Unusually, George Graham won’t be glued to Sunday’s latest instalment of the great Tottenham versus Arsenal rivalry. Playing golf is his way of coping with the first north London derby since the passing of his closest friend and rival, Terry Venables.
They first met at Chelsea when Venables played big brother to the teenage Scot thrust into the excitement of Swinging London, and for the next 60 years were pretty much inseparable.
George was best man at Terry’s wedding and had him to thank for a career in management. He repaid his mate by helping him get the England job in time for Euro 96.
Above all, the pair illuminated the rich history between Arsenal and Tottenham over different generations.
As a player, Venables lifted the FA Cup with his boyhood team Spurs in 1967 before Graham lifted the league and FA Cup Double for Arsenal.
George Graham (pictured) won’t be glued to the latest North London derby on Sunday afternoon
He will instead play golf to deal with the first derby since the passing of his long-term friend Terry Venables (right)
Graham tells Mail Sport of his friendship with Venables, as he looks through his friend’s autobiography
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Before derby matches, newspapers would arrange for the pair to meet up and have pictures taken together as part of the big build-up.
They were also opposition managers in 1991 for the most famous north London derby of all, the FA Cup first semi-final to be held at Wembley because demand for tickets was too high for any other venue to host.
Graham’s Arsenal were the best team in England and on the way to becoming league champions whilst Venables’ Tottenham boasted the two most popular players in the country, Italia ’90 heroes and national treasures Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker.
Despite the high stakes, there are shots of Terry and George enjoying themselves and cracking huge smiles with each other on the Wembley turf. They certainly had enough material to share a few anecdotes, from Elton John being their tea-boy at Chelsea to the lunch in which George tried to dissuade his friend taking over at Barcelona.
Terry’s death last November was marked privately by his family in Spain and now George feels it is the right time to pay his his own detailed tribute.
Inviting Mail Sport into his beautiful north London home, a copy of Venables’ autobiography stands proudly in the centre of the office bookcase.
Inside the cover, it’s signed with a personal and poignant inscription from the author himself. ‘To my very good friend, George’ it reads, followed by a wistful line asking where all the time had gone.
There is an envelope of pictures from George’s career perched close by. He flicks through them. One that stands out was taken on Manly Beach in Sydney in 1965 during a Chelsea tour of Australia. A young George and Terry, the sun shining down on them, not a care in the world..
The football world came to a standstill and paid tribute to Venables following his passing last year
Despite their club rivalries, the pair remained the best of friends throughout their lives
They first met when Graham was 19 and joined Chelsea, with Venables a couple of years older
‘I was 19 when I signed for Chelsea from Aston Villa and first met Terry,’ recalls Graham.
‘To show how green I was, I’d signed up for digs in Stamford Hill because I thought it must be next to Stamford Bridge, when it was actually miles away!
‘Terry was only a couple of years older but seemed a lot more advanced.
‘He’d walk around with this little case. I couldn’t figure out why he had such a small overnight bag. When he explained it was for his typewriter, I considered him really clever and educated.
‘He was our leader on and off the pitch even though he was only early twenties himself. The boys would go to him for advice on anything. He had this big personality. He could sing, play the piano, confident enough to talk to anybody.
‘He even knew tactics and was almost like our coach, unofficially. The boys used to heed Terry’s opinion, let’s put it that way. I don’t think our manager Tommy Docherty liked that very much.’
It was the era of The Beatles and Twiggy. For someone like Graham, the youngest of seven from a tough working-class upbringing in Glasgow, having someone like Venables to guide him was invaluable.
‘Four of us — Terry, myself, Ron Harris and John Hollins — would head into the west End after training and hang out with people in the music business who often seemed to be Chelsea fans,’ said Graham.
‘We were all equal, all mates, but Terry was the most extrovert, assured in any company.
‘We’d visit these publishing companies and record shops. There was a young guy called Reg who would make us tea and coffee. You’d regularly hear the shout: ‘Reg, get the pot on.’ He later became Elton John!
‘We’d joke about that when he became a huge star and was chairman at Watford. That time of your life, when you’re in young adulthood, going through new things together, it’s special. I think that’s why Terry and I stayed lifelong friends.’
Graham, who went onto enjoy vast success as both a player and coach, pictured at the unveiling of new artwork at the Emirates last year
Venables offered Graham a job as youth coach at Crystal Palace in 1978 when he took over
On one occasion, the social aspect went too far. Fighting for the league championship in 1965, Chelsea’s decision to stay in Blackpool before a game at Burnley backfired.
‘We went out and never came back. Well, we came back eventually, but too late,’ reflects Graham.
‘Tommy went berserk and sent eight of us back to London, myself and Terry included.’ Chelsea’s shadow side lost at Turf Moor and finished the season five points behind champions Manchester United.
That team began to split up. Terry left Chelsea to join his boyhood idols Spurs and George later signed for Arsenal. The two friends would face off in midfield.
‘Terry was a good passer and liked to control games. He’d have thrived in today’s game because he had that football brain,’ recalls Graham.
‘He could see things on the pitch before they happened. He’d also give instructions to team-mates and you everyone knew from a long way out he’d end up becoming a manager.’
Graham didn’t see his own future like that. When Venables took over at Crystal Palace, he offered Graham a job as youth-team coach in 1978 — much to his friend’s surprise.
‘I never saw myself as going down that route,’ he admits. I just didn’t have the confidence to think I’d be good at it.
‘But Terry did. It was the start of a new career that wouldn’t have happened without him.’
Graham would spend two hours a day in his car to make the daily round trips to south London. For wages of £150-a-week. But learning and watching Venables was worth its weight in gold.
The long journeys were worth it in order to watch Graham at work and learn from him
He followed his boss to QPR after promotion at Palace, and they would reach the FA Cup final
The pair had one of the more peculiar friendships down the line due to their North London loyalties
Palace won promotion to the First Division and Graham then followed his boss to QPR, where they reached the 1982 FA Cup final. Graham then branched on his own as a No1 at Millwall and in 1984 got advanced warning his friend Terry was about to morph into El Tel.
‘We were having lunch in this lovely hotel in Knightsbridge when Terry dropped a bombshell: ‘What would you think if I said I was going to join Barcelona?’
‘I thought he was joking. From QPR to Barcelona is a bit of a leap. When I realised it was serious and he was keen, I did my best to talk him out of it.
‘My view was it was too early – he was too inexperienced for a job like that. Stay in England, end up getting a big club here and then move abroad if you want to.
‘But once Terry’s mind is made up, you couldn’t shift it. He was always looking for something bigger and better, it was in his DNA though I should say that didn’t mean he was a gambler.
‘He just wanted to push himself and believed he could do it.’
Despite his initial opposition to the move, Graham did get a nice perk out of it.
‘I was at Millwall when Terry called out of the blue. ‘Why don’t you come over to Barcelona for a week to visit me?’ So I did.
‘When I arrived, he said “get your gear on, you’re doing some coaching!”
‘So the manager of Millwall did some coaching sessions at Barcelona! It never came out and nobody knew about it. Only Terry could make that happen! Every night, we’d go out after training. I’d see for myself how everyone loved El Tel over there.’
After leaving QPR, Venables would go onto coach Barcelona, and invited Graham over too
Upon departing Barcelona, he would join Tottenham with a La Liga title added to his CV
Venables won La Liga and reached the European Cup final with Barca. By the time he returned to England to manage Spurs in 1987, Graham had moved to Arsenal and building a great young team that would go on to win six trophies including two league championships.
The two amigos faced each other six times in north London league derbies. Venables won only one of those but landed the jackpot at Wembley.
Gazza ran The Gunners ragged and scored a stunning free-kick. Lineker added two more goals in a shock 3-1 Tottenham win.
The easy narrative was that Venables had tactically outsmarted his big pal but Graham doesn’t see it like that.
‘Gazza was probably the difference on the day,’ said Graham. ‘He could always turn it on and was one of those who made himself a player. There weren’t many coaches who could teach him anything because he already had it.
‘Tactically I think Terry and I knew how we were going to play so we counter-acted each other. But Gazza was that good, he added the unpredictable element.
‘We felt afterwards David Seaman might have saved the free-kick! But I didn’t dwell on the defeat for long. I tend not to think about the bad games. If something is going to upset you, why go through it again.
‘I was personally pleased for Terry that Spurs went on to win the final against Forest but I don’t remember watching the game — I was probably in the Arsenal boardroom trying to persuade them to sign more players!’
There is a picture of Graham and Venables together at the end of the 1990-91 season, Graham holding the league championship trophy, Venables the FA Cup.
A photo of Graham with the league championship trophy and Venables the FA Cup became famous
By then, Venables had decided to step down at Tottenham manager and become Chief Executive instead
By then, Venables had already decided to step down as manager and become Tottenham’s Chief Executive instead. It was a move that stunned football, but Graham knew his friend too well to be surprised.
‘Football took over my life as a manager but it wasn’t like that for Terry. He was always looking at bigger and better.
‘He was probably a better coach than a manager. He wasn’t as strict as I was with players. I lost my Dad when I was young. My older brothers had to work to help my Mum put food on the table. My priority was graft and that probably trickled into how I saw the game.
‘I was very good at coaching without the ball whereas Terry was very good with and without the ball.
‘He enjoyed playing good football. It’s probably something I didn’t take him up on, all those trophies I won one-nothing!’
In that respect, working with the very best players in international football was a good fit for Venables. When his relationship with Spurs chairman Alan Sugar soured, it coincided with England looking for a new manager in 1994 to succeed Graham Taylor.
Graham was the most influential manager in the fledgling Premier League — Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatest successes at Manchester United were yet to come — and used his platform to publicly call on The FA to choose Venables.
Others joined the campaign and Venables got the job. He famously took England to the semi-finals during the glorious long hot summer of Euro 96.
‘I’m glad I stood up and gave my opinion because I was right about Terry and England’ assesses Graham.
‘I knew he could handle the job. It came with an enormous amount of pressure that would have disturbed a lot of people but it didn’t bother Terry – he loved the challenge.
‘I also knew players like Tony Adams, my captain at Arsenal and the best centre-half around, would love playing for England under someone with a big personality like Terry.’
George pulled his own surprise when he briefly ended up as Spurs manager himself and won the League Cup in 1999 – remarkably the club have lifted only one trophy since.
He also fell out with Sugar to hasten his departure. Though he doesn’t expand on their relationship, there is a rolling of the eyes when the host of The Apprentice is mentioned.
Sitting in George’s office with a cup of tea made by his second wife Susan, some of the little details of his memories of Terry are lovely to hear.
George was the tidier when they roomed together on away trips. The champagne image was a bit overblown, like a good Scot he prefers a malt.
Graham is a bid admirer of the work Mikel Arteta (pictured) has done with title-chasing Arsenal
He suggested that Venables would likewise be a fan of the work Ange Postecoglou (pictured) has done with Tottenham
Terry was the perfect host at his nightclub Scribes in the 1990s but you had to drag him off stage to give someone else a chance to croon a Frank Sinatra tune. In later life he didn’t become as fanatical about golf as George had done. ‘He didn’t get bitten by the same bug.’
Graham suspects his friend would have been successful in this current era when man-management is more important than ever.
‘I think he’d have really liked what Ange Postecoglu has done at Tottenham this season, just as I admire Mikel Arteta,’ says Graham.
‘Terry was so far ahead of his time – ahead of us all really. I wouldn’t have achieved as much without him. The North London derby meant so much to us both. It’ll be strange to have one without chatting to him about it afterwards.’
