by Amy Lawrence
ALAN SMITH:
The mood in the dressing room would have a pattern. George was centre stage. Theo Foley, his right-hand man, would do his bit individually, going around making sure we were OK. Feeling all right. Feeling confident. Tony would do what Tony did, the shouting bit and in those five or ten minutes he’d be getting louder and louder as kick-off approached. I think it’s as much to get himself wound up as anybody. Everybody has different methods before a match. I’d quite often disappear to the toilet and read the programme. People are banging on the door. Smudge, are you finished yet?
STEVE BOULD:
Playing with the back five was a major risk. We had done it before as a sort of one-game special. But in those circumstances, having to win 2–0 away against such a great Liverpool team, it was brave. Had it gone wrong, there’d have been major questions asked.
ALAN SMITH:
In the minutes leading up to kick-off it was a fantastic team-talk from George. I think he freed your mind. Concentrate on your individual jobs. You might never be in this situation again. Don’t waste it. Just go out there and do it. You’ve worked so hard this season. Do it for yourselves. Do it for your families. Don’t pass up the opportunity. After the speech he had given us in the hotel this was a bit more ramped up, with more passion. It was one of those where we went, ‘Phew, that was good.’ He shook all our hands on the way out, which he never did. He was stood by the door. ‘All the best.’ We got our bouquets of flowers each.
GEORGE GRAHAM:
Ken Friar [the Arsenal secretary] told me, ‘George, we’re going to get the players to walk out with a bouquet of flowers each and take them into the Kop and the Liverpool supporters and give them to the crowd.’ I thought it was a fantastic gesture by the club.
PAUL JOHNSON:
I had already been up to Anfield on a pre-visit to make arrangements about the new date for the game and had laid flowers down on behalf of the club. I got a phone call from Ken Friar saying we had to make a gesture at the game and he suggested flowers for the players to take out to the Liverpool fans. I ended up arranging 20-odd bouquets with a local florist. I think they thought it was a wind-up but we arranged it and it seemed to go down very well.
TONY ADAMS:
It was a great idea and it was the way Arsenal used to do things in those days. I think we had our finger on the pulse with compassion and with empathy and we knew how to respect other people as well as ourselves. Given the pain that the Liverpool people had gone through it was important.
ALAN SMITH:
Obviously, we’d been watching the Liverpool lads and Kenny Dalglish attending funerals. It was very emotional and you could feel that in the ground.
JOHN LUKIC:
It’s the football fraternity. Liverpool obviously suffered more than anybody else but I think all football suffered and we just wanted to show compassion. I think gestures sometimes do fall by the wayside but I think that one hit home with a lot of people. By the time all the lads had run off the only spot that wasn’t catered for was down at the Kop end and I had to run all the way down to the Kop and run all the way back up again and that’s the furthest I’d ever run in my life so I was knackered by the time I got back. That moves the moment on into the game and the reason that you’re there and what you have to do on the night. It’s the flick of the switch.
NIGEL WINTERBURN (DEFENDER):
Talk about emotions. In the pit of your stomach knowing that you probably should have won the league title two or three games before is pretty annoying and everybody is writing you off and saying it’s a fitting end to the season that with the Hillsborough disaster Liverpool are going to do the Double. You realise that if you can pull it off you’re going to upset a lot of people. The flowers still stick in my mind. I knew exactly where I was going when I went out on that pitch before the game. I was going to take those flowers down behind the goal. Then you’ve got to switch that off. You’ve got a game of football to play in. It’s difficult.
LEE DIXON:
I’ve always had that feeling about the Kop being a really special place. As a kid I was a Man City fan and my friend was a big Liverpool fan and his dad took us to Anfield. City were playing Liverpool at Anfield and we went and stood on the Kop and I had a blue and white City scarf on, a bobble hat. All the Liverpool fans were taking the mickey out of this little cocky Mancunian with his bobble hat on and putting me on to their shoulders. Passing me down the front. Like the old stories. It was brilliant. It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had at a football ground. So when we were taking the flowers out I really wanted to give my flowers to someone on the Kop.
My superstition was always to go out on the pitch third behind the captain Tony Adams, the goalkeeper John Lukic, and then me. Arsenal’s tradition was to line up on the halfway line and salute the away fans before we went and did our warm-up. So we were all lined up with these flowers and when we’d done our wave I remember sprinting off to the Kop end. There was a lady near the corner flag and I ran over and gave them to her. I remember the emotion of actually passing the flowers over. The minute I let go of the flowers it was like I had this flood of ‘Right!’ My game face came on immediately. I sprinted back to my position before kick-off and I was full of energy. Ready to go. It was almost like a handing over of emotion. It was: right, we’ve done that. Now we’ll go and play the game and that was the first time I can remember thinking, we can win this. We’re going to win this.
TWO
Gorgeous George
GEORGE GRAHAM:
I learned the word ‘standards’ at Arsenal when I was a player, especially under Bertie Mee, who was very strong, very tough, very honest. That was his favourite word. Standards. Whether it was behaviour, performance on the pitch, attitude on the training ground, the way you dressed when you were going to matches, mixing with the public – there was a certain standard around the club and I think there is still. I think Arsenal has still got it.
The club I walked back into in 1986 was quite a famous club without doubt. Still one of the best. What I would say is for a club as big as Arsenal, it was struggling. So it was, in a perverse sort of way, probably an easy task to actually improve them. Coming into a new job you think, right, where’s your assets and where are the problems? You do a lot of homework and even before I met the players I did a whole lot of decision-making. Even for the players who had to go I thought, my mind can be changed. It’s up to you. It’s as simple as that.
I spoke to a few people around the club at the time and I just thought there were a few different groups of players. It wasn’t a unit. So the first thing I thought was, I’ve got to get everybody on the same wavelength. I wanted a new set-up at the club where everybody was equal. There was no star system. As soon as they came through the gates at the training ground, equality was the word I used. I remember the first day of training in the summer when I went there and I’d got my team behind me and all the boys sat on the ground and I introduced myself. I said, ‘I’m the new manager. I’ll give everybody six weeks to prove their worth and then I’ll make decisions. It’s going to be hard work.’ I was very honest with everybody and I told them there’d be no favouritism because one’s got a bigger reputation than the other. I think it worked very well.
BOB WILSON:
I think one of the most extraordinary things about George Graham was the difference as I saw it between George the player – his nickname was Gorgeous George, he was a good-looking boy – and the manager he became. George was a team-mate of mine. We played in the Double season in 1971 and the year that we won the Fairs Cup in 1970, the first European success, which broke the spell of 17 years without a trophy. He was a great team-mate when I was selected for Scotland. George and I shared a room. As a player I would have said throughout the 71 Double squad there were three I would predict would never be a manager – Peter Marinello, Charlie George and George Graham. He never showed any interest at that time in coaching badges or really seriously thinking about
the game tactically. George was a fantastic dresser. Still is. Immaculate. Mannequin. He loved that style outside the playing side of the game.
PAT RICE (DEFENDER IN 1971, YOUTH TEAM MANAGER IN 1989):
When George was a player he was always laughing and joking in the dressing room. But he developed this focus that it’s about winning, which made him a tremendous manager. I mean it’s no use playing your career just to play football. You want to win games and that’s it – you’ve got to have that hardness.
BOB WILSON:
As a player he hid the desire and passion of wanting to win and maybe that’s why I was always uncertain about what was behind the mask of George. I’m not sure I ever knew what was truly going through George’s mind. He was ruthless. He would smile with a sort of disguised smile. I never saw George celebrate quite as much as some of us did in stupid ways. George was always seemingly under control.
DAVID DEIN:
I remember the discussions about who to appoint very well. I had the temerity to suggest Alex Ferguson. Ha ha ha. But we got George in. Today the average longevity of a manager across the 92 league clubs is 12 months and I always say that the biggest decision a board has to make is that one of appointing the manager. If you get it right, your life’s easy. If you get it wrong you’re on the roundabout again in 12 months’ time. You weigh up. You do your homework. He was an ex-player. He had a track record at Millwall. You could see that perhaps he was one for the future. So that’s how it transpired.
NICK HORNBY (SUPPORTER):
In terms of expectations, Arsenal had just appointed the manager of Millwall to run the team. It wasn’t what we were hoping for. So it wasn’t like we got terribly excited about him taking over. The excitement really didn’t start until the team began to play and then the beginning of 1986–87 they were fantastic. The first half of that season they had this young team and they were very vibrant and I can remember the queues outside the North Bank getting longer and thinking, wow, there is something happening here. People are coming back and they want to see these players and that hadn’t happened for quite a long time. I stood on the North Bank, slightly on the edge, and I think there was a very deep connection between fans and players. I was telling my kids the other day how when the players went out on the pitch everyone sung a song for each player until they acknowledged the crowd and that never happens any more. There’s not that same kind of link between one end, behind the goal, and the team.
The 1980s had been a very difficult decade for football. Because of the Heysel disaster first of all, people were drifting away from the game. One of the reasons Highbury felt so dismal in the 80s was because this was not a team who could do anything. So when George Graham took over in 86 the crowd starts to go up again and then you got that old intensity back.
Things started changing straight away. First game of his first season in 1986 we beat Manchester United 1–0. I remember the interview with him afterwards on the radio where he seemed a bit sniffy about the performance of the team and I thought, wow, we’ve just beaten Man U and he doesn’t think they played very well. I thought, I’m interested in this. He wanted to play direct football. He wanted to play fast football. He wanted wingers and centre-forwards and there was nothing not to like.
ALAN DAVIES (SUPPORTER):
Don Howe had been manager and he was much loved. We thought his treatment had been quite shoddy. Howe quit because he felt he was being undermined and there were a lot of people on Avenell Road complaining, including me, that he’d been badly treated. I actually wrote to the chairman of the club. I remember we played Watford twice in two days, unusually, and everyone went to Vicarage Road thinking we were going to lose just to stick up for Don Howe. That’s how much he was loved. They appointed George Graham, who by all accounts interviewed very well. This wasn’t a glamorous appointment. They tried to get Terry Venables. Bobby Robson’s name was always being touted or would we get someone from abroad? And we get this guy who had managed Millwall, who was an Arsenal legend because he’d been part of the Double team of 71. But his nickname was Stroller and he seemed a bit vain and how’s he going to be a manager?
DAVID O’LEARY:
It needed a change. It needed a broom to it. It needed a freshening up and George came in and certainly gave it that. He called everybody in, first meeting, and let you know what was expected, how things were going to change. He was very forceful. This is the way we’re going to do things from now on. When you have people at a club for a long time, people get set in their ways. I probably did as well. You took too many things for granted. Now we had a new boss to prove yourself to and get you back on track. It was certainly good for me. The impression he left was: the door is open but if you don’t want to stay we can always find you a home somewhere else. He addressed it to people like myself more because we were the bigger players. I took it on as a challenge. I thought to myself, this is a man who wants to win things at Arsenal. I want to win things. George came at the right time. The club needed him and felt his impact straight away. Friday night after a long journey he’d look down the coach and he’d say, lads, put your tie on, button your shirt up.
GEORGE GRAHAM:
We used to always have to wear a blazer and nice grey slacks or a suit as our uniform. We needed a new tie and I asked one of the hierarchy if I could I get a few dozen ties made by a guy that I knew in London who was in the rag trade, who offered to make some beautiful ties, red and white stripes with a nice cannon at the bottom. I never got the OK for it so I paid for them. I gave one each to the players and I gave one to the directors. After that we used to get the ties for nothing. Ha ha.
PAUL DAVIS:
Before George came along we were going nowhere and it didn’t look as though anything was going to happen really. We had a lot of older players who seemed comfortable where they were, didn’t seem as though they were hungry for success. We had some horrendous times, crowds of 11,000, 13,000 were turning up to watch us play and we were mid-table. So it was a tough time to be at a club like Arsenal because we were expected to do things. George came in with a real strong attitude straight away.
He very quickly got rid of some senior players to bring on and encourage the younger guys. I came between the senior players and the younger players. I was right in the middle so I didn’t know where I was or what his attitude towards me was.
TONY ADAMS:
A massive gamble. I know they interviewed a few other, more experienced coaches. But George got the nod and I think that was brave of the club at that period. I don’t think it would ever happen now. George wouldn’t even be a candidate, you know. Millwall. Scottish. Second Division. Going to manage The Arsenal.
The first pre-season, I remember he got the clipboard out and went through rules and regulations and having played at The Arsenal before he knew a little bit about the way that they did business. He instilled that from the very start. George was extremely lucky that he had a group of international-quality kids coming through. Myself, Rocky, Mickey Thomas, Paul Merson, Quinny. George did two things, for me, that instantly made a success of the club. One was laying down the law and throwing all the big-time players out. Two, he got lucky with players that were coming through. So that’s the secret for George Graham at the very start.
JOHN LUKIC:
Some people might say he was professionally ruthless. He had an idea in his mind. He had his own authority. George arrived in the summer as my contract was up for renewal. I hadn’t met him at all and I remember going down to the ground. I had an appointment to see George and my wife was with me in the car and said to me, ‘Well what shall I do?’ I said don’t worry, I won’t be long. I literally went in and came out and that was it. It was very short and sweet. We didn’t really see eye to eye. But I just got on with it. Having said that, I’ve got a huge amount of respect for him because of what he did and what he brought to the football club.
I do remember starting pre-season training and for some reason I started calling him Gaddafi. D
on’t ask me why but I did and it sort of stuck. So I must apologise, George. It was me.
GEORGE GRAHAM:
The youth set-up at the club was first-class. In fact, it was probably the best in the country at that time. The class of 92 that flourished under Alec Fergusonfn1 at Manchester United and was at the top for a couple of decades, well I had that a few years earlier. I don’t think anybody realised it apart from the people inside the club. At Arsenal, when I look back and I see Tony Adams, David Rocastle, Mickey Thomas, Paul Merson, Niall Quinn, Martin Hayes – they’re looking great. I thought, what a chance I’ve got here if I can just improve these boys. Play them in the first team, blend them in with a hunger that I was hoping to get from the players that I bought.
DAVID O’LEARY:
If you have home-grown players it gives the team some real caring about the club and all those young players came in and had that passion. I chose Arsenal some years before and I got into a team with players who had this belief and love for the club. Those lads that came in were top-class players who had that love. There was a real togetherness.