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
1990s.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, and Graham
scored 35 goals in 72 games for the club and won a League Cup medal. He moved
for £75,000 to
Bertie Mee's
Arsenal
in 1966. 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 before seeing out his career at
Portsmouth and
Crystal Palace. He also won twelve caps for
Scotland.
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.
However, his tenure at Arsenal ended unhappily. Graham was sacked as manager
of Arsenal on
February
21, 1995, after
it was discovered he had taken £425,000 in illegal payments from
Norwegian agent
Rune Hauge
in order to sign two of Hauge's clients:
Pål
Lydersen and
John
Jensen. 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 1999-2000
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. He has been out of management ever since, concentrating on his career
as a football pundit for
Sky Sports.
Since leaving Tottenham, George Graham's name has been linked with managerial
vacancies at Leicester,
Sunderland, Aston Villa,
Blackburn and
Newcastle, but none of these rumours have come to anything. With George
Graham now 60 years old, as time passes it seems less and less likely that he
will return to management.
Honours
Honours as player
Aston Villa
- League
Cup runners-up 1963
Chelsea
- League Cup winners
1965
- FA Cup
runners-up 1967
Arsenal
- League Cup runners-up
1968
- League Cup runners-up
1969
-
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup winners
1970
-
League Championship
1971
- FA Cup winners 1971
- FA Cup runners-up
1972
Honours as manager
Millwall
- Promotion from
Division 3 1985
Arsenal
- League Cup winners
1987
- League Cup runners-up
1988
- League Championship
1989
- League Championship
1991
- FA Cup winners 1993
- League Cup winners 1993
-
European Cup Winners Cup winners
1994
Tottenham Hotspur
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