The Alan Ball era

[HelloCity]

Horton agreed that we needed a centre back so he bought Kernaghan…

 

[Keke Rosberg]

I liked the philosophy that Alan Ball insisted we play out from the back. The Keeper (think it was Tony Coton) regular rolled the ball out to the full backs.

 

[HelloCity]

I liked the philosophy that Alan Ball insisted we play out from the back. The Keeper (think it was Tony Coton) regular rolled the ball out to the full backs.

It was Immel and that was probably as far as he could kick it.

 

[Keke Rosberg]

It was Immel and that was probably as far as he could kick it.

Ok thanks for that, I forgot about him. I remember I did like that change of play though. I’d have been in my twenties back then and I wore a flat cap for most of the season until I threw it down a ginnel on kippax street after we got relegated.

 

[Gingers Dad]

I feel a bit more like Clark had to deal with the damage Ball caused. He clearly want up to it, but Ball was the one who fucked things up.

Clark spent an absolute fortune on duds.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

I went to that one and Im pretty sure it was 4-0 but remember those comments. If memory serves me correct we went back in the league 4 days later and got beat 6-0

Went to both those anfield games...
embarrasing.
The sat league match I was in their Main stand with a blue mate and his Scouse mates.absolutely no fear of having to sit on hands if we scored....

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Correct, and I missed it, going to an Oasis gig at Earls Court that night.

First thing Noel said when he came on stage: "fucking hell, we've won a game, I can't believe it!"

I was at Maine rd for an oasis gig the day after we,d beaten villa away,iirc
Liam walked on stage and got a huge booming cheer when he defiantly " announced " we won't go down!!!'

We did.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Because he was seen as Swales man? We played nice stuff under Brian, proto Pep.

We did play some nice stuff under Horton,..who can forget the 5-2 win at Maine rd v spurs who had Sheringham,Klinnsman and Dumitrescu in an exciting forward line v our Walsh Quinn Rosler Beagrie Summerbee attack....but describing Hortons style as 'proto Pep' is stretching it a little,Imo

Horton was nearer to spurs manager Ardiles than Pep in style,a few exciting displays but poor defensive discipline overall...City's defence under Horton would have given Pep a heart attack.

Poor old Stevie lomas in central midfield was completely over run most games trying to cover for our star studded attack.

Going back to Ball,despite very poor management, I did enjoy being a home and away blue drinking to excess before and after every game to lessen the pain.Beer sodden nights in the old monkey in town were legendary ...shame about the team.

 

[eversince 76]

And here I am. Coming on this forum once in a while. To try and get me a smile. Some joy in life. Saving me from killing meself.

And than someone brings in a topic about the “Alan Ball”-erea.
Are the moderators on holls or what?!

Anyways. At least I’ve seen my club win a few medals. Unfortunately Pep hasn’t been around long enough to forget Alan fck Ball. Bye world ..

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Can't disagree with you there but would say that by getting time Clark came, off the top of my head Curle, Quincy, Flitcroft, Walsh, Beagrie(?), Lomas etc were all gone.

We needed the money and others wanted to leave.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I'm assuming that's true mate and have no reason to doubt you but what that means is you changed our history. Because without doubt Joe got us out of the shit.
You are very lucky in the football sense (and hope so in the rest of your life) because as a fan you've actually directly influenced our history and not many of us can say that.
I'm just amazed, grateful and to some degree, envious!!!!

When journalists could pick up the phone and speak to people...

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I remember my mates going down to watch the training at platt lane. We all played sunday league and were fairly competent players. They told me City were practising putting crosses into the box but either couldn't beat the first defender or sent it sailing out for a goal kick. When they packed up to go for a shower everyone watching booed them off. Makes nowadays seem like a dream.

Imagine being man of the match in a World Cup Final for England and working with players who spent more time on the piss than playing football!

 

[Sky Blue Thinking]

It was Immel and that was probably as far as he could kick it.

Didnt he retire to have a hip replacement around the time ball left and the caretaker (Hartford) replaced him Dibble?

 

[urban genie]

Was worst period of our time, appointing a dick for a manager in a jobs for the boys move, vanity buying by Lee of Kinky (who though I love wasn't necessarly what we needed) instead of strengthening we let go of half our first team and experience. And mostly becasue we changed our badge to that fucking buzzard

 

[Brett Sinclair]

I couldn't believe it when he was appointed. The previous season we just escaped relegation so Franny said "There'll be no more of that next season. We aim to be much further up the table". Think Alan (RIP) was 4th choice in the end. What a flamin disaster & worse was to come.

Yep I think you're right about him being 4th choice (or way way down the list). Listening to Franny's interview on the City website, he eludes to the fact that City were messed about by another big "Manchester name" who took a month before making his mind up and eventually said no - obviously he was talking about Brian Kidd who'd have probably been a disaster too (based on his time at Blackburn). According to Franny in that same interview, they had no intention of sacking Horton, it was a misunderstanding as some gobshite board member went to the papers (he wouldn't name him) saying he should be sacked but it wasn't a board decision. Horton got pissed off and basically walked.

 

[Corky]

Yep I think you're right about him being 4th choice (or way way down the list). Listening to Franny's interview on the City website, he eludes to the fact that City were messed about by another big "Manchester name" who took a month before making his mind up and eventually said no - obviously he was talking about Brian Kidd who'd have probably been a disaster too (based on his time at Blackburn). According to Franny in that same interview, they had no intention of sacking Horton, it was a misunderstanding as some gobshite board member went to the papers (he wouldn't name him) saying he should be sacked but it wasn't a board decision. Horton got pissed off and basically walked.

Colin Barlow had read out a statement 2 days after the season ended regarding the sacking being a board decision, after Lee has said we should be aiming for top 6 not avoiding relegation. After the Lee comments Horton went to seek assurances prompting his sacking, which was obviously coming, just they announced it sooner.

Bruce Rioch was a target and fan favourite for the job.

 

[Brett Sinclair]

Colin Barlow had read out a statement 2 days after the season ended regarding the sacking being a board decision, after Lee has said we should be aiming for top 6 not avoiding relegation. After the Lee comments Horton went to seek assurances prompting his sacking, which was obviously coming, just they announced it sooner.

Bruce Rioch was a target and fan favourite for the job.

Lol.. well that's definitely NOT Lee's version of events, perhaps he's re-writing history though.

 

[M18CTID]

Brian Horton was doing a decent job, why Lee fucked him off for the flat capped squeaker I’ll never know

This is a common myth IMO. Horton had us playing some great football in the first few months of the 1994-95 season for sure - who could forget the 5-2 win at home to Spurs in particular and convincing home wins against Everton and West Ham as well? - but it was only home games where we were performing. Away from home we were getting twatted left, right, and centre. 3-0 defeats at Arsenal, Chelsea, and West Ham, and that 5-0 debacle at Old Trafford. All those defeats came before Christmas and once our unbeaten home record went against Arsenal in December 1994, our home form fell off a cliff too. We went from 6th in the league in early December to the brink of the relegation zone in the space of 3 or 4 months and it was only those back-to-back wins at home to Liverpool on Good Friday and away to eventual champions Blackburn on Easter Monday that kept us up. Those 2 wins were huge and fully deserved but they actually came totally out of the blue and were outliers during a prolonged run of terrible results and performances which had seen us win only 2 of our previous 19 games.

Sacking Horton was the right decision for me as I feel he may well have taken us down the following season. Appointing Alan Ball is a different discussion altogether and it doesn't in any way make Horton's sacking wrong. And let's not forget that Horton hardly set the world alight in any of his subsequent jobs apart - IIRC - from a very brief spell where he had Huddersfield performing well. But it all went pear-shaped in the end and he was sacked just over 2 years into the job with Huddersfield bottom of the table.

 

[JRockBlues]

According to the Blue Moon Rising book (read recently) Horton's sacking was due to someone on the board saying he was due to get sacked during the annual dinner at the end of the season. Was reported in the paper the next day, also coincidentally after the LMA meeting which Brian attended.

Rioch was the bookies favourite to take over but Brian Kidd (who was Ferguson's #2 at the time) was the one who had agreed to take our hot seat but later changed his mind as he didn't have the courage to tell Ol' Red Nose. Ron Atkinson was also mooted as a potential replacement.

 

[HelloCity]

This is a common myth IMO. Horton had us playing some great football in the first few months of the 1994-95 season for sure - who could forget the 5-2 win at home to Spurs in particular and convincing home wins against Everton and West Ham as well? - but it was only home games where we were performing. Away from home we were getting twatted left, right, and centre. 3-0 defeats at Arsenal, Chelsea, and West Ham, and that 5-0 debacle at Old Trafford. All those defeats came before Christmas and once our unbeaten home record went against Arsenal in December 1994, our home form fell off a cliff too. We went from 6th in the league in early December to the brink of the relegation zone in the space of 3 or 4 months and it was only those back-to-back wins at home to Liverpool on Good Friday and away to eventual champions Blackburn on Easter Monday that kept us up. Those 2 wins were huge and fully deserved but they actually came totally out of the blue and were outliers during a prolonged run of terrible results and performances which had seen us win only 2 of our previous 19 games.

Sacking Horton was the right decision for me as I feel he may well have taken us down the following season. Appointing Alan Ball is a different discussion altogether and it doesn't in any way make Horton's sacking wrong. And let's not forget that Horton hardly set the world alight in any of his subsequent jobs apart - IIRC - from a very brief spell where he had Huddersfield performing well. But it all went pear-shaped in the end and he was sacked just over 2 years into the job with Huddersfield bottom of the table.

You’re correct in terms of our performance but we also had a lot of injuries in the 2nd half of the season. The players coming in were mostly very poor. I watched the season review not long ago and was shocked by some of the goals Dibble conceded. Never would have happened with a fit Coton in net.

Ultimately we were only 5 points off finishing in the top half or something similar and we’d have got them without the injuries in my opinion.