‘I helped win trophies galore at Arsenal however then the supervisor known as me a c***’
Alan Smith won trophies galore at Arsenal – but he was still labelled a “c***” by George Graham.
Moving from Leicester to the Gunners, the Englishman, who turned 62 on Thursday, ushered in an era of success in north London. However, after one performance in 1994, Graham pulled no punches when it came to speaking to Smith: “And you, you cunt, you’re always on the treatment table and never fit.
“Then you put in a performance like that! He loved a rollicking, but I was one of a core of players that had been through so much with him, achieved so much and been so successful – and he never used language like that.
READ MORE: Man Utd shamed as world’s biggest spenders in top 10 list with Arsenal but not Liverpool
READ MORE: Inside Pep Guardiola’s new Man City deal and impact on 115 charges, Liverpool and Arsenal
The Daily Star joins Bluesky as we Make Social Media Fun Again
Come and join The Daily Star on Bluesky, the social media site set up by ex-Twitter boss Jack Dorsey. It’s now the new go-to place for content after a mass exodus of the Elon Musk-owned Twitter/X.
Fear not, we’re not leaving Twitter/X, but we are jumping on the bandwagon. So come find our new account on https://bsky.app/profile/dailystar.co.uk, and see us social better than the rest.
You can also learn more about The Daily Star team in what Bluesky calls a “Starter Pack”.
So what are you waiting for?! Let’s M.S.M.F.A (Make Social Media Fun Again)
“For him to call me out in that way, it just shocked me so much. It cut me to the quick.
“I was kicking myself, because if he had said that to someone else there might have been a little face-to-face or a fight breaking out. Being the person that I am, I confronted him about it but perhaps not as aggressively as I should have.
(Image: daily express)
Don’t miss a thing with football updates!
Want to be on the ball with all of the latest football news? Well then sign up for the brilliant Daily Star Football email newsletter!
From the latest transfer news to breaking stories, get it all in your email inbox.
How do you sign up?
It only takes a matter of seconds.
Simply click on this link, then provide your email address and that’s it, job done. You’ll receive an email with all of the top football stories.
You can also sign up for our sport email, Off the Ball, for all the latest darts, boxing, snooker, F1 stories and more, right here
“He started behaving differently – there were all the bung rumours going around at the time. Lee Dixon made us aware of them, saying ‘George is in big trouble – he’s heading for the sack.’
“That was New Year’s Eve 1994, and only a matters of weeks later – in February, he was dismissed. So you can only imagine what was going on in his mind and his life at the time.”
Smith would leave the following summer, hanging his boots up in 1995.
