Allardyce was on the verge of becoming Man City manager, deal fell through at the last second...

[Shaggy]

We could have had draught pints 0f Bisto or Oxo in the bars if rotund Sam had joined

 

[lancs blue]

Hughes signed Vinny

And played him in midfield.

 

[baggy]

He wouldve been more suited to Real Madrid than the likes of City...

 

[MCFC Wirral]

Neil Warnock would’ve been more suitable when City were in free fall under Frank Clark. Joe Royle was fine though.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Miles better than Pearce.

To be honest that's not exactly a ringing endorsement....

 

[Stephen230]

Fans of clubs who like to think they’re a bit better than they actually are, thought they were above having him as manager.

Fact is, by just about any measure you can reasonably apply, he was a very successful manager, proven over a long period of time.

 

[gloryhuntersince85]

Watched that in Leeds with a lad from Levvy surrounded by Geordies, we jumped on their table when the second went in and got chased out of the pub by a load of the fat bastards. Was well worth it

was at that game and funniest thing was the chant when City made it 2 "Joey Barton, Joey Barton, can you hear us in your cell"

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

Get him in to be Pep's defensive coach, I say!11!!!!!1!

 

[petrusha]

I reckon that, in a parallel universe where there was no Thaksin and then no Mansour, Allardyce could have done very well indeed for us in relative terms. If he'd managed something along the lines he did at Bolton - where he took them to a domestic Cup final, qualified for Europe, finished regularly in the top half, usually had a memorable game or two per season where his team bloodied the noses of the Sky Four, and signed a few players who were great to watch (in the manner of Okocha and Djorkaeff in his spell at the Reebok) - we'd have been ecstatic with that.

None of us at the time would have expected anything better than that - indeed, it would have been beyond the wildest dreams of many a City pessimist. But if he could achieve it at Bolton, why not with us as well? And if he had done it here, it would have been better than anything we Blues had seen since the seventies, and it would probably have made him something of a club legend.

Still, it wasn't to be. I suppose this bald Catalan bloke we've got now will have to do! ;)

 

[Dribble]

100% would have had him at city back then, he worked wonders with Bolton. Thinking back, Hughes had a very similar profile after managing Blackburn and Wales, not bad choices for where we were at all.

Both were a significant upgrade on Pearce & were probably about as big an appointment City could have reasonably expected. However, our cat would have been an upgrade on Pearce!

We'll never know how a skint City with Allardyce as Boss would've fared, but even thinking about how close this came to reality makes me stand in awe at how far we've come.

From Pearce to Pep in 10 years... \0/