Although most people disagree with received wisdom on a number of
points, there are a few who are so at odds with public opinion that
it's virtually impossible for them to maintain a place within society.
So certain are they in their minority opinions that ridicule from all
they meet and exclusion from society are not enough to dissuade them
from spreading the truth as they see it. Into this category come alien
abductees, religious cult members and Norman Tebbit. It is now a sad
fact of modern football that all those who, like me, believe Graham
Taylor was England's best ever manager, must count themselves among
this sorry bunch. We are the Jehovah's Witnesses of football.
And yet, Graham Taylor's reputation is not borne out by the results.
England's record in terms of games won, drawn and lost - or in terms
of tournaments qualified for - was almost exactly the same under
Taylor's two campaigns as under Robson's first two (82-86). If you
take account of home advantage, it was pretty much the same under
Venables, and has been surprisingly similar under all managers. The
improvement under Hoddle has so far been confined to friendlies : our
record during this qualifying campaign parallels Taylor's closer than
anyone dare admit - we got one point off the difficult team, beat the
dross, but took one more point off Poland this time. Our qualification
is largely because other results went in our favour, and the increase
from 24 participants to 32, giving us an easier group.
At the risk of overdosing on statistics, it's worth pointing out that
Taylor's towering record of unparalleled ineptitude rests on the
rotting foundations of just three defeats in competitive games. Three
defeats. All away, to good sides. We lost 2-1 to Sweden, after leading
for half the game. Sweden went on to finish 3rd in the next World Cup.
We lost 2-0 to a Norway side that had just beaten Italy and Holland in
qualifiers, and we lost 2-0 to Holland. To recap that Holland game :
their first goal followed a re-taken goal kick from a player that
should have been sent off, and the second a blatant handball - and we
hit the post twice, etc., etc. It's also relevant that only in the
Norway game was Gascoigne, who has been a common factor in almost
every decent England performance over 1989-1997, present - even then
he was not fully fit.
Bobby Robson also lost 3 competitive games in his first two campaigns
(including Portugal, and Denmark at home) and 3 in his next two. Ron
Greenwood also lost 3 games (including to a very poor Norway team) in
his two campaigns. So it's fair to say three defeats in two campaigns
is par for the course.
Results really are what a manager should be judged over, since
arguments about players and formations can never really be
resolved. So isn't it extraordinary that in all the established and
alternative football media, there's no serious objection to the idea
of Graham Taylor as a terrible manager? A trap that critics of the
"meeja" often fall into is ignoring the diversity of opinions, but in
Graham Taylor's case there really is no diversity. I can accept that
most people think he was awful, but what I object to is the fact that
his awfulness has become an established and indisputable fact of life.
I could talk about how a number of Taylor's most controversial
selections (Batty, Barnes, Adams, Wise, Ripley even) and omissions (Le
Tissier, Clough, Sharpe) do seem to have been vindicated by his
successors, who interestingly have never really criticised him. I
could discuss Beardsley's unavailability for England matches, or his
lack of favour both before and after Taylor's reign. I could sneer at
some of Venables's selections (Barry Venison) as people sneer at
Taylor's. I could discuss Taylor's consistency (contrary to popular
belief) in players and formation. I could compare the chaos evidenced
by that video, to the untelevised chaos of say Italia '90, our most
successful overseas tour. I could point out that the nature of
qualifying means that failure to qualify is an occupational hazard
which affects all the big countries (look at France), and that
injuries and the number of games played by clubs correlate far better
with success than who is manager. There's even the point that
1990-1994 was the only period in the last 30+ years that England
haven't had a really top class 'keeper. But life's too short to
counter every single Taylor myth, besides which it's better in true
Taylor style to go on the offensive.
Graham Taylor was a brilliant England manager for two reasons. The
first is his use of talented players. The England team has a long and
distinguished history of wasting the talents of our most exciting
players. The reason, in almost every case, is that we have not given
them the service they need. Too often, they've been isolated on the
wing. Opposing sides have crowded the midfield to cut off the supply,
and their full-backs have pushed up, forcing the wingers into
defensive duties. Taylor changed that. By playing Gascoigne behind
the strikers, he continually got the ball in places he could hurt the
opposition - his goalscoring rate increased, despite continual injury
and club problems. He tried the same with Barnes until his Achilles
problems, and Barnes turned out excellent, if unappreciated,
performances (e.g. the Argentina friendly). Never once were our best
players isolated, invisible, and frustrated. Of course in Waddle's
case he wasn't in the team, but better one creative player playing
well than two playing badly. The long line of talented players that
hadn't made good - Currie, George, Hudson, Hoddle, Waddle, and Barnes -
had come to an end. By the end of Taylor's reign Barnes was actually
playing better for England, in the deeper defensive position that was
to relaunch his career, than he was at club level. So was
Gascoigne. This was an unprecedented achievement. The press still don't
seem to have learnt the lesson though, and the sudden improvement in
the international form of McManaman (in 1996) and Beckham (this
summer) when moved to central positions still seems to mystify them.
The other point is the change of formation. In 1990, in England, 4-4-2
was still king. The use of the sweeper system in Italia '90 was seen
as an aberration, and even now much of the media see it as a
fundamentally dangerous formation that's only really a passing
fad. Graham Taylor was the first England manager in the modern era to
dare to play three central defenders as anything but a panic
measure - just as his Villa team of 1990 was also the first to
challenge for the championship with a sweeper. With the loss of Paul
Parker and Mark Wright, the only realistic sweepers, the system
eventually had to go - but Taylor, like Venables, but unlike any other
England manager, grasped one important fact : the formation should
depend on the players available, and the opposition, and not on some
ideological preference of one system above all others. The diamond
formation is no panacea, but was definitely the right formation for
the World Cup campaign.
And then there are our performances. You heard. The 2-2 draw with
Holland was a magnificent performance in impossible circumstances.
Given Shearer, or if Gascoigne hadn't had his jaw broken before
half-time, we'd probably have reproduced that 4-1. The 3-0 against
Poland, again in difficult circumstances, contrasts heavily with the
recent nervy 2-1 home win. The best goal I ever think I saw England
score was in the friendly against Germany : Ince, Sharpe, Barnes and
others putting together about 20 passes culminating in a simple tap-in
for Platt. So much for the long ball stereotype.
Of course Graham Taylor's international reputation is now so ingrained
in public consciousness that it will almost certainly never
change. But then again, if his reputation had survived, he'd probably
be at some European club (or maybe managing Australia), while we'd be
a mid-table 2nd division side going nowhere. A few snide comments by
Gary Lineker is a small price to pay. Perhaps we should write to that
German referee and thank him.