Nick Westby: Positives far outweigh the negatives for Graham Taylor - one of English football's warmest individuals

Former England manager Graham Taylor has died aged 72, a spokesman for the family has said. Picture: PA.

The death of the former England manager at the age of 72 came as a shock, and the social media world reacted with genuine sadness and the utmost respect for one of the great careers of English football management.

READ MORE - How the world of football reacted to Graham Taylor’s death

READ MORE - Former England manager Graham Taylor dies, aged 72

There was no dwelling on the crude, infamous headline that taunted him in the wake of a crushing 2-0 defeat suffered by his England team at the hands of Norway in a World Cup qualifier in 1993.

If anything, his flawed reign as the national team manager was treated as just that - an aberration on an otherwise immaculate cv.

To the supporters of Lincoln City, Watford and Aston Villa, Taylor was nothing short of a club legend.

He even has a stand named after him at Vicarage Road, such was the enormous impact he had on the club in two spells. In the late 1970s, early 80s, he took a team including John Barnes and Luther Blissett from the Fourth Division to an FA Cup final and second in the league. On his return in the late 1990s, he took them back into the Premier League.

Another league runners-up place was achieved with Aston Villa in 1990, after which the Football Association asked him to succeed Sir Bobby Robson as England manager.

Taylor inherited a team riding the highs of Italia ‘90, but a dire Euro ‘92 tournament precipitated the drastically poor World Cup qualifying campaign for the 1994 finals. England failed to make it to the USA, Taylor was blamed - villified in some quarters due to an aggressive tabloid media campaign - and he resigned.

Yet from the depths of such national torture, Taylor managed to rebuild his image and his career.

There was no bitterness about the period, at least not publically. He was always open about his shortcomings as the national manager, with his honesty as a broadcaster on Radio 5Live one of the attributes that made him so engaging to listen to.

Former England football manager Graham Taylor in a thoughtful mood at the post match conference in London, following England's defeat by Holland in the 1994 World Cup qualifying match. Picture: PA Wire.

In the dugout as well, he reinvented himself. There is an adage in football that ‘you never go back’, but Taylor returned for another successful spell at Watford, taking to five the number of promotions he achieved at the club in two spells.

While his return to Villa Park at the turn of the century did not end with another title challenge, he at least proved that nearly 30 years after he took his first steps in management with Lincoln City, he could still keep pace with a rapidly-evolving game.

Self-deprecating, genial and thoughtful are just some of the words used to describe Taylor on Thursday.

English football has lost one of it’s warmest individuals.