Remember When?... George Graham Crossed The North London Divide

Hello and welcome back to Football Reloaded, your regular look back at classic football from between 1990 and 2010. 

Given his connections to arch-rivals Liverpool, Rafael Benitez was probably one of the last people Everton fans would have wanted to replace Carlo Ancelotti in the Goodison Park hotseat. Following the Spaniard's controversial appointment as Toffees boss, Football Reloaded remembers when a similarly unpopular managerial appointment occurred in North London towards the back end of the 1990s. 

While many of an Arsenal persuasion will perhaps think of the likes of Arsene Wenger or Herbert Chapman when the question of who the club's greatest ever manager is, there is also an argument that George Graham should be included in that bracket. After arriving from Millwall in 1986, the former Gunners midfielder steered the Highbury outfit to the legendary league title win of 1989 as well as repeating the feat in 1991. Arsenal managed to become the first team to win the League Cup and FA Cup in the same season when they completed a unique Wembley double in 1993 before arguably the club's finest moment in Europe came in 1994 when Alan Smith's goal helped the team to a famous 1-0 win over a star-studded Parma side in Copenhagen. 

George Graham won six major trophies in nine years at Highbury until his controversial departure in 1995. 

The sad and somewhat abrupt end to Graham's tenure at Highbury came in early 1995 when details about transfer dealings with Norwegian agent Rune Hauge emerged with Graham admitting at a Football Association tribunal that he had received an 'unsolicited gift' from Hauge following the transfer of Denmark's Euro 92 hero John Jensen to the club following his country's delightful and dramatic tournament win in Sweden. For his part in the scandal, Graham was sacked by the club and was subsequently slapped with a year's ban by the FA for good measure. 

Fast forward to September 1998, Arsenal are riding high as reigning Premier League champions and holders of the FA Cup under Wenger while their North London rivals Tottenham are struggling. Under most their most recent managerial appointment Christian Gross (with his tube ticket firmly still in his blazer pocket), the White Hart Lane club had seen their fortunes plummet and after a dismal start to the 1998-99 campaign, owner Alan Sugar took his Swiss manager into the boardroom and told him 'You're Fired!'. 

In a radical move, Sugar performed the unthinkable and replaced Gross with possibly the one man Spurs supporters would have put bottom of their list of potential managers and appointed Graham as the club's new manager. Since his return to football in September 1996, the Scotsman had rejuvenated Leeds United, bringing through an exciting crop of young players and re-establishing the Elland Road club as a top six side once again, delivering European football into the bargain. 

Graham's appointment was met with instant apathy from Spurs supporters who were clearly aggrieved and perhaps somewhat astounded that a manager with such an undercurrent of an Arsenal connection. 

It can be argued that Graham's time at The Lane could be described as mildly successful, just under five months after his appointment he delivered Spurs' first major trophy since 1991 (and indeed their last until 2008) when his side won the League Cup at Wembley, but at the same time the loyal Tottenham crowd were still reticent to take Graham to their hearts, often refusing to sing his name and instead chanting 'Man In Raincoat's Blue And White Army'. 

Despite winning the 1999 League Cup with Spurs, supporters of the White Hart Lane club could often not see beyond his connection with their arch-rivals Arsenal. 

Even after masterminding a 2-1 win for Spurs over their fierce rivals in November 1999 (their last league win over The Gunners for a decade), league positions remained largely the same and Graham's relationship with the fans still never really got going and eventually, the rapport with the new board and owner Daniel Levy soon soured. 

After publicly decrying a lack of investment in the playing staff to the tabloid press, the recently installed new owners ENIC swiftly removed the Scotsman from his position in March 2001 just after Spurs had been paired with their deadliest of rivals in the semi-finals of the FA Cup. 

In a move to perhaps bring the support back onside, Spurs eventually announced club legend Glenn Hoddle as their replacement for Graham. Supporters were so thrilled by the appointment that chants of 'We've Got Our Tottenham Back!' reverberated around White Hart Lane in the immediate aftermath. 

No manager has dared to cross the North London football divide since Graham's time at Tottenham, maybe they never will again. 

Thanks for taking a look at this article for Football Reloaded. Keep your eyes peeled on the social channel @DBGFootball for more retro football nostalgia.