Francis Lee RIP

M18CTID said:
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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And his biggest masterstroke was bringing Malcolm back to prove if he could manage or just coach which backfired spectacularly. Still gives me nightmares now with Barnes,Owen,Hartford,Kidd,Watson all sold replaced by Robinson Mckenzie,Reeves,Lee,Daley.It cost the club and me 30 years of enjoyment.United don't know what bad times are and unfortunately they have the fan base and media backing to have a much shorter nightmare.
 
M18CTID said:
Peter Swales caused far more damage to our club than Lee - or Thaksin, Wardle, or Makin - ever did.
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Agree, don't dispute any of what you said there either, but Franny was also part of the mess, however you look at it. Bernstein and Royle got us heading the right way, Thaksin nearly reversed it all, but thankfully handed us over to a far better owner and setup.

Anyway this thread should celebrate the player, and there's no disputing how great he was for City.
 
Northerndave said:
Can you post a picture?
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First one is with Rodney, who was a surprise guest at my 50th, we had a 'surprise' dinner downtown Atlanta, with him and his lovely wife Jean on the Friday, which totally overwhelmed me as i had no clue he was coming, why would I? I remember my first words to the great Rodney March being "F'kin hell its Rodney Marsh" :-)
They then came to the party at my house on the Saturday. which blew my ex-pat mates away and then, came to Fathers Day Brunch on the Sunday - absolutely brilliant bloke and spend hours chatting away to him, mainly about his upbringing, which was really tough and quite upsetting if i am being honest!
2nd & 3rd ones is my signed shirt from Kun :-)
4th one is a signed shirt for the 1969 FA Cup final win, with 'allegedly' only Tony Colemans name missing? This was my first time at Wembley and my red supporting Dad took me. I was like 9 and still have fantastic memories of the day. We stood on the terracing with a old Leicester supporter, who shared his packed lunch and flask with me at HT... Oh happy days.
These are all part of my most prized possessions which you will have to prise from my dying hands upon me leaving this earth!!
Enjoy!
 

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Hello Man City fans.
Thanks for accepting my ‘guest’ application.
Felt it very important to express my feelings about the player who literally changed my life forever.
At nine years old the news that City were transferring Francis Lee to Derby County broke my heart. I’d been sat with Dad in Platt Lane since ‘69 watching my heroes.
So upset, I told my sister and brother, season tickets holders, that was it for me, where Franny went I followed. ‘Ok bro, that’s fine!’ No doubt both thinking I’d get tired of a team 60 miles away and return to Maine Rd.
Well it didn’t happen and I adopted Derby County. Stood on The Kippax with my ‘silk’ Derby scarf surrounded by my family I witnessed ‘that’ goal. Admittedly I didn’t see much of it at 10 years old. Considering it was filmed at a time when TV coverage was a fraction of what it is now how lucky to be able to watch it time and again knowing I was there. I never made it to The Baseball Ground to see him live so that was my only time seeing him in a white shirt.
I never met my hero. Met Tommy Booth at a friends party and bored him to death no doubt about my allegiance switching because of my favourite player of all time. And I mean all time.
So here I am in 2023, following The Rams. Had a season ticket for a number of years before work ruled it out. Clearly made the right choice….that’s a joke just in case!!
I live near Stockport and City will always be my ‘second’ team. Was sweet when we beat City 6-0 at BBG I can’t deny it!!
Car crash, relationships all sorts happened, how different it all would have been had I been at Maine Rd.
So yes Franny Lee did change my life. And I’ve felt very emotional since his death was announced. Derby wore black armbands last night and City are tonight. I’m sure Bolton will if they didn’t last night.
Thanks for reading and next time our teams meet I know Franny will be there to take it all in. I raised a toast to my favourite player, and will do again tonight.
Thanks for the memories Francis Lee! Just look at his face.
 
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HarrytheBlue said:
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.
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Simply an absolute legend, loved the club so much he probably sacrificed a lot of personal wealth to try and turn us round..why? Because he loved the club
..fair play to him
 
M18CTID said:
Also, it gets largely forgotten about now but there were huge signs of progress when Frank Clark first became our manager halfway through the 96/97 season. We finished mid-table but had been in a far more perilous position than that when he was appointed, and as such there was a lot of optimism ahead of the following season. From what I can remember, the sacking of King Colin was right at the back end of that 96/97 season and I don't recall there being a a great deal of uproar amongst the fans about it. It came as a bit of a shock for sure but we all soon got over it.
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It was a very sad piece of our history really, king colin should have had a job for life really. Frank Clark did have a great six months, all this we were rubbish since '77 / '78 so not true, quite a few terrible one's, mostly average, and few good un's... Kendall's team underated...bought in one of our best ever GK as well did Kendall
 
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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Thank you.

I vividly remember watching that goal on MotD.

As he was my favourite player, I never held it against him, but I’d forgotten what a brilliant strike it was.
 
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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It's a bit soon now but after a decent interval I'll post David Bernstein's views on that time, from the recent interview I did with him. Or you can buy KOTK (it's on Kindle) and read them for yourself.
 
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