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Was Alan Ball as bad as people remember?
- Thread starter HelloCity
- Start date
nmc
Well-Known Member
I was in Florida when a bloke came up to me (had my City top on) told me he had been appointed, needless to say I wasn’t impressed and that continued.
Florida you say... was it Goofy ?
nmc
Well-Known Member
He was pretty candid and said he had a bad vibe.
Admittedly, he was right, but think he just bottled it and Palace gave him some more money.
Can't remember if that is when we went for Coppell instead?
I think Coppell has already fucked off... I think we were in the incapable hands of `Phil Neal.... they really were dark days. Thank god Frank Clarke came along lol.
blue b4 the moon
Well-Known Member
Those 3 names & the thread title.......I think Coppell has already fucked off... I think we were in the incapable hands of `Phil Neal.... they really were dark days. Thank god Frank Clarke came along lol.
Shudders!!!!!
Fred_Quimby
Well-Known Member
Yes, but Glyn Pardoe had him in his pocket when we played Blackpool in the Cup.
Sky Blue Thinking
Well-Known Member
They were negotiating for it from quite early on, and Lee was always very keen for City to make the move. I worked for a law firm in town in 1995/6 and we acted for a couple of the board members at City at the time. Colin Barlow* was definitely in talks with the Council at that point. IIRC, they showed an interest even at the initial stage before Manchester was confirmed as host of the Commonwealth Games - at that point, they were trying to have it named national stadium, ahead of Wembley (which was never seriously going to happen).
It was in September 1998 that the Council and Sport England agreed in principle for City to occupy the stadium, but the lease was signed in August 1999 (on the pitch**, before the opening home game of the season against Wolves). Gary James has written that Sport England would probably have cancelled the plans had we lost the play-off final to Gillingham, hosting the Games in a largely temporary venue that would have remained an athletics stadium afterwards.
* - If you were to argue that Colin Barlow definitely wasn't the calibre of CEO that City needed even in those days, you'd definitely find an ally in me.
** - It was a really windy day, and older readers might remember the stiff breeze lifting Howard Bernstein's combover vertically upwards as he signed.
Sky Blue Thinking
Well-Known Member
Whilst signing the deal on the pitch did Howard Bernstein's Swales like combover flop forward, or have I imagined that? Probably covered elsewhere but his namesake David did a good understated job for us.
Sky Blue Thinking
Well-Known Member
He kept going back to Everton - it never worked out and to be honest his drinking was spiralling out of control by the time he left City so not sure he was much of a loss. Paul Lake covers this in his book). Agree it looked like he was building something but his managerial career declined rapidly in the years after he walked away from us.
Sky Blue Thinking
Well-Known Member
Kendall had certainly stabilised us and made us hard to beat albeit with some unpopular transfers, was a shame he chose to go the way he did as he seemed to have a plan and couldve brought success, but we'll never know now...
It still baffles me why Kendall went back to Everton when he did, we looked in great shape and he was building a very, very good team which Peter Reid destroyed.
I think Kendall admitted a few years later that it was a mistake letting his heart rule his head
My worst memory of Ball was him saying he’d enjoyed watching us lose 6-0 to Liverpool.
But no matter how bad Ball was, Clark was worse.. and Phil fuckin Neal was even worse than him