Peter Swales

[BringBackSwales]

Could argue that lee actually dragged us further down the ladder we went from prem to division 1 eventually division 2 we hired ball coppell phil neal frank Clark?

Lee is the reason I can never quite warm to Mike Summerbee as much as I used to. I remember a Lee in and Swales out rally at the GM bus club on Mount Road and I remember these words from Buzzer “Francis and his backers will spend sums of money on Manchester City which will make Jack Walker look like a pauper”, well that worked out well didn’t it? Lee was as shit a chairman as Swales he just didn’t do it for as long. I will never know whether Buzzer actually meant what he said, but he may well have been taken in by Franny like we all were. Fuck, did we inhabit a dark and different world in those days

 

[StillBluessinceHydeRoad]

Lee is the reason I can never quite warm to Mike Summerbee as much as I used to. I remember a Lee in and Swales out rally at the GM bus club on Mount Road and I remember these words from Buzzer “Francis and his backers will spend sums of money on Manchester City which will make Jack Walker look like a pauper”, well that worked out well didn’t it? Lee was as shit a chairman as Swales he just didn’t do it for as long. I will never know whether Buzzer actually meant what he said, but he may well have been taken in by Franny like we all were. Fuck, did we inhabit a dark and different world in those days

As someone with absolutely no links with the club my memory is that we all believed that the Lee takeover would bring massive investment into the club and the Lee group made promises of money available for transfers which were quite mouth watering. They never materialised of course. Lee maintained that this was because Swales had not allowed access to the books and so the promises had been made in ignorance of the real financial situation. If that is the case Mike Summerbee's comments are understandable and in no way mendacious. Lee's version is that Maine Road was so decrepit and out dated that unforeseen spending made their plans for player acquisition unrealisable and Lee's period as chairman certainly saw things on the pitch go from bad to disastrous to iconic trips to York - but "it weren't my fault, guv!" Again, if my memory serves me well Lee was an excellent chairman in many off-pitch ways. The junior blues thrived largely because Franny was scrupulous about writing to young fans etc, but of course he will always be judged on results and some quite disastrous managerial appointments which resulted in his being remembered as the one and only chairman to take us into the third tier.

 

[BringBackSwales]

As someone with absolutely no links with the club my memory is that we all believed that the Lee takeover would bring massive investment into the club and the Lee group made promises of money available for transfers which were quite mouth watering. They never materialised of course. Lee maintained that this was because Swales had not allowed access to the books and so the promises had been made in ignorance of the real financial situation. If that is the case Mike Summerbee's comments are understandable and in no way mendacious. Lee's version is that Maine Road was so decrepit and out dated that unforeseen spending made their plans for player acquisition unrealisable and Lee's period as chairman certainly saw things on the pitch go from bad to disastrous to iconic trips to York - but "it weren't my fault, guv!" Again, if my memory serves me well Lee was an excellent chairman in many off-pitch ways. The junior blues thrived largely because Franny was scrupulous about writing to young fans etc, but of course he will always be judged on results and some quite disastrous managerial appointments which resulted in his being remembered as the one and only chairman to take us into the third tier.

The junior blues were put in place a long time (decades) before Franny. The words “will make Jack Walker look like a pauper” and were not prefaced with anything being dependent on what was in the books, and Franny saying that was just a lame excuse. Franny is a wealthy man by our standards (well mine anyway, not sure if you are a man of substantial means SBSHR?!) but not by football owner standards, and as for these mega wealthy backers they never existed, or can anyone name one? I may be wrong but Franny put into City about what Swales did, fuck all. At least Franny was a playing legend though

 

[Berts Neck]

At that time every one wanted Swales out. I remember feeling Franny would turn it round. I supported that idea as I am sure many did. Ok the bog rolls didnt make a difference, but he was an ex blue and we hoped. The Scousers had the Littlewood millions..Swales and Franny were never able to compete at that level. The only reason we are where we are is down to The Premier League and Abramovich. It became clear that massive investment brought trophies and the Premier League monies followed. Just very different times.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Lee is the reason I can never quite warm to Mike Summerbee as much as I used to. I remember a Lee in and Swales out rally at the GM bus club on Mount Road and I remember these words from Buzzer “Francis and his backers will spend sums of money on Manchester City which will make Jack Walker look like a pauper”, well that worked out well didn’t it? Lee was as shit a chairman as Swales he just didn’t do it for as long. I will never know whether Buzzer actually meant what he said, but he may well have been taken in by Franny like we all were. Fuck, did we inhabit a dark and different world in those days

I think Buzzer meant the Jack Walker who was married to Annie Walker! Annie had the purse strings, Jack didn't have two ha'pennies with which to scratch his ample arse.

 

[East Level 2]

..................... Lee's version is that Maine Road was so decrepit and out dated that unforeseen spending made their plans for player acquisition unrealisable and Lee's period as chairman certainly saw things on the pitch go from bad to disastrous to iconic trips to York - .......................

The highlighted bit is quite odd. The new Platt Lane stand (known for a while as the Umbro Stand) was opened almost a year before Lee took over, and everybody knew the Kippax had to be demolished (or have seats installed on the old terrace) due to the requirement for all-seater stadiums. Other spending behind the scenes might also have been required but the major infrastructure cost was rebuilding the Kippax and that was most definitely not "unforeseen".

 

[BringBackSwales]

The highlighted bit is quite odd. The new Platt Lane stand (known for a while as the Umbro Stand) was opened almost a year before Lee took over, and everybody knew the Kippax had to be demolished (or have seats installed on the old terrace) due to the requirement for all-seater stadiums. Other spending behind the scenes might also have been required but the major infrastructure cost was rebuilding the Kippax and that was most definitely not "unforeseen".

Lee was almost as big a fraud as his be-wigged predecessor when it came to promises about signings

 

[East Level 2]

Lee was almost as big a fraud as his be-wigged predecessor when it came to promises about signings

Lee did sign a World Cup winner!!

 

[BringBackSwales]

Lee did sign a World Cup winner!!

Yep that one went well

 

[StillBluessinceHydeRoad]

The junior blues were put in place a long time (decades) before Franny. The words “will make Jack Walker look like a pauper” and were not prefaced with anything being dependent on what was in the books, and Franny saying that was just a lame excuse. Franny is a wealthy man by our standards (well mine anyway, not sure if you are a man of substantial means SBSHR?!) but not by football owner standards, and as for these mega wealthy backers they never existed, or can anyone name one? I may be wrong but Franny put into City about what Swales did, fuck all. At least Franny was a playing legend though

I think you misunderstand my intentions somewhat. I am not arguing that Francis Lee was ever going to emerge as a sugar daddy to turn City into a super rich powerhouse club nor would I attempt to justify many of the claims that were made at the time of this low period in City's history. What I am saying is that I fell for the promises made hook, line and sinker and many others did too. We thought times were so bad we didn't think they could only improve if Peter Swales went and "Forward with Franny" seemed the only way to go. We weren't using our critical faculties because at the time it seemed so obvious and Mike Summerbee seemed to take the same view. His statement was ill advised and quite clearly had no basis in fact but I think Mike was expressing a hope which many of us shared and this hope obscured his view as well. I'm not justifying it because quite clearly it is unjustifiable and before very long I was one of those who wanted to "free the Manchester 30000". But looking back I think there are some shades of (dark) grey to the Lee years rather than the uniform black. I know the playing side of things was a total and utter disaster, and that's what we all cared about and that we never saw any of the big money that was supposed to buy players. I know too that Lee actually put virtually no money of his own into the club and yet behaved so dictatorially as a chairman that one might have thought he had bought 99% of the shares. I also pointed out that it was Lee's version - not mine - that it was the state of Maine Road which sabotaged his big spending plans, though I do think there were immense problems with the ground which made the decision to leave it ASAP inevitable. But my only argument "in mitigation of the charges" is that in some ways - and opinions will certainly vary on the importance of these - he was not without some merit. I know very well that the junior blues predate his chairmanship but I believe that, like so much at City as the Swales era progressed, they were stagnating at a time when a very successful United team posed a real risk to our "share" of young support. I believe that the junior blues' numbers began to grow again and in some part due to Lee's efforts.