YOU HAD to admire Graham Taylor for his ever-so-English ability to look his tormentors, myself included, full on and never bear a grudge.
It would have been so easy for him as England manager to snub papers like The Sun.
Instead he chose to ignore what was a campaign to get him out of the job when his challenge for the 1992 European Championships failed so badly.
Keep up to date with ALL the England news, gossip on our page plus fixtures, results and live match commentary
That resulted in our classic headline above my match report.
I only discovered what my desk planned during a quick call to London from a very packed and noisy press room. “Everything OK, I asked?”
“Yes, no problem, apart from the result. We have our headline,” I was told. “It’s SWEDES 2 TURNIPS 1.
“Are you being serious?” I asked before joining a group of colleagues and sharing my reservations with my late colleague John Sadler.
He laughed, others laughed, and I phoned the office back to tell them I had lost my sense of humour.
As it turned out, Taylor always admired the headline that summed up his failure as England manager.
It was penned by the great SunSport production journalist Dave Clement, an absolute master of the tabloid headline. Taylor, the son of a journalist, appreciated Clement’s craft — and sent him a warm personal message when he retired in 1999.
The lampoons that followed hurt Taylor more.
Taylor was intense and loyal to those he worked with in a football circle.
That included trusted coaches and media men he had met during his management career at Lincoln and then Watford.
The way he set out his teams produced results, quite brilliantly. He won promotion at Lincoln and took Watford, where he was mentor to Elton John the club’s then-owner, from Division Four to the top flight in five years.
After finishing runners-up to Liverpool, he threw in an FA Cup final appearance for good measure.
He emerged at Aston Villa to take that club back to the top flight and another second-placed finish. Yet he was never fully accepted by some within the game. He was grossly under-rated by a number of top coaches.
They felt his style of play — direct rather than long ball — was bad enough for club level but a definite no-no for one of the world’s leading nations.
I believe the attitude of some of his peers affected his thinking and planning as England manager.
Taylor never looked totally comfortable in charge of the national side. He appointed Lawrie McMenemy as his assistant in the belief that the former Southampton boss would be the ideal presence as a liaison between him and big-name stars such as Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne.
Most Read in Sport
He was never less than professional and was an innovator who added John Gardiner, a sports psychiatrist, to his back-room team.
But the decision to employ spin doctor David Teasdale was not one of his best.
He began to rely on outsiders more and more and press conferences were often embarrassing — with Taylor trying to please reporters by being some sort of song and dance man. He actually did sing for them once.
It should be remembered he lost only one of his first 23 England games. But distressingly for him and the country he went on to lose the ones that mattered.
England failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup after going down 2-0 to Holland — a match that saw a combination of shoddy refereeing and gamesmanship from a certain Ronald Koeman.
He made mistakes but then the role of England manager unsettles the most disciplined minds.
His decision to wire himself up for sound and take part in a documentary to be named An Impossible Job was questionable.
He would forever regret that decision.
With England, Taylor’s legacy sadly is of the manager who failed.
He deserved better than that.
He will be remembered with respect by those who had to deal and travel with him and recognised the individual, not merely the public figure.
When he quit England I phoned him and asked what his immediate plans were.
Taylor replied: “I am going away to get the sun on my back.
“No change there,” he added.