Graham's sort of homecoming

GEORGE GRAHAM'S name means different things to different people. To many inside football he is the great motivator, a man whose accumulation of silverware at Highbury puts him up there".

To Leeds United's fans, desperate for a resurrection, Graham is the potential saviour. To Arsenal footballers, like Ian Wright and Tony Adams, who style themselves "sons of George", he is obviously a father figure.

But the inescapable fact remains that outside Leeds and a short corner of north London George Graham is regarded as the man who let football down a man with one arm forward and one aim back who took banknotes in the pursuit of wooden Norwegian footballers.

"The public image belongs to me," Johnny Rotten said, but in Graham's case the punk was only half right. Graham lost his public, and suspicion prevails.

And yet even a brief audience with the new Leeds boss reveals an easily likable personality. Hero and anti hero; that is the great contradiction in Graham.

Today it will be on full display when Mr Arsenal returns to Highbury for the first time as a manager. But if Mr Arsenal regrets that his return to the marble hall is as the manager of another club, he is not saying so.

Memories are private," is his view, "and I don't like to bore people with mine." Far from it George. Many people, including the FA inquiry team investigating the "bungs scandal", would like Graham to open up about the recent past.

It does not seem likely. Graham might be privately obsessive about the circumstances surrounding his dismissal 20 months ago, but you would not know it. "Angry?" he responds to questions about possible bitterness, "I'm not going to discuss it any further anticipate a great reception, think it will be excellent both on the terraces and from the employees within the club.

The use of the word employees was interesting because of its exclusivity. Graham still has a problem with his former employers: he describes being shown the back door by them as his worst moment"; he is unsure whether he will enter the boardroom today.

If Graham does, it will be with his head held high. "And why shouldn't I? It's the same for everybody, surely. You don't wipe away the memories. I had 15 years at Highbury as a player and a manager and they were my most successful years.

"So there will be that little bit of added excitement going back again. I'll be trying to pick the right dressing room to go into."

A regret he did admit to was that the personnel he will be taking with him are not of his choosing. I should love to go back with what I would call the George Graham Leeds United team, but that will take some time to evolve. I should like it to happen quicker, but in life you always want things instantly. The George Graham Leeds will take tame.

It is doubtful that the George Graham Arsenal will give Leeds that this afternoon. Yeah, they've got that horrible habit of not conceding goals. After I was getting told to get rid of some of those defenders, three years later they're still there at the top of the league with the same defence."

In fact, post Graham Arsenal have recruited only three new players: Platt, Bergkamp and Vieira, who have figured in the first team. I should like to think I'd have got more than that."

That was not a veiled criticism of either of his successors, Bruce Rioch and Arsene Wenger. Rioch, Graham said, "did a very good job and he is sure Wenger will too. Graham has not yet spoken to Wenger since the Frenchman's arrival in London, but the two know each other from when Wenger was at Monaco.

"It tailed off for him there, then he went to Japan, and I think coming to Arsenal has resurrected his career.

After eight games at Leeds, Graham realises that a similar lift off is required there. He has money, but says he will not buy for the short term. "We need new playing staff. I don't think there's any question about that.

I was surprised with the numbers of the first team squad, it's very low and that has been the greatest surprise. They have got a good youth policy here but some of the youngsters are still away off the first team, even though I've had to play them. But I will not be panic buying at Leeds."

More than most, Graham knows the pitfalls and intricacies of buying and selling. It has cost him his job once and a lot of public esteem. But what will come to be known as his "wilderness period" has, he says, not changed him too much. "I've always been a friendly, mellow type of person."