Forward With Franny

mancunial said:
I remember Richard keys hosted a debate on sky at Maine road John (mad axe ) maddocks was on it with I think Rodney marsh, I've got on video somewhere, this, while all this shit was hitting the fan, anyone remember it, it was live on sky.
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Yeah it was Maddock, John MaddockS ( RiP ) was the club historian he lived down the road from me in Bramhall

The Footballer's Football Show on the Road was hosted in the old social club. Maddock was on the panel I asked him a question, planted by Franny, it was who bought Steve Daley I also through one in of my own. Asking Maddock how much money was in the transfer kitty since Swales had been boasting how much? he only answered the Daley one. During the break I got Keys over and told him, right after the break he picked him up on it, he gave an evasive answer but the next guy picked him up on it quotiing simple maths John etc It was clearly another of Swales' lies. Was very much involved with FWF I called Swales at home one evening and he agreed to meet me as a concerned fan Suggested to him it was time to pack in take a back seat and let someone else have ago Strange man, was the biggest disaster ever connect to our club
 
Daz_Blue said:
How many people on here were actually vocal on here when Franny took over from Swales ....anybody admit to actually standing outside the main entrance to the ground singing Swales Out .... I was one ..... not sure now if it was actually an improvement ...we did get Kinkladze but also Alan Ball and Frank Clarke ...... trying to remember the 2 guys who were Franny's main backers .....
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I was one of the anti-swales brigade.

Barlow+Dunkley were the blokes who were the main people in Franny Lees consortium.
 
I remember being at Coventry away and I'm pretty sure for 45 minutes in the second half we sang Franny Lees blue and white army. I think we got dicked 4-0 as well.

I was about 17 and didn't really understand it all but just went with the flow.
 
I was all for change at the time,watching our demise and the rags improvement,our lack of transfer activity for real quality, IT WAS TIME FOR CHANGE! However we never new what we were going to get, what really matters most is where we are now,I remember a forward with franny meeting at saschas hotel in Manchester,anyone else there? Can't remember much now what went on but James h reeves was there,

Just look where we are now though Happy days!
 
anyone remember "I would rather be in Barnsley than Barbados"

The real question is who was worse Lee or Swales, closer than many might think.
 
"Forward with Franny", that went well didn't it ? That's why there is no place for sentiment in football, Swales only had good intentions for City as did Lee but it is harder than you think and also you need a slice of luck with a Manager which we never seemed to get for years.
 
Bluebee2 said:
"Forward with Franny", that went well didn't it ? That's why there is no place for sentiment in football, Swales only had good intentions for City as did Lee but it is harder than you think and also you need a slice of luck with a Manager which we never seemed to get for years.
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Swales only had good intentions for Swales He was an unmitigated disaster who bled the club dry for years to serve his own ambitions and ego Franny rescued the club from certain bankruptcy at considerable cost to himself Yes, it didn't go well but he was hampered by the debts and the Kippax stand then bad manager appointments and being let down by certain people
 
kramer said:
Bluebee2 said:
"Forward with Franny", that went well didn't it ? That's why there is no place for sentiment in football, Swales only had good intentions for City as did Lee but it is harder than you think and also you need a slice of luck with a Manager which we never seemed to get for years.
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Swales only had good intentions for Swales He was an unmitigated disaster who bled the club dry for years to serve his own ambitions and ego Franny rescued the club from certain bankruptcy at considerable cost to himself Yes, it didn't go well but he was hampered by the debts and the Kippax stand then bad manager appointments and being let down by certain people
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I'm sure I just said that !
 
fathellensbellend said:
anyone remember "I would rather be in Barnsley than Barbados"

The real question is who was worse Lee or Swales, closer than many might think.
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To be fair to Lee, Swales didn't leave him with much to go on and he made plenty of cockups himself but he took some decent decisions like the appointment of David Bernstein. Can't remember Swales ever getting anything right.
 
fathellensbellend said:
anyone remember "I would rather be in Barnsley than Barbados"

The real question is who was worse Lee or Swales, closer than many might think.
Click to expand...

Swales was far worse - we were one of the big clubs and he took us to financial ruin and turned us ( and the stadium) into a laughing stock (to many - City fans knew better).<br /><br />-- Mon Jul 01, 2013 9:59 am --<br /><br />
Prestwich_Blue said:
fathellensbellend said:
anyone remember "I would rather be in Barnsley than Barbados"

The real question is who was worse Lee or Swales, closer than many might think.
Click to expand...
To be fair to Lee, Swales didn't leave him with much to go on and he made plenty of cockups himself but he took some decent decisions like the appointment of David Bernstein. Can't remember Swales ever getting anything right.
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Maybe the appointment of Howard Kendall was decent by Swales, boring football but took us up the league...
 
We used to stand outside the main entrance demanding he go.

Was so chuffed when Franny took over. My opinion is that Franny probably underestimated the size of the job when he took over. I'm also of the opinion he genuinely believed Ball would do a good job for us, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary before he came.
 
I was forward with franny and if I could go back in time knowing how it would turn out I'd still back lee. I think franny Lees problems were that when he took over the state of the club was much worse than they had been told hence the employing of Alan ball rather than George graham etc. Plus there were still people in the club still loyal to certain people and instead of having the clubs interests at heart they were all in it for themselves so franny was never ever going to be able to do what he needed to do.
 
Frannie was undoubtedly an improvement on Swales. Swales took us backwards and it was desperate times for City under his leadership. Lee didn't deliver what he and everyone expected but in getting rid of Swales it eventually led us to where we are now.

I remember Franne being interviewed on some football programme hosted by Jimmy Hill (still have it on a VHS tape somehwere in the garage) and he said that when they were looking to buy Lee Bradbury he watched him over a few games and thought we we're making a bad mistake in signing him but he would be critiscised for interferring with Frank Clark if he refused to buy him and he would have trouble with the leagues management association but equally if he let Frank Clark sign him he knew we'd be blowing all our money (a record for us at the the time of 3m) on a player nowhere near the requred standard. In the end Frannie said he had to let the manger manage the team but knew it was the wrong decision and good money thrown away.

I don't think he or anybody else realised the mess we were in behind the scenes and it was always with hindsight going to take years to sort out or what eventually thankfully happened a huge buyout. Nevertheless there is doubt in my mind Frannie's takeover was the start of it all.
 
mancunial said:
I remember Richard keys hosted a debate on sky at Maine road John (mad axe ) maddocks was on it with I think Rodney marsh, I've got on video somewhere, this, while all this shit was hitting the fan, anyone remember it, it was live on sky.
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I was a 'planted' guest at this ...
Malcolm Allison was on the panel... not Marsh as I recall.

! was responsible for the break up of the Official supporters club and formation of the 'Independent' supporters club... which eventually became the Centenary supporters club.

Appeared on Piccadilly sport alongside Crerand

Also organised the march to maine rd.... I have so much to answer for.
 
As football fans we tend to only look at things from an on the field perspective (e.g. "Lee brought us Kinkladze"). Franny Lee and his team (which critically included Bernstein) started the modernising of a club that had become a decaying dinosaur in terms of a business, structure and infrastructure. The changes that Lee bought will not be the visible to most and seem to have been forgotten. In my opinion he doesn't get the credit he deserves for this. The Ball appointment was not his first choice and in fact Lee had been messed about by a few over that summer. Ball had almost been got at the last minute as the season was about to start, and admittedly was a poor 'hobsons' choice.

The fact remains that Lee undid a good deal of the harm created by Swales. I believe that the process that Lee began (followed by Bernstein and Wardle) led us to being an investible club and with a solid base (despite Thaksins attempt to wreck us again!). Without this I think we would still be where Everton are now - owned by an aging egomaniac with with the club crumbling from within.
 
Also Franny had to change badge as Swales had sold badge to his mate who he owed money to so city made no money off merchandise (possibly greenhalls?)

The Kippax killed any plans FHL had to take club forward, IIRC we had to sell Flitcroft pretty cheap just to pay wages/bank.

I was 15 when i joined the sit in on Kippax after Reid sacking at Coventry home game, went Goodison on a school night on train on the tuesday, we got beat 1-0 and big banner from seats above us (still standing behind goal) said "wheres the £6m Swales" obviously made a false promise, i was only a kid then but i think Swales cared too much and his obsession with taking over united sunk him and club further into debt, he had last laugh by dying 3 days before we got relegated, TYPICAL CITY
 
Yep Guilty. I had a swales out poster on my works office window. Worked on swan st at the time, and the office infront, think it was Inkon typesetters they had same lol.

Me and my mates got bus down from Moston at the time and had a few chants.
 
I protested against Swales quite a bit and was excited by all the promises and vision the Francis Lee takeover was supposed to give us,unfortunately it never materialised.

Looking back it mattered not a jot that Swales was a Blue,or where his heart was he was a disaster as our chairman and should have gone years before he did.
 
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certainly a lot of support for franny on this thread, but we never went to the old division 3 under swales.

the sacking of Horton was unjust and the appointment of ball was mind boggling.

my fading memory of lee's tenure was one mediocre signing followed by another.

also the sale of flitcroft at the most pivotal time of the season played a huge part in city going down, and not recovering ever during lee's stay in charge.
 
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