title in 1976, during which the Imps set the league records for most wins (32), least defeats (4), and most points (74) (when 2 points were awarded for a win).

[edit] Watford (1977 - 1987)

In 1977 Taylor was hired to manage Watford by new owner Elton John. Taylor led Watford from the Fourth Division to the First Division in only five years. He even took the side to the third round of the UEFA Cup, having finished second in 1982-83 (the club's first season as a top division club). Taylor also led Watford to the 1984 FA Cup final, which Watford lost to Everton 2-0.

[edit] Aston Villa (1987 - 1990)

In 1987 Taylor left Watford for a new challenge: the newly relegated Aston Villa. Taylor managed to take Aston Villa back to the top flight with his first attempt. During his third season at the club Villa finished runners-up in the first division. Following this success Taylor took over the England national football team from Bobby Robson, who left the job after England's world cup semi-final defeat to Germany.

[edit] England (1990 - 1993)

Taylor took England to the Euro 92 championships, where England played poorly. In England's last game of the tournament, a 2-1 defeat to the hosts, Sweden, Taylor substituted Gary Lineker in his final game for England. By doing this he prevented Lineker from equalling, or even breaking, Bobby Charlton's record of 49 goals for England. This led to a media vilification of Taylor, including the infamous "turnip" campaign by The Sun. Taylor also agreed to be filmed during the world cup qualification campaign for a Channel 4 fly on the wall documentary in which his portrayal further undermined his authority. During the film Taylor was heard to use foul language and what became his personal catchphrase "Do I not like that". Taylor left the job in November 1993, within days of England's failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA.

[edit] Wolverhampton Wanderers (1994 - 1995)

Sir Jack Hayward appointed Taylor as manager of Wolves in March 1994. However Taylor failed to gain promotion with the ambitious club, and he quit in November 1995 after mounting pressure from the success-starved fans. Taylor had been a generally unpopular figure in English football since his unsuccessful reign as national coach, but he had taken Wolves into the Division One playoffs - their highest league finish since the early 1980s.

[edit] Watford (1996 - 2001)

In the summer of 1996 Elton John, who had recently bought Watford for a second time, appointed Taylor as General Manager at Vicarage Road. A year later Taylor had appointed himself as the club's manager, he won the Division Two championship at his first attempt. The following season Taylor won promotion to the Premier league, where Watford were relegated after one season. Watford finished 9th in Division One at the end of the 2000-01 season, at this point Taylor decided to retire. During this final season Taylor had become only the third manager to manage 1000 league games in England, after Brian Clough and Jim Smith.

[edit] Aston Villa (2002 - 2003)

Taylor came out of retirement February 2002 to return to his old job at Aston Villa, but retired for a second time after Villa finished the 2002/2003 season in 16th place in the Premiership. He subsequently cited tensions in his relationship with the club's chairman Doug Ellis and argued for an overhaul of the club's upper management to allow the club to be more competitive.

[edit] Post managerial career

In 2003 Taylor became vice-president at League One club Scunthorpe United. Since 2004, he has worked as a pundit on BBC Radio Five Live.

Since 2004 he has managed a team of celebrities for Sky One's annual series, The Match.

Preceded by: David Herd	Lincoln City F.C. manager 1972-1977	Succeeded by: George Kerr
Preceded by: Mike Keen	Watford Manager 1977-1987	Succeeded by: Dave Bassett
Preceded by: Billy McNeill	Aston Villa F.C. manager 1987-1990	Succeeded by: Jozef Venglos
Preceded by: Bobby Robson	England national football team manager 1990–1993	Succeeded by: Terry Venables
Preceded by: Graham Turner	Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. manager 1994-1995	Succeeded by: Bobby Downes (caretaker)
Preceded by: Glenn Roeder	Watford Manager 1996	Succeeded by: Kenny Jackett
Preceded by: Kenny Jackett	Watford Manager 1997-2001	Succeeded by: Gianluca Vialli
Preceded by: John Deehan & Stuart Gray (caretakers)	Aston Villa F.C. manager 2002-2003	Succeeded by: David O'Leary

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