He famously fell out with then manager Terry Venables and proceeded to appoint and dismiss a sequence of proposed saviours.
Although Spurs have enjoyed only limited success during that time, they have continued to mix good football with bad in the country's top flight.
So what has made Tottenham's top job such a precarious perch?
It has in part, to do with expectation. The combined reigns of Bill Nicholson, Terry Neill and Burkinshaw spanned 1958-1984 and filled the Tottenham trophy cabinet with one Football League Championship, five FA Cups, two League Cups, one Cup Winners Cup and a Uefa Cup.
Their sides set a precedent that subsequent Spurs sides have struggled to match.
Make no mistake, White Hart Lane has been a home to some skillful players of late - Hoddle, Lineker, Gascoigne and Klinsmann are among the best footballers of their time - but perhaps this in itself has put pressure on the managers who have failed to maximise their talents.
Throughout the late 1980s, Spurs were a nearly-side, whose managers paid the ultimate price for their failure to bring home trophies.
Peter Shreeves and the current Director of Football David Pleat parted company with the club after unconvincing spells in charge.
Then came Alan Sugar.
Arriving as chairman in 1991, his approach had everything to do with profit but failed to secure stability. Instead it increased the pace of change.
He famously fell out with then manager Terry Venables and proceeded to appoint and dismiss a sequence of proposed saviours.
In the old Tottenham way, former player Ossie Ardiles introduced a brand of attacking football that both exhilirated and terrified Spurs fans until the team's performance began to waver and Sugar lost patience.
Gerry Francis flirted with success but had some difficulty coping with the egos of big-name players and ran out of time and ideas.
After Swiss misfit Christian Gross had in no way fulfilled his chairman's prediction that he was the man to lead the club into the next millennium, Graham arrived on a wave of controversy to do just that.
However, despite his success in the Worthington Cup in 1999, there was a feeling among fans that insufficient funds were being made available to build a truly dominating team.
This, it seems, helped to unhinge George Graham.
Graham looks set to appeal his dismissal but thus apparently ends another shorter-than-expected tenure.
Spurs are still seeking success and bizarrely may find it this season in the FA Cup, but in the run up to their semi-final matchup with Arsenal, they must commence the search for yet another new manager.
This timing is not good.
David Pleat will take care of the side for now, but Spurs fans must be hoping that a long-term appointment is made soon.
One who can reconcile any differences between the board and the fans.
And one who can stick around for five years at least.