stan bowles
Well-Known Member
What was it with Swales bringing in Norwich City managers ? Ron Saunders, John Bond, Mel Machin. It was like his default search every time we needed to bring someone in.
44 Years Ago… Johnny Bond, Johnny Bond, Johnny Bond
- Thread starter Gary James
- Start date
stan bowles
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Bond had Phil Boyer with him at Bournemouth, Norwich and then us. Must have had a hard on for him.
1961_vintage
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The biggest irony being that if I am not mistaken Norwich City are the Club against which we have the best record.
stan bowles
Well-Known Member
Saunders had won nothing when we brought him in, Bond had got Norwich to one League Cup Final which they lost to Saunders' Villa team. City's was Machin's first proper management appointment. I can only imagine Swales and the Board thinking that, if they (Saunders and Bond) can hold their own at a backwater like Norwich, imagine how good they'll be at a big club like City - and appointed them on that basis.
John Bond was the right man for City at that time, He had a great turnaround and a great start to the next season
But at City there was a big problem, Swales
The Chairman and the Board fucked up big time under Big Mal by giving him the money and letting him sell Peter Barnes and Gary Owen and dismantle Tony Books team that finished runners-up the season before,
For the Life of me, Why did Tony Book just let Swales demote him from being the Manager and still be happy in a role under Big Mal, Tony Book should have stayed Manager and Big Mal coach and Kept Big Mal from controlling the money side of the game with new signings and selling players.
Once Swales had blown all the money on Big Mal's ideas City was finished, John Bond was only going to patch up the team because Swales and City were financially ruined, Even the Trevor Francis gamble was a step too far for the club to handle and had to sell to balance the books,
John Bond was lied to by Swales and City was in trouble financially, from that moment on City became a YOYO club and done as a top team, City had to start clearing out players and bring in cheap replacements and youth,
They say when it goes, it goes fast, how right were they,
From being top of the League at Christmas in the 1981/82 season to getting relegated in 1982/83 season
Funny enough I would never want to swap a single thing, I Loved being a City back then, Yes City was struggling and never knowing what was just around the corner from week to week. The One big thing that stood out was we knew our level and just got on with it and turned up week after week home and away.
Unlike the Scum over the road, they thought they were still a big club that would win the title every season,
Happily, Liverpool would shit all over them as well until the Sky's Premier League
But at City there was a big problem, Swales
The Chairman and the Board fucked up big time under Big Mal by giving him the money and letting him sell Peter Barnes and Gary Owen and dismantle Tony Books team that finished runners-up the season before,
For the Life of me, Why did Tony Book just let Swales demote him from being the Manager and still be happy in a role under Big Mal, Tony Book should have stayed Manager and Big Mal coach and Kept Big Mal from controlling the money side of the game with new signings and selling players.
Once Swales had blown all the money on Big Mal's ideas City was finished, John Bond was only going to patch up the team because Swales and City were financially ruined, Even the Trevor Francis gamble was a step too far for the club to handle and had to sell to balance the books,
John Bond was lied to by Swales and City was in trouble financially, from that moment on City became a YOYO club and done as a top team, City had to start clearing out players and bring in cheap replacements and youth,
They say when it goes, it goes fast, how right were they,
From being top of the League at Christmas in the 1981/82 season to getting relegated in 1982/83 season
Funny enough I would never want to swap a single thing, I Loved being a City back then, Yes City was struggling and never knowing what was just around the corner from week to week. The One big thing that stood out was we knew our level and just got on with it and turned up week after week home and away.
Unlike the Scum over the road, they thought they were still a big club that would win the title every season,
Happily, Liverpool would shit all over them as well until the Sky's Premier League
dennishasdoneit
Well-Known Member
Tbh, I have to admit if you were a match going fan 82/83 your analysis of JB is going to be sharper than mine..at the time I was a City daft ,out of town teenager relying on Sunday newspaper match reports and radio 2 match bulletins , to try and get a grip on what was happening.
Looking at the stats tho, we d won 10 out of 25 games before he was sacked,not brilliant but compared to just winning 3 more matches and being relegated after he was sacked ,maybe just May be I'd have preferred JB to have lasted the remainder of that season...
The point you make about us losing nearly every away game is ,as you can appreciate, not just a JB trait, We were terrible away from home season before he came and well after he'd gone...years and years of capitulation when not backed by big home support..
I absolutely loved John Bond and the way he galvanised us and turned us into a solid battling outfit after being terrible at the start of the 1980/ 81 season, he joined when we must have been bottom of the league and winless (?) , going absolutely nowhere but down...,left us mid table, and then we did go down.....
The 2-2 draw at Everton in the fa cup quarter final 1981, with the last min goal from Paul Power, the 3-1 replay win at Maine rd,the win over Ipswich Town in the semi final, against one of the most accomplished teams in the country was also sensational ,and of course we were so unlucky at Wembley with Tommy Hutch....these memories still constitute one of the most exciting times for me ,when we signed Bobby McDonald Hutchinson and Gerry Gow ,it was bizzare ,I just knew without seeing any of them play live before, that he'd made 3 Brilliant signings , Gow just looked as tho he meant business, and Tommy Hutch was an ageing left winger with an exciting up and at em style of play...
The 6nil win over Norwich in the cup 4th round,, the 4nil demolishing of Crystal Palace the round before, the last min Tommy Booth winner at Peterborough( doing a John Stones well b4 it was trendy for our centre backs to win games) all exciting memories ..Bond joined us bottom of the league and left us mid table, when ,as far as as I could make out in later years ,he'd by taken his eye off the ball by then and was involved in an unhealthy relationship .......
Not forgetting the signing of Trevor Francis. Wow.just Wow.
City v Ipswich on the latest Match Time Revisited (April 1982)
No memory of this game at all. Just that the general form at the end of that season was awful and the squad threadbare.
No memory of this game at all. Just that the general form at the end of that season was awful and the squad threadbare.
Scaring Europe to Death
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Short term Bond did a great job and the 80-81 season remains one of my favourite campaigns from the pre Premier League era.
I'm not so sure about the rest of his tenure especially as we seemed to have a worse team at the start of 83-84 (Parlane Tolmie McNab)than the one he inherited after Malcolm Allison had been sacked (Palmer Bennett Mackenzie)
I'm not so sure about the rest of his tenure especially as we seemed to have a worse team at the start of 83-84 (Parlane Tolmie McNab)than the one he inherited after Malcolm Allison had been sacked (Palmer Bennett Mackenzie)