David Bernstein Interview & Book

The Lone Whalley Ranger said:
Interesting to read Keegan’s take on their falling out. TLDR he says the more cautious approach of Bernstein towards transfers would essentially lead to signing lesser players and battling relegation again down the road - and this did come to pass shortly after he left.

I always blamed Pearce for subsequent problems, whereas Keegan makes the case it was cutting corners in the transfer market towards the end of his time.

I come down on Bernstein’s side because of the financial situation at the time, but interesting to hear the other side of the story.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Kevin Keegan reveals thrilling Man City ride - and why he quit

Kevin Keegan stood down as Manchester City manager after a fall-out with David Bernstein and the board
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Click to expand...
This is from his autobiography which is a decent read.
 
I've just published the two parts of the interview that Dave Wallace and me did with DB for the late King of the Kippax. Links here:

kingofthekippax.substack.com

DAVID BERNSTEIN - Part 1

King Of The Kippax Interview from 2023
kingofthekippax.substack.com kingofthekippax.substack.com

kingofthekippax.substack.com

DAVID BERNSTEIN - Part 2

The second part of the KOTK interview with our former chairman
kingofthekippax.substack.com kingofthekippax.substack.com
 
Theoretically Keegan might be right that City needed to invest to insure that we stayed clear of relegation but the problem is that Keegan proved that he was the wrong manager to make that investment. By the time he resigned the club was skint which was largely a result of his profligacy. Initially the signings were good - Berkovic, Anelka and Distin really stood out - but from 2003 the transfers were very poor.

Keegan brought in players on huge wages who were past it (Seaman, Fowler), not interested (Macmanaman, Mills), or not good enough in the first place (Macken, Sinclair). His only genuinely good signings were James and Reyna and the latter was injured all the time.

And that's before you start looking at which agents the players Keegan signed for big money were associated with...
 
pace89 said:
Theoretically Keegan might be right that City needed to invest to insure that we stayed clear of relegation but the problem is that Keegan proved that he was the wrong manager to make that investment. By the time he resigned the club was skint which was largely a result of his profligacy. Initially the signings were good - Berkovic, Anelka and Distin really stood out - but from 2003 the transfers were very poor.

Keegan brought in players on huge wages who were past it (Seaman, Fowler), not interested (Macmanaman, Mills), or not good enough in the first place (Macken, Sinclair). His only genuinely good signings were James and Reyna and the latter was injured all the time.

And that's before you start looking at which agents the players Keegan signed for big money were associated with...
Click to expand...
I can’t disagree with any of that. Keegan was well past his sell-by date, by the time he left.

One signing you didn’t mention was Daniel van Buyten. I know he was only here on loan, and went on to play at a far higher level than he did at City, but there was talk of him staying, if we could have afforded him.

Sadly, that money was was wasted on Fowler.
 
I interviewed David Bernstein 20+ years ago while he was still chairman. He was extremely polite but a little bit dour.
When he went through my transcription he asked me to make one amend: take the only mildly amusing thing he'd said out!
 
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