1978-79 | The self-implosion of Manchester City

[1961_vintage]

There's a book waiting to be written on this topic. No pun intended!

And with the introduction written by @Kazzydeyna :-)

 

[Maly]

Hopefully still got this book up in the loft somewhere.

Self impotant twat makes himself the centre of attention

That bottom picture looks like the 1980’s version of the Glazers or like something from Royston fucking Vasey

 

[i kne albert davy]

That’s what I remember too. My Dad was very wary of Malcs return to put it mildly. I was quite excited by his bluster.

Went to every game home and away that season under Malcom felt we were on the verge of something big,out played teams but were so naive at the back. Dull it wasn't :-)

 

[Kippax77]

Hopefully still got this book up in the loft somewhere.

Self impotant twat makes himself the centre of attention

Wow this as brought back childhood memories

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

Sacking Skip cost us about 30 years.

only this. Thankfully we managed to have him in another capacity which saw us through the late 80s for what that was. Would have been worse without him

 

[BLUEMOONRACING]

Hopefully still got this book up in the loft somewhere.

Self impotant twat makes himself the centre of attention

I remember that photo and I remember asking as a 9 year old kid, why are the players at the back?

 

[uweuweuwe]

My dad always said that Peter swales was always more concerned with out doing every other club rather than looking after our club. Said his obsession that other clubs were appointing managers who were larger than life characters and quotable in the national press like Ron Atkinson, don reevie, Brian Clough etc and that's why he wanted Malcolm.

Sometimes think it would be great if the club would make a box set of all the documentaries about city.

 

[jimharri]

Hopefully still got this book up in the loft somewhere.

Self impotant twat makes himself the centre of attention

Hey; blue shorts.

 

[bluegaz13]

The side before Allison came back had hit a bit of a rut and his return did generate a lot of excitement with people thinking back to the late 60s team and hoping he would restore our former glories.

If I remember correctly his first game back was Leeds away with Kidd playing at centre half.

In reality the side just needed a little bit of tinkering….but for some reason Kidd, Watson, Hartford, Barnes and Owen were all sold.

Big money was paid for Reeves, Daley, Robinson, Shinton plus a record for a teenager (Mackenzie)…..none were bad players but they should have been integrated into the team alongside most of the players that were sold.

When Bond came in to replace Allison, he was great short term, but once the honeymoon period was over, the season after the cup final and especially after selling Francis….he soon bailed…..although we still should never have been relegated the following season.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

It really was a game changer of a season. Disaster show from Allison although at the time it was exciting to a young teenage boy.
We shouldn't forget the pretext to that season in that we lost my favourite player in Tueart and had not replaced King Colin at all. These were big mistakes given we had a shitload of cash. Basically Book/Swales decided Barnes could replace Tueart but, fabulous as Barnsey was, he couldn't replace Tueart s goals or ability to roam around the pitch. Of course watching the 2 of them together was great and has given many memories. Again, for some reason nothing was worked out to replace Colin Bell, despite one or 2 transfer misses. Book/Swales should have known that after he missed the 76_77 season he wasn't coming back anywhere near what he was (despite that golden Boxing Day comeback and the couple of months after) - the goals were gone and for me despite everything else, the number of goals he scored (without pens or free kicks) was incredible. Approx 150 in 450 games. In our current great squad, who could match that? Phil perhaps. We also had lost Mike Doyle and his leadership.
So, by 78-79, the team was already in decline although not a dramatic one. Instead of a top 2-3 team, I think we were a top 6-8 team - still an awful lot of quality players but the new players (Futchers) didn't make a huge impact. I remember Bolton away (2-2), missed WBA at home (2-2) and Owens 2 pens v Coventry and felt we were doing okay, playing nicely. For me it was that sequence of losing 2-1 at home in 3 consecutive games to Soton, Derby and Ipswich that just sapped form, confidence and goals. It was a mixture of bad luck (Clements broke his leg) and just playing crap.
There's no doubt Swales panicked and part through his own ego, part through his stupidity, he brought Allison back. Basically, he panicked because of a poor 6 weeks but he didn't take into account the players we had lost and not replaced (as I said in the pretext). He could have waited and either used the market better and/or found a top manager. Instead he brought back Malcom who was intent on feeding his own ego and creating his own history with another great team a decade after his first. In hindsight it was a purge that was appalling in that we sold seasoned, quality players for relatively low fees and bought a load of players crazily overpriced. Did we really buy Bobby Shinton with what we received for Watson and Kidd?
The disaster was not just the selling and buying it the fact that we had some good players under Alison who would have hugely benefitted from who we already had. For example, what about Caton playing with Watson or Dave Bennett/ Roger Palmer learning from Kiddo etc