1978-79 | The self-implosion of Manchester City

[spacecadet]

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.

Can't dispute any of that Blue.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

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.

That's the thing thst often gets overlooked (including by myself) when jokes are made about the Charlton game and many, many others. He was doing that to skim money off the club, and ultimately us as supporters, to line his own pockets. These were times when losing cash was much more straightforward, both domestically and internationally, than it is today. Cars, artwork, houses, villas abroad could be bought, or significantly contributed towards, with large sums of cash - back then, my dad used to pay mine and my brother’s school fees in cash ffs - can you imagine that happening today?!

Who knows where the money went, but I’m sure there will have been plenty of it and it will have acquired assets whose provenance will now be impossible to establish with any certainty.

So you are correct: he stole off the club and I’m happy to add ‘embezzler‘ to to the previous post!

 

[Citizen Green]

I knew this would be a great thread, thanks to all the blues who have contributed.

I was born well after this period but like many, were 'victims' of it. It was almost like our club was robbed of it's own potential from within.

 

[spacecadet]

That picture says

1978, no question

View attachment 29250

The associated book was also the source of the greatest, most telling photograph of all time

View attachment 29251

The bottom image says it all. The **** that nearly run our fantastic club out of business at the front. Then The King is nearly in the Main Stand concourse at the back. Horrible bastard Swales.

 

[peter.evans]

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

True, but I don't think we would have stayed up if Malcolm had carried on in 1980/81 and as a manager he was a complete failure in England at least !

 

[A57 the snake]

I think for a few of us on here ( I’m 52) we were just about old enough to go with our mates around that time and it was a learning curve having missed out on the mercer years and the success with the 70’s it was the beginning of our 30 odd years of near enough disaster .
As I say a learning curve in loyalty probably blind loyalty but we did it we stuck it out and got rewarded… still never take anything for granted with Manchester City football club though the memories are still raw ;) .
Up the blues and let’s do the dark side tomorrow for old times sake.

 

[KS55]

I went to school from the mid 80s to the late 90s, and there were a fair few United fans at school where their Dad or even both parents were City fans; “my old man said be a City fan, and I said bollocks you’re a ****” doesn’t come from nowhere!

Other kids of City supporting parents had no interest in football, whereäs, had we not become the club we did, they might have had an interest. And the kids whose parents had little interest in football were mostly United fans.

We lost a generation of fans. We have a proper lack of 30-40 year old supporters… we have bloody loads of older fans, a good number of younger fans, but there’s a noticeable gap when it comes to that 30-40 year old bracket.

Yup, and it was exacerbated by the arrival of blanket tv coverage of the new Premier league. All those so called supporters from Croydon and all points south glory hunting via their screen.
It is worth looking up the crowds that Tony's team attracted, we were one of only three sides with an average league gate of greater than 40,000. I won't mention the two above us!

 

[dobingsdobber]

It really was a game changer of a season. Disaster show from Allison although at the time it was exciting to a young teenage boy.
We shouldn't forget the pretext to that season in that we lost my favourite player in Tueart and had not replaced King Colin at all. These were big mistakes given we had a shitload of cash. Basically Book/Swales decided Barnes could replace Tueart but, fabulous as Barnsey was, he couldn't replace Tueart s goals or ability to roam around the pitch. Of course watching the 2 of them together was great and has given many memories. Again, for some reason nothing was worked out to replace Colin Bell, despite one or 2 transfer misses. Book/Swales should have known that after he missed the 76_77 season he wasn't coming back anywhere near what he was (despite that golden Boxing Day comeback and the couple of months after) - the goals were gone and for me despite everything else, the number of goals he scored (without pens or free kicks) was incredible. Approx 150 in 450 games. In our current great squad, who could match that? Phil perhaps. We also had lost Mike Doyle and his leadership.
So, by 78-79, the team was already in decline although not a dramatic one. Instead of a top 2-3 team, I think we were a top 6-8 team - still an awful lot of quality players but the new players (Futchers) didn't make a huge impact. I remember Bolton away (2-2), missed WBA at home (2-2) and Owens 2 pens v Coventry and felt we were doing okay, playing nicely. For me it was that sequence of losing 2-1 at home in 3 consecutive games to Soton, Derby and Ipswich that just sapped form, confidence and goals. It was a mixture of bad luck (Clements broke his leg) and just playing crap.
There's no doubt Swales panicked and part through his own ego, part through his stupidity, he brought Allison back. Basically, he panicked because of a poor 6 weeks but he didn't take into account the players we had lost and not replaced (as I said in the pretext). He could have waited and either used the market better and/or found a top manager. Instead he brought back Malcom who was intent on feeding his own ego and creating his own history with another great team a decade after his first. In hindsight it was a purge that was appalling in that we sold seasoned, quality players for relatively low fees and bought a load of players crazily overpriced. Did we really buy Bobby Shinton with what we received for Watson and Kidd?
The disaster was not just the selling and buying it the fact that we had some good players under Alison who would have hugely benefitted from who we already had. For example, what about Caton playing with Watson or Dave Bennett/ Roger Palmer learning from Kiddo etc

Swales was a charlatan and a rogue,a corner shop second-hand t.v. salesman who saw an opportunity to play the great
I -am without the necessary skills required to run a big concern.The only skill he did have was how to run a great
traditional institution into the ground,and he was very adept at it.

 

[KS55]

Who loved Peter Swales? I started watching City in 65/66 season, I couldn't stand the posing twat when he became chairman with his wig, cuban heels, big cigars and his delusions of grandeur. He was also notorious for not keeping promises, in his interview after appointing Ron Saunders he said he was so confident about Saunders succeeding that "if he fails, I'll resign". Needless to say he didn't.

I wanted Allison to succeed when he returned but I knew he hadn't made a decent fist of management the first time around in 1972/73 so I had my doubts, rightly so as it turned out.

Swales had a big ego. Paired with another inflated ego, Allison, what could possibly go wrong?

 

[KS55]

Swales was a charlatan and a rogue,a corner shop second-hand t.v. salesman who saw an opportunity to play the great
I -am without the necessary skills required to run a big concern.The only skill he did have was how to run a great
traditional institution into the ground,and he was very adept at it.

I remember him saying, when looking back: "When I became chairman, I wondered 'what does the chairman of a football club do?' " Says it all.