It’s 46 years ago this week that Graham Taylor became watfordfc manager, and Kenny Jackett said he “stood the club on its head” when he arrived
Little did he know then that the arrival of Taylor at Vicarage Road under the chairmanship of Sir Elton John was going to catapult the club, players and fans to levels not experienced before.
“I was training with Tom Walley in the youth team, and I was also a supporter being a local lad. I had a double interest really. “Watford had finished seventh the season before, so it wasn’t like they were dreadful. But Graham came in and improved players and they went on to play a part in the club progressing: Ross Jenkins, Luther Blissett, Roger Joslyn, Keith Mercer, Alan Garner, Keith Pritchett.
“Ultimately, you knew he could make you successful and that’s why you got the big buy-in from all the players. “It developed from there, but it was common sense to give your best players the ball for as much of a game as you could. “I don’t know whether Elton was having doubts at that period, but Graham decided to leave and then within a year or two it felt like Elton was looking to go as well.“Dave Bassett then came into the club at the wrong time, as following Graham was nearly impossible and we’d recently lost John Barnes as well.”“I didn’t expect him to come back in 1996, no. I was working with Jimmy Gilligan at the time, and he said to me ‘I think he’s coming back’.
Getting the band back together again: Graham Taylor had Jackett and Luther Blissett alongside him when he returned in 1996.“I thought his achievement second time around was even better than the first time. “The second time he had less time and we didn’t have those outstanding individuals. But he had more experience as a manager then, and that really showed.
“I did take a lot of what I saw him do, from his first and second spell at Watford, with me as a manager,” he said. “But the two years that got us there were incredible and were achieved without any unbelievable budget either.”
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