Gifton reveals grand gesture

GIFTON NOEL-WILLIAMS (below) started his career at Watford aged 16 in 1996 during Graham Taylor’s second spell at the club. Here he reveals the generous side of his former manager: I WAS happy that I was going to be managed by the former England manager. Many people think one thing about Graham Taylor, but for me personally he’s one of the most amazing men I’ve ever met. Our relationship was really solid before he became team manager. The year before, he found out about my situation with expecting a kid and he pulled me into his office. All the boys were saying: ‘Oh, the gaffer wants to see you . . . ’ and I was wondering what was going to happen. He said: ‘So, Gifton, how’s it going?’ I explained about the whole situation and he said: ‘How are you for money? How are you getting by? Because you can’t be getting by.’ I said: ‘I’m trying. I’m trying my best to just get by.’ He said: ‘What do you need?’ I told him all the things I needed for the baby and he said: ‘How much is that going to cost?’ I said it would be about £300, maybe £400, and he said: ‘Are you sure that’s all you need?’ He pulled out his personal cheque book. It wasn’t a club cheque book — this was Graham Taylor’s own cheque book — and he wrote me a cheque for a grand. ‘There you go,’ he said. ‘Make sure you get everything you need. If you need anything else, come back to me. When you are here, I need you to concentrate on football. When you are at home, I want you to look after your baby.’ Before I went in, I thought I was going to be sacked. He said: ‘Don’t tell anyone about this.’ I kept it from all the boys. Every time I’ve seen him over the years he asks how my family is, how my mum is. My mum used to love Graham Taylor. She’d give him a big cuddle. Extract taken from ‘Tales from the Vicarage’, a series of books about Watford FC.