The Merged George Graham Superthread!

As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Post Reply
supergeorgegraham
Posts: 1297
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2010 9:19 am
Location: Northampton

The Merged George Graham Superthread!

Post by supergeorgegraham »

Any doubts about who was responsible for Arsenal becoming the club it is today can be put to bed. Before GG took over we were a team from the distant past apart from an amazing 1971 season the year I was born.
My first memory was the 1978 defeat to Ipswich in the cup followed by the 1979 amazing 3v2 win against United.
In the 80s we were lucky to finish in the top 5 although we had some decent players and I grew up seeing Liverpool win everything and thinking I will never live to see the day we win the title.
Forward to 1987 and suddenly we win the Littlewoods Cup. Two massive wins against Spurs and Liverpool were the start.
Our youth players combined with such clever signings as Alan Smith bring us back from no mans land.
We all know the story of 1989 but unless you lived through the decade you just would not know how amazing it was to do that.
Only Leicester last season can claim to have done something more impossible. 1991 we go one game unbeaten and romp home.
After that we become a cup team and seem to win something every season ending GG SUCCESS with a win in the cup winners cup in 1994. So no it was not Wenger that changed Asenal whoever came after GG had a very hard act to follow. You can say from 1997 to about 2006 Wenger had proved to be better. Now if you look from 2006 to 2016 you have to revisit the stats and see that we went so far backwards it's impossible to see any manager other than Wenger surviving

supergeorgegraham, hi mate, I have merged the two GG threads for convenience - DB10GOONER

Red Snapper
Posts: 979
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 1:57 pm

Re: George Graham

Post by Red Snapper »

Wouldn't argue with any of that; great post. It was a truly sad day watching the news and seeing GG drive away from Highbury. The bloke is a Gooner supreme and only he could be forgiven for taking on jobs at Dirty Leeds or N17. He was definately the scapegoat in the brown envelope scandal. If he was the only one at it I would be very surprised. His last season with us was a bit of a disaster though!

Redarmy
Posts: 8195
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:45 pm
Location: Avenell Road

Re: George Graham

Post by Redarmy »

supergeorgegraham wrote:Any doubts about who was responsible for Arsenal becoming the club it is today can be put to bed. Before GG took over we were a team from the distant past apart from an amazing 1971 season the year I was born.
My first memory was the 1978 defeat to Ipswich in the cup followed by the 1979 amazing 3v2 win against United.
In the 80s we were lucky to finish in the top 5 although we had some decent players and I grew up seeing Liverpool win everything and thinking I will never live to see the day we win the title.
Forward to 1987 and suddenly we win the Littlewoods Cup. Two massive wins against Spurs and Liverpool were the start.
Our youth players combined with such clever signings as Alan Smith bring us back from no mans land.
We all know the story of 1989 but unless you lived through the decade you just would not know how amazing it was to do that.
Only Leicester last season can claim to have done something more impossible. 1991 we go one game unbeaten and romp home.
After that we become a cup team and seem to win something every season ending GG SUCCESS with a win in the cup winners cup in 1994. So no it was not Wenger that changed Asenal whoever came after GG had a very hard act to follow. You can say from 1997 to about 2006 Wenger had proved to be better. Now if you look from 2006 to 2016 you have to revisit the stats and see that we went so far backwards it's impossible to see any manager other than Wenger surviving
1969 fairs cup winners
1970/71 FA Cup winners
1970/71 League title winners
1971/72 FA Cup runners up
1971/1972 League Title runners up

Red Snapper
Posts: 979
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 1:57 pm

Re: George Graham

Post by Red Snapper »

And George Graham played in all those teams!

User avatar
Henry Norris 1913
Posts: 8374
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:25 pm

Re: George Graham

Post by Henry Norris 1913 »

Pedant alert

*1970 fairs cup
*1973 league runners up

8)

officepest
Posts: 5072
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:27 am
Location: Lacking a little bit of sharpness in the final third.

Re: George Graham

Post by officepest »

Went from playing some of the best football I've seen to some of the shittest.

Just like Wenger. :-P

User avatar
augie
Posts: 29393
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:03 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: George Graham

Post by augie »

GG is a God. That is all 8) :barscarf: :barscarf:

Hope & Glory
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2016 8:03 am

Re: George Graham

Post by Hope & Glory »

Also built the best defence I have ever seen.

Redarmy
Posts: 8195
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:45 pm
Location: Avenell Road

Re: George Graham

Post by Redarmy »

Red Snapper wrote:And George Graham played in all those teams!

STROLLER....

Redarmy
Posts: 8195
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:45 pm
Location: Avenell Road

Re: George Graham

Post by Redarmy »

augie wrote:GG is a God. That is all 8) :barscarf: :barscarf:

that geyser was Arsenal through and through...and a very pleasant charming man

User avatar
GranadaJoe
Posts: 2412
Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:21 pm

Re: George Graham

Post by GranadaJoe »

I liked him as a player. With Armstrong, Radford, McLintock et al we had a really top team.

As a manager I loved his passion, but some of football was a bit agricultural until Merse, Rocky, Limpar and later IWWW were regulars.

The nature of his leaving left a bitter taste in the mouth, although the evidence that many other managers were involved in bungs eased my disappointment a bit.

However, I couldn't believe it when he went to the Scum and the thought of him plotting to beat us will always be a betrayal in my mind.

I will always have many fond memories of his time in charge.

User avatar
Sean
Posts: 1823
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 7:17 am
Location: N5 [In hibernation]
Contact:

Re: George Graham

Post by Sean »

The man who put Arsenal back on the map with sustained success, for the first time since the Chapman era :barscarf:

Sadly the turning point came against Benfica in 1991, then GG decided to change to dour football, which is unfortunately what he is tarred with now. By all accounts we played great football in the first five years, almost doing an Invincibles in 1991 (Fuck you, Chelsea).

Shame about the bung. Brian Clough would have been done for it too had he not retired two years previously. GG did give the money back. I hear he was on £300K a year, so to see The Old Fraud on £8.3M a year as he has become less successful boils my piss.

1994-95 was a terrible season. We were perpetually two losses from relegation. He had lost his eye for a player and would have struggled with increasing player power and money coming into the PL. Sad to see it end as it did, but at least it wasn't the drawn-out-over-eight-years situation we have now with TOF.

I can't blame GG for taking the Leeds and Scum jobs. Even their fans knew he was Arsenal through and through.

I suppose TOF could have truly overhauled GG had he won the CL in 2006, but the past decade has well and truly put him below GG.

He certainly built the club in it's modern form, no matter what shit TOF spouts on the subject (when he's not doing down our history).

User avatar
Nos89
Posts: 4568
Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:44 am

Re: George Graham

Post by Nos89 »

I believe we should have dominated the '90's because we simply had the best defence 6 seasons out of 10, and the best attack... however, our midfield between 1992-1997 was shockingly poor. To add the team was a bunch of piss heads so that didn't help.
Although, GG had mastered European competition after our damning defeat against Benfica in the 91/92 European Cup. Had he been in charge over the last 20 years we'd have won the Champions League at least 3 times. Bare in mind in the two seasons he managed us in Europe we got to a final and won it.

User avatar
DB10GOONER
Posts: 58940
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
Location: Dublin, Ireland.
Contact:

Re: George Graham

Post by DB10GOONER »

Nos89 wrote:I believe we should have dominated the '90's because we simply had the best defence 6 seasons out of 10, and the best attack... however, our midfield between 1992-1997 was shockingly poor. To add the team was a bunch of piss heads so that didn't help.
Although, GG had mastered European competition after our damning defeat against Benfica in the 91/92 European Cup. Had he been in charge over the last 20 years we'd have won the Champions League at least 3 times. Bare in mind in the two seasons he managed us in Europe we got to a final and won it.
Them being piss heads can't be used as an excuse. That was the culture back then and every single team had it's hard core of piss heads. :lol:

I don't agree GG would have won the CL if he'd been in charge over the last 20 years. As a manager he had fallen behind the curve by 1993/94. The game moved on without him in all aspects; technically, tactically, strategically and financially - just like it has with Wenger. I do think however if the dirty Mousers hadn't gotten all English teams banned from Europe then GG the master tactician would have had the benefit of the 89/90 season in Europe and learned enough tactically to (possibly) win it in 91/92.

I agree we should have dominated the entire 90's and I thought we would after the 91 season - that team was THAT good. But GG lost his eye for a decent signing just like Wenger has.

User avatar
augie
Posts: 29393
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:03 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: George Graham

Post by augie »

Sean wrote:The man who put Arsenal back on the map with sustained success, for the first time since the Chapman era :barscarf:

Sadly the turning point came against Benfica in 1991, then GG decided to change to dour football, which is unfortunately what he is tarred with now. By all accounts we played great football in the first five years, almost doing an Invincibles in 1991 (Fuck you, Chelsea).

Shame about the bung. Brian Clough would have been done for it too had he not retired two years previously. GG did give the money back. I hear he was on £300K a year, so to see The Old Fraud on £8.3M a year as he has become less successful boils my piss.

1994-95 was a terrible season. We were perpetually two losses from relegation. He had lost his eye for a player and would have struggled with increasing player power and money coming into the PL. Sad to see it end as it did, but at least it wasn't the drawn-out-over-eight-years situation we have now with TOF.

I can't blame GG for taking the Leeds and Scum jobs. Even their fans knew he was Arsenal through and through.

I suppose TOF could have truly overhauled GG had he won the CL in 2006, but the past decade has well and truly put him below GG.

He certainly built the club in it's modern form, no matter what shit TOF spouts on the subject (when he's not doing down our history).



Didn't ferguscum admit that he had received money, put it in his office safe, and then handed it back the next day (or within a few days) ?
As you say, the bung culture was rife back then and GG was a scapegoat for the system :evil:

Post Reply