51 years ago today - Swales became chairman

I believe his business partner went on to be the chairman of Liverpool

I am far too young to remember their chain of shops
Noel White became chairman of Altrincham where he and Swales were directors. Their company was sold and White bought the Bowden hotel. Swales went on to be the ..er..saviour of City.
White later became a director and Chairman of Liverpool, where he was a mover and shaker in the creation of the Premier League.
White fell out with his fellow directors at Liverpool after suggesting they took charge of transfers. He then left.
 
The ego and self-belief that everything he did was right for the club was his downfall and the Manchester City board members dared not speak out against him, We were a right mess and an Iron Fist of a chairman was running the ship

Swales was always a hands-on chairman and could never leave the football side of things to the football people. The Granda TV documentary CITY showed him in his full colours and also a fucking liar, What he said in the BBC video about not getting involved with the football part, But in the CITY doc he says am going down at half time to speak to the lads,

Swales should have stepped down long before the Swales Out and forward with Franny took over, For me he should have stepped down after Billy Mcneill left for the Villa job and we went down again in 1986, That was the last straw going down again and losing Billy Mcneill,

Billy Mcneill was building something and the youth side coming through and City needed Billy just like Fergie with the class of 1992 but Swales would not give him any money to buy 2 or 3 players and City would have been the team flying and winning silverware.

I am talking about 5 or 6 very good young city players that needed looking after and bringing them on into the first team but Swales fucked it all up by not backing Billy Mcneill,
I distinctly remember Swales Saying when he apointed Mcneill, "if he goes I go" or words to that effect, needless to say the cretin Swales didnt stick to his words & lied again,
I remember it because my dad who was a lifelong blue since the 30s hated Swales with a passion & decided to give up his season ticket when Mcneill went because Swales stayed on,
Sadly dad died before we started winning things but as a club we have done really well to recover from the absolute shambles that Swales turned us into.
 
Swales plus the return of Malcolm Allison equals irreparable damage.

I remember reading a book about Malcolm Allison where he talks about the Steve Daley signing. MA said he'd agreed 400k with Swales and then days later the transfer gets announced and it's £1.4m. WTF.
 
I think Swales got too much stick personally. Always found the cash for players, think of Phelan, Curle etc other big money buys as well. Just hired pretty poor managers that was the big problem. He had the clubs best interest at heart
 
Noel White became chairman of Altrincham where he and Swales were directors. Their company was sold and White bought the Bowden hotel. Swales went on to be the ..er..saviour of City.
White later became a director and Chairman of Liverpool, where he was a mover and shaker in the creation of the Premier League.
White fell out with his fellow directors at Liverpool after suggesting they took charge of transfers. He then left.
Swales started his own chain of Tv shops, his Bramhall branch was where I met him one Saturday morning to discuss City during the Forward with Franny campaign. We took a walk and I urged him for the good of the club to go, suggested it was time for him to pass it to someone else, negotiate a number of executive seats and enjoy the football, which he did but never used them. He wanted to know my views on the development of the kippax and where the away fans should be located, he was shocked to hear what I thought of the Platt Lane stand. He had a £2m loan secured on his City shares, charged his whole life expenses to the club which he pillaged leaving the club was close to being insolvent when he finally left. He made new demands at the meeting, held to sign the sale documents which Franny had returned early from his holiday to attend. He also left contracts with suppliers, including his own company that were designed to wreck Franny. City fan my arse!
 
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Was too young to remember his fuck ups in the 70's & 80's but I'll never forget him ending Paul Lake's career.

He refused to put him in business class for a 11 hour flight to LA for his knee surgery and Paul ended in economy which made the injury even worse. He also refused to pay for his girlfriend to go with him and Peter Reid and Niall Quinn ended up paying for her out of their own pockets.

The way he treated Paul who at the time was our best player was absolutely fucking unforgivable
 
I think Swales got too much stick personally. Always found the cash for players, think of Phelan, Curle etc other big money buys as well. Just hired pretty poor managers that was the big problem. He had the clubs best interest at heart
Bollocks, he got all the stick he deserved. Just a pity we didn't hound the egotistical tyrant out earlier.
 
I seem to remember him saying after our first relegation under him it'd not happen again under his watch and if it did he'd go.

That sadly didn't happen, he stayed well past his sell by date like the vast majority of people with power do in all walks of life.
 
I distinctly remember Swales Saying when he apointed Mcneill, "if he goes I go" or words to that effect, needless to say the cretin Swales didnt stick to his words & lied again,
I remember it because my dad who was a lifelong blue since the 30s hated Swales with a passion & decided to give up his season ticket when Mcneill went because Swales stayed on,
Sadly dad died before we started winning things but as a club we have done really well to recover from the absolute shambles that Swales turned us into.

Yep

I think Billy Mcneill was building something special and needed a couple of old heads to stay up that season and give that great youth team the best chances of success, But Swales again said no and Billy walked and City went down again,

The 5 or 6 great young players had No chance at City under Swales and the truth be told, they wasted their talent.
If they were at Liverpool or Arsenal they would have won many titles and england caps
 
The thing I'm learning most about this thread is in how high regard most people hold Billy McNeill. I never knew he was as popular and well rated as this
 

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