Graham Taylor Has Passed Away, Rip

[piggynose]

Just seen the news.
why was he called turnip head?

[douglas9401]

Were his parents Swedes?

[andy-hughes]

piggynose - the nickname came from an image in The Sun newspaper - when England failed to qualify under Taylor's management, they called him a turnip, and transposed a picture of Taylor onto an image of a turnip and printed it on the front page.

Taylor had the grace and good humour to accept the 'joke', although he said in interview that it did lead to gratuitous insults from compete strangers for a time.

The sad thing is that although Taylor's reign as England manager was a disaster, he was an excellent and highly successful club manager with both Watford and Aston Villa, and became a respected radio pundit on Radio 5 Live.

It's a shame that his brief lack of success in international football overshadowed the successes of an excellent manager who was universally liked and respected by the football community.

[murraymints]

remember him from living in Watford..a regular sight around the town nice man RIP

[-Talbot-]

From my recollection the name came from the defeat by Sweden well before the picture was printed of a turnip superimposed on Taylor's head

Swede's 2 Turnip's 1

can remember this match http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-koeman-leaves-england-in-tatters-referee-condemned-as-ronald-koeman-escapes-red-card-to-1510736.html

Felt sorry for Taylor ... the ref either hated England or had taken a bung.

Seemed a genuine nice bloke RIP.

[Lie-in King]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38599231

A sad loss, he seemed a decent, honest gentleman.

RIP Graham.

[Gung-Ho-Joe]

Do I not like that........sad......nice guy.

[andy-hughes]

Talbot - //From my recollection the name came from the defeat by Sweden well before the picture was printed of a turnip superimposed on Taylor's head //

That may be so, but the public lampooning of Mr Taylor started in earnest when this image appeared - prior to that it may have been known in football circles, but once The Sun did its bit, the nickname went world-wide, and stayed with Mr Taylor for the remainder of his life.

[murraymints]

yep you are right Andy...he was a lovely man and always contributed his time and players for charity things locally...he donated signed football..including Elton's , strips , family enclosure passes for a raffle I ran from Job Centre ..a bit of a shock today..many folks with whom I had a personal link gone in recent times....sad..so sad...

[Mamyalynne]

RIP Graham.

[Fibonacci]

A sad loss - a very decent man. Thoughts with his friends and family. RIP

[-Talbot-]

andy-hughes
Talbot - //From my recollection the name came from the defeat by Sweden well before the picture was printed of a turnip superimposed on Taylor's head //

That may be so, but the public lampooning of Mr Taylor started in earnest when this image appeared



That is incorrect, andy. The sun had done a similar trick to the turnip using an onion when England lost to Spain ... that was well before the Swedish game and the turnip pic.

I had no idea you liked your football so much.

[Arksided]

R.I.P Graham Taylor I didn't know he'd passed away.

[tonyav]

RIP Graham Taylor.
Did a good job first time round at the Villa.