51 years ago today - Swales became chairman

he is part of our history and his time for many fans was both enthralling and also heart wrenching as we yo-yo'd and went through batshit seasons of highs and lows.

we nearly won the league twice under his charge and the cup, and did win a league cup, we also suffered relagation, in the end his ego and obssesion with being one of the top dogs at the FA failed us.
 
Swales became Manchester City chairman in 1973, with the club in a reasonably strong position and regularly challenging at the top of the Football League with clubs such as Liverpool, Leeds United and Derby County.[2] Swales presided over a general decline in City's fortunes, which was exacerbated by numerous controversial decisions.[3] After two decades, frustration grew, and Swales was ousted by Francis Lee after a long protest by City supporters, famously known as "Forward with Franny".

With a little more luck his tenure could have been more successful. We should have beaten Wolves in the league cup final in 1974, won the league in 1977 and beaten Spurs in the first game of the fa cup final in 1981.

His biggest mistake was fetching Malcolm Allison back as assistant to Tony Book who had built a strong side capable of challenging at the top. Many fans were excited at his return, myself included. I remember the headlines in the MEN, "Allison to return to City and be given a huge warchest by Swales to propel City back to the top" or some such rhetoric. Sadly that warchest was spunked paying over the odds for unknown mainly useless players.
 
I remember in the early 80’s we created the first ever Sheffield branch of the supporters club. We were amazed that our Chairman made the effort to come to our inaugural meeting as there was only about 10 of us. As a child I was very impressed. Dad, god rest his soul, not so much! spent the whole evening challenging Swales on his transfer dealings, in particular Steve Daley if I remember correctly. Suspect he didn’t attend many supporters club meetings after that LOL.
 
urban genie said:
he is part of our history and his time for many fans was both enthralling and also heart wrenching as we yo-yo'd and went through batshit seasons of highs and lows.

we nearly won the league twice under his charge and the cup, and did win a league cup, we also suffered relagation, in the end his ego and obssesion with being one of the top dogs at the FA failed us.
Click to expand...
Twice? 1977, obviously but what was the other time we nearly won it under his tenure as 1972 was before his time?
 
My Grandad swears to this day that Swales was ultimately a good thing for the club. He reckons he "modernised" us when he took over and only lost his mind when he became Chairman and solidified his power.
I actually don't know to be honest. Having a conversation about Swales with City fans of the generation above me (so the lads who were there and old enough to have been around a bit unlike me in short pants) is sort of like trying to have a conversation with a miner about Thatcher. The incompetence and viciousness at the end plague any ability to talk about things as a whole.
I recall somebody interviewing him post-City, it might have been @Gary James who said that for all his faults, he genuinely loved the club and desperately wanted it to succeed.
I've never read a pro-Swales detailed history and it's hard to get a true reading on things from an overwhelmingly negative opinion.
 
Damocles said:
My Grandad swears to this day that Swales was ultimately a good thing for the club. He reckons he "modernised" us when he took over and only lost his mind when he became Chairman and solidified his power.
I actually don't know to be honest. Having a conversation about Swales with City fans of the generation above me (so the lads who were there and old enough to have been around a bit unlike me in short pants) is sort of like trying to have a conversation with a miner about Thatcher. The incompetence and viciousness at the end plague any ability to talk about things as a whole.
I recall somebody interviewing him post-City, it might have been @Gary James who said that for all his faults, he genuinely loved the club and desperately wanted it to succeed.
I've never read a pro-Swales detailed history and it's hard to get a true reading on things from an overwhelmingly negative opinion.
Click to expand...
I don't recall anything derogatory about Swales until around the spring of 1982 when the drop in attendances seemed to coincide with strong rumours that the club was losing money.
Up until then I don't think he was perceived as any better or worse than his chum at the FA Bert Millichip.

City's average attendance had been circa 32,000 when Swales became Chairman so naturally he took great pride (albeit slightly overegged) that within five years it had increased to almost 42,000.
He was criticised for an unhealthy obsession with catching United's average attendance, but in mitigation, you could throw the exact same accusation at David Meek who was regularly writing similar articles about City's attendances in the United match programme.

Swales was unlucky that two of his better appointments (Billy McNeill and Howard Kendall) both walked out on the club, but it would appear that by 1986, City's finances were still suffering from the excesses of the late 70s, and in McNeill's case, he'd simply had enough.

However by the early 90s, the club had seemingly recovered, only for Swales to repeat the same mistakes and sanction stupid transfer fees for Keith Curle and Terry Phelan etc.

He also failed to recognise the potential windfall from the emergence of Sky TV and the Premier League.
Consequently, as United launched into a long term reconstruction plan for Old Trafford, the Maine Road capacity was further reduced

Obviously this wasn't all his fault but looking back, there were far too many influential people around the club who refused to criticise him, and this just added to the frustration.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top