1978-79 | The self-implosion of Manchester City

[Moorland Blue]

Great thread everyone! Thanks to CitizenGreen for kicking it off. Given that my first match was the 1956 cup final where my mum said my dad blagged me in if I sat on her knee (aged5!) and Bobby and Heather Johnstone were my regular babysitters, I am definitely of the vintage that remembers all this stuff. Truth is Malcolm was a great coach and a crap manager. His ego needed someone above him to filter out the crazy stuff (eg Steppy Stefanovic , Peter and Gary etc.). Joe Mercer was perfect for that. Swales' ego was as big as Malcolm's so together in control they were a complete disaster. Had it been thought of at the time, Tony Book might have been a great Director of Football (discuss?).

 

[Keeper!]

That's the thing thst often gets overlooked (including by myself) when jokes are made about the Charlton game and many, many others. He was doing that to skim money off the club, and ultimately us as supporters, to line his own pockets. These were times when losing cash was much more straightforward, both domestically and internationally, than it is today. Cars, artwork, houses, villas abroad could be bought, or significantly contributed towards, with large sums of cash - back then, my dad used to pay mine and my brother’s school fees in cash ffs - can you imagine that happening today?!

Who knows where the money went, but I’m sure there will have been plenty of it and it will have acquired assets whose provenance will now be impossible to establish with any certainty.

So you are correct: he stole off the club and I’m happy to add ‘embezzler‘ to to the previous post!

That's exactly the issue, money, the scousers and the like have very shory memories, we were a proper club back then , one of the finest. The top players did want to sign for us and we did sign them and pay them well.

I remember as a kid we signed Mick Channon for a British record 300K, back then Channon was a big star and that was a very big deal, a heading making deal.

On the money issue, lets remember back in those days attendances was your income, sponsorship and TV was almost non existent and of little relevance. And that bastard Swales was stealing it every home game, cup game etc.

Fuck me it makes me angry looking back, our club was destroyed by that Cuban heeled, comb over thieving bastard and he got away with it.

 

[Scareye]

Not ashamed to say I shed a couple of tears in 11 in sheer relief

My wife has a picture of me at Wembley that day in floods of tears. That was 30 odd years of piss taking and frustration flooding out. I wouldn't change the ride for the world, not a second of it.

 

[Citizen Green]

Great thread everyone! Thanks to CitizenGreen for kicking it off. Given that my first match was the 1956 cup final where my mum said my dad blagged me in if I sat on her knee (aged5!) and Bobby and Heather Johnstone were my regular babysitters, I am definitely of the vintage that remembers all this stuff. Truth is Malcolm was a great coach and a crap manager. His ego needed someone above him to filter out the crazy stuff (eg Steppy Stefanovic , Peter and Gary etc.). Joe Mercer was perfect for that. Swales' ego was as big as Malcolm's so together in control they were a complete disaster. Had it been thought of at the time, Tony Book might have been a great Director of Football (discuss?).

If I may, what was your feeling when Swales initially assumed control of the club? I know not long after it we reached the LC Final in '74 & brought in some top talent like Tueart & Watson, but the managerial merry-go-round had already begun, until TB got the job & settled it until the aforementioned period.

 

[KS55]

Not ashamed to say I shed a couple of tears in 11 in sheer relief

Me too. Same a year later. Now it's "Champions again? Oh, right."

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

The other thing about this season was our poor league form was attributed in many quarters at the time to the ‘distraction’ our UEFA cup run. I’ve got an away programme from Middlesbrough in April 1979 (just checked the date on here) at my mum and dad’s somewhere, which states the same.

We never really seemed to get going in the league that season, but equally we were never under realistic threat of relegation. We had pretty much just as poor a season under Joe the year after we won the league in ‘68 (acquiring one point more than 1978/9). These things happened with more frequentcy back then, with greater financial equality between clubs and smaller squads meaning teams could go into decline more rapidly and readily, especially if key players were removed from the equation by injuries or other unforeseen factors.

Swales, if he’d been competent in his role, would have recognised the situation required a bit of guile and craft, rather than a complete reconstruction. And that the latter was replete with risk for the club’s long-term wellbeing. To suggest otherwise is absolute madness.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

That's exactly the issue, money, the scousers and the like have very shory memories, we were a proper club back then , one of the finest. The top players did want to sign for us and we did sign them and pay them well.

I remember as a kid we signed Mick Channon for a British record 300K, back then Channon was a big star and that was a very big deal, a heading making deal.

Chanson, Watson, Tueart, Hartford were all rising stars when they joined City. Kiddo had probably peaked tbf.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I posted about this yesterday: Swales had the City disease: an obsession with Man United. @Gary James produced a programme piece once on here and it was shocking: it was written by Swales and all he talked about was United.

He blew the league in 1972 because he was jealous of George BEst and went out and bought Rodney Marsh.

Then in 1978 he realised that our crowds had almost reached Man United's, and he was desperate to overtake them, so he moved Book to one side and went back for Malcolm Allison, then gave him free reign to rip the team to pieces. Swales has said that, I 've read it, he said he thought we just needed "one final push" to overtake them.

The club never recovered from that decision because from then on he threw more and more cash at it, which we couldn't afford, like gambler on a losing streak.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I also remember that Middlesbrough programme from 1979 saying we had the best team in the country on paper.

I’ll try and dig it out next time I’m back home, take a photo and post it on here.

 

[Gary James]

I saw this topic being discussed in another thread and thought it deserved it's own.

From the appointment of Joe Mercer & Malcolm Allison in 1965, through to 1979, City had undoubtedly established themselves as one of the top 4/5 football clubs in England, as well as a player on the European stage too. The honour's in the period included: The 1967/68 League Championship, FA Cup Winners in 1969, 2x League Cup Winners 1969/70, 1975/76 (RU: 1973/74), ECWC Winners 1969/70, multiple semi-finals, Wembley trips & consistent European football @ Maine Road. All whilst playing in front of some of the biggest gates the country had to offer. In 1975-76 City had won the League Cup & followed it up in 1976-77 by finishing a point behind champions Liverpool with a team consisting of experienced internationals like Joe Corrigan, Dave Watson, Asa Hartford, Dennis Tueart & Brian Kidd, supplemented by quality youngsters such as Peter Barnes & Gary Owen.

Now, what I'm getting at in this, is that it all imploded in a very short time frame. City had a disappointing 1978-79 season under Tony Book, despite a run to the QF's of the UEFA Cup. This was followed by Peter Swales moving Tony Book upstairs & bringing Malcolm Allison back to the club as manager, even after his first disastrous spell in the seat from 1971-73, when City had flirted with relegation at one stage, despite possessing one of the best sides in Europe. Swales & Allison then preceded over what can only be described as the self-destruction of the club. They sold practically all of the players listed above, replacing them with youngsters for grossly inflated fees, like Steve Daley, no where near the quality of their predecessors. This plunged the club into finical disarray, multiple managers & ultimately inevitable relegation. Above all of this though, is that it stripped the club of it's status as one of the countries finest, into a yo-yoing basket case of a club, with no silverware in 35 years, only fixed when Sheikh Mansour took over in 2008 with a lot of investment.

Personally I think the seeds of this go back to the early 1970's when Peter Swales, brought in to mediate a dispute between two factions of the board, one behind Joe Mercer & the other behind Malcolm Allison, on whether it was time for Malcolm to have the top job. Somehow, Swales politicked his was to the chairmanship & in-turn got Allison appointed. This is my understanding anyway but could be wrong. I think had the club remained under the stewardship of the Alexander family or similar at this point, our history would of been quite different in the 80's & 90's & certainly wouldn't of seen us become what we did, you could even argue our greatest team prior to the current day would have won even more.

I'd like to know if anyone has any insight into this period? maybe @Gary James or @petrusha? If so, how was the club handled so poorly & negligently?.

It’s one of the reasons I’ve just written the Peter Barnes biography. I wanted to get the message across about our status in 1979 and how the return of Allison (Swales often gets the blame for this but it was Ian Niven who pushed for his return) ruined the club. It’s covered in detail in the book but for me this is ultimately what led to the football world forgetting what a significant club we were and leading on to that view of us as a 3rd tier club getting lucky. A narrative I’m constantly trying to challenge - if we don’t do it who will?