| George Graham (footballer) |
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PLAYING CAREER Despite being Scottish George Graham played exclusively in England . He signed for Aston Villa in 1961 , having just turned 17. He spent three seasons at the Birmingham club, but only made eight appearances – though one of them was the club's 1963 League Cup final loss to Birmingham City . Chelsea signed him in July 1964 , and Graham scored 35 goals in 72 games for the club and won a League Cup medal. He moved for £75,000 to Bertie Mee 's Arsenal in 1966. Graham started out as Centre Forward for the club, but later moved to Inside Forward , behind the main striker. Graham was an integral part of Arsenal's Double -winning side of 1971 (and had a claim to scoring Arsenal's first goal in the FA Cup final against Liverpool ), but the arrival of Alan Ball displaced him out of the side; he moved for £120,000 to Manchester United in December 1972 . He spent two years at United before seeing out his career at Portsmouth and Crystal Palace . He also won 12 Caps for Scotland . MANAGERIAL CAREER After retiring from playing, he became a coach at Crystal Palace and then later QPR . In 1983 Graham was appointed manager of Millwall , and then his old club Arsenal in 1986 . Arsenal hadn't won a trophy since 1979 , but Graham turned the club around quickly, winning two League Championship s, two League Cup s, an FA Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup in eight years, making them one of the dominant teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s . Graham is credited with bringing some brilliant players to Arsenal, including David Seaman , Nigel Winterburn , Lee Dixon and Ian Wright . However he also signed some duds - Eddie McGoldrick , Glenn Helder and Pål Lydersen . The last was one of two players, the other being John Jensen , involved in the bung scandal that resulted in Graham's dismissal on February 21 1995 . It was discovered he had taken £425,000 in illegal payments from Norwegian agent Rune Hauge to sign the pair. He was then banned from football for a year as punishment from the Football Association . George Graham's return to football management came with Leeds United in September 1996 . Although Leeds scored fewer goals than any other Premiership club (28) they still finished in a secure 13th place. 1997-98 saw Leeds finish fifth in the Premiership and secure UEFA Cup qualification. In October 1998 Graham's two-year spell as Leeds manager came to an end when he was appointed manager of Tottenham Hotspur . Just five months after taking charge he guided the club to victory over Leicester City in the League Cup final and with it a place in the 1999-00 UEFA Cup. But the club's league form was never thrilling and Graham was sacked as Tottenham manager in March 2001 after falling out with the club's new owner Daniel Levy . Despite guiding the club to its first trophy in eight seasons, Graham remained unpopular with a large section of the supporters, because of his previous role at Arsenal, Tottenham's bitter rivals. He has been out of management ever since, concentrating on his career as a football pundit for Sky Sports . Towards the end of his tenure at Tottenham, Graham was hospitalised with Rheumatoid Arthritis , causing many to question whether his health would allow him to continue in management. HONOURS Honours as player Aston Villa
Chelsea Arsenal
Honours as manager Millwall
Arsenal
Tottenham Hotspur
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