SPECIAL pt 2 of 2 - 'England is booming, don't let Taylor blow it!'

When we left the story exploring the parallels between the tenures of Graham Taylor and John Major at the end of Part One in the summer of 1992, both men were perhaps at the peak of their powers.  Taylor’s England were looking forward to that summer’s European Championships having already comfortably seen off one of their Group Stage opponents (France) 2-0 in a friendly at Wembley earlier in the year and were on a run which had seen them record only a single defeat (against World Champions, Germany) in Taylor’s opening 21 matches.  

However, England completely flopped at Euro 92, failing to win a single game, scoring only one goal in three matches as they limply exited the tournament at the Group Stage.  Having lost the crucial final game to hosts Sweden, Taylor was cruelly lampooned in the press with his head superimposed onto a turnip accompanied by the savage headline ‘SWEDES 2 TURNIPS 1’ on the back page of The S*n.  Taylor’s honeymoon was well and truly over and the knives were out amongst the press given England’s poor performances, Taylor’s bizarre selections and his decision to substitute national treasure Gary Lineker when England desperately needed a goal.

For Major, despite the fact he had achieved the unthinkable in winning an election that many (including members of his own party) had thought was unwinnable, his majority was greatly reduced and it was not long before the pressure began to mount.  Britain’s relationship with Europe and its membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) had contributed to the downfall of his predecessor and on 16th September 1992, the events that became known as ‘Black Wednesday’ fatally undermined both Major’s credibility and the Tories reputation for economic competence.  Despite increasingly desperate attempts by Major and his Chancellor, Norman Lamont to remain in the ERM, Britain humiliatingly tumbled out of the ERM as interest rates soared.

Over the course of the next couple of years, the pace of events increasingly got out of control and continually blighted the reigns of Major and Taylor with both men increasingly resembling Basil Fawlty rather than the smooth, consummate professionals they had appeared to be back in 1990.  

Taylor inexplicably agreed to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary with Channel 4 chronicling England’s attempts to qualify for the 1994 World Cup Finals.  What exactly motivated Taylor to do this is uncertain, perhaps he wanted to showcase warts and all, the realities of international management?  Whatever the motivations, the resulting film ‘An Impossible Job’ has become a cult classic.  As England toil in their quest to reach USA 94, Taylor and his assistants (Lawrie McMenemy and Phil Neal) resemble ‘The Three Stooges’ as the campaign increasingly veers into tragi-comic territory as poor performance follows poor performance.  Taylor himself cuts an increasingly desperate and isolated figure and his relationships with his team, the press and even his loyal assistants become strained.  The nadir of the campaign perhaps comes in a crucial double header of away games against Poland and Norway.  Ahead of these games, Taylor comments that “the public back home expect (England) […] the results that will get us into the United States”, what instead unfurls is nothing short of a disaster.  England grab a perhaps undeserved point in Katowice, but a crushing defeat to Norway leaves England with an awful lot to do in their remaining games. Matters come to a cruel and brutal head in Rotterdam, when a combination of poor refereeing and bad luck leads to a 2-0 defeat that left both England’s World Cup hopes and Taylor’s reputation in tatters.

Like Taylor, John Major sought to put the seismic events of 1992 ‘Black Wednesday’ behind him at the autumn Tory Party conference, he sought to reassert his authority and show he was capable of leading the party forwar