Biggest mistake City have ever made?

[oakiecokie]

when alan oakes then manager at chester offered city ian rush for 200,000 and peter swales said no was a very poor decision.

I have the complete oposite side to the Story. I was told or read that Oakes was in some sort of dispute with City at the time and did his best to persuade Rush to join Liverpool.

In answer to the question of biggest mistake - anything to do with Swales (even though he loved the Club dearly) or Malcolm's return to Maine Road; they seem to be the most used answers in the thread and I would agree.

would be interested to know the story over rush apologies if wrong.and off thread but wheres oakes now

Alan still lives in leafy Davenham.His brother Ken,is my best mate.I`ll ask him whether the story about Rush is true and whether his dispute with City cost City,Ian Rush.
In the 1960/70`s we used to travel all over the place watching the Blues and it was Alan and his cousin,Glyn Pardoe,who always managed to get us between 6 and 12 complimentary tickets when travelling away.Ah the good old days of being a teenager !!

 

[Ladybarn Blue .]

Garry Cook

Good call this one .<br /><br />-- Sat Mar 16, 2013 7:02 am --<br /><br />Very intresting comments from Gary James page 17 .

 

[Ian]

The whole period of Copell, Clarke, Neil, Ball was a shambles that ultimately led us to the third tier.

 

[citymad]

Not building on last years success. Next year the playing field will be even and we will have lost a chance to be clear of the likes of spurs, Liverpool, arsenal and Chelsea. Theyre all beginning to build decent squads whereas we will have to do a little rebuilding which of course will have financial restraints

Of course, in our history we've had much worse but I think out poor transfer dealings will have a big impact on future success. It won't be as easy as it could've been.

 

[geoff hammond]

Is it just an urban myth, or has it now been established as a genuine fact, that, shortly after the 1978 world cup, Ardiles & Villa were actually on a plane, flying into Manchester airport, to complete the formalities, after a deal had already been agreed with Malcolm Allison. when Peter Swales, inexplicably, pulled the plug?

Allison wasn't at City when Ardiles and Villa joined Spurs. Ardiles has said in the past that he thought he was going to join City and I've read before that we did have a deal lined up. However, if I recall correctly, the issue was that the same agent had been instructed by the respective Argentinian clubs to sell both Ardiles and Villa, and he wanted to sell them as a pair. City were offered Villa as well but didn't want him, then Spurs stepped in and were prepared to take both, so they went there instead. We then switched our sights to Kazi Deyna.

Well at least that one never came back to bite us. Don't recall him doing anything remotely noteworthy at Spurs.

Tony Book was once telling us about this. He said that City agreed a deal for Ardiles. Book and Swales travelled over to sheffield (for some reason) to meet Ardiles and sign him up. But when they got there the sellers asked for a few quid more. Book said it wasnt a great increase but Swales didnt like being mugged off so it fell through. Day or so later he signed for spurs.

ps Villa was not part of the City deal at all

 

[Hungdaddy]

Playing 3 at the back, just doesn't work!

 

[VOOMER]

Getting Malcolm Allison back for a second time.Disastrous !

There's to many. Not paying the going rate for Gordon Banks, letting Swales and his cronies run the club. Not signing Platini when he agreed to come. More recently, letting Hughes stay in charge for 1 second past the money coming in. You could also say the same about Cook and most certainly Marwood.

 

[Anonymous]

Getting Malcolm Allison back for a second time.Disastrous !

There's to many. Not paying the going rate for Gordon Banks, letting Swales and his cronies run the club. Not signing Platini when he agreed to come. More recently, letting Hughes stay in charge for 1 second past the money coming in. You could also say the same about Cook and most certainly Marwood.

this a million times!!!

imagine if he'd played for us and liked us now?

there wouldn't be FFPR.

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

It may seem like heresy to say this, but many people of my dad's generation said that signing Bert Trautmann when they did was a huge blow to the club. Not in a playing sense of course as Bert went on to win the public over, and we also won the FA Cup and reached another Final with him, but what did the damage was that signing him up with WW2 still in recent memory caused the club's wealthy backers from the Jewish community to pull out. And this at a time when Matt Busby was getting his teeth into his new job and was providing an alternative home for this money.

 

[WEMBLEY76]

Bringing Malcolm Allison back was disastrous and set a chronic habit of bad decisions almost ruining the club in the process.