Peter Swales

[BringBackSwales]

From memory Swales put fuck all money into the club, apart from buying his shares for all of £200k

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

Very interesting thread, this. Thanks, all. I was out of the country in those years, so I missed much of what you're talking about.
It's clear from the ITV documentary that Big Joe (Corrigan) hated Allison by the end of his second tenure. You can see it in his face.

I think Joe was reported as saying that Big Mal "should never have come back" shortly before Mal was sacked!

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

Weren't we linked with George Graham quite frequently at this time?.

Think he would of been an excellent appointment then.

Graham expressed strong interest in the job when Alan Ball was sacked and came to meet Francis Lee to discuss it. An appointment seemed imminent and inevitable but didn't happen because Graham was using the vacancy to advertise his availability after his world ban had expired. Franny was not impressed and new full well City had been used. Graham went to Leeds where he failed to impress and then to Spurs where he - understandably - was not welcomed and was sacked after a rather dull tenure. So perhaps it would not have been an excellent appointment. We'll never know.

 

[petrusha]

In my defence mate I was 13 years olda, did not know what propaganda was really and believed everything I read in the Evening News.

As for Franny Lee, he might not have been ultimately responsible for the financial position but he was responsible for terrible footballing decisions, which resulted in our hurdlind down the divisions. He went from absolute hero to people wanting him out in a couple of years. If it was not for his previous legacy he would have gone earlier. From a footballing perspective we were in a far worse position when Franny left than when Swales left. For a football man, Franny made some poor decisions and after all the fanfare from his incarnation, he presided over an even bigger dip in fortunes than Swales ever did.

Now how much of that dip was Swalea ultimately responsible for in regards to the finances? I can't comment on that, I was just a kid really and would have to do some reading up on what actually happened. Yet I firmly believe that if Franny had not sacked Horton, we would have stayed up, the Premier League money would have rolled in and out future would have been a lot different.

Strange really as we probably would not have been in the position we are in today if not for our struggles. Our financial position and the fact we were languishing in the prem under Frank is what made us the viable proposition for ADUG.

If I am a bit out with my memory please don't bite my head as I know people like to win on the internet. I was a kid, we are going back nearly 30 years now and I am just going off my memory.

I need to read the Gary James books and now seems the ideal time considering the situation.

Who got the ball rolling in regards to the Etihad (COMS)? Was the Franny or Bernstein?

Sorry, I was a bit arsey with you this morning. I was a bit hacked off with some other completely unrelated stuff so responded to you a bit more tersely than you deserved. I loathe Peter Swales with an absolute passion so always get riled when I see anything that even slightly seems to defend him.

It is a fascinating subject, and one of particular interest to me since I was a junior solicitor at the time at a firm that did a fair bit of work for the club. I'm still working now at getting on for 9 pm where I am and tomorrow might be similar. I'll try, though, in the next day or two to come back to your post and try to give you a proper answer. For what it's worth, I do agree with you that Lee's footballing judgement was often sadly lacking. That's ironic given that he thought his football background would help him to succeed where other investors in football clubs failed.

Two other things in brief:

- Gary James's books are definitely deserving of your attention and if you have more time than usual at present to read, you won't regret acquiring them; and

- City were definitely pursuing the opportunity to move to the Manchester Commonwealth Games stadium as soon as the Games were awarded to Manchester in November 1995.
​

Absolutely. Who is the the guy who after interviewing bond says he 'couldn't make up his mind but would go along with whatever the chairman wanted. This interview took 15 mins and they wanted to give him the job. Christ if I go for an interview for job I'm told they will ring me next week

Wasn't it Ian Niven who said he'd go along with whatever Swales decided? Not watched it again so that's just from memory and could be wrong.

Don't know how true it is, but have been told that Bond had the job already sewn up and the interview footage in the documentary was staged. If anything, I think that might make it actually more embarrassing.

Graham expressed strong interest in the job when Alan Ball was sacked and came to meet Francis Lee to discuss it. An appointment seemed imminent and inevitable but didn't happen because Graham was using the vacancy to advertise his availability after his world ban had expired. Franny was not impressed and new full well City had been used. Graham went to Leeds where he failed to impress and then to Spurs where he - understandably - was not welcomed and was sacked after a rather dull tenure. So perhaps it would not have been an excellent appointment. We'll never know.

Lee did have talks with Graham the year before, after Horton was fired, and George was supposedly quite keen on the job. The problem then was that he'd been charged by the FA over the bungs he accepted when at Arsenal and his hearing wasn't due until after the start of the new season. I was told that Lee did consider appointing Graham and then going with an interim manager for the period of any ban, which was Graham's suggestion. And if they'd known that, as eventually happened, the eventual ban would be for a year, they could well have actually decided to do that.

The problem was that there was thought to be a genuine risk of the ban being two or even three years. In the light of that, it wasn't felt to be viable to risk appointing a new manager who could almost immediately be unavailable to work for such a long period, leaving the club with a long-term interim figure (almost a contradiction in terms).

 

[Nightmare Walking]

Sorry, I was a bit arsey with you this morning. I was a bit hacked off with some other completely unrelated stuff so responded to you a bit more tersely than you deserved. I loathe Peter Swales with an absolute passion so always get riled when I see anything that even slightly seems to defend him.

It is a fascinating subject, and one of particular interest to me since I was a junior solicitor at the time at a firm that did a fair bit of work for the club. I'm still working now at getting on for 9 pm where I am and tomorrow might be similar. I'll try, though, in the next day or two to come back to your post and try to give you a proper answer. For what it's worth, I do agree with you that Lee's footballing judgement was often sadly lacking. That's ironic given that he thought his football background would help him to succeed where other investors in football clubs failed.

Two other things in brief:

- Gary James's books are definitely deserving of your attention and if you have more time than usual at present to read, you won't regret acquiring them; and

- City were definitely pursuing the opportunity to move to the Manchester Commonwealth Games stadium as soon as the Games were awarded to Manchester in November 1995.
​

Wasn't it Ian Niven who said he'd go along with whatever Swales decided? Not watched it again so that's just from memory and could be wrong.

Don't know how true it is, but have been told that Bond had the job already sewn up and the interview footage in the documentary was staged. If anything, I think that might make it actually more embarrassing.



Lee did have talks with Graham the year before, after Horton was fired, and George was supposedly quite keen on the job. The problem then was that he'd been charged by the FA over the bungs he accepted when at Arsenal and his hearing wasn't due until after the start of the new season. I was told that Lee did consider appointing Graham and then going with an interim manager for the period of any ban, which was Graham's suggestion. And if they'd known that, as eventually happened, the eventual ban would be for a year, they could well have actually decided to do that.

The problem was that there was thought to be a genuine risk of the ban being two or even three years. In the light of that, it wasn't felt to be viable to risk appointing a new manager who could almost immediately be unavailable to work for such a long period, leaving the club with a long-term interim figure (almost a contradiction in terms).

You don't have to apologise mate, there was nothing at all untowards in your reply.

 

[peter.evans]

Ah. an example of fake news well before the phrase ever gained currency. This was a LIE spread by the Swales camp to discredit protestors. The matron of the nursing home in question said she was completely unaware of the alleged incident that was widely reported at the time, and if Central Library in town still has its microfiche archive, you can go down there and confirm it.

Still, job done by the vile John Maddock. Blues continue to believe this falsehood nearly 30 years on.

​

No he fucking wasn't. That piece of shit Swales left the club in such a dire financial state that the decline was almost inevitable without a vast injection of cash that Lee was unable to deliver (through my job, I saw the disclosure files presented to Lee's legal team when he was buying into the club and, believe me, they'd shock you). Lee made many mistakes for which he can justifiably be criticised and, ironically given his background, some of the most telling related to the club's footballing operations.

If we could have hung on without getting relegated from the PL for another couple of years, we may just about have clung on and emerged from the financial crisis. Lee's errors of judgement, most notably appointing Alan Ball, contributed to our taking the drop. But "just as bad as Swales"? No fucking way.

Correct. Lee made mistakes in the same way that subsequent owners did but the desperate years were all a result of the gradual build up of the catastrophic 20 odd Swales years. A complete and utter clown who ran the club down and led us from one embarrassment to another, ok ing huge spending we just couldn't afford, disastrous managerial appointments or sacking managers on a whim e.g. for not having any repartee with the fans, etc . Not for no good reason did the United fans have a banner at the Nov 93 derby saying "Swales is a red "! Not to mention the fact that Franny contributed massively to our glory years in the 60s and early 70s.

 

[1961_vintage]

Swales. Smug, conceited, arrogant and deluded. Utterly out of his depth and the figurehead fronting-up a "board of directors" that were even worse.

Loved those "sack the board" demo's though!

 

[Stevieatlasblue]

I wanted Brian Clough as our manager wasn't going to happen while Swales was around

 

[paulchapo]

I wanted Brian Clough as our manager wasn't going to happen while Swales was around

Me too. Just imagine what could have been but Swales ego would never have allowed it.

 

[BrianW]

Clough would have told Swales to Foxtrot Oscar within three days. Possibly within one. He was the definition of "not suffering fools gladly."