Howard Kendall - if affair had lasted

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njmcfc1894

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I was 12 at time of Kendall's reign but after having Twitter interaction with Ian Bishop it got me thinking how far could kendall of gone if he's stayed

Coton Dibble
Harper Hendry Redmond Pointon Hill

White Reid Brightwell Ward Megson Brennan Hughes

Heath Allen Quinn Clarke

If he could of added some more quality to this i feel we could of maybe got europe possibly be in title mix up to Easter

Side note Bishop said Kendall came in his pub and Bish said to kendall "your not here to sell me to another pub" lol

How far could Kendall of took us?
 
I think we could have won the title. Maybe not that year, but certainly the following year.

We were certainly signing the right players. Coton was almost signed by Leeds, who would later win the title.
 
Kendall was perfect for us. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news on the radio he had left us and gone back to Everton - it was pulling into the Birch Services petrol station to fill up. I just sat in my car stunned & shocked and I just felt empty inside. I still remember that exact moment vividly.
He sorted the club out from the top to the bottom and he even banned the MUEN reporter from travelling on the team coach!

Paul Lake in his Autobiography makes it 100% crystal clear that he was by far and away the best Manager he ever worked under by some considerable way.

Where would we have gone? With backing form the Chairman then Kendall would have taken us to the top I believe. Certainly challenging for the title and European spot would not have been unrealisitic.

Him leaving ended up being a disaster for both him and us. Oh what could have been....
 
I was gob smacked when i heard the news he left us for the toffes. He could have taken us all the way. Marriage bollocks.
 
I used to think like this about McNeill, Kendall and even Horton.

However looking back now I believe that whoever was the manager during the 80's/90's could only have achieved a cup win at best. Due to Swales and what was going on behind the scenes, there was no chance of building and sustaining a team capable of mounting a title challenge.

If proof of this is needed then buy the City Years and read from 1979 onwards. I think the chapter is called Buy Now Pay Later and boy we did. We were still paying for it 20 years later.
 
Manx Blue said:
I think we could have won the title. Maybe not that year, but certainly the following year.

We were certainly signing the right players. Coton was almost signed by Leeds, who would later win the title.
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Tend to agree with this.
 
I love what ifs as much as anyone and have gone through many with City.

From the straight forward 'What if Paul Lake didn't get injured?' (Let's be honest he would have been sold) through 'What if the rags didn't get Giggs?' (Would have also been sold) to the ridiculous 'If we signed Mark Schwarzer instead of gifting him to Bradford, would he have done any better with Jamie Pollocks madness in the QPR game a couple of years later?' (Wouldn't have been playing as he too would have been sold but maybe not to Middlesborough therefore he wouldn't have saved Fowlers penalty in 2005 and we would have qualified for Europe!)

But seriously anyone who thinks we could have got near the league title in the 80's or 90's needs to take off the pink specs. Regardless of whatever team or manager we had, the Chairman and directors would have done their level best to fuck it up somehow.
 
I remember this period really well. I was really pleased with the solid progress we appeared to be making under Kendall and was really pis*ed off when he quit. Winning the title? Not sure about that. As has already been stated the financial restraints that caused problems for Reid from 1992 onwards would surely have affected Kendall as well. We were being run on the never never and its difficult to see how much more he would have gotten from the Squad that Reid didn't?

A cup may have been possible. And I think we may have played better football; the Reid-Ellis management partnership led to some of the worst football (even allowing for a generally decent points tally) we have ever had at City in recent times, Pearce included. Kendall also would have had greater pulling power in the market place. The rumour that we were after Ian Wright in 1991-92 may have come fruition and that would have made a difference.

In the end however, as others have said, we were being run by a very small-time businessman and his cronies, a cheap slot-TV peddler in a cheap suit. Our ambition and that of whoever was the manager would have crashed against that, which is precisely what happened. Kendall probably realised that and that's why he left, he would have stayed with an ambitious club with solid back-room management. We have that now, we did not have that in November 1990.
 
TGR said:
Kendall was perfect for us. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news on the radio he had left us and gone back to Everton - it was pulling into the Birch Services petrol station to fill up. I just sat in my car stunned & shocked and I just felt empty inside. I still remember that exact moment vividly.
He sorted the club out from the top to the bottom and he even banned the MUEN reporter from travelling on the team coach!

Paul Lake in his Autobiography makes it 100% crystal clear that he was by far and away the best Manager he ever worked under by some considerable way.

Where would we have gone? With backing form the Chairman then Kendall would have taken us to the top I believe. Certainly challenging for the title and European spot would not have been unrealisitic.

Him leaving ended up being a disaster for both him and us. Oh what could have been....
Click to expand...


same as, its a bit of a JFK moment. I was living in Sheffield and it came on the 6 o clock news. A right kick in the bollocks. I had to trudge to the phone box and call my mate back here to discuss. He wanted to shit in a biscuit tin and post it to him.
 
simonk said:
TGR said:
Kendall was perfect for us. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news on the radio he had left us and gone back to Everton - it was pulling into the Birch Services petrol station to fill up. I just sat in my car stunned & shocked and I just felt empty inside. I still remember that exact moment vividly.
He sorted the club out from the top to the bottom and he even banned the MUEN reporter from travelling on the team coach!

Paul Lake in his Autobiography makes it 100% crystal clear that he was by far and away the best Manager he ever worked under by some considerable way.

Where would we have gone? With backing form the Chairman then Kendall would have taken us to the top I believe. Certainly challenging for the title and European spot would not have been unrealisitic.

Him leaving ended up being a disaster for both him and us. Oh what could have been....
Click to expand...


same as, its a bit of a JFK moment. I was living in Sheffield and it came on the 6 o clock news. A right kick in the bollocks. I had to trudge to the phone box and call my mate back here to discuss. He wanted to shit in a biscuit tin and post it to him.
Click to expand...
For the visit of Everton my dad got us tickets down the front of the Main Stand and made me twat the plastic back of the dugout and call him a judas.

Weird calling it a bit of a JFK moment as today was having a clear out and found the Sanyo TV that I remember watching the Steve Coppell quitting story on the news. It must be over 20 years old, still works too. Lasted slightly longer than he did.
 
Kendall was doing a good job and had made some excellent signings, could we have pushed on to be genuine title challengers under him? Maybe, Reid spent a fair bit and Kendall may well have spent it better, add to that the fact that the standard of the 1st Division/Premier League in the early 90's was the lowest of my lifetime and with the right man in charge we'd have had a real chance. The big question mark is always Swales, a man who could always grasp disaster from the jaws of triumph.
 
1972Bramhall_Blue said:
Kendall was doing a good job and had made some excellent signings, could we have pushed on to be genuine title challengers under him? Maybe, Reid spent a fair bit and Kendall may well have spent it better, add to that the fact that the standard of the 1st Division/Premier League in the early 90's was the lowest of my lifetime and with the right man in charge we'd have had a real chance. The big question mark is always Swales, a man who could always grasp disaster from the jaws of triumph.
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if that 1972 in your username is the year you were born then you are the same age as me and I agree with all your points especially about the quality of the top division. I think that that Leeds Utd side were the worst league winners I can ever remember, do you remember their display in Europe or the defence of their title? It really made my summer when the Rags surrendered the title to them.
 
I believe we'd have been close. I definitely believe that Howard would have made better use of the £5m+ Reid spent on Phelan and Curle.... They were hugely inflated fees.
I seem to remember him chasing Ian Wright. If he'd spent that money on a wrights/ shearer / Ferdinand we would definitely have progressed. His plan was to build a side good enough to force his Everton old guard (Heath, harper etc...) out of th first XI, though Reid was still playing at a consistently high level for 80 mins t that point (see 3-3 derby)!!
Lake's injury was a huge blow as he and Hendry at centre half had the makings of a fabulous pairing. Without which we could have been looking at:
Coton
Brightwell. Lake. Henry. Pointon
White. Reid_______ Ward
Quinn _________
With Hughes and Flitcroft breaking through....and the Curle & Phelan money to buy a top notch striker and creative midfielder (I always thought Gary McAllister wold have been a good signing at that time). I definitely think we'd have got lose to Leeds or united the years thy won it.
 
I remember Swales gave Kendall more money than any other City manager. He bought Mark Ward Tony Coton Niall Quinn Peter Reid Allan Harper Wayne Clarke Adrian Heath.
 
"“I could not really have expected Man City to be in the sort of position they are in now when I was manager there, I had very little to spend,” said Kendall.

“I tried to bring in players who I knew from my Everton days, players such as Adrian Heath, Peter Reid and Alan Harper. It was all really to get the club out of relegation trouble.

“As it turned out, we did it handsomely and in the next season it took off but that is when I was invited back to Everton and I couldn’t turn that down. I wanted to bring Peter Reid back with me but he said that if he got offered the job at Man City then he was staying there."


I simply can't understand this affection for Kendall - he ditched us as soon as he got the chance.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-everton-fc-manager-howard-3365969" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/fo ... rd-3365969</a>
 
George Hannah said:
I simply can't understand this affection for Kendall - he ditched us as soon as he got the chance.
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I think the affection for Kendall is purely because he kept us up (though Machin may well have done) and got us into decent shape. That affection will be a reflection of what we thought at the time, possibly right up to the moment he pissed off. Look at the transfer mistakes, players we were sad to see go and overrated players threads to see how our perceptions change over time.
And of course Kendall's departure meant we could bring in the great Peter Reid as manager. Except Reid was as clueless as many of our other managers and couldn't enhance Kendall's team. His reliance on Sam Ellis's advice didn't help matters.
In hindsight Kendall earned the abuse he got when we played them over the next season or two.
 
I was gutted when he left. Never forgave him for walking out on us. From what I can remember Everton fans made his life shit before he left the first time (this could be the second time he was sacked tho' in which case it served him right).

He'd turned us into a decent outfit even with Mark Ward/Adrian Heath doing a 'Nasri' most weeks. We may not have won a League but we were on the up. Reid managed good finishing positions despite having shit tactics and buying over-inflated players as HK had done the basics and set us up.
 
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