Graham Taylor: I turned down Newcastle job

Aug 22 2010 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

GRAHAM Taylor is best known for his fine work at Watford and today’s Toon opponents Aston Villa. But as he tells Mark Douglas in an exclusive interview, his affinity for Newcastle runs deep.

HEARD the one about the former England boss who used to turn up unannounced on the Gallowgate?

It might sound like the start of a bar room gag but it’s not. And what’s more, the former Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor also turned down the Toon job during his decorated managerial career – albeit with a heavy heart.

The approach came in 1987 and, for a man who had nursed a soft spot for Newcastle ever since making his league debut against them in February 1963, it was a tempting gig.

But Taylor, his stock sky-high after guiding Watford from the fourth division to an FA Cup final, had already got a contract with Villa. With regret, he politely declined.

“It seems like a long, long time ago, but it was when I went to Villa. I had been there a year and there was an offer, through a third party, asking whether I would be interested in considering the Newcastle job,” he said.

“I couldn’t because I had signed a contract at Aston Villa, but there was a tinge of regret there.

“It would have been a fantastic opportunity and Newcastle has always had a place in my heart, ever since I made my debut for Grimsby against them in the old Second Division.

“I knew all about Newcastle and what a big club it is – I had actually spent a lot of time at St James’ Park when I was at Watford.

“In fact, it was on the Gallowgate that I learned never to under-estimate the knowledge of the average football fan.

“When I was a young manager at Watford and we didn’t have a midweek game I used to go to Newcastle a lot if they were playing.

“I would park my car up at Kings Cross after training, catch the 2 o’clock to Newcastle and walk up to the stadium and pay to get in.

“It probably sounds crazy now because you wouldn’t be able to do it these days, but I loved standing on the terraces and I didn’t get noticed once, I don’t think.

“It was a fantastic trip and one that I used to love to make. I would stand on the Gallowgate and watch whoever it was that I wanted to watch, then afterwards have a tot of whiskey in the station and catch the sleeper train back to London in time for training at 9am the following day.

“One that sticks in my memory is a derby game between Newcastle and Sunderland that ended 2-2.

“I spotted Wilf Rostron, a Sunderland defender, that day and actually ended up signing him for Watford.

“I used to love listening to the supporters talking about the players and it amazed me how knowledgeable they were.”