1978-79 | The self-implosion of Manchester City

Two separate documentaries mate

The Nationwide documentary was 77-78, but I've never seen any of the episodes since.

The CITY documentary was 80-81, starting with the August Maine Road embarrassments v Legia and Sunderland. That can be found on You Tube


Coincidentally, watched the first documentary again for the first time since it was broadcast just last night. In spite of the poor picture quality it's well-worth seeing and is most definitely a revealing 'warts and all' portrayal of what went on just before Allison got sacked and the aftermath of that decision.

Don't know of the second one. Can anyone provide a link?

Allison = great coach
Allison = not a manager.
That's pretty much what John Bond says at one point (see above). Allison was in the same room at the time.
 
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Swales was the biggest ego, the biggest liar, and the biggest disaster in the entire history of the club.
He was never even a fan of the club. He simply used his position of chairman at one of europes biggest clubs (which we were in the 70s) as a means of inveigling himself onto the FA board.
He is a case study in arrogant incompetence.
He didn’t just destroy a side, he almost literally killed the entire club. And did so whilst making himself millions and millions of pounds.
Some misguided blues say “ah, but he WAS a City fan”. No, he wasn’t.

He was a provincial, duplicitous, failed local business man.
Im not by nature a vindictive man but I hope with all my being that he is currently rotting in hell.
 
Barnes and Owen didn't even want to leave - they were sold to WBA against their wishes. Barnes was then a full England international - not far short of an automatic starter for the national team - and Owen was an U23 England regular who was blossoming into a superb midfielder. Selling these young players for a combined £700,00 when both had all their best years ahead of them was a huge mistake and Allison fucked up spectacularly.
 
Some of of it was said at the time, but there's also plenty of hindsight, as something had undeniably gone wrong in 78-79

However, what I still find strange is that when Allison was sacked, City potentially still had a far better team than the one that lost 4-0 at Brighton two seasons later, when Bond resigned.

City fielded 9 local lads, (plus Daley and Reeves) for the 2-2 draw at Old Trafford in September 1980, yet Roger Palmer only lasted a few more games, and Dave Bennett didn’t last much longer.

Steve Mackenzie also departed, and if you’re wondering why Clive Wilson rarely featured until 84-85 (at 24) then look no further than Bond’s comments in his 81-82 end-of-season review.

Allison was obsessed with long term, but Bond was too much the other way
 
Hopefully still got this book up in the loft somewhere.

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Self impotant twat makes himself the centre of attention

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The yo yo years were quite fun. The worse thing for a club is long periods of mid table mediocrity and at least we were spared. The sacking of skip was a terrible decision, but Lee's takeover and the appointment of Ball made a bad situation much worse. Enjoyed the Bernstein years our best chairman since Albert Alexander, great times under Royle and Keegan. So there were good times before the money, Charlton 85, Bradford a couple of years later, Gillingham 99 and Blackburn 2000. Pretty much that whole amazing season under Keegan when we ripped the championship up for arse paper . Good times, bad times but it felt more like our club then
 

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