What's with the adulation of George Graham?

[Arsenal~Fanatic]

When you start a thread questioning the adulation about one of the most successful manager in our history and the most successful one if you go by trophies per games managed comparisons are bound to be there with the current manager.

[HeSaidHisNameWasPorter]

Slightly off topic , but should any of you younger forum users have a few minutes , and would like some mildly amusing entertainment from the sporting yesteryear , you tube ;
Francis Lee vs Norman hunter ( watch " Bites Yer Legs " Hunter " cack his shorts when Franny Lee completely loses his shit ) .
And
Kevin Keegan vs Billy Bremner ( Charity Shield 1974 , Community Shield now obviously . Opening " friendly " of the season ? No " charity " between these two ! ) .
Ah , the good old days of sporting fair play .
Thanks .

[UFGN]

Slightly off topic , but should any of you younger forum users have a few minutes , and would like some mildly amusing entertainment from the sporting yesteryear , you tube ;
Francis Lee vs Norman hunter ( watch " Bites Yer Legs " Hunter " cack his shorts when Franny Lee completely loses his shit ) .
And
Kevin Keegan vs Billy Bremner ( Charity Shield 1974 , Community Shield now obviously . Opening " friendly " of the season ? No " charity " between these two ! ) .
Ah , the good old days of sporting fair play .
Thanks .

What about that full on brawl Vs Norwich that had to be broken up by coppers and officials? Pretty much every player on the pitch was punching the shit out of each other

[Arsenal Tone]

I will put a long post in this thread at some point as I loved him as a manager in the same way the WKB love Wenger.

As has been said that is probably because I grew up watching his teams. That 90/91 team will always be what I consider to be 'my' Arsenal!

[UFGN]

I will put a long post in this thread at some point

It is inevitable

[Leody]

I honestly look forward to it. I have a feeling I already know one of the nation pints...

Edit: haha, meant "main points"

Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk

[Arsenal Tone]

[ThereIsBearCüm]

I was wondering how long until Wenger was mentioned. This has nothing to do with him. Stop talking about him in every f***ing topic ffs.

You brought him up in your original post. You made it about Wenger, so don't complain and pretend others are doing it.

[Gunflash]

I think GG was a fantastic manager. He took over in 1986, when he hadn't won a trophy since 1979. He inherited a squad of overpaid, over-indulged underachievers, who hadn't done anything in years. He purged the wasters, rebuilt the club, with a core of great young players, ended the trophy drought in 1987, before taking us to our first league title in 18 years. In the title run-in of 1989, Graham decided we were getting too swamped, so he dropped a midfielder, brought O'Leary in as a sweeper and pushed Dixon and Winterburn further up the pitch to play as "wing-backs". How often have we seen tactical innovation like that from Wenger? George was good at making clever purchases on the cheap to fill in gaps in the squad, guys like Marwood, Richardson and Groves. Unlike Wenger, he also built trophy-winning squads on the back of a strong produce from the Academy - Adams, Rocastle, Thomas, Merson, Quinn, Hayes, Campbell, Hillier, Parlour. Wenger talks about building a squad of young players to win trophies but Graham actually did it, with players from our own academy, not players who were bought from other academies.

The 1991 Arsenal team was criminally underrated. They only lost one league game all season. George built the great back five but he made sure the midfield knew its defensive responsibilities. Our defending started with midfielders like Rocastle, Thomas and Davis, who worked hard for the team. He failed to build a dynasty. I think we could have dominated in the 90s but George lost faith in attacking football (Limpar was always sidelined, despite being our most lively attacker). He did, however, buy David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn and Ian Wright. Even when we faded in the league, he was still able to win cups with mediocre players (Hillier, Morrow, McGoldrick and Jensen!) because of that Arsenal robustness, resilience and spirit.

Up until 92/93, the football was good to watch. We were the highest scores in the league in 88/89 and 91/92. The boring football was really only in the last two seasons. Go back and watch some of the goals we scored in the final few months of the 91/92 season. It was as good as anything we saw in the Wenger era - Smith, Wright, Merson, Campbell, Limpar and Rocastle in full flight. Fantastic!

Despite being a "blood and guts" manager, instead of a "thinker"/"visionary" like Wenger, Graham was far and away a superior tactician. After we got overrun by Benfica in the European Cup in 91, Graham decided we needed a more methodical approach to European football. So when we got to the Cup Winners-Cup in 93/94, he flooded the midfield and sometimes played one striker, even if it meant dropping Ian Wright. The peak of this was the final against Parma when we went 1-0 up and outmuscled them. Contrast that with Wenger's tactical ineptitude. This is a man who has never won a European trophy of any sort (and never will) and who failed to win the Champions League, despite having SIXTEEN cracks at it and despite having players that Graham would have killed for.

By the end it was getting stale. The defence was getting tired, the team lacked creativity in midfield and was over-reliant on Wright. It was time for a change by 1995, just as it's time for a change now. The Graham era ended in scandal, which is a shame because he was the Arsenal manager who restored us to glory and when Wenger came in, he was arriving at a dressing room full of players who had won many trophies under Graham. His man-management may not have been great (Robson, Davis, Thomas, Nicholas and Limpar all suffered) and he didn't keep an eye on some of the players (Adams, Merson) but he was all about trophies and he told the players that they'd look back at pride with all their medals. What will Wenger's post-2005 squads look back on? All those times they finished 4th?

George Graham was a fantastic manager. Yes he had his flaws but he restored the club's position and I think it's unfair the way the modern fans want to dismiss his achievements like they don't matter. In numbers terms, he won fewer trophies than Wenger but Graham won his 6 pots in just 8 years. Wenger won his 7 pots in 18 years. Has it really been worth the extra decade for just one more trophy?

[Cornish Gooner]

If I am correct George Graham was the manager, when Arsenal were nicknamed "boring Arsenal", because of their constant 0-0 draws, or 1-0 wins.

He also had a back 4 that was as tight as a ducks arse, and that is water tight.

Not like today's back 4 that has more holes than a colander.

[Sydney Gooner]

He was before my time, but I've seen a lot of people saying Graham was better than Wenger, or I wish we could go back to the Graham days.

I'm only 19; 20 in the summer, so obviously he was before my time. But what's with all the praise? This is the same guy who took a bung then f***ked off to Spurs, how can anyone possibly like him?

Both my parents were Arsenal home & away during these times and even they don't mention Graham at all, so why do I see a lot of praise on here for him?

Was well before my time too but the facts don't lie 2 League Titles (one of them being our greatest ever triumph - '89 Anfield - and our first league title since the double season of '71), 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cups, our first European trophy the Cup Winner's Cup. There's defenitely a case for him being considered our greatest ever manager.

[greengoonerie]

Ah the best example ever was the one at OT when 21 players were involved in a bust up in one of the goal areas.

Arsenal Vs. United.

that was the moment I knew I'd picked the right team to support.

There were no shrinking violets at Arsenal in those days - well, Andy Limpar IIRC ran away, but the rest of the team made up for him - didn't we get 3 points deducted for the row?

[Arsenal Tone]

Boring my arse!

[Sims]

Cheers for the posts guys, gained a lot of insight here.

It's great to see people growing up from different era's on here; very informative.

[Arsenal Tone]

http://www.best-soccer-videos.com/arsen ... l_1991.htm

^ Good video