Former Lang Player Arthur Graham Talks To The Reformer

Thanks to kenny Smith and the Reformer for Kindly Allowing the Lang Online To Carry This Feature

FROM steelworks to silverware in less than six months later is the stuff that dreams are made of.
But it’s exactly what happened to former Cambuslang Rangers star Arthur Graham.
Arthur, who was born on October 26 1952, grew up in Castlemilk, was working
in Cambuslang steelworks, when he joined up with the Lang.
After playing just a handful of games for the Lang first team on the left
wing, he was snapped up by Aberdeen not long after his 17th birthday.
And within months of joining the Dons, he was picking up a Scottish Cup
winners’ medal at Hampden.
Arthur’s senior career would see him move on to Leeds United, Manchester
United, and Bradford City, as well as winning 10 international caps with
Scotland.
But it was all a far cry from his early days.
Arthur said: “I lived in Kinning Park, then we moved to Castlemilk when I
was about four.
“I went to Dougrie Terrace School, which was just across the road, but it
was knocked down years ago. When you’re younger, it looked so big, but
coming back now you can see where it was, and it wasn’t that big.
“I can still remember the playground being really busy before school
started at nine, and the girls were screaming as we were banging into them
playing football.
“Then at St Margaret Mary’s, it was a good football school where we had a
good record and won the Scottish Schools’ Cup.
“I still remember the final, which was the first time I’d played on grass.
Until then, it had all been red ash pitches. We had a lot of good players
in that team.
“But all I did was play in the streets - all the time - as there weren’t
that many cars about at the time, and we’d go out and play at night under
the street lights.
“There wasn’t that much else to do then, and it was great, as we’d be out
playing whenever we could, but it’s not so easy now with cars both sides
nowadays.”
Arthur was playing amateur once he left school.
He said: “John Daly set up a team called Avoca, and we played in the Celtic
colours, and in the Glasgow leagues.
“I’d left school and couldn’t get a job anywhere, but I ended up getting a
job down at the steelworks in Cambuslang.
“All the guys I worked with were Cambuslang Rangers supporters, and
whenever we had a break, we’d get a ball out and have a game. They said I
looked pretty good, and said I should get a trial.
“So the scout came down and I played in the trial, then I joined the team.
“It all happened in such a short space of time. I was doing night shift,
day shift and back shift, but some of the boys covered for me and told me
to have a sleep in the bothy.
“It was just tough - you were playing against men and some ex-pros, and I
got some real clatterings. I’d got a knock on my knee and been out for a
while with injury, and I remember the pitches were always heavy to play on.
“I’d played a few games, when a Celtic scout came along to watch me play.
He spoke to me after a game, and wanted me to meet Sean Fallon and Jock
Stein.
“At that time they signed a lot of kids, then put them out on loan to
junior clubs, like Kenny Dalglish going to Cumbernauld.
“But the same day, Aberdeen scout Bobby Calder got wind of what was going
on. He got on board the Cambuslang bus as it made its way back from a match
against Irvine Meadow.
"He came up to the back of the bus, where I was sitting," remembers Graham.
"He said: ‘Do you want to come up to Aberdeen?’ I was honest, and I said
‘no’, because I knew the next day I was due to meet Mr Stein. He said: ‘Do
you want to come up tomorrow and sign professional forms?’ ‘No, No. I am
going to Parkhead.’
"He said: ‘Do you want to come up to Aberdeen and sign a professional
contract, £50 a week?’ I was working in the steel works for £4 a week, but
I said ‘No’ again. Finally he said: ‘Look, will you come up to Aberdeen
tomorrow to sign a two-year contract, £50 a-week and a £500 signing-on
fee?’. I said ‘Yes’ immediately. I mean, 500 quid! That was a lot of money.
"That just turned it completely, but it was the best move I ever made.”
Having snubbed his boyhood heroes and signed on at Pittodrie, it wasn’t
long before he made his Dons debut.
“I was 17 when I signed for Aberdeen, and when I went up there, I couldn’t
believe how different it was. No one was bothered whether you supported
Celtic or Rangers.
“We had a good team - guys like Martin Buchan, Stevie Murray, Joe Harper -
and later on Willie Miller came through, while Alex McLeish was a youngster
when I was there.
“Just a few days after I’d made my debut, we played at Parkhead. We won the
game 2-1 - and I scored the winner!
"I used to get terrible stick at Parkhead. ‘I’m gonna cut your mother’s
washing line,’ they’d shout, because they knew where I was from. They used
to say I was a traitor.”
But Arthur endured the abuse, and he ended the 1969-70 season in style at
Hampden for the Scottish Cup final, when the Dons took on Celtic again.
The bookies made the Glasgow side 4-11 on, while Aberdeen were 5-1 against.
It was the Dons’ seventh Scottish Cup final, but had only won in 1947.
Eddie Turnbull included young Arthur in his line-up.
“Eddie moulded that team, and had them together for a few years.
"He was a father-figure. He knew I was a rum lad from the west who got up
to daft wee things. But he knew I had talent. He didn’t tell me to do
anything he knew I couldn’t do. He just told me to go out there and play.”
There was a massive crowd at Hampden for the match.
Arthur said: “It was an amazing experience - there were over 100,000 people
there, and we won 3-1 - it was incredible, as no one had expected us to
win.”

Further silverware would follow, with Arthur also playing in a league cup
final and a Dryborough Cup final - and the Castlemilk lad picked up
winners’ medal in each before Arthur’s career with Aberdeen came to an end
in 1977.
As the seventies progressed, the Dons changed manager, with the legendary
Ally MacLeod taking charge at Pittodrie.
But when the call came from Scotland, the change of regime at Aberdeen
meant Arthur decided to move on.
Arthur explained: “There was some talk of Ally going on to get the Scotland
job, and I told him if he was going, then I would too.
“Billy McNeill came in and took over, but I told him I’d heard Leeds United
were interested, and I wanted a change. He wanted me to change my mind and
offered me a testimonial, but I wanted to try something new. It was nothing
personal to him, so I put in a transfer request.
“I’d had seven good years up there, but I got the move to Leeds. I’ve
settled down here in west Yorkshire, and am very happy.
“When I first came to Leeds I had no problems settling in - there were
about 15 Scots here, guys like Frank and Eddie Gray, Peter Lorimer and
Gordon McQueen.
“You can actually still see quite a lot of the guys round here.
“Leeds were an amazing club with a fantastic support. It’s just a shame
that we didn’t give them any trophies when I was there, and we got
relegated in my last season there in 1983.”
Arthur ended his six years at Elland Road when he moved Old Trafford, after
a £45,000 transfer that summer.
“Then, I got a call from Man United where Ron Atkinson signed me. He had
fancied me earlier when I was finishing at Leeds and he was at West Brom.
“When it was time up at Leeds, I was having talks with Bobby Gould at
Coventry, but Atkinson got wind of it, and I got the call from a Man U
scout to meet Ron. There was no problem with that, and I had a good couple
of years there.
“My first game for them was the Charity Shield, and won 2-0 against
Liverpool at Wembley. It was some start, playing with guys like Bryan
Robson and Norman Whiteside.
“Atkinson got me as a stop-gap as Stevie Coppell was injured and didn’t
know how long he would be out, but it was good move for me.”
After two years with Manchester United, Arthur headed back to Yorkshire.
“I went to Bradford City, who were managed by my old Leeds team mate Trevor
Cherry.
“I was 33 or 34 at the time, and I went there for a year in the first team.
That was just after the Bradford stadium fire, which meant we had to play
our games away from Valley Parade, at the rugby stadium Odsal. That was
really hard.
“I was a flying winger who was expected to do things with the ball, but it
was impossible as every time the ball came to me I was closed down on a
dreadful pitch.
“I ended up in the reserves, and went on to coach the youth team. I
finished up taking the reserves as well, and was even caretaker manager for
a couple of games.
“But when the new manager came in, I wasn’t going to stay long, so we
parted company.”
Arthur, who won 11 international caps, still has a treasured memento from
Scotland’s friendly with Argentina in 1979.
The Scots lost 3-1 at Hampden, in a game usually remembered as being Diego
Maradona’s debut outing on British soil.
Graham had scored Scotland’s goal in the 3-1 defeat against the world
champions and would later collect 18-year-old Maradona’s shirt.
“Argentina had won the World Cup the year before, and were touring Europe.
I can remember the pitch was shocking and really dry at the end of the
season.

“We had been told about this little guy, Maradona, and I’d seen him walking
down the tunnel, so I encouraged him and said ‘All the best, pal’, not
thinking any more about it.
“And he was unbelievable - he was doing things you’d expect to see kids
doing in the playground, but he was doing it at Hampden. He was amazing to
watch.
"He was the best I have ever seen, and for the last five minutes of that
game I went everywhere he went.
“I’d never swapped shirts with anyone before, but I knew I wanted this wee
guy’s. As soon as the final whistle went I was like, ‘wee man, swap shirts,
yes?’
“I’d played with the Scotland youth team and the under-23s, as it was then,
and then for the call up to the full squad.
“Playing for Scotland was a great experience, as we had a lot of great
players, and why we didn’t do better is still a mystery. We certainly had
the players to win something, and I’ll bet the SFA still wish we had them
now. The ability was unbelievable
“There were some good trips, like 1979 when we went to Wembley for the
England game. We lost 3-1, but the number of fans at the game was amazing,
and the atmosphere was fantastic.
“I remember the size of the crowd and the passion of the fans, even though
we lost.”
In a Wetherby bar near Arthur’s home, is a snug known as Scots Corner.
“We’ve got some pictures up there, with a picture of Asa Hartford, which he
signed with best wishes to us in Scots Corner. There’s also a picture of me
scoring against Argentina at Hampden, in a frame.“
After leaving the professional game, Arthur teamed up with former Leeds
team-mate Jimmy Lumsden.
Arthur said: “Myself and Jimmy, who’s now a coach at Everton, formed a
company, First Touch, about 10 or 11 year ago, which I’m now running
myself.
“I’m busy enough, doing coaching and skills courses. When the kids are off
school we do football camps, which is good fun for the kids, passing the
ball, controlling it, and passing it.
“I also go into schools as well, such as Inglebrook Pontefract, where I
give the children some football skills coaching, and they all enjoy it. The
school are great, and I enjoy going in there and working with the kids.
“There’s no secret to what we have to do - we just need to give the kids a
ball, and let them play with it. The best thing for them to do is just to
go out and play.
“That’s what we did as kids, and maybe if there was more of that going in
back in Scotland, we wouldn’t be struggling for good players like we are
now.
“I like to let the kids play and not stop them every five minutes to
explain things. If we’d done that when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have played
much.
”I also do some work at the Leeds academy in Wetherby.”
Arthur added: “Looking back on my career, I had a good time. Players of my
age just missed out on the big money that players are making now. They can
make more in signing on fees that we did in our whole career.
“But I loved my time at the clubs I played for, Aberdeen, Leeds and Man
United, as well as Scotland.”

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