The Alan Ball era

bluemurray said:
Interesting to reflect how far we have come since that period 1995-98, as a City fan it seemed every day was a disaster day, managers coming and going, inept boardroom decision-making, clueless on and off the pitch... And yet it was actually a period of just 3-seasons where we nosedived into near oblivion and 3-season more to arrive back in the Prem, albeit just for one season but with solid foundations laid for Keegan, Sven and the rest to build upon (we'll ignore Pearce!).

As for Ball's appointment, we all know how that came about (Lee's bezzie mate, having no other available/interested alternatives) and starting with the stupid decision to sack Brian Horton, a man who, despite everything thrown at him - including initial abuse and doubt from City fans ("who the f**ks Brian Horton!?"), went on the produce arguably our finest football at any point between 1981 (early Bond) and 2001 (Keegan) with limited funds and a new chairman who wanted rid almost from the start... He needed Lee's backing and a few quid for a decent centre half but didn't get either. Ball was a joke and the first of a whole string of jokes so bad Bob Monkhouse would blush; Hartford, Coppell, Neal (wtf!?), and remeber the 'chase' for Dave Bassent!!?? Then Clarke - who despite some of the comments on here (which I don't dispute) actually appeared initially to turn us around - 2nd half of 1996-97 we played some decent stuff, started winning matches quite comfortably, he signed Horlock and a number of other half decent players. It was being said that had we appointed him earlier we would have made the play-offs that season at least...

Something happened that close season of 1997- older fans will remember the kit change to Kappa, the new badge, a few million to spend in the bank, the real sense of hope/expectation that the era of Francis Lee was about to come good and promotion back to the Prem was a decent bet... It didn't happen. Why?? No idea. Lee Bradbury ("couldn't hit the parish he was born into!" - thank you Tommy Doc!!) was a plain BAD signing and one of a few that close season - Ged Brennen anybody..? but it can't all be down to just that? But something changed the mood and morale of the squad and, starting badly, then just getting comically worse - down we went, Clarke was fired off and Royle came in too late to save us. The rest is history.

I'm glad I'm old enough to have witnessed it, to have suffered to doom and gloom, the comic-book disasters, the 'cups-for-cock-ups'!. Swales, Lee, Ball, Clarke. Liverpool at home, Stoke City away, even York City (I was the only City fan not there, sorry). It makes the experience of following City today all-the-more enjoyable.

Most of the new fans have a meltdown if we suffer one dodgy result in a 38-game season!! Laughable!!
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Agree totally -it looks nice and fluffy in retrospect but pure hell at the time -the day Coppell quit I was in utter despair and went for a few Ales at Lunch (which I never do)
 
"It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of beyond belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of no Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the loss of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had lost everything before us, we had nothing before us,” …..
With profound apologies to Dickens, whose prose I have butchered to make the point that Ball and Clarke were fucking terrible.
 
WEMBLEY76 said:
Remember his first game,a friendly at Burnley when Lee Bradbury scored,looked at Alan Ball walking off the pitch with his flat cap,and thought he isn’t the man to take us higher.
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IIRC Bradbury Scored a couple of absolute Screemers that day -so the overall impression was “we are back”
 
Somebody mentioned Dave Bassett he was interviewing recently and said he wouldn’t touch the managers job at City as Francis Lee wanted to pick his own team,he said he saw Lee in the City dressing room at Palace after he turned the job down.
 
WEMBLEY76 said:
Somebody mentioned Dave Bassett he was interviewing recently and said he wouldn’t touch the managers job at City as Francis Lee wanted to pick his own team,he said he saw Lee in the City dressing room at Palace after he turned the job down.
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City would have been better off appointing Mike Bassett!
 
Sky Blue Thinking said:
Had a disastrous start to the season before somehow winning MOTM IIRC. Walsh even though he was getting on a bit wouldve been better than Creaney. Signed Immel close to season starting as Coton injured and he didnt fancy Dibble or Margetson....then kept Immel in when Coton was fit leading to him joining the rags. Will always be remembered for holding the ball in the corner when we needed a goal to stay up.
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I'm still convinced to this day, that had he put Coton back in the team once he was fit we never would have gone down!
 
bluemike said:
Wasn't Brian Kidd favourite for the job that summer?
Spoiled my holiday when I read that Ball had been appointed. Still, Leeds away that season when Creaney scored the only goal was a cracking day out.
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Swear I remember quotes from Franny Lee saying Kidd agreed to take the job but then shit out of it because he was too scared to tell Ferguson. Lee said he told him “how will you ever be a manager if you’re too scared to even speak to him?”.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
It wasn't Alan Ball who caused the real mess.

It was the useless fucking clown Frank Clark.

The worst manager in our entire history.

A shit stain of a man, contempt for our club, played politics with everyone and left us an impossible shit sandwich.

A **** of the highest order, along with his odious assistant Alan Hill.

At least Ball cared, as did Phil Neal.

Clark and Hill had contempt for City.

I made sure Joe Royle got the job.
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You beat me to it…was going to post the same yesterday….at least after 10 games Ball got us playing something like….but Clark without doubt was the worst manager I’ve ever witnessed….as you say totally clueless….sure he played Craig Russell at full back if I remember correctly.
The only time I have ever turned off the ‘after match radio interview’…as well as being clueless he’d had the old charisma bypass.
 
I Remember Bert Trautmenns Helmut Fanzine on the announcement of Ball taking over with a pic of Ball leaning on a Road Sign with the sign altered to a down sign which summed up the sentiment at the time. Literally every Blue knew it was a disastrous appointment.
 
bluegaz13 said:
You beat me to it…was going to post the same yesterday….at least after 10 games Ball got us playing something like….but Clark without doubt was the worst manager I’ve ever witnessed….as you say totally clueless….sure he played Craig Russell at full back if I remember correctly.
The only time I have ever turned off the ‘after match radio interview’…as well as being clueless he’d had the old charisma bypass.
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Yep, Russell signed as a forward, swapped for Summerbee Jnr and ended up as a wingback. Like Creaney for Walsh a couple of years earlier we got the worst of the deal.
At least most blues of the era got to see his career higglight, scoring at York away, then fading into obscurity.
 
jimharri said:
Those were the days. The youngsters today, they don't realise what a fun time that was.

 "And after all,
You're my Alan Ball.... "
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I think the Alan ball era was just better than Pearce but the reason was he had a good song!!! I had forgot how bad things were
 
We could have had Liam Brady
But after all
We got Alan Ball
 
HelloCity said:
The Horton team needed a keeper, centre back and a right back to be a decent upper mid table side I always thought.

A keeper because Coton was basically done with injuries by this point. I went back and watched a couple of season reviews recently and Dibble was a lot worse than I remembered.

Phelan was probably decent enough, but we needed a centre back to go alongside Curle and we always seemed to struggle down the right so a right back would have been ideal.
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Horton agreed that we needed a centre back so he bought Kernaghan…
 
Sky Blue Thinking said:
Yep, Russell signed as a forward, swapped for Summerbee Jnr and ended up as a wingback. Like Creaney for Walsh a couple of years earlier we got the worst of the deal.
At least most blues of the era got to see his career higglight, scoring at York away, then fading into obscurity.
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Have some respect for his two goal salvo in the FA Cup FIRST ROUND (FFS) v Halifax.
 
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