2026-06-06 13:31:05
Darren Bazeley credits his management style to the late Graham Taylor.
The New Zealand head coach believes his former Watford boss – who died in 2017 following a suspected heart attack – was “ahead of his time” with his methods of getting the best out of his players and many of his values stem from what was instilled in him by the ex-England manager.
He told The Times newspaper: “When anyone ever asks me the question around coaches or manager, he was the best, the standout.
“He was ahead of his time as a coach. Tactically, he was very good. But his man-management of players was just amazing.
“He worked us hard but he knew how to get the best out of us. He knew your dog’s name, your wife’s name. He just knew everything about you. That’s what they teach you on coaching courses now. One of the first things around building culture and trust is get to know your players. He was ahead of his time in that.
“Definitely, I still draw on him. There are a lot of things I remember from playing under him that are part of me, part of my personal values: hard work, honesty, do things properly, don’t cut corners. You do get rewarded when you live like that.
“I kept in touch with him all the time. Even when I was in New Zealand, we used to get Christmas cards from him every year, for the next 20 years. He had that tough time as England manager, but what a great man.”
But Darren suggested he didn’t have to do a lot to get the All Whites to bond together as a team.
He said: “We’re very lucky here in New Zealand, there’s a massive culture here that we can fall back on. The All Blacks are amazing in that sort of field, creating that environment.
“We’ve got this cohesion, where we’ve got players who went to school together, grew up together, played in club football together, played under-17s, under-20s, Olympics together. Now they’re together playing for the All Whites at the World Cup.”
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