Last season in Red Matchday Magazine Derek Giles from the AFC Heritage Trust ran a series looking back at some former players who in their own way have played a part in the AFC story. Over the summer we will feature some of these players on the website. We start our trip down memory lane with a winger who featured in Red Matchday Issue 24 – Arthur Graham.

 

With his trademark shirt out over his shorts, Arthur was a fixture on the left wing at Pittodrie for almost seven years.

A direct winger who had the pace and ball control, explosive finishing and a sturdy build which meant he could fend off challenges. However allied to his undoubted talent was the fact that there can be few players who in the modern history of Aberdeen Football Club have produced such a rags-to-riches story.

Arthur grew up in Castlemilk and somewhere along the line his father, a slater’s labourer decided that he was better off not working. The result was grinding poverty and with seven brothers and three sister to this day Arthur is still amazed at how his mother was able to cope and keep a family together.

He had little time for school but Arthur lived for football and along with his pals played morning noon and night, sometimes in a local park but mostly in the street. Leaving school at the first opportunity he got a job in a steel mill earning £4 per week writing on the plates where they were destined for. Along with his fellow workmates he used to have a kick about on their breaks. From the ability he showed in these informal games someone had tipped off Cambuslang Rangers who watched him at amateur level and Arthur ended up getting a trial and signing.

After only a handful of games he was making a name for himself and had come to the attention of his boyhood heroes Celtic. What happened next and how Arthur arrived at Pittodrie seems to come in two versions – but both involve Bobby Calder and the fact that Arthur was due to meet Jock Stein and Sean Fallon the following day.

One has Eddie Turnbull tipped off by Bobby to the impending meeting with Celtic has him driving to Castlemilk and signing Arthur in his home.

The other has Bobby Calder boarding the bus after a game at Irvine Meadow and as Arthur tells the story, “‘Hello son’, he said, ‘would you like to come up to Aberdeen?’ ‘Sorry’, I said, ‘but I’m going to be seeing Mr Stein’. ‘Would you like to come up and sign professional forms?’ Then it was: ‘Would you like a contract, £50 a week?’ I kept saying 
sorry but no. Then Bobby said: ‘Would you like to come up, £50 a week and a £500 signing-on fee?’ ‘Done!’ I said. Five hundred quid was a lot of money where I came from and it totally kept my family solvent, it was a big hit.”

From a Celtic daft family Arthur omitted to tell his brothers and cousins and uncles that he’d rejected Celtic.

On his arrival he was presented with a pair of Adidas boots which by his own admission “were real beauts.” Prior to this he played in black gym shoes with the elasticated uppers which were all ripped and so flapped about and then at Cambuslang he got hand-me-downs which were also falling apart and had to be taped together. The downside was that his new boots gave him terrible blisters.

“My feet were all puffed up like an elephant’s” and the only way he could get about was in canvas sneakers or Bumpers as they were known. So there was Arthur out in Aberdeen in his suit and tie and his bumpers on. So when fans Dons fans saw him out they’d shout: ‘Hey, Bumper!’ It was a nickname that stuck.

Fully recovered from his blisters, Arthur made his debut against Dunfermline Athletic in a 2-0 win at Pittodrie as a second-half substitute for Derek McKay. In a bad tempered clash Graham did well enough to be included against Celtic four days later. Arthur gave an outstanding performance setting up the first goal for George Murray and heading the second to give Aberdeen a 2-1 win. It seemed unlikely that Eddie Turnbull would play him in the Scottish Cup Final. However, Arthur scored in the last League game before the Final and this combined with his performance against Celtic had forced Eddie Turnbull to rethink his Final team line-up.

So just 21 days after making his debut Arthur was included on the left wing for the 1970 Scottish Cup Final.

After the game he offered his Cup winners medal to Bobby Calder but the Aberdeen scout declined the kind offer but was clearly touched the offer. The following season Arthur was almost ever present as the Dons pushed Celtic hard for the title. In the second last League game of the season Aberdeen faced Celtic at Pittodrie, with the scores standing at 1-1, Arthur broke through the Celtic defence but his shot was saved by Evan Williams.

The rebound came back to Graham who rounded the helpless Celtic goalkeeper only for the ball to stick in the muddy goalmouth and by the time he was able to get his shot away Billy McNeill was there to clear. It was as close as the Dons were going to come to the League flag.

He continued to be ever present on the left wing and the 1974-75 season was to see him provide his best seasons tally of goals, eleven. Having represented Scotland at U-23 level it was this form that helped him force his way into the Scotland squad for a game against Denmark in Copenhagen. Unfortunately his international career seemed to be over before it had begun with an incident which saw Arthur being pulled across the DJ’s console in the hotel bar and all hell breaking loose. The result was that the SFA banned Arthur and his Aberdeen teammates Joe Harper and Willie Young for life. The ban was later rescinded by the SFA.

Again almost ever present in the 1975-76 season, Arthur played a big part in keeping the Dons in the top flight. However, the following season manager Ally MacLeod had invested wisely in the transfer market and the Dons found themselves back at Hampden. Facing Celtic once again this time in the League Cup Final, Arthur crossed for Joe Harper to set up Drew Jarvie for the equaliser after Kenny Dalglish had put Celtic ahead.

He then dragged Danny McGrain diagonally across the pitch which allowed an extra time winner to be set up for Davie Robb. It was Arthur’s second top flight medal. By the end of the 1976-77 season Arthur had decided it was time to move on and a £125,000 offer from Leeds United manager Jimmy Armfield was accepted. He made an immediate impact on the Leeds team and settled in nicely with 47 appearances and 12 goals in his first season. His dozen goals included three goals in a spell of four second-half minutes in a 3-2 win away at Birmingham City.

Within months of his arrival he had won the first of his eleven caps for Scotland with a substitute appearance in a 1-0 defeat by East Germany in Berlin in a friendly on 7th September 1977. However, this wasn’t the Leeds United of the previous years, it was a club on a downward spiral. After suffering the ignominy of a 5-1 opening day defeat of the 1981-82 season to newly-promoted Swansea, Leeds gained their first point of the 1981/82 season in a 1-1 draw at home to Everton, with Arthur scoring the Leeds goal.

Three days later he bagged a hat-trick to beat Wolves 3-0, and everything seemed as though the club had turned the corner. It wasn’t to be and at the end of the season the club was relegated to Division Two. Arthur remained at the club for another season but failure to secure promotion saw him surprisingly sold to Manchester United for £45,000. He was almost ever present in his first season at Old Trafford and put in a number of sterling performances but the arrival of Jesper Olsen in the summer of 1984 meant he would spend the following season in the reserves.

His former Leeds United teammate Trevor Cherry took him to Bradford City in June 1986 where his playing career ended in February 1987 when he took over as reserve team coach. The sacking of Terry Dolan in January 1989 briefly saw him in the hot seat at Bradford but he relinquished the position when Terry Yorath took over as manager the following month. A year later he was promoted to assistant manager at Bradford. Once his spell at Bradford City ended he worked as a freelance coach and now a resident in the Weatherby area, he recently retired from working as a part-time youth coach at Leeds United.

Arthur GRAHAM

Aberdeen FC Heritage Trust profile click here

Role: Outside Left (1969-1977)
Height – 5’ 8”, Weight – 11st. 11.3lbs
b. Castlemilk, Glasgow, 26th October 1952

CAREER: Avoca Amateurs/Cambuslang Rangers/Aberdeen 18th October 1969, called up – 10th January 1970/Leeds United 9th July 1977 £125,000/Manchester United August 1983 £45,000/Bradford City 14th June 1985/Reserve Team Coach February 1987, Caretaker Manager January – February 1989, Assistant Manager – 1990

Aberdeen v Dunfermline Athletic D1 21st March 1970 W2-0 Sub

HONOURS:
Aberdeen
Scottish Cup Winner: 1969-70
Scottish League Cup Winner: 1976-77
Drybrough Cup: 1971-72
Manchester United
FA Charity Shield Winner: 1983
Scotland
Full Caps: v. East Germany, Austria, Norway, Wales, Northern Ireland (1 goal), England, Argentina (1 goal), Norway, Peru, Austria, Wales;
U-23 Caps: v. England, Sweden, Russia (Sub.);

Aberdeen FC Career

	League		SC Cup		LG Cup		Euro		Total
	App	Gls	App	Gls	App	Gls	App	Gls	App	Gls
1969-70	5/1	2	1/0	0	0	0	0	0	6/1	2
1970-71	31/0	5	4/0	0	5/0	0	2/0	1	42	6
1971-72	29/2	4	3/1	0	6/0	3	3/0	0	41/3	7
1972-73	23/4	0	4/0	0	2/1	1	2	0	31/5	1
1973-74	32/1	3	1	0	9	3	4	1	46/1	7
1974-75	34	11	4	1	6	0	0	0	44	12
1975-76	31	4	2	0	5	1	0	0	38	5
1976-77	35	5	3	0	11	1	0	0	49	6
	220/8	34	22/1	1	44/1	9	11	2	297/10	46