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Watford To Honour Legendary Graham Taylor With Statue

Watford To Honour Legendary Graham Taylor With Statue

The former Watford manager passed away last month and the club have announced plans for his tribute.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Last month football was hit with the sad news that former Watford and England manager had died, aged 72. The club have announced plans to honour their greatest ever manager.

Taylor's first job as a manager was at Lincoln City and after winning the Fourth division title with the Imps he became Watford manager in 1977. In just five years he took the Hornets from the Fourth division to the First division.

After his time as England manager, where he was roughly treated by the media, and a spell at Wolves he would return to Vicarage Road in 1996. He first took up the role of General Manager before becoming manager again and getting the club into the Premier League for the first time.

Last month Taylor sadly passed away and today the club have revealed that they will honour him by erecting a statue of him outside the ground and by playing an annual pre season marquee friendly in his name.

The statement on the club website read:

"With the blessing of Graham Taylor's family, Watford FC will move forward with two significant tributes to the late Graham Taylor OBE.

"A statue of Graham is to be commissioned and sited at the stadium, with its location to be agreed with Graham's family and Watford Borough Council.

"In addition, a pre-season tribute fixture - which is expected to become an annual opportunity to remember Watford's greatest-ever manager - will be arranged to take place at Vicarage Road Stadium ahead of the Hornets' 2017/18 campaign."

The former full back already has a stand named after him at Vicarage Road to commemorate their most successful ever manager.

802 of Taylor's 1,344 games as a manager were as boss at Watford and the super successful manager also oversaw five of his seven promotions whilst boss of the Hertfordshire club.

All sorts of football luminaries were at Taylor's funeral at the beginning of the month to pay tribute to one of football's great men.

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