Graham Taylor on the defensive..

[RoathRipper]

he doesnt like 'sophisticated' football. holy christ. why in the world of fuckery was this man appointed England manager, i'll never know.

[weatherallc05]

disgraceful how people can criticise taylor, especially the bbc. they know nothing about football

[weatherallc05]

disgraceful how people can criticise taylor, especially the bbc. they know nothing about football

[paul202011]

the average football fan doesnt want to watch 15 consecutive passes, no course not, even though Barcelona are the most entertaining side in the world at the moment

[weatherallc05]

@paul202011 thats cos teams play defensive against them

[paul202011]

@weatherallc05 ye I do agree, but the best teams in the world pass the ball around cos they know how to wear the opposition out. Taylor was able to get away with this style cos the game hadnt evolved at this time nowadays this would never work.

[Superhorns3]

Are England much better now?

The football might be nicer but the players seem to care less.

Could have done with GT giving them a bit of motivation at the last world cup!

[benmarks1984]

Graham Taylor is a nice bloke but how he became England manager with the direct style of football his teams used to play is a joke. Watford used to have a tactic where they would kick the ball out of touch from a kick off, like they do in rugby, so they could get in the other teams half straight away!! Taylor's watford side took the English game back 10 years!

[stevohorn]

@benmarks1984

Ben.. personally i would say that GT's strength was getting the most out of the players he had at his disposal. He made a silk purse out of the sow's ear that was Watfords fc. Admittingly he wasnt very good at dealng with the more established players he had at his disposal when he was national team boss.

[stevohorn]

@benmarks1984

As for the tactics.. well i followed the Hornets through his entire time with us and i never recall us kicking the ball out of play on purpose.

Yes.. the style of play never suited the football purist. But if you had followed Watford up the division like i did, then you would probably be less bothered about that.

[weatherallc05]

@benmarks1984 there was brian clough available , but who else?? thats my problem, who else could we give the job at the time

[spartak95]

He wasnt a bad coach, Taylor. He did a great job at Watford. He had a shitty pool of players to pick from when he was with England

[Superhorns3]

and its not like England have gone on to great thing since with a lot of so called world class players and performing football they like.

[CescBalboa]

Was he trying his best to do a Brian Clough impression? Poor man's charismatic

[hoffio1]

the amount of crap taylor and watford got from the media is unfair and rubbish. look at the players had like barnes and callaghan.

[sgu02nsc]

...and the next season Watford finished 2nd in the 1st (top) division. Now argue against that!

[fishandcushion]

'Now this direct style..'

'you said it was direct, not me'

'but you agree that it is direct in the terms we've been talking about?'

'Yes.'

[fishandcushion]

The Alan Partridge of football. and there are many many contenders.

[fishandcushion]

'I don't really know what the style of play is.'

[mairsy100]

This guy became the national coach for ENGLAND!!!!..how?????????????

[Weaselier]

And lo, out of the swirling mists of sulphur and fire, the fifth horseman of the apocalypse rode out; turnip taylor. And he would refuse ryan giggs for the national side because tony daley was the fucking man, do I not think that. Parp.

[stevohorn]

While you are entitled to your point of view..you should check your facts first. Ryan Giggs wasnt "refused" by GT..he was never eligible to play for England. Giggs played for the England schoolboys side because he attended an English school. But he was born in Wales, as were his parents and grandparents.

Giggs could never have played for England and GT knew that.

[TONY220857]

Yeah but wales are rubbish.

[Welshgr81]

@stevohorn And everyone is assuming that giggs wanted to play for england,It is terribly insulting to assume that giggs would turn on wales the minute england came calling,giggs has said many times how proud he was to play for wales,Your always proud to play for your country no matter how bad your national side is,I would wager that giggs would still have played for wales no matter what,But thats just my opinion.

[xpietmaasx]

little did enlgand know the terror that was to await them with taylor's 'simple' brand of football

[gibbie7842]

Watford played good football then. I'm not sure were this 'long ball' label came from. Too much time to think some of those pundits. It's fair to say set pieces were a impotent tactic, and the Taylor camp exploded them well.

[Aurelian147]

It's hard to square Watford's image as a load of hoof and hope journeymen with them having players like Barnes and Blissett.

[ahuk]

excellent stuff thanks

[wfc91]

have you got any of the 1980s luton games

these are great!!!

[stevohorn]

I have..but (whisper this) only games that we lost!

[cyaninternetdog]

Burn those tapes/dvd's

[andrewcdwfc]

Doesn't Sir Graham Taylor look so young!

[duncaan]

brilliant - I have been waiting so long too see some of this footage - thank you so so much. We really were quite special back in the day and played superb attacking football.

Thank You!

[stevohorn]

No problem. There's plenty more where these came from. I hope eventualy to have around 30 WFC 1980's clips here..i just have to get around a few technical difficulties i have at the moment. Eventualy i hope to stick them all in chronological order on one DVD and flog a few on ebay. Send me a message hear and i will send you a free copy, but it might take a while before i have them all organised.

[Superhorns3]

At least we were good at it then.

[aflatas]

Great footage. Appreciated!