Francis Lee RIP

Dcfc said:
Derby fan in peace,never before gone on another fans site,but making an exception to pay tribute to the great Franny Lee,we had him at the twilight of his career and a lot of fans said he’s come for the ride,how wrong we were,he was inspirational never saw him have a bad game,always 110% commitied,full of passion exuberance and goals,he formed a great partnership with Charlie George,and Kevin Hector,and on a wednesday night under the floodlights at the old Baseball Ground in a European cup semi final against Benfica with the great Eusebio ,absolutely tore them apart he was brilliant.He played like a kid in a schoolyard full of the cocky tricks and Always with a smile on his face.against the Dirtys (Leeds showing what a hard man he was.I’m sure we could go on and on,bottom line a LEGEND every where he played.He was always Man City but thank you for borrowing him to us for 2years helping us to win the title he was part of the best Derby team in our history.God bless you Franny,RIP.
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Great post
 
Dcfc said:
Derby fan in peace,never before gone on another fans site,but making an exception to pay tribute to the great Franny Lee,we had him at the twilight of his career and a lot of fans said he’s come for the ride,how wrong we were,he was inspirational never saw him have a bad game,always 110% commitied,full of passion exuberance and goals,he formed a great partnership with Charlie George,and Kevin Hector,and on a wednesday night under the floodlights at the old Baseball Ground in a European cup semi final against Benfica with the great Eusebio ,absolutely tore them apart he was brilliant.He played like a kid in a schoolyard full of the cocky tricks and Always with a smile on his face.against the Dirtys (Leeds showing what a hard man he was.I’m sure we could go on and on,bottom line a LEGEND every where he played.He was always Man City but thank you for borrowing him to us for 2years helping us to win the title he was part of the best Derby team in our history.God bless you Franny,RIP.
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Nice post mate - thank you!
 
Karl8 said:
Whilst I never had the great privilege of seeing Franny play for us, I was around when he put his money where his mouth was and tried to rescue us when we were in the mud.
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He might have "put his money where his mouth was", but I'm afraid it was under his tenure that we sank to our lowest point, and he left shortly before our relegation to the third tier. He also sold his remaing shares to Thaksin, and we were close to being in another hole there as well.

He was a great football player, but his time running City wasn't great, appointing first Ball, Coppell, then Clark as managers, who between them oversaw some of the worst teams we've ever had. He did apoint Joe Royle, who eventually got some control, and started our revival.

I've no nostalgia for his time as chairman (other than it saw Swales off), just as a player.
 
I was lucky to be a regular on the Kippax when Franny played. He did not have great ball playing skills but he beat his man with speed and strength and sometimes it seemed through sheer force of personality.
One of the best goals I ever saw was a free kick routine with Colin in which Fanny ran over the ball and went to the right of the wall as the ball went to the left,
Colin received the ball and passed it along the line of the wall behind them to where Franny lurked and walloped it home. The defence stood around asking each other what happened.
Sometimes forgotten is the fact that Franny used to play on the right wing and did so for us to begin with, doing a swap routine with Buzzer at number 9. Franny played at 7 in the title clinching 4-3 win at Newcastle.
Although he is criticised for appointing Ball when he was chairman, he inherited a mess from Swales and he did get our costs under control.
All in all, a great servant to City and his love for the club persisted undimmed to the end.
 
KS55 said:
Although he is criticised for appointing Ball when he was chairman, he inherited a mess from Swales and he did get our costs under control.
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I was not that aware that he had negotiated the City of Manchester stadium move. Without that, no City as we now know it. The ADU group would not have come in for us if we'd still been at Maine Road. That's the hard truth.
 
Was fortunate as a teenager to get behind the scenes as my mum worked for the club for decades; where as Swales used to hammer her for me running around, franny was the complete opposite and would often sit down and have a natter…

One of my dads hero’s and nothing but fond memories from me, despite the catastrophic stewardship

RIP little terrier
 
HelloCity said:
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Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
I was not that aware that he had negotiated the City of Manchester stadium move. Without that, no City as we now know it. The ADU group would not have come in for us if we'd still been at Maine Road. That's the hard truth.
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Not only did Franny start the ball rolling for the stadium, he transformed our off-field commercial operation to the extent that within a few years of him stepping down we were officially one of the twenty wealthiest clubs in Europe - according to Deloitte. Laid the foundations for everything. Loved the great man.
 
cleavers said:
He might have "put his money where his mouth was", but I'm afraid it was under his tenure that we sank to our lowest point, and he left shortly before our relegation to the third tier. He also sold his remaing shares to Thaksin, and we were close to being in another hole there as well.

He was a great football player, but his time running City wasn't great, appointing first Ball, Coppell, then Clark as managers, who between them oversaw some of the worst teams we've ever had. He did apoint Joe Royle, who eventually got some control, and started our revival.

I've no nostalgia for his time as chairman (other than it saw Swales off), just as a player.
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That's not exactly what happened though. He stepped down as chairman shortly before we were relegated but he still had a stake in the club. He had the presence of mind to bring Bernstein in who steadied the ship, but Bernstein himself was ousted by Wardle and Makin which in hindsight wasn't the best of moves and IIRC they owned far more shares than Lee at the time of the sale to Thaksin. In any case, while Doctor Death's ownership could well have ended badly for us, it arguably kicked open the door for the ADUG takeover to happen so I'm not blaming anyone for selling their shares to Thaksin.

Peter Swales caused far more damage to our club than Lee - or Thaksin, Wardle, or Makin - ever did. He's the fucker who turned us from one of the top 3 clubs in the country to a complete and utter laughing stock on the pitch with a stadium not fit for purpose and a club shop that was smaller than my fucking living room and was making more money for his mate than it did for City themselves. He was also arguably responsible for ending Paul Lake's career prematurely due to his penchant for cutting corners and doing stuff on the cheap.
 
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