City's 1960s team

[asahartford1]

All the correct factors have been mentioned, but one other stands out: discipline or lack of it. For example, the head coach should really not be in the team bath with Miss World and a bottle.l
I was in a hotel bar in Rome and picked up the visitors book. There were the signatures of City's team of the late 70s. Paulo the barman told me how the team arrived the worse for wear. Someone dragged a comatose Summerbee across the marble floot or reception, left him in a heap by the desk saying:
"This is our captain, he will book us in.
All the players decamped to the bar and, to Paulo's amazement, proceeded to get completely pissed. They played the next day. Cant remember the game.

The thing is , all the teams got pissed as as a normal. Boxing day was always a comedy of errors, early starts and most still pissed. No one team really had an advantage.
Johny foreigners spoilt the party

 

[ancoats]

This 100%

We lost the impetus Joe and (pre-backstabbing) Malcolm had given us when (post-backstabbing) Malcolm signed the consistently disruptive Rodney Marsh.
Allison and Swales ruined City for decades - I honestly can't believe that Allison is still held in such high regard by many City fans after what he did to Joe.

did we really need rodney marsh ? it was a panic buy and it did more damage to the squad
rodney was a fantastic player but not a team player loved the limelight and had a mouth on him

we should have gone on from 1970 and won more titles and cup and in europe ? even right up to the late 70s we should have been the team to beat ? we had a good youth setup and the likes of barnes and owen should have slotted in from the mid 70s and tony books becoming manager was the key to keeping it going

but we all know the board and club was a mess from early 1970s so much infighting and power struggles and even back stabbing in getting swales up the ladder to becoming chairman ? allison hated swales big time and the managers job that swales took away in 1973 was the knife in the coffin for city when swales brought him back

allison was on a mission to hurt the chairman swales and did not care if the fans got hurt ? you could see it in allison everytime he was interview with swales even the city documentary the face and actions of allison at times was just unbelievable. at one point in the documentary allison is sat with swales smoking a big cigar after we just got hammered by liverpool at home. if that alone was not proof what allison was up to then swales must have been blind

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

allison was on a mission to hurt the chairman swales and did not care if the fans got hurt ? you could see it in allison everytime he was interview with swales even the city documentary the face and actions of allison at times was just unbelievable. at one point in the documentary allison is sat with swales smoking a big cigar after we just got hammered by liverpool at home. if that alone was not proof what allison was up to then swales must have been blind

Can't believe that I'm defending Allison here(as I never saw him the first time round just the second time), but the issue with that documentary was simply the timing, it showcased the last couple of weeks of Allison's time at the club and by then the whole thing had totally unraveled.

 

[ancoats]

Can't believe that I'm defending Allison here(as I never saw him the first time round just the second time), but the issue with that documentary was simply the timing, it showcased the last couple of weeks of Allison's time at the club and by then the whole thing had totally unraveled.

when you look at the team tony book built and coming close to winning the league then you understand the damage allison did at city 2nd time around. it was total destruction of the club and to a point of getting relegated if swales did not take action quick ? john bond even said he could not believe what was happening at city when he walked in the doors. everything was wrong and so much youth players being asked to do a mans job it was crazy

allison knew what he was doing and getting rid of so much talent in that tony book team even barnes and owen was sold it was madness and why on earth did swales let that happen and then had to spend big money on rubbish

i think swales was also to blame letting it happen and the amount of money that was spent killed city future
steve daley was never a million pound player and even wolves was willing to sell him for half of that until swales stepped in ?

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

when you look at the team tony book built and coming close to winning the league then you understand the damage allison did at city 2nd time around. it was total destruction of the club and to a point of getting relegated if swales did not take action quick ? john bond even said he could not believe what was happening at city when he walked in the doors. everything was wrong and so much youth players being asked to do a mans job it was crazy

allison knew what he was doing and getting rid of so much talent in that tony book team even barnes and owen was sold it was madness and why on earth did swales let that happen and then had to spend big money on rubbish

i think swales was also to blame letting it happen and the amount of money that was spent killed city future
steve daley was never a million pound player and even wolves was willing to sell him for half of that until swales stepped in ?

Don't get me wrong I'm not defending Allison's second stint with us, for what its worth the issues we had for 20 years I blame primarily on three people Swales, Allison and Ball(I would include Lee if it was four!). My point was simply the documentary's timing was such that it really couldn't have been filmed at a worse time for him.

 

[ancoats]

Don't get me wrong I'm not defending Allison's second stint with us, for what its worth the issues we had for 20 years I blame primarily on three people Swales, Allison and Ball(I would include Lee if it was four!). My point was simply the documentary's timing was such that it really couldn't have been filmed at a worse time for him.

yep in his last days at city that documentary it was brutal for allison. maybe the damage was done and the documentary highlighted what was coming ? swales was a showman loved the limelight just as much as allison and it was a story line right out of Disney ? but sadly the end for city as a football club

if the damage allison/swales did was not so bad maybe john bond would have a chance. but again swales shown is his true colours and power and went back on promises and john bond legged it pretty quick

from swales to lee being chairman the damage a top club should never be in was on show ? city fans did not ask for much. loyal to the core but was use for money ? i still hear stories of the dodgy dealings swales did at city ? debt and interest rates from loans took out on future season tickets or assets was crazy and never manageable

so sad that a team and club from the mid 60s early 70s that won everything could turn out to be a laughing stock for 40 odd years. the amount of damage done in a short space of time by swales was crazy. it really did take the strongest beating heart in english football to needing major surgery and a pace maker fitted

the only silver lining was the fans ? maybe we was took for granted. but love is a crazy thing and we never ask for much ? swales took us for granted but nobody held a smoking gun to our heads ? we turn up week after week in hope ? false hope as it turn out

 

[JGL07]

I can see potential for a film here. It would start in 1979 with City going well under Tony Book when Peter Swales brought back Malcolm Allison and it all went sour. It would end with the Luton match with David Pleat running around the Maine Road pitch like a maniac while Brian Horton looked on thinking how he might have to sort this mess out in the future.

Casting might be a problem. Who would play the Cuban-heeled Peter Swales? What about Malcolm Allison?

 

[Gray]

This.
Even the great title win was on the last day when it was us or the scum to win it.
The scum lost at home to Sunderland, we won at Newcastle.
If the results had been reversed the scum would have won it.
No one ran away with it then and there were usually more than two teams fighting all the way through the season to be top dog.

In those days Match of the Day was just one game and the BBC sent all their equipment to Old Toilet. So you see nothing has changed in the intervening 53 years.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Not true.
The Newcastle game was on MOTD.

 

[JCB001]

The League was much more competitive back then.Anyone on their day could beat anyone