A Wolves run that ended too soon for boss Graham Taylor
It is more than 20 years since I stood in the cold outside Molineux waiting for the inevitable announcement that Graham Taylor had agreed to resign, writes Simon Penfold.
He was effectively sacked by a combination of an unhappy chairman – Sir Jack Hayward's son Jonathan – and a growing pressure from Wolves fans after a string of poor results.
Taylor's supposed relationship with Steve Bull hadn't helped, especially after rumours of an unsuccessful attempt to sell him to Coventry for £1.5million during the previous summer.
I was there alongside the world's Press and more than 100 fans would have to wait most of the day while the club thrashed out a financial settlement with the manager.
Taylor didn't want to go.
The trouble was, the only person outside suggesting he should stay admitted he was an Albion fan. And the embattled manager was getting no support inside the ground either.
Wolves' staff spent the day pleading ignorance and refusing to comment. But they finally took mercy on the freezing Press and fans and handed out coffee at lunchtime.
As one group of reporters were collecting their steaming cups they spotted Taylor. "Have you got a coffee?'' he asked the man from The Times.
But before anyone could ask him a question, the soon-to-be-ex-manager slipped away.
He was locked in discussions with club management as was finally revealed at 3.30pm when members of the Press were finally called in.
The fans left outside were not happy at being excluded.
After almost four hours of waiting, there was no surprise and most felt it had been inevitable. "He had to go," said several fans as they wandered away into the evening.
Taylor once remarked that his Wolves reign had been ended by 'a rich man's son'.
It was a barbed comment in the direction of Jonathan Hayward, the chairman who hired the ex-Villa boss in the face of public opinion and then went along with it by discarding him only 20 months later.
Five years later, Jonathan's father admitted Wolves were wrong to dispense with Graham Taylor.
"If we had stuck with Graham and given him more time, he would have got us into the Premiership," Sir Jack said. "I've no doubts about that at all."
