LongsightM13
Well-Known Member
See further up. Luft was indeed the club doctor but Sidney Rose was a surgeon
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It’s finally online-the Peter Swales video we’ve been waiting for P31
- Thread starter Gary James
- Start date
LongsightM13
Well-Known Member
Ah know that strip v well. Chris Kamara owns a piece of the nearby Irish bar The Hole in the Wall iirc. Some of his Leeds, Bradford and Pompey shirts adorn the walls near the shitterNo they all came over in June every year and stayed at the Vulcano hotel and drank in the Brahms and List every night.
Edward Deadwood
Well-Known Member
Pretty sure it was Asa HartfordBrilliant, never seen that, any idea "who the fella we go" is referring to
Edward Deadwood
Well-Known Member
The minutes silence did take place at that game and was impeccably observed. So proud to be a blue that day. Such decency and decorum, despite the decades of persistent provocation that preceded it.My recollection is that Swales died before the Liverpool relegation game in 96 and that their was a minute's silence, led by that turncoat Vince Miller, where the crowd was virtually begged not to disrupt it.
My memory is that it was impeccably observed.
However, I also have a memory of a chant of "dig him up" going around. Obviously that's in bad taste and both couldn't have happened (unless the chant was during the match).
How much of that, if any, is true and how kuchen is bollocks?
I was in the Kippax and certainly didn’t hear any subsequent disrespectful chants.
One of many dark days under Swales, a shot of him near the end sat in the directors box. The fact he got more mentions on MOTD than the team and manager shows how he had made himself the main man at the club.
Probably the worst day I have ever had following city, dont think I have ever watched that back before, horrible day.
Bluesince1979
Well-Known Member
I was 8 and went home and cried. Couldnt believe it. I thought we were the best team in the worldProbably the worst day I have ever had following city, dont think I have ever watched that back before, horrible day.
Gingers Dad
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 8 Mar 2011
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I didn't want to observe the minutes silence so I stayed in the back of the stand. As you say it was impeccably observed.The minutes silence did take place at that game and was impeccably observed. So proud to be a blue that day. Such decency and decorum, despite the decades of persistent provocation that preceded it.
I was in the Kippax and certainly didn’t hear any subsequent disrespectful chants.
[The Luton relegation game in 1983 was one] of many dark days under Swales, a shot of him near the end sat in the directors box. The fact he got more mentions on MOTD than the team and manager shows how he had made himself the main man at the club.
He certainly did make it all about him. The video that's the subject matter of the OP refers to Swales's work at City being unpaid, which it was when the statement was made in 1977. However, the Football League allowed clubs to have one paid director from the early 1980s onwards (1982, I think, but I'd have to check to be sure and don't have time) and obviously Swales became City's. With the departure of Trevor Francis, he was the highest earner at the club and kept that pre-eminence in terms of remuneration until he left.
And yet, when he assumed that lofty status, he'd already gambled by committing to spend GBP 4 million net between the 1979/80 and 1981/82 seasons only to see the team degenerate spectacularly. That would be the equivalent of, in the early 2020s, splashing out a sum well into nine figures and there was no investment to spend; he just borrowed it, leaving us crippled by eye-watering interest payments for years to come. He didn't control the majority of the shares until 1984, so he was propped up by other shareholders and board members, who must have voted for him to become our paid director.
Looking at that now, it beggars belief. This is a point @Gary James has written on in the past and he's spot on. It's beyond the bounds of credulity that anyone could watch Swales preside over the utter shitshow he did with Allison, see the club financially hobbled as a result, and then think this was the man to take us forward.
Of course, if Swales had possessed a shred of decency, he'd have walked when we had to sell Trevor Francis or, if not then, in the wake of our being sent down by Luton on that awful afternoon in May 1983. As Motson said, he'd turned what had been "one of the most accomplished clubs" in the land into a cash-strapped fallen giant that would take decades to recover from the indignities he'd inflicted on it. But we all know that his rampant ego and lack of interest in anyone's welfare but his own would never have allowed him to walk away. The men who let him stay on should hold their heads in shame at their failure to intervene.
It shows what a joke English football was in this period that not only did someone like Swales dominate the boardroom at a major club, but he made serious inroads in the FA, too. First a member of the International Committee, in the late 1980s he became its chairman, making him the most influential figure in terms of the administration of England's national team. Again, it's hard to credit that people around him could look at what he'd done at Maine Road and think he deserved such a post.
The saving grace these days in terms of reminiscing about the past is that we do so from such a position of strength. This makes it relatively easy to think that we can appreciate the current best times of our lives because we knew the bad times either that Swales delivered directly or that were part of his legacy. Otherwise, I think I'd be as angry as I ever was (and I used to be incandescent with rage) at the protected noxious effect this dreadful man had on our great club.
The saving grace these days in terms of reminiscing about the past is that we do so from such a position of strength. This makes it relatively easy to think that we can appreciate the current best times of our lives because we knew the bad times either that Swales delivered directly or that were part of his legacy. Otherwise, I think I'd be as angry as I ever was (and I used to be incandescent with rage) at the protected noxious effect this dreadful man had on our great club.
This is so true. Nobody can foresee the future but myself along with probably many other Blues thought we would die without ever seeing us win another trophy. What we have achieved since 2008 has been beyond our wildest dreams. That doesn't absolve Swales and his cronies for putting us through 35 barren years, devoid of success and any hope it would get any better. We can look back on those years now with blue tinted spectacles but boy were they grim. They were so bad many wanted a parade for winning the league two play off final, it really was that bad!