Joe Royle - has he been acknowledged enough?

25th anniversary jogs the memory.

We were bloody awful when Joe Royle joined us. All we knew was failure and to be mocked. If we had got the wrong manager in 1998 god know where we would be now. Not with Pep as manager I would guess.

You could think well he got us relegated from the premier league but it was the journey back there that made the modern City so unique.

He is one of our best managers.
 
I think Royle has been acknowledged for the way he provided steel and resilience at a time when City were desperate for some backbone and leadership
However the Premier League in 2000-01 was a different beast to the one that had witnessed City's sad departure in 95-96.
The British drinking culture had long since been replaced by sports science and revolutionary dietary techniques, and suddenly our prehistoric tactics were being embarrassed and exposed by silky pesky foreigners
It would probably have been a far better fit if Royle had replaced Machin.
 
Loved Joe Royle and always thought he made the right substitutions at the right time to turn games…..but thought he should have still kept us up with the squad we had when we dropped into division 2 culminating with the away game at Stoke when the results somehow conspired against us.

Thought he made too much of a point in keeping Kinkladze out of some of the games rather than using him to get enough points on the board before the Stoke game.

Seem to remember two awful away games at Port Vale and Wolves that eventually really cost us.

No arguments when we got relegated from the premiership because the promotion if anything had come too soon and it had been a great ride.

Pretty sure he would have got us back again.
 
Fiftyyearsandcounting said:
Joe Royle quotes

Speaking on life in Division 2 -
"We were the biggest show in town wherever we went and people welcomed us with open arms...and then tried to kick us".

Speaking on inheriting a squad of 40+ players -
"I keep turning the corner and bumping into somebody else I'd forgotten is here".
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Didn't we have 50 pros on the books? A bit like Chelsea now.
 
Blue Streak said:
Scouser born and bred, hardly a surprise is it?
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He turned down the rags to play for neverton, good man.
And he clearly loves oldham (think he's some sort of director there now)

But he helped us win the league cup as a player in 76 so he deserves the full respect of every city fan for that alone,
never mind his 2 promotions as our manager.

Whether our subsequent relegation was down to him or not, he gave us joy on many occasions.
 
eastmanc said:
Didn't we have 50 pros on the books? A bit like Chelsea now.
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55 - there was a 2 page spread in the muen when we went down in 98. I was a regular match goer in those days and didn't recognise about 15 of them.

I often wonder how much pain we may have been spared if Joe had come in after Horton.
 
bluegaz13 said:
Loved Joe Royle and always thought he made the right substitutions at the right time to turn games…..but thought he should have still kept us up with the squad we had when we dropped into division 2 culminating with the away game at Stoke when the results somehow conspired against us.

Thought he made too much of a point in keeping Kinkladze out of some of the games rather than using him to get enough points on the board before the Stoke game.

Seem to remember two awful away games at Port Vale and Wolves that eventually really cost us.

No arguments when we got relegated from the premiership because the promotion if anything had come too soon and it had been a great ride.

Pretty sure he would have got us back again.
Click to expand...
We took Beardsley on loan from Bolton. Played Huddersfield away and he ran the show - but after a month sent him back to Bolton because we could only have 2 players on loan - one of them was Ian Bishop, the other was Lee Briscoe but happy to be corrected.
I am certain to this day had we kept Beardsley we would have gathered at least one more point and stayed up.
But then again, we'd never have had York away, Wrexham away, Stoke at home, Wigan play off semi and Gillingham......
 
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