I'm not so sure, City finished 1978-79 in 15th which was a very disappointing season by the standard of the previous ones. This being part of what caused Swales to act & bring back Allison, practically bankrupting the club in the process over the next few months/years.
Now, I'm not saying if a better appointment had been made with more shrewd investment/decision making (ie. not selling all of our international players) we could of got back competing again, I think we could have, but we certainly were nowhere near Liverpool/major honours in that final season under Book.