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George Graham - views

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LeeMcl

Supporter
I just stumbled on to some shit on Sky about the 1991 season. They showed some of the 91 Charity Shield ( how I remember that day ) some of the footage was of Shreeves and Graham chatting after the game and it reminded me that at the time I FUCKING detested Graham.

But when he was our manager, despite how shit we were at times, I never really disliked the fella. Weirdly. I hated what he did to Ginola, but he himself never really offended me, he always seemed quite positive and dapper and seemed to be a professional, Maybe back then I wanted him to be more successful than he was being, I am not sure, but I remember being willing to give the guy a chance even if I would never sing his name etc...

Christ, when he got sick and we had Stewart Houston in charge that really was depressing.

Looking at it now, 25 years later, he's somewhat of a forgotten man at Spurs. Anyone have anything constructive to say about the man's era or does CUNT just about do the job ? :dembelefingers:
 
As you say 'forgotten man' sums it up. At the time think it was hugely controversial. To be honest he won us a trophy (league cup 99) and didn't last too long. Our squad in those years was shit. We would finish below teams like West Ham and Charlton. Genuinely mid table.
The hate baton got passed to Sol and multiplied.
 
Didn't we set a record for consecutive goalless draws under him. I have vague recollections of a particularly tedious one against Middlesbrough that was in a run of six or so.
 
Never liked him but I still think levy made his first mistake when he sacked him for hoddle just before we played Woolwich in the fa cup semi. I thought at the time that graham could have set us up pragmatically to beat that lot.
 
Makes me proud to think he is never spoken of, airbrushed from our history. Any reference of him spoken is as the man in the raincoat.

Many years ago, me and a few mates kicked arround the idea of taking a pub arround White Hart Lane. The conversation took us arround opening another for away fans (purely a money spinner, although we came to the conclusion it would make any) and we thought about calling it The Man in The Raincoat. The picture to be used outside the pub was to be a grey suited man, dressed also in a raincoat, holding the cup in front of his face so it was never to be seen.
Bit like that famous work of art
Magritte_TheSonOfMan.jpg

Anyway he is a total cunt, along with his Son. Imagine hireing Wegner as our manager now? And for him to pay homage to his love of his life by having their emblem emblazoned in your swimming pool floor!! We were a calamitous football club then, disrespecting our fans and our history, there was no pride, just shame and embarrassment.
 
jimmyriggle said:
Never liked him but I still think levy made his first mistake when he sacked him for hoddle just before we played Woolwich in the fa cup semi. I thought at the time that graham could have set us up pragmatically to beat that lot.
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It was for gross misconduct though, so no compensation, I think legally you'd be on sticky ground if you let someone stay in a job for a while before sacking them for that.
 
Not a Graham fan but the constructive things I can is; that he won us the league cup (oddly for Graham going 3 at the back when we went down to 10 men). Before Graham we had spent most of the 90s flirting with relegation (1991/92,1993/94& 1997/98 in particular) and inherited a Gerry Francis/Christian Gross team that was injury plagued and relegation candidates again, Graham turned the injury situation around and moulded the team into a mid table side. Our home form was up there as one of the best in the league (victories over Man Utd, Woolwich and Liverpool at home were not uncommon), Steve Carr excelled under him and he gave Simon Davies and Ledley King their debuts and put trust in the young centre back when the team's form was suffering. He got us to two FA cup semi finals and was sacked a fortnight before the semi final due to a clash with Levi over transfer funds, which wasn't great timing from Levi as Graham was always a big game manager.

I would say in mitigation to Graham, he was Alan Sugar's last throw of the dice and found himself caught in a power struggle with DoF David Pleat and often felt undermined by him over transfer policy. He also suffered with an arthritic condition that affected most of his body and I read somewhere that he was quoted that this led him to spend 10-15 fewer hours a week at work than he did when he was at Woolwich (Graham never worked in management again after Spurs).

However his defensive football methods had become outdated and stale at the turn of the century as the rest of the football world was taking a more attacking form and he couldn't push us onto the next level and with Hoddle replacing him, a new buzz was created at the lane. But one of my favourite moments of his time was when we went away to Arsene Wenger's double winning team and we parked the bus, got pummeled for 90 mins by them and we come away with a 0-0 draw. Basically we had out Woolwich-ed them and the joy of their fans ringing up capital gold phone to complain about the injustice of it was beautiful! - one fans voice even went crokey and tearful.
 
Never quite got the whole truth of the gross misconduct business. At the time ( and now ) the smart move was to keep him until the end of the season. Back then ( not now ) ENIC did not seem the most switched on bunch and the transfer budgets for Hoddle were modest at best, so maybe Graham saying there was no dosh was fairly spot on.

It's odd to think that Graham was / is best friends with Terry Venables. They were two polar opposites on the field in terms of tactics.

Maybe the fairest thing to say about Graham is he kept us up at a time when we really could have gone down fairly easily. And doing that and adding a trophy was an achievement. He also said R Sol would do the dirty on us a long time before anyone else figured it out !
 
Don't get anyone sticking up for this clusterfucker. Dreadful influence on our proud club. Shitstain. A league cup? Please. I'd rather have not won it than have a Gooner fanboy running our show. Makes me fucking puke.
 
He was a cunt.

I wish this thread had never been started. Terry Neil was before my time but equally a cunt. I know I would have died inside then like I did when this specimen got paid by our coin.

Just cannot believe this happened.
 
Certainly see the points above ^^^ as completely valid. As I said, at one stage I could not have disliked the bloke more than I did.

This is an interesting read from 16 years back. We certainly don't have much to thank Alan Sugar for...it's a reminder of very dark times

George Graham: after the fall
 
Paul Allen's Omen said:
Not a Graham fan but the constructive things I can is; that he won us the league cup (oddly for Graham going 3 at the back when we went down to 10 men). Before Graham we had spent most of the 90s flirting with relegation (1991/92,1993/94& 1997/98 in particular) and inherited a Gerry Francis/Christian Gross team that was injury plagued and relegation candidates again, Graham turned the injury situation around and moulded the team into a mid table side. Our home form was up there as one of the best in the league (victories over Man Utd, Woolwich and Liverpool at home were not uncommon), Steve Carr excelled under him and he gave Simon Davies and Ledley King their debuts and put trust in the young centre back when the team's form was suffering. He got us to two FA cup semi finals and was sacked a fortnight before the semi final due to a clash with Levi over transfer funds, which wasn't great timing from Levi as Graham was always a big game manager.

I would say in mitigation to Graham, he was Alan Sugar's last throw of the dice and found himself caught in a power struggle with DoF David Pleat and often felt undermined by him over transfer policy. He also suffered with an arthritic condition that affected most of his body and I read somewhere that he was quoted that this led him to spend 10-15 fewer hours a week at work than he did when he was at Woolwich (Graham never worked in management again after Spurs).

However his defensive football methods had become outdated and stale at the turn of the century as the rest of the football world was taking a more attacking form and he couldn't push us onto the next level and with Hoddle replacing him, a new buzz was created at the lane. But one of my favourite moments of his time was when we went away to Arsene Wenger's double winning team and we parked the bus, got pummeled for 90 mins by them and we come away with a 0-0 draw. Basically we had out Woolwich-ed them and the joy of their fans ringing up capital gold phone to complain about the injustice of it was beautiful! - one fans voice even went crokey and tearful.
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I threw my season ticket away after gg was appointed. Admittedly after the league cup win.

I wanted to be at the last game at the old Wembley.

It was enough for me.
 
The way he treated David Ginola was criminal . Arguably the best player in the league ,
Player of the year . He was to archaic to build a team around such a talent.
Graham' = boring Fucker
Terry Neil = wanker
Willie Young = haggis prick .
Campbell = traitor cunt , pompous thick as shit .

Let them rot all in hell .
 
LeeMcl said:
Never quite got the whole truth of the gross misconduct business.
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It was to do with the fines money (fines for players turning up late to training, wearing wrong kit, bookings, sending offs, etc) - he was in charge of collecting it and couldn't explain where it was when the time came to hand it over to the chosen charities. We had players like Ben Thatcher at the time, so it was quite a large amount of money.
 
LeeMcl said:
I just stumbled on to some shit on Sky about the 1991 season. They showed some of the 91 Charity Shield ( how I remember that day ) some of the footage was of Shreeves and Graham chatting after the game and it reminded me that at the time I FUCKING detested Graham.

But when he was our manager, despite how shit we were at times, I never really disliked the fella. Weirdly. I hated what he did to Ginola, but he himself never really offended me, he always seemed quite positive and dapper and seemed to be a professional, Maybe back then I wanted him to be more successful than he was being, I am not sure, but I remember being willing to give the guy a chance even if I would never sing his name etc...

Christ, when he got sick and we had Stewart Houston in charge that really was depressing.

Looking at it now, 25 years later, he's somewhat of a forgotten man at Spurs. Anyone have anything constructive to say about the man's era or does CUNT just about do the job ? :dembelefingers:
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Detest him for his 'Woolwich' rain coat and all that he stood for. Had he not been sacked by Levy, I still believe we'd have beaten Woolwich in the FA Cup semi final in 2000.

edit* I see jimmyriggle jimmyriggle has mentioned this.
 
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