I didnât know alot about the intricacies of Grahamâs reign until I read âmaking of a modern superclubâ
I donât think a statue of him would be welcomed or well received by many involved.
Still an Arsenal legend though, shurely?
He blotted it further by becoming a fully paid up Tory wanker but nonetheless his name is safe on the list.
Bobby Pires
spot on!
Was a thing in the moment, I was bored at work and was watching this:
It would be massive massive banter for spurs supporters but no, I wasnât being serious.
Next statue? Though question actually. Pires is a good shout but I feel it wouldnât be fair with Viera, Ljungberg, etc.
Not at the club for sure ,but most supporters over a certain age , mmmm I think they would . Im old enough to remember him as a player and Manager. Double winner as a player League titles Fa Cup ,League cups and Cup winners Cup is massive . Especially as he did it on a budget that was smaller than anything Wengers ever had to work with !
John Faxe Jensen!!
And Cliff Bastin
I was going to say Graham as well.
The only person involved with Arsenal that has been successful as a player and manager,
A league title, FA Cup and a European title as a player.
Then two League titles, an FA Cup, two League Cups and a European title, in eight years, as a manager.
As @Drayton said, he also spent very little money.
The famous game against Liverpool, where we won the League, we had a squad consisting of all English players, apart from OâlLeary, mostly from the youth team and the most expensive player was Alan Smith who cost 800k.
Apart from Wenger, no one else has come anywhere close to achieving what he has for our club, in only a few seasons, with spending hardly any money.
Anfield 89 really grates with AKBs doesnt it. The one piece of Arsenal history they cant dismiss. It really is sad how they try to expunge Grahams achievments imo.
One of only two managers who won a European trophy with Arsenal too 
.
Back in the late 80s, early 90s every team played with players from their own country. It wasnât even allowed to play more than 3 foreingers back then. The fact of players going abroad only came about after the bosman ruling in '96. Thatâs not really to his credit tbh.
[quote=âSDGooner, post:31, topic:777, full:trueâ]
Back in the late 80s, early 90s every team played with players from their own country. It wasnât even allowed to play more than 3 foreingers back then. The fact of players going abroad only came about after the bosman ruling in '96. Thatâs not really to his credit tbh.
[/quote]But the players Graham had were all English, and I think we were the only club in the league to have that.
There werenât many foreign players but there were a lot of Scottish, Welsh and Irish.
Also, as I said, nearly all the players we had in the squad were either from the youth team, like most of our midfield and defence, or very cheap buys like Groves, Hayes, Allison, etc.
I saw the likes of Dixon, Winterburn and Bould make the debut for us, and all of them together cost only around 1m.
I know transfer fees were cheaper then but Graham was renowned for his stinginess in the transfer market, and we were one of the last clubs to pay 1m for a player, and that was a GK.
It cannot be underestimated what Graham achieved in a short space of time, with very little money and the fact we hadnât won the league since he was a player.
It was also his defence, and striker that won Wenger his first PL title.
That hugely contributed to Wenger winning his first title is a much fairer way of putting it. Its certainly disingenuous to put it down to those things alone. Vieira, Petit, Overmars and even Chris Wreh and Alex Manninger all played massive massive roles.
Got a bit of problems with that line of thought tbh. That defense + striker came in 12th in the last season of Graham. I actually think those players didnât even come close to another title afther 90/91. Wenger should get all the credit for revitalsing those players.
Pat Rice
Gunnersaurus would be awesome
[quote=âSDGooner, post:34, topic:777â]
Got a bit of problems with that line of thought tbh. That defense + striker came in 12th in the last season of Graham. I actually think those players didnât even come close to another title afther 90/91. Wenger should get all the credit for revitalsing those players.
[/quote]Iâm not taking anything away from Wenger, because he transformed us into one of the most entertaining and successful teams in Europe but that defence had been together a long time before Wenger came here, and was one of the best organised in Europe, so some of that was down to Graham and his defensive organisational skills when he was here.
Your initial statement makes it sound like Wenger was incidental to the title rather than fundamental. Like I alluded to on my response thats possibly just down to wording but thats fairly important in a post which is (rightly) lauding what George Graham did for the club.
To be fair, in my initial post I did say this,
[quote=âInvincibleDB10, post:28, topic:777â]
Apart from Wenger, no one else has come anywhere close to achieving what he has for our club
[/quote] and I have always maintained Wenger has not only been our best manager, but for several seasons was the best manager in Europe.
I fail to see why lauding George Graham detracts from the Wenger glory days .
Whilst Im not his biggest fan today I have seen football and players that I never ever dreamed about under Wenger .
Both men are unique and of their time I love Marc Overmars and Martin Hayes ,each has a place !