John Wardle, how important was he to where we are now?

[Laurent Charvet]

Can't please everyone... Gave Pearce plenty of time, may have been the wrong thing but would have been slated if he'd gotten rid early doors.

Backed us well in the transfer market... Fowler, Samaras etc... Obviously terrific buys...

Rightly or wrongly, he always backed his managers.

 

[Ed68]

The man is obviously a true blue and it was his money at times which saved us from going under.

On the downside why did it take him so long to get a decent investor into a club with such a huge fan base and potential?When he did it was one with a more than dodgy background who almost finished the club off.For once it all turned out alright in the end thank God!

Look at Everton.

Admittedly we had the stadium but they can't get investor's when I understand they are trying to give the club away.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Saw Dennis Tueart last night at a branch meeting and he was saying that both of them saved the club from going out business as we were very close to folding.

I've read Dennis's book, in it he pretty much says that without Wardle and Makin along with the fans turning out in the numbers they did in 'Division 3' , then we'd have been fooked if either one fell short of what was needed from them, so I'd say we owe him, them and our fellow fans who turned out during the dark years a huge debt of gratitude.

 

[mancitymick]

Without John Wardle there may well off been no more Manchester City. That in itself speaks volumes for what he did

 

[peoffrey]

I'd go along with that, and add that Keegan himself played a vital role in getting us to where we are now (although I'm not too warm on Toxin) as did the team against Gillingham (not to mention our individual scorers that day or our fantastic goalie) so the list could go on...

as owners go though, Wardle's definitely up there and with Makin they're true blues.

.. and I don't think we've done too badly in recent years with our club's ownership

;o)

If we're going to back through Keegan and Gillingham '99 then we may as well be thanking Anna Connell for her work with St. Mark's of West Gorton!

 

[Blumers Bloomers]

Didnt he step in to payroll all the backroom staff at the last minute as the billionaire Shinawatra couldnt afford to?

Only at City could we have the skintest billionaire on the planet at the helm.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Only at City could we have the skintest billionaire on the planet at the helm.

Love that quote.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

Top bloke and glad to see he's getting a lot of appreciation cos he got a lot of stick at the time. Didn't even want to be chairman but took responsibility and did it because no one else would and we would have been fucked without him. Yea he made bad calls but it can be very hard to make good calls for struggling clubs with absolutely no money. How many bad calls have our latest owners made (as great as they are)? Not sacking hughes then letting hughes blow tens of millions on shit. Luckily the Sheikh and co had the money to rectify this, John Wardle and most other people don't. That said, were most of his decisions that bad? Yes he backed Pearce and there were some bad times but Pearce did keep us up and we quite easily could have gone down. And how could he not back Pearce after the run he had as caretaker at the end of the season? Backing the signing of Fowler which cost us Bernstein was no doubt a bad call, but whatever you think of his decisions there is no doubt that he made them based on what he thought was the best for the club and you can't ask for much more from that. Compare that to franny who just got Ball in cos he was his mate and it nearly destroyed the club.

Top man, Wardle. Was probably too nice a bloke to be a football club chairman really, but deserves a lot more credit

 

[BlueKingEll]

Had the balls to go on the Radio and slate off Lee and his chairmanship when we were only heading down resulting in Bernstein coming in. And I'm pretty sure Bernstein was referring to him when he said he'd just seen one of the directors skipping across the pitch at one of the old end of season pitch invasions. The only thing you can fault him for is running the club from the heart as any fan would. PS think where we'd be if Swales, Bowler, Franny etc... was asked to stump up the cash Wardle put in at short notice

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Had the balls to go on the Radio and slate off Lee and his chairmanship when we were only heading down resulting in Bernstein coming in. And I'm pretty sure Bernstein was referring to him when he said he'd just seen one of the directors skipping across the pitch at one of the old end of season pitch invasions. The only thing you can fault him for is running the club from the heart as any fan would. PS think where we'd be if Swales, Bowler, Franny etc... was asked to stump up the cash Wardle put in at short notice

That was Makin. No respect for him particularly as he slagged of Franny but then sat in the background and didn't show that he could do better. Wardle at least ook the chairmanship on, even if he was the wrong person for the job.