Over recent weeks, the passing of Graham Taylor has brought into focus how many people he helped over his years in football. Among the devotees is Steve Harrison, a former player and coach who served under Graham.

“Unfortunately, he did not tell me how to be a manager. I thought I was a fairly good coach during my years but I was never suited to be manager,” admitted Steve, who held the managerial post at Vicarage Road from January 1988 to March 1990.

On the face of it, he inherited the wreckage that Dave Bassett had wrought on the squad and was unable to haul them out of the relegation area. The following season he took the Hornets to the Play-Offs, exiting at the semi-final stage without losing a match. The following campaign he struggled to mirror the previous success and admits he lost the dressing room.

Steve’s experience shines the light on the pressure experienced in the manager’s chair and he admits it was too much for him. “I knew from day one, I was not suited,” he once observed bitterly, but in more sanguine moments he conceded it took a couple of months for the penny to truly drop.

“I made so many illogical decisions and caused upsets in the dressing room. I pride myself on my people skills but I just lost the plot. I was trying to assert myself and over-did it. I was the funny man back under Graham, even when I was a coach. I wanted to be taken seriously when I came back. It took me 18 months at Watford, as manager, to realise I should just be myself.

“There are a few things I would like to say but I would like to apologise to the likes of Tim Sherwood and Dean Holdsworth, two young players. I did not treat them well and I would like to apologise for that,” he said in refreshingly honest reflection.

“I was the wrong man for the job. I didn’t make people gel but rather caused rifts.”

Fans who saw Steve in action at the annual Watford Observer Awards night at Bailey’s will know he had an exceptional talent for comedy. Such memories of his imitating Elton John with the use of a hidden trampette, along with his performances as game show hostess Harriet, were a far cry from the tense, almost haunted figure in charge at Vicarage Road for two years. He had originally joined Watford in September 1978.

“Graham liked you to be hard but fair. You knew where the borders were and a couple of times I went over them. He wasn’t fussy but I know I overstepped the line and he fined me £25 for kicking a player. I said to Graham that if I had known it would cost me £25, I would have kicked him properly.”

Steve is always thankful for the contributions made by Graham and Tom Walley.

“When I retired as a player, Graham made me Tom’s assistant in the youth set up for a couple of years and that was an education. Tom knew how to get inside players’ heads. He recognised what people were good at and he got them to work as hard on those assets as they worked on their deficiencies. That was a new concept to me as coaches seemed to work on your weaknesses not develop your strengths.

“Then there was Graham. I never had come across someone who was so studious. He had studied the game and he told us where we should be at any given stage in the game. Can you imagine that? The pattern of play was drummed into us. The organisation was fantastic. It opened up a whole new world to me.”

The gregarious nature of Steve’s personality, helped him break through into the Watford ethos, which had been forged by a runaway championship season in Division Four the previous season.

“I had never experienced the whole unity of the players and club such as I came across at Watford in 1978. They were a very tight-knit group and it took a long time to be accepted. I was lucky I was quite gregarious, but you had to earn your respect.”

Steve coached under Graham at Aston Villa, England and Wolves.

His axing at Wolves, months after reaching the play-offs, was a blow for Graham following the mauling he received in public over his England stint.

“It wounded him. He coped with great strength in the face of some of the awful things he had to put up with,” Steve says of his mentor.

“Looking back, I think Graham was the first manager in England to stop the lads having beer on the team bus when coming back from a game. That was almost a religion in football but he stopped it.

“Coming back from Shrewsbury one Saturday, he did not come with us. Sam (Ellis) was in charge and we badgered him to take on a crate or two. On the Monday, Graham asks us what we thought about the 1-0 win. He then asks if the journey back was ok. We said it was ok but you knew, from the look in his eyes, he knew! Then he asked us about stopping for a pee by the roadside.

“It was just another example how he knew things were going on. Another was at Brentford when he did not come into the dressing room at half-time. So I stood up and started to do him, insisting various players should get tighter. I threw a cup and some soft soap. The lads were laughing and while I was cleaning up, Boothy took it on, instructing the players in Graham’s voice.”

Minutes later, Graham appeared and asked the players if they were going to do everything Harry and Boothy had told them to do.

“He knew everything. He also could motivate. We were 1-0 down at Old Trafford in the League Cup and at half-time he said we have done ok. We are playing Manchester United and it is only to be expected we will lose. No one will give us stick. What do you think? Shall we call it quits now?”

Steve remembered Taylor then stepping up a gear, saying: “That is not me out there. You are representing me. Get out there, get in amongst them and get some balls into the box.” Watford won 2-1.

Steve has no doubt. “He was one of the most influential people in my life. He brought home the values of family life, handling yourself well. Don’t overstep the mark, which I have in my life, but he was right.

“One of the proudest moments in my life was when he referred to me as his friend.”