Part 8 – The Reluctant Manager

Many names were put forward in the press as contenders for the managers’ job, but the appointment of Bertie Mee as manager came as a shock to nearly everyone. In hindsight it proved to be the ideal appointment.

Bertie Mees’ career held many parallels with Arsenals previous physio turned manager, Tom Whittaker. Both had turned to physiotherapy after their football careers had been ended by injuries. They’d also both been physios at Arsenal for long enough to know the club inside out (Mee since 1960), and both had learned discipline by being sergeants in the army. Although Mee didn’t have the public profile of Whittaker, he was well known and respected in football circles, as for around 20 years he had been giving the lectures on injury treatment given to managers and coaches at the FA centre at Lilleshall.

Mee was extremely reluctant to take the job, but was eventually persuaded to take the job on a years trial with the promise of his old job back if either party wasn’t happy with the situation. The mutual happiness was shown by his tenure lasting ten years not one!

Although not experienced as a football manager, he had a lot of management experience, and as with all successful managers in all fields he not only had great organisational skills, but also the ability to pick the right people to do the jobs that he wasn’t skilled at. In his first season he signed Colin Addison, George Graham and Bob McNab and led the team to a respectable seventh in the league. His most important signing was, however, off the pitch. Dave Sexton was an ambitious young coach at Fulham who didn’t hesitate when his old friend Bertie Mee offered him the job of first team coach at Highbury, with Don Howe taking the job with the reserves.

Sexton’s calm, intelligent way of dealing with the players was an instant hit with them, and Frank McLintock said "He could have persuaded us [the players] to do anything for him". The Mee/Sexton combination worked wonders around the club and 1968 saw us reach our first League Cup final, losing an awful game 1-0 to Leeds.

In the summer Sextons ambition led him to take the job of Chelsea manager, and much to everyones surprise the relatively inexperienced Don Howe was promoted to first team coach. Howe himself doubted he was ready for such a position, but by the time Mee had finished with him he was not only convinced that he was ready for the job, but also that he would be a resounding success!

The youth system was starting to pay dividends and the older players were helping with the bonding. In 1969 we reached the League Cup final again, but lost again. This time it wasn’t to a top team like Leeds, but an embarrassing defeat by third division Swindon Town. To be fair to the players most of the team were recovering from a flu bug that had gone round the club, and we did have the best of the first 90 minutes, but extra time proved too much on a muddy field badly cut up by having just hosted the Horse of the Year show! Swindon deserved their 3-1 victory and the players woke the next day to headlines such as ‘Shame of Arsenal’. Mee used the experience to galvanise the squad and give them the determination to become winners. In fact Bob Wilson later said that the spirit that was shortly to bring trophies to Highbury was born out of that defeat, and the team finished the season in forth place, qualifying for the next seasons Fairs Cup (as the UEFA cup was then known).

1969/70 started with a mixture of seasoned, experienced, pros and young hopefuls at a club that hadn’t won a trophy since 1953. Our league form was erratic, but our home form in Europe was enough to take us through to a two legged final against Anderlecht. The away leg was played first (only a week after knocking out an Ajax team containing most of the players that would go on to win a hat-trick of European Cups) and a despondent team trudged off the pitch having been beaten 3-1, a late goal from Ray Kennedy giving the score some respectability. Captain Frank McLintock went into the bath after the games convinced he was going to be collecting his fifth losers medal in a cup final, but something happened to him in there. He came out and verbally tore the opposition to shreds. Their defence was poor and we’d tear through the middle at Highbury. Their midfield had no legs and would be over run. Their attack had just got lucky and wouldn’t get a sniff in the return. By the time he’d finished the team had no doubt that the return would be won, indeed Bob Wilson says the tie was won at that point.

On Tuesday 28th April 1970, fans spending their shilling on a programme as they approached the ground opened it to read a rare page by Bertie Mee. In those notes, as well as praising his captain and the younger members of his squad (saying we’d hit on the right mixture), he also prophetically said, "Next season there is no good reason why we should not win one of the major English competitions".

The game was in no way a foregone conclusion being as it was against a top European team, but a packed Highbury roared a team more than half full of home grown players on to a 3-0 victory, and after a joyful pitch invasion watched FIFA President Sir Stanley Rous hand the trophy to McLintock, a man who had always been a winner but was finally victorious.

1970/71 was a season that would deliver everything the fans could dream of, but it started with injury problems. Peter Simpson and Jon Sammels were to miss the first few months of the season, and in the first game of the season Charlie George broke his ankle whilst scoring. Bearing in mind that only 16 players were used all season (Sammy Nelson and Peter Marinello managed only four starts between them) this put great pressure on the remaining players, who responded magnificently.

By the time we played Stoke City in the FA Cup semi-final the league was a two horse race between Arsenal and Leeds, they having the points, us the games in hand. It was injury time at the end of the game with Stoke leading 2-1 when Frank McLintock headed a George Armstrong header goal bound, only to see John Mahoney pull of a brilliant one handed save. The trouble was he wasn’t the Stoke keeper, and a penalty was awarded. In one penalty box Bob Wilson crouched down, head in hands, unable to watch. In the other legendary keeper Gordon Banks was about to try and save Peter Storeys penalty. Storey, the midfield destroyer with the ice-cold stare, stayed calm and slotted the equaliser. The replay ended rather more comfortably in a 2-0 win and the double was a real possibility, which in the end came down to one week in May.

Monday May 3rd. White Hart Lane. Arsenal made the short trip into enemy territory to try and win the league at the home of our bitterest rivals. The official attendance was given at 52,000, with at least as many again locked out. A win would see Arsenal crowned champions, as would a 0-0 draw, but due to the vagaries of goal average any score draw would see the trophy heading to Yorkshire. Attack was deemed the best form of defence and a pulsating match was 0-0 until a couple of minutes from the end when the ball appeared to be going out for an Arsenal corner. Everyone stopped. Everyone that is except George ‘Geordie’ Armstrong. The only outfield player to start every game that season, he hadn’t stopped running since the first whistle was blown away at Everton in August. A vital member of the team, with phenomenal fitness levels, he kept the ball in and crossed for Ray Kennedy to head home. Kennedy had only come into the team because of Charlie Georges broken ankle, but had played so well alongside John Radford up front that when George came back from injury it was in midfield. An equaliser now would cost the title, but we held on under pressure and the title was ours.

Saturday May 8th. Wembley. A sunny day saw champions Arsenal bidding to become only the forth team to have won the double face a Liverpool side that was destined to dominate English football. It proved to be an open game, but despite chances at both ends there was no score at the end of 90 minutes. Soon after the start of extra time Heighway broke down the left for Liverpool. Anticipating a cross to Toshack, Wilson came off his line, but only succeeded in giving Heighway the space to score at the near post. Ten minutes later we were level. Radford played a speculative ball into the box, Eddie Kelly poked the ball goal wards and George Graham got a faint touch as it went in. Or so it appeared. The goal was first credited to Graham, although by the next day it had been credited to Kelly, as it appeared that Graham had not actually touched the ball. To be honest the film is rather inconclusive and the goal remains credited to Kelly, but more importantly we were level and the scene was set for one of the most enduring images in football history.

After 111 minutes of his 62nd appearance of the season the ever willing John Radford laid the ball off to Charlie George about 20 yards out. Instinctively George struck the ball at goal, and Clemence was helpless as the ball flew past him into the net, George falling to the floor with his arms outstretched. Funnily enough the celebration was more down to exhaustion than anything else. With little left in his legs he had been moved from midfield to attack, and he later commented that when he scored he didn’t have the energy to celebrate!

Bertie Mee, the reluctant manager, had done something no other Arsenal manager had managed; he’d led his team to the double.

In the summer Don Howe left Arsenal for an unhappy spell as manager of West Bromwich Albion. Again Mee lost a great coach to the management of another club, but this time he wasn’t able to find a coach to live up to his previous two appointments. Despite an FA Cup final, another semi and a runners up spot in the league over the next two season there would be no more trophies for Mees’ Arsenal. Indeed when he left in the summer of 1976 (after announcing his impending retirement in March) the club had been fighting against relegation, many arguing that the double team had been broken up too soon.

When Arsenal appointed the next manager, there would be no need for him to move house!