Thursday 18 February 2016 14:52, UK
As he walks down the steps of the stand that now bears his name, Graham Taylor points out the parts of the ground that he remembers from his first spell as Watford manager in the late seventies and early eighties.
None of the old stands remain, but he speaks with such clarity about the terraced areas, the family enclosure, the stand where his good mate and former Chairman Sir Elton John used to watch from, that you'd think they were still there. "I'll shut up in a minute!" he says, mindful he has a community engagement to fulfil shortly after our interview.
"It's changed very much and all for the better. I'm so pleased to see it. And sitting here in my stand! No, it has my name on it. It's not my stand but it's fantastic, I appreciate that so much."
As the club prepares for Saturday's match at home to Leeds United in the last 16 of the FA Cup, memories are jogged of Watford's most successful cup run, when Taylor led them to the final in 1984.
"I don't want to remember too much of it because we lost to Everton in the final," Taylor recalls. "And I think the players that I managed during my career will say, 'Yeah, nice fella, but poor loser!'
"It was a fantastic achievement though; the only time Watford have got to the final and to achieve that bearing in mind the level of performance, bearing in mind the players we had. It was really a first class job just to get there. But it was disappointing. I don't care what anybody says, it's always disappointing if you get to Wembley and lose."
Taylor was 32 and managing Lincoln City when he answered Sir Elton's call and took the Watford job back in 1977. The club was in the Fourth Division, but just five years later they had reached the top flight.
In the 1982/83 season they finished second in the league behind an all-conquering Liverpool side. It was no flash in the pan, as they proved the following season when reaching that FA Cup Final. John Barnes was the headline act but Taylor stresses it was a team effort.
"To be fair there were a lot of other players who haven't had as much recognition as John, I mention Luther Blissett because he's a local boy who did ever so well. There was John McClelland who was a centre back. He had pace but more than anything else he could read the game and he did it from the back for the team so we could get 1-0 up and then through John's leadership we could hold that lead."
And off the field, he was backed by a supportive board, led by Sir Elton. "Fantastic chairman, never interfered at all. His view was, 'We're paying him to be our manager, we're paying him to run our team, to select the team. If it goes wrong it's his fault not ours!' But that helped because you could talk to the directors about the team. The directors have never been given credit for sticking with me. In our first year in the second division we finished 18th and that could have turned certain directors."
Taylor was a manager of his time, admitting he would struggle with the way many Premier League clubs are set up at management level. "It's interesting because it's not something I'm happy with - I'm not talking here at Watford, it's changed in a lot of places," he explains.
"The owners of clubs are very wealthy people and they want a lot more of a say in the running of a club, and the running of the team, the selection of the team and who is transferred in. I have to say I wouldn't have been happy with that. It was beginning to come in as I left management. I'm not particularly keen on being called the manager of a football team when really I'm just head coach."
At Watford and elsewhere in Europe, the Pozzo family have worked wonders with their unique approach to club ownership. "You can't argue with that," Taylor continues. "As much as what I've just said, they've done extremely well in how they've worked it out. And more and more they seem to have put Watford at the top of all the clubs they have an interest in. It's a top division they're playing in now and they're handling themselves very well."
It may have continental ownership, but this is a place with deep community roots. We concluded our chat to allow Taylor to head into one of the club's suites to speak to local children at Show Racism The Red Card's 20th anniversary event. Taylor is rightfully proud of the club's strong community programme, one that dates back to his first spell here.
"I made it very clear that the club belonged to the town. What I started at Lincoln was the players going out to where our supporters worked. The supporters loved it but I used to make the point to the Watford supporters; you come and watch us and have to pay to watch, we don't have to pay a thing to watch you work.
"The relationship that established in this town was fantastic. You could see John Barnes play and then a few days later he'd come to your work place and you'd talk to him about the game. The players enjoyed it as well.
"For me I still think it was one of the most important things I gave the lead to, the community aspect, because it became known as a community club. That's what Watford is. Players, supporters, we're all in it together."
Watch Soccer Saturday from 12noon on Sky Sports News HQ to see Graham Taylor's full interview with Johnny Phillips.
