Brian Horton

Loved listening to "Nobby" in his pre-post match interviews. Always filled with passion and desire to do well with us, and he had this laughable knack of finishing his sentences with a question.
 
Still kept his reply letter after he took the time to reply to my letter wishing him all the best after he'd been sacked.

Lovely letter and a measure of the man.

After the boring 'hoof it up the pitch in hope' style that his predecessor made us endure (Reid) not Sir Tony, his style of football was entertaining and refreshing.

Happy Birthday Brian
 
JGL07 said:
It is paradoxical that the appointment of Horton did a lot to sting the supporters into opposing Swales. Yet Horton turned out to be one of the best managers for City in that period. Once the fans had their way and Swales was replaced by Lee, we had Alan Ball who was surely the worst.

Yes Swales had to go, but why did Francis Lee feel obliged to appoint one of his mates, who had little or no skills as a manager, to replace Brian Horton?
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Our finishes of 5th, 5th and 9th in the Reid years probably didn't help, when we ended up battling relegation under Brian, even though the football felt much better. Those positions weren't helped by the off-field antics, of course, and I felt at the time he should have been given another year. Of course Franny would have been emboldened by winning his battle and probably decided to strike while the iron was hot and bring in someone of higher profile (World Cup national treasure and all that), but in hindsight it proved to be disastrous. Easy to say that now, but I do admit to "going along with it" based on the two season ending positions.
 
Happy Birthday to Brian. Had the pleasure of his company in a boozer in Didsbury after the 1-0 Geovanni derby win. Friendly group of reds and blues, much banter, old school stuff, and basically he just came over sat down and joined in. What a nice fellow he was, and yes he was on our side!!
 
I remember the excitement of "who will be our next manager" just before Horton came and honestly as a teenager I thought the next man would win the title with our team.

We went away on holiday to France a few days before he was appointed and every time we managed to get an English radio signal I'd get excited about the names we were linked with. They were BIG names at the time. Managers who'd been around and been great with their clubs.

The night he was appointed, I remember the rumours coming through the radio in France that Manchester City - MANCHESTER CITY - were speaking to Oxford f**kin United about taking Horton as the next manager. It was an absolute joke and probably not a million miles from how it would be now (I was young but that's how it felt).

However, he provided some fantastic moments. He made clubs legends like Rosler, Walsh and Beagrie. If you'd watched Reid's basic "football", Horton's City was top class and he is a top, top thoroughly decent man too. I'm fairly sure we ended up playing 3-2-5 formations against Blackburn and for a short while he made us a fantastic team to watch.

And... he was FAR better than Alan f**kin Ball who replaced him.
 
Citizen of Legoland said:
Our finishes of 5th, 5th and 9th in the Reid years probably didn't help, when we ended up battling relegation under Brian, even though the football felt much better. Those positions weren't helped by the off-field antics, of course, and I felt at the time he should have been given another year. Of course Franny would have been emboldened by winning his battle and probably decided to strike while the iron was hot and bring in someone of higher profile (World Cup national treasure and all that), but in hindsight it proved to be disastrous. Easy to say that now, but I do admit to "going along with it" based on the two season ending positions.
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Like may others I was unhappy when Reid was sacked by Swales. But then I was living up in Edinburgh and not watching City matches regularly along with their eye-bleeding hoofball! I was prepared to give Horton the benefit of the doubt. Certainly the League position deteriorated after Reid's departure but that was always going to happen.

Horton seemed to get City playing football once more and I was even prepared to forgive him his part in relegating City when playing for Luton years before. I was expecting a change when Lee took over but not Alan Ball! I was so cheesed-off that I didn't bother to watch even when City played a pre-season match at Tynecastle fifteen minutes walk from my house. I went to watch Hibs beat Queens Park Rangers 2-1 instead. City predictably lost 5-1 to Hearts!

That result was an indication of what was going to happen under Ball. The season ended in farce with Ball signalling to the players to take the ball into the corner at 2-2 even though it meant City would go down without another goal. Niall Quinn was doing his nut on the touchline trying to get the team to attack while Ball looked bemused assuming wrongly that the draw would suffice.
 
Remember Brian playing in a game against us for Brighton at Maine Rd and he caught my eye as a very classy player, seems like a classy guy off the field also, happy birthday Brian Horton !
 
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