Graham Taylor died

RIP GT - a good football man.

I bet he said to the grim reaper "you've just cost me my job..."

will always be a legend with us.

RIP GT

A good football man. Honest and dedicated. Did brilliantly for Villa.

Genuine football man who has a place in Villa fans hearts for what he achieved with us under HDE especially on his first stint. Should have been named a director under Lerner and we wouldn't be in the mess we are now!

HEITS!

Terrible news. RIP

Do I not like that.........

RIP Sir.

Turned the club around and always seemed a very nice person. RIP.

Gutted when I heard this.

Not many of his kind left. Too many manager make excuses, blame the ref, his blunt 'not good enough' after a poor performance is something todays managers should take note of.

Hated the way the london press treated him as England manager - he deserved better than that. Wish he had never took that job, what a powerhouse he would have built at Aston Villa.

Genuinely I was close to tears when I heard the news. I always hoped he may rejoin the club in some capacity - sadly now he never will.

RIP Sir Graham Taylor

Dazzle wrote:A good football man. Honest and dedicated. Did brilliantly for Villa.

No doubt a top football man, but he came across as very genuine to me. Just a very lovely person. That sort of person you'd like to be friends with and didn't think too much of himself at all. Real shame.

Amazing man, RIP Sir Graham, Attention to detail was what he always promoted and one thing amongst many i learned from him was never judge a game by the first 5 minutes as no real pattern has been established yet so if you fall behind it does not mean PANIC!

DelboyVilla wrote:Should have been named a director under Lerner and we wouldn't be in the mess we are now!

HEITS!

Good shout.

He will always be part of Aston Villa, it puts an extra bit on Saturdays match with Wolves another club he managed, RIP the legend that is GT.

I first started going when he was in charge. Great times.
RIP.

Sums up the man

Former Aston Villa striker Garry Thompson once told me a story about Graham Taylor.


Big Thommo was driving into the club's Bodymoor Heath training base where his then manager was lying in wait.


Thompson gets out of his car and is making his way inside when his boss calls him over for a word.

“Tell me son,” said Taylor, “what do your neighbours think when they see you driving off to work every morning?”

“Gaffer, they think: 'There's Gaz. He's off training at Villa'," came the reply.

“No, son, they don't,” went Taylor, “they see you and they think to themselves: 'There goes a man who is supposed to be Aston Villa's centre-forward.

“And look at the state of you. Dirty car, un-ironed tracksuit, grubby trainers.

“We have standards at this football club. And you're falling short of them. I want your neighbours to think: 'There's Garry Thompson. Looks every inch Aston Villa's centre-forward.'

RIP GT. ABsolute legend at AVFC. Very sad day

RIP GT, was manager when I first started going up the Billa regularly and will always have great memories of what he did in that first stint.

UnclePanda wrote:RIP GT. ABsolute legend at AVFC. Very sad day

That sums it up for me!

RIP GT

Listening to a Lee Child audiobook in my car to and from work. As you know he is a Villa supporter and uses Villa players and managers names for characters in his Jack Reacher books. In this one is Graham Taylor, so I've been thinking about him a lot in the past few days. Another character is called Gregory.
If you want to read it it's called "The Hard Way".

I'm sure a lot of Villa fans, if they could wind back the clock, wouldn't have booed him during the lap of honour at the end of his 2nd stint as manager.

I'm equally sure that the London-centric media who were utter sugarbags to him during his England reign would do the same all over again.

It would be nice if the club could organise some of the players he signed to have a testimonial at Watford with Elton trying to sing Candle In The Wind at half-time whilst being drowned out by Graham Taylor's Claret n Blue Army!

It was stunning what he did with this club whilst being hindered the whole time by Ellis. Probably the closest thing you can get to pick yourself up whilst standing in a bucket. It's even more stunning that he did even better at Watford. The man is a proper legend.

Loving the header trotters

Fanx.  It was a quickie. Needed to be done though.

I was shocked when I heard the news so sad RIP.

I only remember Graham from his second spell at the club and as we know it wasn't the best season. But what is quite remarkable is did you know that the home record from that season, included ELEVEN wins out of eighteen games? We were dire away yes, but when you look back at the millions spent and all of the managers who have come in since Graham left like Mon, Houllier, Sherwood, RDM etc, and Graham's home record is the best we've had for many many years. So even in the midst of gloom the man still left his mark.

RIP to the great man.

There'll be a minute's silence for GT at all the grounds. 

Total respect to the noses at the sty who will be holding a full 90 minutes silence.