There was a thread about this on the main board a little while back, after MES posted that his "2nd cousin tried to buy City": <a class="postlink-local" href="http://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=269531" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">viewtopic.php?f=1&t=269531</a>
Recently, I was reading a book about Danny Blanchflower by the author and former Fleet Street football writer Norman Giller. A Spurs fan, Giller wrote about the captain of that club's 1961 double-winning side. I was keen to read it because Blanchflower, a strikingly articulate figure in the game, was my mother's favourite footballer. If anyone else here is similarly interested, you can find details about it at this site: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.normangillerbooks.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.normangillerbooks.com/</a>
Obviously, barring a couple of asides, City don't feature. However, one of those asides prompted me to raise the issue of the 1964 takeover in this history forum.
Giller notes that Blanchflower, who took up journalism on the Sunday Express after retirement, wasn't tempted by the prospect of a career management. This observation is then qualified by the following short passage:
Now, of course, this was City's lowest ebb of the 20th century, at least until the very last three years or so of it. I recall Gary James saying that a senior City figure had approached United over the prospect of us sharing Old Trafford with a view to the two clubs merging. The person in question thought that Manchester could only sustain one top club, apparently, IIRC, it was the vice chairman (the name Frank Johnson seems to ring a bell, but my City materials are in storage in the UK so I may have that wrong).
Of course, we eventually appointed Mercer and Allison, and within five years of them arriving, we'd been promoted, then won the clean sweep of domestic trophies as well as a major European prize. Blanchflower would certainly have had to go some to match that. He did later turn to management over a decade later, but had mixed results with Northern Ireland and a pretty disastrous spell in charge of Chelsea. On the other hand, the chemistry between Joe and Malcolm brought us truly marvellous times - at least for those first five years or so.
The thing is, had this board existed in 1964 or 1965, I suspect that Blanchflower would have been a popular choice. Mercer had left his previous job, where things had soured, after a stroke, while the new number two was an unknown. Blanchflower, meanwhile, may not have had managerial experience but he'd been regarded as the manager's lieutenant on the pitch for one of the best teams English football had ever seen. In that respect, although the two men are very different characters, I suppose the modern equivalent might be the appointment of Roy Keane by Niall Quinn's consortium when they took over a distressed Sunderland.
I find this a fascinating time in City's history. I wonder if Gary James or anyone else might be able to supply information on the plans that the consortium had?
Recently, I was reading a book about Danny Blanchflower by the author and former Fleet Street football writer Norman Giller. A Spurs fan, Giller wrote about the captain of that club's 1961 double-winning side. I was keen to read it because Blanchflower, a strikingly articulate figure in the game, was my mother's favourite footballer. If anyone else here is similarly interested, you can find details about it at this site: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.normangillerbooks.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.normangillerbooks.com/</a>
Obviously, barring a couple of asides, City don't feature. However, one of those asides prompted me to raise the issue of the 1964 takeover in this history forum.
Giller notes that Blanchflower, who took up journalism on the Sunday Express after retirement, wasn't tempted by the prospect of a career management. This observation is then qualified by the following short passage:
Late in 1964, [Blanchflower] nearly had a change of mind on the management topic. A consortium trying to take over at Manchester City were ready to offer him a huge salary of GBP 10,000 a year to run the show at Maine Road. He admitted:
"For a while I was tempted. City were my favourite English team when I was a youngster because my idol Peter Doherty played for them. Jackie [his brother] and I used to have Manchester City scarves and followed every report on Peter's performances with avid interest. For a while I daydreamed about managing City , but then common sense arrived as my jury and the verdict was not to get involved with what was something of a political hot potato. I was not in the mood for in-fighting and the businessmen who approached me were younger than me. I had more football experience than the lot of them put together, and with my experience as a manager it could have been a case of the bland leading the blind."
Now, of course, this was City's lowest ebb of the 20th century, at least until the very last three years or so of it. I recall Gary James saying that a senior City figure had approached United over the prospect of us sharing Old Trafford with a view to the two clubs merging. The person in question thought that Manchester could only sustain one top club, apparently, IIRC, it was the vice chairman (the name Frank Johnson seems to ring a bell, but my City materials are in storage in the UK so I may have that wrong).
Of course, we eventually appointed Mercer and Allison, and within five years of them arriving, we'd been promoted, then won the clean sweep of domestic trophies as well as a major European prize. Blanchflower would certainly have had to go some to match that. He did later turn to management over a decade later, but had mixed results with Northern Ireland and a pretty disastrous spell in charge of Chelsea. On the other hand, the chemistry between Joe and Malcolm brought us truly marvellous times - at least for those first five years or so.
The thing is, had this board existed in 1964 or 1965, I suspect that Blanchflower would have been a popular choice. Mercer had left his previous job, where things had soured, after a stroke, while the new number two was an unknown. Blanchflower, meanwhile, may not have had managerial experience but he'd been regarded as the manager's lieutenant on the pitch for one of the best teams English football had ever seen. In that respect, although the two men are very different characters, I suppose the modern equivalent might be the appointment of Roy Keane by Niall Quinn's consortium when they took over a distressed Sunderland.
I find this a fascinating time in City's history. I wonder if Gary James or anyone else might be able to supply information on the plans that the consortium had?