By Myles Palmer
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LAST WEEK I watched a tape of the Chelsea-Newcastle game on PPV.
The format really suits George Graham, Sky’s PPV pundit.
George is a very shrewd character. He is immaculate, succinct, a credible expert whose views mean something.
ON PPV, George is not part of a panel. He is not part of a trio or a duo. He is not a third of the opinion or a quarter.
He is the man.
As a reporter, I had eight and a half happy years with George and learned a lot from him. He gave us plenty to talk about and write about. We had a lot of laughs with him.
I noticed that George does not like to be contradicted.
ON PPV, it’s just George and Marcus, the host.
I’m sure that George loves the idea that fans have to pay extra to hear what he has to say.
In the first half, Chelsea’s 4-3-3 was stuttering.
At half time the score was 0-0.
George said, “The formation, for me, isn’t working up to now.”
Mourinho took Gudjohnsen off at half-time, brought Drogba on.
That switch seemed to me, on what we had seen so far, risky and premature.
BUT IT WORKED !
Drogba nodded one to the unmarked Lampard : 1-0.
Then Drogba nudged Bramble off Lampard’s Hoddle pass down the middle and sidefooted into the corner for 2-0.
Robben raced onto Duff’s reverse pass, held off Bowyer, drilled past Given for 3-0.
Given brought Duff down, clear penalty, Kezman did a Di Canio, chipped it down the middle as the keeper dived to one side : 4-0.
Then George gave his verdict.
“Individually, there’s a lot of Chelsea players can improve.We’ve not seen the best of Chelsea yet.
“This manager’s done it right. He’s built from the back. He’s gonna be difficult to beat. This word hunger keeps coming in. And desire. And you can just see they’re gonna improve and improve.
“And they’re not yet a sophisticated team, like Arsenal at their best. They’re so sophisticated with their play. Chelsea are gonna get better and better.”
It’s a sobering message from GG.
I was apprehensive about the game, even before I saw him say that.
George Graham is a canny judge of players, teams and situations.
He didn’t talk about Arsenal-Chelsea, of course.
George will not be a Sky pundit for this game.
But he might do a piece for one of the Sundays.
December 11th 2005.