Roy's Guide & Taylor's Reflections

As Euro 2012 approaches and England‘s new boss Roy Hodgson prepares to lead the team to the tournament only a short time after his appointment, BBC3 broadcasted a documentary entitled ‘How To Be England Manager.’ Presented by Tim Lovejoy, and featuring a fairly decent Roy Hodgson look-a-like, the programme’s purpose was of course a comical guide to Roy in his new job, inevitably featuring comedians giving humours comments and football personalities like Robbie Savage and Ian Wright with decent input regarding the job and its implications. Football writer Henry Winter did shine amongst the other half joking, effortless opinions. His comments were sensible, composed and insightful and he certainly proved himself to be one of the country’s leading sports writers. However, for me the star of the show was Graham Taylor, England manager from 1990-1993 – who famously got made into a turnip under the headline ‘Swedes 2, Turnips 1’ after England’s defeat to Sweden in the 1992 European Championships.  Taylor used the documentary as an opportunity to genuinely tell English people his feelings following England’s defeat to the Swedes, their later failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup and what a journalist told his wife when she refused to give an interview. Taylor also told the camera about a time when he was blocked from contacting an England player by the club manager and that he told his players to call him ‘Graham’ before changing his mind for them to call him ‘Boss’. He said himself that he was taking a great risk in being as honest as he was on the programme, but that like always, he took risks. Certainly, this was a risk that paid off. Taylor came across as genuine, insightful and intriguing. But most of all, the once clown-like, clueless Taylor seemed genuinely hurt and disappointed looking back at his reign as England boss. As he said himself, ‘I’m fed up of people saying I’m bitter.. I’m not bitter, I’m just bloody disappointed.’ Proof that there are ex-Managers prepared to look back, explain and prove they really do care.