There is a very disappointing and negative article from that overrated sports journalist, Brian Glanville, in the Sunday Times. He is still talking his 'long ball' danger to human existence nonsense. He has also recalled some bitter discussions with GT. Not the time or place for such utter rubbish.
He actually wrote a fairly balanced piece in the Mail on Friday although mainly because GT spoke to him afterwards which as people said just summed the man up. No real bitterness and ill-feelings after the England job.
I would just like to say how brave I think GT's wife and two daughters were to attend so soon after he had died. To stand there watching the pictures of him, to see his name going around the advertising boards, and to see the grief of thousands takes some doing. As time goes by I hope they draw strength from the occasion knowing just how much he meant to so many. I think it also shows that they had confidence in the club officials to act in the right way. There must have been days of despair when he went home with previous owners, while the current ones have appreciated just what they have bought into. Watford FC did the family proud, just as he did so much for so many others.
I hope they got a chance to see all the tributes (naturally more and more came as people arrived) but the weather wasn't the kindest.
A much better view of events from a proper Watford fan. https://franelynn.wordpress.com/2017/01/15/saying-goodbye-to-our-hero/
Guess there will be some disrespectful idiots (as all clubs have) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sp...ent-condemning-vile-Graham-Taylor-chants.html
I hope you wont mind me posting this excellent article in full.... it is so touching Kevin Affleck sums up an emotional day at Vicarage Road, as the Hornets remember Graham Taylor GT's Vicarage Road Send-Off By Kevin Affleck please log in to view this image It was one of those 'I was there days', the afternoon when the Hornets paid a fitting and tear-jerking tribute to their greatest ever manager and, perhaps more importantly, a great man. At times there wasn't a dry eye in the house. So many just had to be there. Tommy Mooney and Tony Coton were on the phone to the club within the hour of the confirmation of the devastating news many thought would never come. They changed their weekend plans in an instant, cancelling the games they were supposed to be attending on behalf of Aston Villa to make sure they would make the pilgrimage to Vicarage Road. That was the effect GT had on people, the sort of respect and emotion he elicited. Even Tony Pulis took his cap off when observing the first of the minute's applause up and down the country in the lunchtime kick-off. Around 15 other players followed Mooney's and Coton's lead to pay their respects to the man they simply referred to as 'Gaffer' or 'Boss'. They wouldn't have missed it for the world. Everyone you spoke to had their own GT anecdote. There was the fan who couldn't believe it when GT accepted the request to be best man at his wedding; the two-page letter he penned when another fan asked him for a letter to read out at his wedding; the then eight-year-old who received a personal 'you're a bit young now but perhaps one day' reply from the manager after asking if he could play for Watford; the fan who sat behind GT and Kenny Jackett on the team coach bound for Crystal Palace after winning a competition; the time he left Charlie Miller and Micah Hyde at Tamworth after they messed about in a team photo. And there was the occasion he got on the hospital radio mic during a training session at Vicarage Road to admonish a new signing who had gone down. 'Get up, son,' he bellowed out. 'We don't do cramp at this club'. please log in to view this image A fan lays a scarf outside the Vic in memory of GT They do do emotion, though. And there was plenty of it on Saturday in and outside the ground GT put squarely on the footballing map. Vicarage Roadies doubled as counsellors outside the ground as strangers shared their grief. By the end the floral tributes were 15 deep. One fan, described as "absolutely gutted" by a florist, went in and ordered a yellow shirt, with red collar and the initials GT to be made. The cost of £160 was a small price to pay for the unbridled joy GT had brought him in two separate stints as manager of this club. For a man who, according to so many of his former players, paid such attention to detail, GT would have loved the send-off the club gave him. It was organised with the sort of precision of a GT gameplan. Even the wifi code in the media room reflected his passing. There was a big nod to his music tastes throughout the day, but particularly pre-match, with a medley of songs from Buddy Holly, his favourite artist, and Elton John. It was like GT's Desert Island Discs. 'There's only one Graham Taylor' flashed across the electronic advertising boards. There was the GT mosaic in the Rookery End followed by the 'We're Still Standing' banner, both unfurled with immaculate timing either side of the strains of Z-Cars. Lips were already starting to quiver before the entire ground stood for one of the most rousing and heartfelt minute's applause you'll ever witness. The Boro fans ensured they will always be welcome at Vicarage Road by fully playing their part, even kicking off a rendition of 'One Graham Taylor, there's only one Graham Taylor'. It was a gesture that showed how GT transcended footballing rivalry. Only sport could make people feel like this. 'God only knows what I'd be without you' blared out over the PA system at half-time, which was apt as a selection of the players whose careers GT had kickstarted, resuscitated and shaped were paraded in front of the stand named after Watford's favourite son. "I just wanted to hang onto his shirt tails as I knew he was going somewhere," said Ian Bolton. Les Taylor described his decision to leave Oxford United and work with Taylor for a then unheralded Watford team as "a no brainer". Nick Wright recalled the tale of GT magnanimously applauding each and everyone of the Carlisle team after the Hornets recorded a fortunate victory in March 1998. "He'd get that [current] dressing room going today," said Smart to much applause. Tommy Mooney simply referred to GT as "The Boss" while the last word fittingly went to Luther Blissett. "I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for him," he said. "I owe everything in my life to GT." It was a shame there was only 15 minutes for half-time as you could have listened for a lot longer to tales from the present Tony Coton, Steve Sherwood, Steve Palmer, Gary Porter, Neil Price, Keith Mercer, Dennis Elliott, Tom Walley et al. please log in to view this image Former Hornets pay their respects to 'The Boss' at Vicarage Road The win everybody craved sadly didn't arrive, despite the attempts to fashion one with multiple moves straight out of the GT playbook by getting the ball wide and into the box as early possible. Everything sadly ended quite funereal in more ways than one. Watford didn't play their part in the 177-1 Graham Taylor bet that needed wins for former clubs and a draw between Wolves and Aston Villa to come off. Long after the final blast of the whistle, while a chorus of 'One Graham Taylor' blared out of the Red Lion, there were still fans gathered outside the Hornets Shop in the freezing cold, still digesting the news and getting to grips with what so many have described as the loss of a family member. One message among the hundreds stood out. 'Everybody dies but not everyone touches so many'
I recently read some very nasty comments about GT on one of the Millwall forums. I hope we absolutely stuff them in the next round.
Quite frankly should we be surprised given their reputation. It's probably why the local council want to kick them out.
One thing about the first GT reign were the "special nights". It would be fitting if Lincoln had their own one tonight, even more so if Theo Robinson was to score the winner.
From FB: Lincoln City Graham Taylor's last club as a player Graham Taylor's first club as a manager Last time they got to the 4th round of the FA Cup was 1976 while Graham Taylor was the manager Couldn't have scripted it!!
