City's 1960s team

[paulchapo]

Cannot overstate how much more competitive it was back then. 7 different champions in successive seasons from '66 to '72 :-
Liverpool, Rags, City, Leeds, Everton, Arsenal, Derby.
Saying that, City should have won it in 1972 regardless of signing Marsh and probably would have won it in 1977 with a fit Colin Bell available.

Yes everything was more equal back then. 1972 left me gutted as a kid, I think we were clear at the top for a while. We fell away over Easter and in particular getting beat 2-1 by Stoke at home when Gordon Banks put in one of the best goalkeeping displays I have ever seen. Without him we would have won that game 7-2 we absolutely pulverised Stoke.

We should have won it in 1977/8 as well, we were the better side. A bloody icy pitch and that bloody Fairclough meant we drew with Liverpool, them scoring in the last few minutes.

 

[spiny]

I was told there was scouting reports on both. Wolves wanted 650k and like zi said, Preston wanted 250k which Skip wouldn't pay. Malc opened at 500k, and Preston gambled and said no, and Malc went back with 750k! Only what I was told by my boss.

Easy to forget it was a time when cash revenues and expenditures were normal so no proper audit trail and room to massage figures or skim as highlighted by various brown envelope scandals that came to light.

Also away team tickets were carried in supermarket plastic bags so as good as cash without plastic or computers to track or audit plus the ability to bypass the banks.

Following the money sounds more plausible than all the stuff about people going in with inflated offers. Ultimately any signings and payments had to be sanctioned by the Board with Swales as the Chairman.

Inflating values seems a more likely motive than desperation to sign a player, the latter probably an innocent party. It is naive to think that Swales and many others could not be a party to such dealings when the returns were so high for little effort. No wonder he professed to love City and clung on till the end when there was little left.

All this is speculation, although Lee said Swales would not release the full City accounts before the takeover and without proof we will never know for sure. However the transfers look even more dodgy with hindsight.

 

[BillCarlisle]

I was told there was scouting reports on both. Wolves wanted 650k and like zi said, Preston wanted 250k which Skip wouldn't pay. Malc opened at 500k, and Preston gambled and said no, and Malc went back with 750k! Only what I was told by my boss.

That's pretty much accurate. A client of mine at the time was best mates & golfing partner with the Preston Chairman. He told me the same story.

 

[lancs blue]

Yes everything was more equal back then. 1972 left me gutted as a kid, I think we were clear at the top for a while. We fell away over Easter and in particular getting beat 2-1 by Stoke at home when Gordon Banks put in one of the best goalkeeping displays I have ever seen. Without him we would have won that game 7-2 we absolutely pulverised Stoke.

We should have won it in 1977/8 as well, we were the better side. A bloody icy pitch and that bloody Fairclough meant we drew with Liverpool, them scoring in the last few minutes.

Yes, Banks's performance was unbelievable that day, one double save in particular from Frannie Lee at 1-1.

 

[paulchapo]

Yes, Banks's performance was unbelievable that day, one double save in particular from Frannie Lee at 1-1.

Yes I was right behind that goal everyone thought it was in. Muddy rainy day.

 

[sir baconface]

The thing is , all the teams got pissed as as a normal. Boxing day was always a comedy of errors, early starts and most still pissed. No one team really had an advantage.
Johny foreigners spoilt the party

We invent the game and those cnuts come along and ruin it with bottled water, rabbit food, pasta and chicken that’s never seen a deep fat fryer.

 

[asahartford1]

We invent the game and those cnuts come along and ruin it with bottled water, rabbit food, pasta and chicken that’s never seen a deep fat fryer.

No wonder Merson, Brazil, et al talk about then so negatively.

 

[xgorton]

Yes everything was more equal back then. 1972 left me gutted as a kid, I think we were clear at the top for a while. We fell away over Easter and in particular getting beat 2-1 by Stoke at home when Gordon Banks put in one of the best goalkeeping displays I have ever seen. Without him we would have won that game 7-2 we absolutely pulverised Stoke.

We should have won it in 1977/8 as well, we were the better side. A bloody icy pitch and that bloody Fairclough meant we drew with Liverpool, them scoring in the last few minutes.

76/77 mate.

 

[Gingers Dad]

when malcolm allison come back for a 2nd stint at city was to destroy city and swales plain and simple
tony book had us going great and won the league cup and close in the league with a good bunch of players and youth

why on earth did malcolm allison think get rid of most of them and start again ? barnes owen should have been city future and with the likes of joe corrigan. dave watson. willie donachie. tommy booth. mike doyle. ash hartford. mick channon. brian kidd. still have 3 to 5 seasons in them city should have been winning titles and cups

so its clear on paper what malcolm allinson was up to ? he knew its pay back time and did a very good job of sinking city for good, swales was fooled into thinking magic happens with malcolm allison. but the truth is jo mercer was the master allison was a bully

It was Allison's ego that drove him to sell Peter Barnes and Gary Owen. If they had both been a couple of years younger and hadn't made the first team when he arrived in the late 70's, Allison would definitely have put them both in the first team.

I was too young to really remember the Joe Mercer / Malcolm Allison team of the 60's. First match was in 73 aged 9. That team was in decline and I think it was Ron Saunders in charge. Tony Book took over and built the the team that should have won the league in 76/77 or 77/78.

Allison came back and ripped that team apart with some of the worst transfer dealings any club has ever been involved in. Book's team was in need of some new blood and a bit of tinkering but what happened was ridiculous.

I don't blame Allison. He couldn't have achieved what he did in his second stint without the aid of his boss. Swales was the dickhead in charge who is near enough solely to blame for the club's demise in the 80's and 90's.

 

[Gingers Dad]

That's pretty much accurate. A client of mine at the time was best mates & golfing partner with the Preston Chairman. He told me the same story.

Do you know if the Ian Rush story is true that Alan Oakes his then manager at Chester advised him against signing for City?