George Graham (footballer)

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George Graham
Personal information
Date of birth November 30, 1944 (age 62)
Place of birth Bargeddie, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Professional clubs*
Years Club Apps (goals)
1961-64
1964-66
1966-72
1972-74
1974-76
1976-77
 Aston Villa
Chelsea
Arsenal
Manchester United
Portsmouth
Crystal Palace		 8 (2)
72 (35)
227 (60)
43 (2)
61 (5)
44 (2)
National team
1971-73 Scotland 12 (3)
Teams managed
1983-86
1986-95
1996-98
1998-2001		 Millwall
Arsenal
Leeds United
Tottenham Hotspur

* Professional club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.

George Graham (born November 30, 1944 in Bargeddie, Lanarkshire) is a Scottish football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success at Arsenal, as a player in the 1970s and then as manager in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

Despite being Scottish, George Graham played exclusively in England. He signed for Aston Villa in 1961, having just turned 17. He spent three seasons at the Birmingham club, but only made eight appearances – though one of them was the club's 1963 League Cup final loss to Birmingham City.

Chelsea signed him in July 1964 for £5000. Graham scored 35 goals in 72 league games for the club and won a League Cup medal but he, along with several other Chelsea players, increasingly clashed with their volatile manager Tommy Docherty. This culminated in Graham and seven others being sent home and disciplined by Docherty for breaking a pre-match curfew in 1965; he was sold to Bertie Mee's Arsenal for £75,000 plus Tommy Baldwin a year later. Graham started out as centre forward for the club, but later moved to inside forward, behind the main striker. Graham was an integral part of Arsenal's Double-winning side of 1971 (and had a claim to scoring Arsenal's first goal in the FA Cup final against Liverpool), but the arrival of Alan Ball displaced him out of the side; he moved for £120,000 to Manchester United in December 1972.

He spent two years at United, and was the club captain when they were relegated to Division Two. He saw out his career at Portsmouth and Crystal Palace. He played the summer of 1978 in America playing for the California Surf.

Graham won 12 caps for Scotland.

[edit] Managerial career

After retiring from playing, he became a coach at Crystal Palace and then later QPR. In 1983 Graham was appointed manager of Millwall, and then his old club Arsenal in 1986. Arsenal hadn't won a trophy since 1979, but Graham turned the club around quickly, winning two League Championships, two League Cups, an FA Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup in eight years, making them one of the dominant teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Graham is credited with bringing some brilliant players to Arsenal, including David Seaman, Nigel Winterburn, Lee Dixon and Ian Wright. However he also signed some duds - Eddie McGoldrick, Glenn Helder and Pål Lydersen. The last was one of two players, the other being John Jensen, involved in the bung scandal that resulted in Graham's dismissal on February 21, 1995. It was discovered he had taken £425,000 in illegal payments from Norwegian agent Rune Hauge to sign the pair. He was then banned from football for a year as punishment from the Football Association.

George Graham's return to football management came with Leeds United in September 1996. Although Leeds scored fewer goals than any other Premiership club (28) they still finished in a secure 13th place. 1997-98 saw Leeds finish fifth in the Premiership and secure UEFA Cup qualification.

In October 1998 Graham's two-year spell as Leeds manager came to an end when he was appointed manager of Tottenham Hotspur. Just five months after taking charge he guided the club to victory over Leicester City in the League Cup final and with it a place in the 1999-00 UEFA Cup. But the club's league form was never thrilling and Graham was sacked as Tottenham manager in March 2001 after falling out with the club's new owner Daniel Levy. Despite guiding the club to its first trophy in eight seasons, Graham remained unpopular with a large section of the supporters, because of his previous role at Arsenal, Tottenham's bitter rivals. He has been out of management ever since, concentrating on his career as a football pundit for Sky Sports.

Towards the end of his tenure at Tottenham, Graham was hospitalised with Rheumatoid Arthritis, causing many to question whether his health would allow him to continue in management.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Honours as player

[edit] Aston Villa

[edit] Chelsea

  • League Cup winners 1965

[edit] Arsenal

[edit] Honours as manager

[edit] Millwall

[edit] Arsenal

[edit] Tottenham Hotspur

  • League Cup winners 1999
Preceded by:
Steve Burtenshaw (caretaker)		 Arsenal manager
1986–1995		 Succeeded by:
Stewart Houston (caretaker)
Preceded by:
Howard Wilkinson		 Leeds United AFC manager
1996-1998		 Succeeded by:
David O'Leary
Preceded by:
Christian Gross		 Tottenham Hotspur manager
1998–2001		 Succeeded by:
Glenn Hoddle
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