Peter Barnes

[yorkblue]

The only time City made me cry was when we sold Barnes & Owen at the same time, I would have been late teens or 20 maybe at that.

One of the worse days of being a city supporter when we sold Peter and Gary on the same day to wba.

 

[stan bowles]

I'm still not over this 40+ years later!

How the fuck did we allow Allison to dismantle a team stuffed full of major international players, to be replaced by players from Wolves, Brighton etc, who'd struggle to get into an England B squad? :-/

I even recall both Swales & Allison on a late night Granada programme defending million pound players, saying they were good for football, when most others were saying our reckless spending on overpriced, million pound footballers was utter madness!

As you say, it took until Sheikh Mansour's acquisition before we recovered, & even then I wouldn't say we fully recovered. The mental scars are still there for me. What Allison & Swales did left me emotionally damaged & distraught.

I'll never forget my Rag mates taking the piss & asking what the fuck were we doing? View attachment 66850

And don't forget during the Granada City TV six part documentary after another defeat under Allison, in a meeting of manager and directors, Swales pipes up:
"You know who I think would do well for us now ?"
Allison "Don't tell me the answers to my questions..."
Swales "no, I won't tell you the answer....he [Allison] won't do it with because I've just suggested it...you know who'd do well for us...that fellow we let go..."
Allison: "who ? Watson ?"
Swales :"No"
Off camera, a different voice:" he's thinking of Asa [Hartford] aren't you ?"
Swales: "Yeah".
Allison "Do me a favour..".

Even if Swales thought that, how ridiculous does it look admitting on camera that you sold a player you now wish you'd kept ? A year later Hartford was re-signed from Everton.

 

[Silva Citizen]

Excellent summary. I've not read Tony Book's book nor would doubt his integrity but I've long thought he was in hock to Malcolm. He would have been nothing jn football without Allison and I wonder, of course I could not profess to know for sure, whether he could truly criticise Allison.
Okay, Swales might have overspent like a 3 day millionaire but who decided Asa, Barnes, Owen etc xhould be sold and who identified Bobby Shinton as a first division forward and Dragoslav Stepanovic was better than Watson?

No way was Tony Book “in hock” to Malcolm Allison. If my memory serves Allison was thrust upon Book by Swales / the board. Book put together a great team and youth team, he won us our last major trophy before the sheik, was sole manager for 5 years (under Swales) and his win percentage was better than Alison’s in either spell. Big Mal had Charisma but Book had the brain. Give me skip as a manager all day long.

 

[Gary James]

Although i watched him live often when I was a kid I didn't realise how good he was. Just watching some of his goals and assists made me realise what a player he was. He scored in the league cup final when he was only 19.

I’m biased but you’d love his biography….

Peter Barnes – Gary James' Football Archive

Posts about Peter Barnes written by garyjamesfootballarchive

gjfootballarchive.com

 

[Gary James]

No definitely not, Ian Niven was the Alison fan boy and Swales thought he’d be the push to the title but then let him totally dismantle the team with crazy signings and we suffered the consequences until the sale to Sheikh Mansour

In my biography of Peter Barnes I quote Ken Barnes from an interview I did years earlier. There’s no doubt he blamed Niven and told him so at the time.

 

[Gary James]

Peter Barnes was one key reason why I support CITY and more to do with the man than player. As a young lad on my first trip away from Ireland we came over to play football against Manchester Schools (dirty bastards!). We had a visit to Maine Road and Peter and a few other players came out and met us. They signed autographs and had a kick about with us.They gave us their time. I never forgot it.

I got him to sign his book for me the other week and what a great job done on that book by Gary James.

Glad you like it and thanks for the comments. Appreciated.

 

[bluegaz13]

The team that Allison broke up had probably just about peaked and was slowly declining…….but Owen and Barnes were two of the best young players in the country……Asa Hartford was only 28 and Corrigan and Watson were still amongst the best in their respective positions.

Nicky Reid and Ray Ranson had already played for the first team with Tommy Caton just about to emerge.

Although I was initially excited about Allisons return…….its unforgivable the players he sold.

Steve Daley, Mackenzie and even Robinson would have flourished playing with the above.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

No way was Tony Book “in hock” to Malcolm Allison. If my memory serves Allison was thrust upon Book by Swales / the board. Book put together a great team and youth team, he won us our last major trophy before the sheik, was sole manager for 5 years (under Swales) and his win percentage was better than Alison’s in either spell. Big Mal had Charisma but Book had the brain. Give me skip as a manager all day long.

I’m not saying he was in hock. I’m just speculating between Swales and Allison as to who was to blame.
I bloody loved Tony Book and his mid 70’s team - I grew up on them. I was only relatively young and went to quite a few games but for some reason missed the entire 75-76 season and only went to 4 games the season before so missed so much glorious football and goals at home - in those days we were pretty poor away from home. I also went to the Ipswich, Derby, Southampton home games in 78-89 that were all lost and started the unrest which eventually led to the return of Allison.
So no. Book was a top manager for us

 

[Tolmie scores]

Glad you like it and thanks for the comments. Appreciated.

Has a chat with Peter at Southampton 0:0 a couple of years back. We talked about the huge missed opportunity in '77... should have won the league.. would have really changed everything
Swales was a nutter but definitelycwas a blue which is a big help. Peter reckoned he would have really kicked us on with quality investments.. might not have led to where we are now though of course

 

[Dribble]

And don't forget during the Granada City TV six part documentary after another defeat under Allison, in a meeting of manager and directors, Swales pipes up:
"You know who I think would do well for us now ?"
Allison "Don't tell me the answers to my questions..."
Swales "no, I won't tell you the answer....he [Allison] won't do it with because I've just suggested it...you know who'd do well for us...that fellow we let go..."
Allison: "who ? Watson ?"
Swales :"No"
Off camera, a different voice:" he's thinking of Asa [Hartford] aren't you ?"
Swales: "Yeah".
Allison "Do me a favour..".

Even if Swales thought that, how ridiculous does it look admitting on camera that you sold a player you now wish you'd kept ? A year later Hartford was re-signed from Everton.

Comparing then to now, we were a bizarre basket case of a club. It was apparently Swales' utter hatred of ManUre that drove him on to do what he did.

He wanted City to become a behemoth & put our dough where his mouth was. Unfortunately he entrusted these millions to Allison who was often spoken of as being a coach who was ahead of his time, but he was a shit manager who thought he was playing with Monopoly money... :-/