1978-79 | The self-implosion of Manchester City

[J.G.Blue.]

I wouldnt have had a clue. That hame though …. Wow. Probably all the years of being a total shit show culminated in us playing for a draw when we needed a win.

it was awkward as fuck liverpool trying not to score whilst we totally fucked it up ourselves

Very strange game that was!

 

[blue b4 the moon]

A very good summary.
No doubt the team needed refreshing but the wanton fire sale of proven international players for expensive replacements like Stepanovic, Robinson, Silkman, Reeves, Daley, Shinton and Mackenzie remains a colossal error of judgement. As Bond said when he arrived at City, he inherited a huge squad but there wasn't one left back among it.

Bit like now then ;)

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Just reading through the thread it's reminded me that when Malc returned with Palace after the sacking I think a cup game the Kippax where I was gave him a fantastic round of applause & he 'ran over' to us...what the response was in other parts of MR I don't know as I was too busy clapping.

In retrospect what he was doing seemed to be almost there but he was too sweeping in getting rid of our established players maybe he was concerned about dressing room harmony and decided to do a quick change?

 

[eastmanc]

I saw this topic being discussed in another thread and thought it deserved it's own.

From the appointment of Joe Mercer & Malcolm Allison in 1965, through to 1979, City had undoubtedly established themselves as one of the top 4/5 football clubs in England, as well as a player on the European stage too. The honour's in the period included: The 1967/68 League Championship, FA Cup Winners in 1969, 2x League Cup Winners 1969/70, 1975/76 (RU: 1973/74), ECWC Winners 1969/70, multiple semi-finals, Wembley trips & consistent European football @ Maine Road. All whilst playing in front of some of the biggest gates the country had to offer. In 1975-76 City had won the League Cup & followed it up in 1976-77 by finishing a point behind champions Liverpool with a team consisting of experienced internationals like Joe Corrigan, Dave Watson, Asa Hartford, Dennis Tueart & Brian Kidd, supplemented by quality youngsters such as Peter Barnes & Gary Owen.

Now, what I'm getting at in this, is that it all imploded in a very short time frame. City had a disappointing 1978-79 season under Tony Book, despite a run to the QF's of the UEFA Cup. This was followed by Peter Swales moving Tony Book upstairs & bringing Malcolm Allison back to the club as manager, even after his first disastrous spell in the seat from 1971-73, when City had flirted with relegation at one stage, despite possessing one of the best sides in Europe. Swales & Allison then preceded over what can only be described as the self-destruction of the club. They sold practically all of the players listed above, replacing them with youngsters for grossly inflated fees, like Steve Daley, no where near the quality of their predecessors. This plunged the club into finical disarray, multiple managers & ultimately inevitable relegation. Above all of this though, is that it stripped the club of it's status as one of the countries finest, into a yo-yoing basket case of a club, with no silverware in 35 years, only fixed when Sheikh Mansour took over in 2008 with a lot of investment.

Personally I think the seeds of this go back to the early 1970's when Peter Swales, brought in to mediate a dispute between two factions of the board, one behind Joe Mercer & the other behind Malcolm Allison, on whether it was time for Malcolm to have the top job. Somehow, Swales politicked his was to the chairmanship & in-turn got Allison appointed. This is my understanding anyway but could be wrong. I think had the club remained under the stewardship of the Alexander family or similar at this point, our history would of been quite different in the 80's & 90's & certainly wouldn't of seen us become what we did, you could even argue our greatest team prior to the current day would have won even more.

I'd like to know if anyone has any insight into this period? maybe @Gary James or @petrusha? If so, how was the club handled so poorly & negligently?.

That makes sense:-) My parents were the older generation, and I tended to listen to them and trust them where City matters were concerned.
They weren't wrong.

When Malcolm came back in 78, I remember my Dad being very excited and there fore as a 14 year old I tended to follow what he said and again trusted his judgement, which unfortunately was way off the mark. It was a absolute disaster for our club.

 

[eastmanc]

77-78 mate

Went to that at Maine Road and also went to the skills competition at Cheadle Town.

 

[eastmanc]

Swales was the biggest ego, the biggest liar, and the biggest disaster in the entire history of the club.
He was never even a fan of the club. He simply used his position of chairman at one of europes biggest clubs (which we were in the 70s) as a means of inveigling himself onto the FA board.
He is a case study in arrogant incompetence.
He didn’t just destroy a side, he almost literally killed the entire club. And did so whilst making himself millions and millions of pounds.
Some misguided blues say “ah, but he WAS a City fan”. No, he wasn’t.

He was a provincial, duplicitous, failed local business man.
Im not by nature a vindictive man but I hope with all my being that he is currently rotting in hell.

Here, here. He was a disaster.

 

[Keeper!]

Swales was the biggest ego, the biggest liar, and the biggest disaster in the entire history of the club.
He was never even a fan of the club. He simply used his position of chairman at one of europes biggest clubs (which we were in the 70s) as a means of inveigling himself onto the FA board.
He is a case study in arrogant incompetence.
He didn’t just destroy a side, he almost literally killed the entire club. And did so whilst making himself millions and millions of pounds.
Some misguided blues say “ah, but he WAS a City fan”. No, he wasn’t.

He was a provincial, duplicitous, failed local business man.
Im not by nature a vindictive man but I hope with all my being that he is currently rotting in hell.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

As much as I’ve tried to objectively rationalise the dismantlement of this team I always end up in the same place: it was nothing but an exercise in ego and insanity.

I heard that Watson was sold because he had gambling debts that could only be satisfied by a big signing on fee, Tueart left because of the greater money on offer in the NASL and medical practises and technology at the time meant Colin was never going to be the player he was before the Buchan injury, but those three factors (assuming the first is true) made it essential to limit any disruption to the rest of the squad to an absolute minimum. Two of those three players were world class, one international class. Any team back then would have struggled with that loss, but we compounded it by dismantling so many other great components of that squad. And replacing them so inadequately.

Thing is, if it had come off Allison would have been hailed a genius, and that I feel was the heart of the issue. His ego was such that replacing those three players wasn’t enough. He wanted to create a squad almost entirely in his own image and in so doing sowed the seeds for our decline over the next 30 years. It was foolish and reckless, as well as being utterly selfish. It was all about Malcolm, not the club.

As to Swales, I’ve posted to this effect before. I’m struggling to think of any strategic or tactical decision he got right. He was an utterly inadequate person to run an organisation such as Manchester City. An insignificant, foolish, conceited husk of a man who blagged his way into power and then clung onto it for dear life, despite overseeing over 30 years of depressing and avoidable decline. He wasn’t a City fan, he was a ****, and an utterly cowardly and selfish one to boot. I wonder if he ever reflected on the sheer extent of his failure after he was ousted - I very much doubt it. Men of unfailingly poor character and judgement don’t tend to do self-reflection.

He did us more harm than Gill, Platini, the WhatsApp cabal and the Hateful Eight have ever managed, despite their very best efforts. That speaks absolutely to the sheer inadequacy of the man.

 

[Keeper!]

As much as I’ve tried to objectively rationalise the dismantlement of this team I always end up in the same place: it was nothing but an exercise in ego and insanity.

I heard that Watson was sold because he had gambling debts that could only be satisfied by a big signing on fee, Tueart left because of the greater money on offer in the NASL and medical practises and technology at the time meant Colin was never going to be the player he was before the Buchan injury, but those three factors (assuming the first is true) made it essential to limit any disruption to the rest of the squad to an absolute minimum. Two of those three players were world class, one international class. Any team back then would have struggled with that loss, but we compounded it by dismantling so many other great components of that squad. And replacing them so inadequately.

Thing is, if it had come off Allison would have been hailed a genius, and that I feel was the heart of the issue. His ego was such that replacing those three players wasn’t enough. He wanted to create a squad almost entirely in his own image and in so doing sowed the seeds for our decline over the next 30 years. It was foolish and reckless, as well as being utterly selfish. It was all about Malcolm, not the club.

As to Swales, I’ve posted to this effect before. I’m struggling to think of any strategic or tactical decision he got right. He was an utterly inadequate person to run an organisation such as Manchester City. An insignificant, foolish, conceited husk of a man who blagged his way into power and then clung onto it for dear life, despite overseeing over 30 years of depressing and avoidable decline. He wasn’t a City fan, he was a ****, and an utterly cowardly and selfish one to boot. I wonder if he ever reflected on the sheer extent of his failure after he was ousted - I very much doubt it. Men of unfailingly poor character and judgement don’t tend to do self-reflection.

He did us more harm than Gill, Platini, the WhatsApp cabal and the Hateful Eight have ever managed, despite their very best efforts. That speaks absolutely to the sheer inadequacy of the man.

May I also add PJ Swales was a robbing bastard, who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds of our and the clubs money.
We were a very rich, wealthy, self supporting club before that MF took us over, an utter cnut of a man.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Although we didn't win a game in those first 10 or 11 of that season so were looking certs for relegation !

Not disputing that mate, but we got relegated anyway two years later, and without Palmer, Bennett, and Mackenzie