David Bernstein Interview & Book

Great listen mate and thanks, love this guy, it was a very sad day when he went for me, I’m not itk, call it just knowing the right person, who was in the right place at the right time when it came to the Fowler transfer, but David Bernstein was absolutely spot on with his stance re that signing, should never have happened as it did, Bernsteins suggestion was infinitely the best and only option .
 
Great listen mate and thanks, love this guy, it was a very sad day when he went for me, I’m not itk, call it just knowing the right person, who was in the right place at the right time when it came to the Fowler transfer, but David Bernstein was absolutely spot on with his stance re that signing, should never have happened as it did, Bernsteins suggestion was infinitely the best and only option .
Had you annoyed him in some way?
 
Interview with David on Price of Football

David has a book out We were ReallyThere about his time at City
A fascinating interview on Price of Football Podcast





Thanks for that. Puts some flesh on the bones that @Prestwich_Blue shares with us from time to time. The sort of guy you could talk to for hours, I think. PB, as well, of course :)
 
I gave up waiting for the interview when the 2nd ad appeared. Was there a 3rd/4th etc......
 
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.

 
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.

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:


 
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...
 
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...
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!
 
Just been reading this book and cant put it down.

My lads bought me Frannys book for Christmas and this for my birthday last week, great reading one after the other for differing views on matters.

So sad to hear of some players on the piss the night before we got relegated at Ipswich and at other times.
 

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