Was Alan Ball as bad as people remember?

[HelloCity]

Incorrect. It shattered his confidence and he's never been the same since being chucked around everywhere.

As with the others, you're refusing to criticise how awful Bravo was. Hart would've stopped more goals going in that season. Imagine if Mark Hughes had done the same thing...

So if Pep sold Kev in January he’d suddenly become crap due to shattered confidence and fail to get a game for Burnley?

Your tone is rather odd. You’re acting as if you hold some sort of grudge over our most successful ever manager and manager of arguably the greatest side in the history of English football, simply because of a goal keeper change he made in his first year.

I reckon you were one of those who said Pep would fail and you’ve been struggling to accept the truth ever since. A bit like those people who still refuse to accept Sterling is a top player.

 

[Shaelumstash]

Had this discussion a few times on here. Real missed opportunity. May not have won the league but we should have cemented our place in the top 5 with a great keeper, the youth team from 86, plus Flitcroft and Michael Hughes had come through by then also. Losing Lake was a cruel blow. We also made some bizarre decisions. Not playing Hendry and Allen still winds me to this day!!

I’ve always thought the Kendall years were a bit of a missed opportunity. We had some fantastic players and the core of it had come through the youth team.

Coton was a brilliant keeper and Kendall made some great buys. He did some strange stuff though like selling Hinchcliffe. And was he the manager who kept picking Adrian Heath instead of Clive Allen?!

We went from two 5th place finishes with a promising and young squad to relegated in 2 years. Horton probably didn’t help with him being so bad defensively, but Ball drove us off a cliff.

Preferring Ikie Immell to Tony Coton and Kit Symonds to Keith Curle tell you all you need to know about his managerial credentials. An absolute buffoon.

 

[JGL07]

No I think we got the stadium in exchange for the land Maine Road stood on. We then spent money upgrading COMS. The deal was we only paid rent when the attendance was over 28,000 or similar. At that time it made financial sense.

Hence City couldn’t lose on the deal. The rent only kicked in if the attendance went above the Maine Road capacity. The City Council would never have agreed that if Swales was in charge of reporting the crowds!

I would never have guessed that City would be playing to crowds of 54,000 so soon after.

 

[1961_vintage]

Sadly yes. RIP.

 

[Bluearmy]

I’ve always thought the Kendall years were a bit of a missed opportunity. We had some fantastic players and the core of it had come through the youth team.

Coton was a brilliant keeper and Kendall made some great buys. He did some strange stuff though like selling Hinchcliffe. And was he the manager who kept picking Adrian Heath instead of Clive Allen?!

We went from two 5th place finishes with a promising and young squad to relegated in 2 years. Horton probably didn’t help with him being so bad defensively, but Ball drove us off a cliff.

Preferring Ikie Immell to Tony Coton and Kit Symonds to Keith Curle tell you all you need to know about his managerial credentials. An absolute buffoon.

I agree selling Hinchcliffe was unfortunate, but I thought Reid played Heath, not Kendall. Was a long time ago so maybe my memory fails me. The rest I agree with, only us could implode like that!!

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

I’ve always thought the Kendall years were a bit of a missed opportunity. We had some fantastic players and the core of it had come through the youth team.

Coton was a brilliant keeper and Kendall made some great buys. He did some strange stuff though like selling Hinchcliffe. And was he the manager who kept picking Adrian Heath instead of Clive Allen?!

We went from two 5th place finishes with a promising and young squad to relegated in 2 years. Horton probably didn’t help with him being so bad defensively, but Ball drove us off a cliff.

Preferring Ikie Immell to Tony Coton and Kit Symonds to Keith Curle tell you all you need to know about his managerial credentials. An absolute buffoon.

Judas was a piss head, and made some truly awful decisions.

Alan Ball was way worse, and as far as I know he was completely sober.

 

[Abattoir Blue]

I’ve always thought the Kendall years were a bit of a missed opportunity. We had some fantastic players and the core of it had come through the youth team.

Coton was a brilliant keeper and Kendall made some great buys. He did some strange stuff though like selling Hinchcliffe. And was he the manager who kept picking Adrian Heath instead of Clive Allen?!

We went from two 5th place finishes with a promising and young squad to relegated in 2 years. Horton probably didn’t help with him being so bad defensively, but Ball drove us off a cliff.

Preferring Ikie Immell to Tony Coton and Kit Symonds to Keith Curle tell you all you need to know about his managerial credentials. An absolute buffoon.

Yep, was a missed opportunity because it was the 'Kendall months' rather than years. Don't think he quite made a whole 12 months. It was Reid in particular who benched Allen, then got us playing more and more route one stuff seeing us finish 5th, 5th, 9th then start 93/94 poorly (admittedly after no investment that summer).

 

[HarrytheBlue]

No I think we got the stadium in exchange for the land Maine Road stood on. We then spent money upgrading COMS. The deal was we only paid rent when the attendance was over 28,000 or similar. At that time it made financial sense.

Yeah, you're right, it's coming back to me now - too lazy to Google it.

 

[HelloCity]

In the Caught Beneath the Landslide book about City in the 90’s, it’s mentioned that Bernard Halford had a few beers with Kendall in a Scottish pub in the late 90’s.

According to Halford, Kendall had tears in his eyes when Halford was telling him what a great side City had under him and how they could have gone on to great things.

 

[Shaelumstash]

Yep, was a missed opportunity because it was the 'Kendall months' rather than years. Don't think he quite made a whole 12 months. It was Reid in particular who benched Allen, then got us playing more and more route one stuff seeing us finish 5th, 5th, 9th then start 93/94 poorly (admittedly after no investment that summer).

Yeh my mistake on the Clive Allen thing, but I was only young at the time :-)

The Hinchcliffe one was strange, maybe Kendall was planning on going back to Everton all along.