Had we won the FA Cup Final in 1981?

[Blue Streak]

Would the decline of our club in the 1980's and then 90's been as damaging?

I think we under achieved in the 1970's considering what Joe and Mal had built, and then Skips team was ripped apart upon Mals ill fated return. Two possible titles not achieved in 72 and 77, a league cup defeat against Wolves (when we were rightly expected to win) etc etc...

Bit how much did that Thursday night at Wembley really 'hurt us' in the long wrong?

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Would the decline of our club in the 1980's and then 90's been as damaging?

I think we under achieved in the 1970's considering what Joe and Mal had built, and then Skips team was ripped apart upon Mals ill fated return. Two possible titles not achieved in 72 and 77, a league cup defeat against Wolves (when we were rightly expected to win) etc etc...

Bit how much did that Thursday night at Wembley really 'hurt us' in the long wrong?

It's easy to ascribe our decline to one moment in a football match "if Ranson or Caton had stuck their leg in and tackled Villa, it all could have been so different" but I reckon winning it would have made no long term difference.

The fact is that we signed Trevor Francis off the back of that appearance and it is difficult to imagine us dong any better in the transfer market that summer, even if we were cup holders. Let's not forget the following season we were top at Christmas and would have finished much higher if Francis hadn't been injured (or sent off!) so much. The fact he was sold the following summer (after the season tickets had been sold btw) shows you the direction the club was heading - Wembley '81 was merely a distraction to that.

The reality is that the club was run like a corner shop and our decline was inevitable given who was captain of the ship. Many like to state what a big blue Peter Swales was but he was an absolute baffoon who almost destroyed this football club and winning the cup in '81 wasn't going to be enough to alter that fact.

 

[1.618034]

^ Exactly that.

 

[Anonymous]

Can see what you are saying .......

let's take our rivals for example .......

okay they only seriously put things together after Fergie arrived , and even then it took a few years .... BUT ...... just prior to him taking over at the Swamp in 1986 , under other managers , they won the FA Cup THREE times in eight years , and it 'pacified' supporters who , thanks mainly to Liverpools success , were 'thirsting' for the title ....... those trophys kept United in the limelight at that time ...... and then after Fergie arrived they also won the FA Cup (again!) , League Cup , and the UEFA Cup winners cup , BEFORE they finally achieved their main aim ....... all those cup successes kept their supporters quiet , even though the newly named Premiership title wasn't to arrive until 1993.

We , on the other hand , had had nothing in the way of serious success since 1976 , and we were also forced to suffer the club leaping from division to division on top of that ...... and there's no doubt in my mind that being out of the limelight like that , for so many 'lean years' did the club so much damage , in any number of ways.

 

[Blue Streak]

I just wondered if the glamour of the cup win then the european football the following season might have had more of a positive effect?

But completely agree with the opinion it might have just been 'putting of the worst' given who was running the club at the time.

So maybe a pointless question really. Cheers for the replies though.

 

[liam81101]

Think we would have been hard pushed to dislodge Liverpool at the time

Mind you Ipswich Town , Watford and even Southampton all came close so who knows

 

[jus moochin]

I wouldn't have been so pissed off for days afterwards!.....The club would have still gone into freefall whatever the result.

 

[mancunial]

It took me months to get over that defeat, just that I felt everything was stacked against city that night? The signing of Trevor Francis was just to passifie the disappointment, the way it all come apart was painful to watch also the advertisement of Trevor Francis on Piccadilly radio telling everyone to buy their season tickets for the coming season just to sell him to sampdoria was treason by the men who must be obeyed? I honestly believe if we had won then if we had a good run in Europe we might have clung on only to become a mid table side if the club had kept its feet on the ground, it was politics and ego what did city then of course Luton? But their again we could be a Luton, no pleat fox trot now.