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George Graham
Personal information
Full name	George Graham
Date of birth	November 30, 1944 (1944-11-30) (age 63)
Place of birth	Bargeddie, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Playing position	Midfielder/Forward
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1961-1964 1964-1966 1966-1972 1972-1974 1974-1976 1976-1977	Aston Villa Chelsea Arsenal Manchester United Portsmouth Crystal Palace	008 0(2) 072 (35) 227 (60) 043 0(2) 061 0(5) 044 0(2)
National team
1971-1973	Scotland	012 0(3)
Teams managed
1983-1986 1986-1995 1996-1998 1998-2001	Millwall Arsenal Leeds United Tottenham Hotspur
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

George Graham (born November 30, 1944 in Bargeddie, Lanarkshire) is a Scottish former 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 1 Playing career 2 Managerial career 2.1 Millwall 2.2 Arsenal 2.3 Leeds United 2.4 Tottenham Hotspur 2.5 Since 2001 3 Honours 3.1 Honours as player 3.2 Honours as manager 4 References

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.

After retiring from playing, he became a coach at Crystal Palace and then later QPR. On 6 December 1982 Graham was appointed manager of Millwall who were then bottom of the old Third Division. They avoided relegation that season and in 1984-85 they were promoted to the old Second Division.

Graham's achievements at Millwall attracted attention from bigger clubs, and he was appointed manager of his old club Arsenal on 14 May 1986. Arsenal hadn't won a trophy since 1979-80 and had been in the doldrums since. However, 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.

He is widely renowned for masterminding an excellent defence for his various clubs. Most notably he assembled the famous "Arsenal back 4" of the early 1990s (Adams, Bould, Winterburn and Dixon). His reputation as a tactical guru gained further credence when he guided Arsenal to the 1994 European Cup Winners Cup Trophy. Arsenal's triumph was based on a strong defence which resulted in a number of clean sheets including the final where they defeated their more illustrious opponents Italian side Parma 1-0.

His most famous moment as a manager though was in 1989 when Arsenal defeated Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield. It was the last game of the season and an injury time goal from Michael Thomas secured the first of his two League Championships with Arsenal.

Graham is credited with bringing some influential players to Arsenal, including David Seaman, Nigel Winterburn, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown and Ian Wright. However, one particular transfer proved to be his downfall. The acquisition of John Jensen involved Graham in a bung scandal that resulted in his dismissal from the Arsenal job on February 21, 1995. It was alleged that 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.^[1]

George Graham's return to football management came with Leeds United in September 1996. He took over a Leeds team that was struggling against relegation at the time and 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. However, he has been linked with jobs since and is one of the high profile candidates that have stated an interest in the Republic of Ireland managerial vacancy.^{[citation needed]}

Aston Villa

• League Cup runners-up 1963

Chelsea

• League Cup winners 1965

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

Millwall

• Football League Group Trophy 1983
• 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

• League Cup winners 1999

1. ^ "Football's original bung scandal", BBC Sport, 2006-09-20. Retrieved on 2006-12-27. 

v • d • e Millwall F.C. – Managers

Henderson (1894–99) • Stopher (1899–1900) • Saunders (1900–11) • Lipsham (1911–18) • Hunter (1918–33) • McCracken (1933–36) • Hewitt (1936–40) • Voisey (1940–44) • Cock (1944–48) • Hewitt (1948–56) • Gray (1956–58) • Seed (1958–59) • Smith (1958–61) • Gray (1961–63) • Gray (1963–66) • Fenton (1966–74) • Jago (1974–77) • Foley (1977) • Petchey (1978–80) • Anderson (1980–82) • Graham (1982–86) • Docherty (1986–90) • Pearson (1990) • Rioch (1990–92) • McCarthy (1992–96) • Nicholl (1996–97) • Docherty (1997) • Bonds (1997–98) • Stevens (1998–00) • McLeary (1999–2000) • Gritt (2000) • Harford (2000) • McGhee (2000–03) • Wise (2003–05) • Claridge (2005) • Lee (2005) • Tuttle (2005–06) • Burns (2006) • McLeary (2006) • Spackman (2006) • Donachie (2006–07) • Shaw (2007) • Jackett (2007–)

v • d • e Arsenal F.C. – Managers

Hollis (1894–1897) • Mitchell (1897–1898) • Elcoat (1898–1899) • Bradshaw (1899–1904) • Kelso (1904–1908) • Morrell (1908–1915) • Knighton (1919–1925) • Chapman (1925–1934) • Shaw (1934c) • Allison (1934–1947) • Whittaker (1947–1956) • Crayston (1956–1958) • Swindin (1958–1962) • Wright (1962–1966) • Mee (1966–1976) • Neill (1976–1983) • Howe (1983–1986) • Burtenshaw (1986c) • Graham (1986–1995) • Houston (1995c) • Rioch (1995–1996) • Houston (1996c) • Rice (1996c) • Wenger (1996–) (c) caretaker

v • d • e Leeds United A.F.C. – Managers

Ray (1919–20) • Fairclough (1920–1927) • Ray (1927–35) • Hampson (1935–47) • Edwards (1947–48) • Buckley (1948–53) • Carter (1953–58) • Lambton (1958–59) • Revie (1961–74) • Clough (1974) • Armfield (1974–78) • Stein (1978) • Adamson (1978–80) • Clarke (1980–82) • Gray (1982–85) • Bremner (1985–88) • Wilkinson (1988–96) • Graham (1996–98) • O'Leary (1998–2002) • Venables (2002–03) • Reid (2003) • Gray (2003–04) • Blackwell (2004–06) • Wise (2006–)

v • d • e Tottenham Hotspur F.C. – Managers

Brettell (1898–1899) • Cameron (1899–1907) • Kirkham (1907–1908) • Turner (1908–1913s) • McWilliam (1913–1927) • Minter (1927–1930) • Smith (1930–1935) • Hardinge (1935c) • Tresadern (1935–1938) • McWilliam (1938–1942) • Turner (1942–1946) • Hulme (1946–1949) • Rowe (1949–1955) • Anderson (1955–1958) • Nicholson (1958–1974) • Neill (1974–1976) • Burkinshaw (1976–1984) • Shreeves (1984–1986) • Pleat (1986–1987) • Hartley & Livermore (1987c) • Venables (1987–1991) • Shreeves (1991–1992) • Livermore & Clemence (1992–1993) • Ardiles (1993–1994) • Perryman (1994c) • Francis (1994–1997) • Hughton (1997c) • Gross (1997–1998) • Pleat (1998c) • Graham (1998–2001) • Pleat (2001c) • Hoddle (2001–2003) • Pleat (2003c) • Santini (2004) • Jol (2004–2007) • Allen (2007c) • Ramos (2007–) (c) caretaker (s) secretary-manager