What the papers said about . . . George Graham

"A change in Graham occurred suddenly, rather than gradually. When cornered by friends, he admitted to being acutely aware of the anti- climax that confronts all athletes at a time in their lives when people in other fields are still rising. Beyond that response, though, there was something else; something internal and supremely private. Insecurity. If he was not obsessed with money at first, it would later become a matter of great importance." Independent

"Out on his Arsenal." Star

"George Graham was not alone when he stepped out of the marble halls for the last time. The dignity and integrity of Arsenal FC went with him." Sun

"It was nave to expect administrators, press-ganged into the role of avenging angels, to save football from itself. But the battered old game deserved more from the frightened men who failed to preserve both its credibility and dignity." Telegraph

"Chapman died in office, leaving an ageing Arsenal team and no obvious successor. In a sense, although Graham is still very much alive, his career at Highbury has ended in a similar fashion. There will, however, be rather fewer mourners at the manner of his passing. Chapman caught pneumonia, Graham a financial cold." Guardian

"Bung to rights." Mirror

"These are sad times for a club which never made friends easily and then discovered even the best of them can be fatally flawed." Mail

"Football is crazy if it thinks it can merely mop up the personal disaster of Graham and carry on in its sweet, bumbling way. If Graham was the villain, he was also the mirror of a game that flirts with death by indecision, by moral apathy, by a failure to understand where it is going." Express

"The man whose hands have touched more trophies, as player and manager, than any other in the club's history, will probably never now be cast in bronze alongside the bust of Chapman in the marble halls. He forfeited that right somewhere between Highbury and Scandinavia." Times