‘Spurs are a bit further ahead of Arsenal now’
George Graham senses a power shift in the rivalry between his two former clubs, he tells Jeremy Wilson ‘I look back at my younger self and I say, ‘Oh my god, was I so confident?’
It may be 22 years since George Graham left Arsenal but anyone doubting his enduring influence on each player he managed need only have been at the Odeon in Holloway last week. “George? Terrifying. Scared stiff of him,” says Lee Dixon. “You would think he was your mate but then you’d give the ball away and he would want to tear your head off. Put it this way; if he tells me to get him an ice cream tonight; I’ll go and get him an ice cream.” Paul Merson recalls how Graham dealt with him giggling at training. “He didn’t say a word but then the team went up and I never played for two months.” It was a different era at Arsenal – captured beautifully in
89 – the film that chronicles how they clinched the 1988-89 league title in the final seconds of the season. The contrast in style to Arsene Wenger has only deepened nostalgia for the time but anyone doubting whether the modern Arsenal could benefit from Graham-style discipline must have had their eyes shut for the past decade. Dixon tells me that you would have the “perfect” team if you could combine his former managers, although he does pinpoint a hatred of losing and utter certainty as shared traits in
their respective philosophies. Graham agrees. “I think Arsene has been not only great for Arsenal, but English football. He believes in attacking, possession football. His philosophy has never changed, and that is why there are fans supportive of him and a few saying, they could and should be doing better. If you said to Tottenham and a lot of clubs, ‘You are going to finish in the top four and win the FA Cup’, I think they would say, ‘Thank you very much’. When Arsenal are playing the way they can, they are still one of the best and most attractive teams. I just have a little bit of doubt when they haven’t got the ball.”
Graham then lets out a chuckle. “I’m trying to be nice,” he says, before explaining how, in practice, he used to organise his defence. “Divide the width of the pitch with four players. Then, if we won possession, release one of the full-backs and divide the pitch by three.” Graham grimaces at the now common sight of two fullbacks simultaneously bombing forward. “I think, boy, they better have two good centre-halves to cover the width of the pitch.”
Arsenal famously conceded only 18 goals in Graham’s other championship-winning season in 1990-91 – they have already let in 16 this season. Now 72, and mellowed in the 16 years since his career ended at Tottenham, Graham will be back at the Emirates for one of the most eagerly awaited north London derbies of recent times. Never in Wenger’s tenure have Tottenham seemed so formidable and Arsenal so vulnerable. Graham can see a power-shift, albeit with caveats. “It all depends what day you see Arsenal,” he says. “I do think Tottenham are the best defensive team in the league. [Mauricio] Pochettino believes in the pressing game but you need players to buy into that. Once you have that, you can get success. I think they have a few little problems. I think you need a stronger squad. Arsenal have been Smart thinker: George Graham still inspires awe in his former players much the stronger over the last few decades but I see Tottenham level now and maybe a little bit further forward. It’s a young side so you think they can only get better.”
By contrast, Arsenal have the feel of a team nearing the end of a cycle and Graham believes that it would have been better to sell Alexis Sanchez if he wanted to go. “If players don’t want to buy into what you are doing and want to move on, fair enough. You get a fee and you invest it in another player.”
Graham made that call in selling Michael Thomas to Liverpool two years after he scored the goal that has now been immortalised on screen. It must have been strange to see your younger self starring in a film? “I look back now and I say, ‘Oh my god, was I so confident?’,” says Graham. Remarkably, he had told his players before kick-off that night at Anfield how the match would unfold, even predicting a 2-0 victory. Last week was also a reminder of the enduring chemistry within a group that was assembled by a manager who would devour newspapers for insight into potential signings.
“I would see if I knew any of the coaches or players they had worked for. I wanted to find out about their ambition and attitude.” Dixon feels that, in retiring at 57, following jobs with Leeds United and Spurs, Graham finished “too early”. Yet having achieved the feat of winning the league title, FA Cup, League Cup as well as a European trophy as both a player and manager, Graham appears content with the timing of his departure. “If I was going to finish, it would be at the top. That’s the way I felt and I have never regretted it.”
89 is in Ourscreen.com cinemas and on DVD and digital download this month