Remembering Swales

I'll always remember someone saying after the Liverpool game "the last thing Swales wanted to see was City going down..."
Seriously, I don't buy any of this Swales was a blue stuff. The man was on a massive ego trip. Any genuine blue would have recognised the need to ensure that Paul Lake needed the best possible treatment at any cost. Time and time again he put his own personal interests ahead of the club's. Towards the end he wasn't hanging on because he loved the club, he was hanging on purely out of personal pride.
If he was such a big blue why was he even bothered about being on the fa committee?
 
Thaksinssoldier said:
The mans name has been ran through the mud over the years.imo only franny lee should receive that kind of hate.

I watched Franny's debut for City when he arrived from Bolton, and his last game, plus most of the ones in between.

Yes, his chairmanship could have been better, (Alan Ball etc, etc,) but his contribution as a fabulous player far far outweigh any mistakes he made as chairman. Plus he was mainly responsible for City's move to the COMS. (According to Buzzer's book).

All imho.
 
In those days clubs were run by local businessmen, who had strong connections with the clubs.
The truth is Swales loved our club and as the saying goes 'Love is blind.'
He was obsessed about United and this was his downfall. He wanted to finish above them, problem was they weren't at the top in those days.
There were many City fans who would have been happy finishing 17th, if Utd finished 18th, he was like them.
Whiskynose changed all that. He aimed for Liverpool (who were the best around), Swales went chasing, but didn't build the club up as a business.
If we were run like it today we'd have been like Pompey, going into administration, such was his mismanagement.
He also liked being a 'celebrity' chairman too, always talking big, especially just before seaon ticket deadline.
Remember we would be linked with the likes of Ian Wright, John Barnes and Alan Shearer, but what we'd get is Carl Griffiths and David 'Sindy' Oldfield!
 
I can tell you a true story about Mr Swales. In 1983 City were drawn at Brighton in Round 4 of the FA Cup. I decided to fly down from M/cr to Gatwick and then get the train to Brighton. However, the plane was much delayed by a technical fault, and I had splashed out on a ticket, so I looked like missing the game and losing money. On the plane, though, were Peter Swales and a bevy of City directors. I explained my predicament to PS, and cheekily asked if the club would refund my ticket cost as I was going to miss the match through no fault of my own. Swales said "Don't worry, son, a minibus is meeting us at Gatwick and we'll just about make it - we can offer you a lift." Which was very nice of him, so I sat in the minibus keeping shtum while PS and his directors talked football.
I was shocked by his ignorance of football - not just factual mistakes, but his opinions were - shall we say - a little misguided. I thought "This is the man who is helping to choose the England manager (via his position in the FA)." He was kind enough to offer me a lift back afterwards, but I became disillusioned with the City hierarchy. As a previous post said, he was obsessed with catching up United.
To make it worse, City got pasted 4-0, John Bond quit, and John Benson took over. We were due to go down at the season's end.
 
Thaksinssoldier said:
A lot of shite being slung at the man with little truth.

I'll give you a quote you'll probably get off the man until this day:

"without Peter Swales,there wouldn't be a man city today"-bernard halford.

Swales had faults yes,but hang on a sec...he's painted the villain.in my eyes Francis lee was 1000 times worse.set us back 20 years.made us a fucking joke.

Let's not forget what we had as Swales left.

Horton,Quinn,rosler,beagrie,Walsh etc...we were looking good.franny lee destroyed it in one year.

In 76 Swales personally flew to Dublin and set up the Dublin OSC.as backwards as he was,in
other ways he was an innovator,seeing the potential of the overseas market.

The mans name has been ran through the mud over the years.imo only franny led should receive that kind of hate.

Pretty much complete bollocks IMO, not to mention factually incorrect.

Uwe Rosler, Peter Beagrie, and Paul Walsh were all signed while Lee was chairman, not Swales. But why let the truth get in the way of a good lie eh?

As for setting up the Dublin branch of the OSC, well whoopsy fucking woo. Hardly innovative when other, cough cough, clubs had far more international supporters club branches than us long before 1976.

While things didn't work out as we all hoped under FHL, if that takeover hadn't happened I'd dread to think where we'd be now. By all accounts we were heading over a fucking cliff in the final weeks of Swales' reign and by the time Lee got his hands on the club we were financially up the shitter.

To try and balance things out ever so slightly, I wouldn't say Swales was always a **** though. I remember having a huge amount of sympathy for him when he appeared on Football Focus in 1986. It was the day Luton finally managed to force through their ban on away fans and City were the first visitors. For once Swales was showing his human side and was sticking up for the rights of fans by opposing the ban while the Luton chairman Evans was giving him a rough time. Trouble is, Evans was also an MP and therefore a very good orator (not to mention bullshitter) while Swales clearly wasn't much good at arguing his case which was a shame because on this occasion he was in the right.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Draken said:
Swales is made out to be such skinflint but he did find the money to sign some big name players ,for example Rodney Marsh ,Trevor Francis ,Steve Daley all bought for massive money .
Interesting Malcolm Allison vid here on the Daley transfer ,makes Swales sound like a rubbish businessman but hardly someone who was afraid to spend big money when needed , unfortunately for all of us ,his big buys were mainly flops.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0S4nW6FPZ8&feature=related[/youtube]

I think you are missing your own point here COMPLETELY
Malcolm clearly states no way was Daley worth 600K. And the next thing he knows is City have signed Daley for £1.25m!!!!!!!!
Swales signed Daley, not MA

I think you didnt read what I said COMPLETLY !!.I know Swales went over Malcolms head and bought Daley for £1.25m ,my question was why if Swales had such a reputation for being a miserly , stingy, penny-pinching , beggarly, illiberal, avaricious, ungenerous, covetous, penurious, tightfisted, tight-arsed person than why did he spend huge amounts on the likes of Steve fucking Daley.
 
Fans running football clubs? - one word, Bernstein. There are men who run small businesses and men who run big businesses. Swales was a small business man running a business that was too big for him. Bernstein on the other hand was perfectly capable and successfully steered us through our most difficult time - and he is a ‘fan’.
 
Swales paid so much for Steve Daley because he wanted to break the transfer record, which Wolves immediately broke again with the proceeds of the Daley sale plus a bit more when they bought Andy Gray.

My over-riding memory of PJ is him panicking after a few bad results and sacking the manager so many times, I've lost count.

He even tried to blame us, the fans, when he got rid of Machin.
 
He came into my mum's shop once, drunk as a skunk demanding a bottle of whiskey and we wouldnt serve him and he got abusive and had to be escorted out.

Have to give him credit cos the next day he came in, apologised and gave us some signed posters and a shirt.

i was only about 10-11 at the time so didnt know much about him apart that he was the chairman or maybe the ex-chairman at that time. (about '87-'88).
 
Some good debate on this issue here. I started watching city in 88 and saw enough to suggest that Swales wasn't the right man. Off the top of my head here are some of the strangest decisions he allowed under his watch whilst I've been watching:
1. The Paul Lake issue - Not only a tragedy on a strategic level (not paying for the best treatment) but also on a human, moral issue. People shouldn't ever be treated like that - he was our most prized asset for God's sake!
2. Kendall Contract: He should never have allowed a clause in it for his release. Once Taylor got the England job (the reason Kendall had insisted on it - as he wanted the England job also), Swales should have renegotiated an improved contract for Kendall without the clause in it.
3. Platt Lane Stand - joke. Maine Road was a joke of a stadium by the time we left it. Platt Lane was an unequivocal disaster! It summed him up perfectly; boxes for the 'haves' no thought for the ordinary fan. Circa 1988, Maine Road could have been redeveloped in a similar way to OldTrafford by replicating the north stand (to include Kippax corners as per the 1982 development plans), and replace the Kippax.
4. Some posters have asked what would have happened without Franny taking over. Whilst Franny would admit he got many things wrong such as the Ball appointment, off the field his record wasn't so bad. Without Franny, the Kippax would have been seated on its original terrace as Swales had no money and no long term development plan for the stadium. Imagine that.... The old Kippax with seats!!

I'm just thankful, that by hook or by crook, we got to where we are today. Make no mistake though we're 20-30yrs behind, playing catch-up. I honestly feel that if points 1 and 2 raised here had been addressed (as was Swales duty), together with the Curle / Phelan money going on Wright or Shearer we'd have won the league under Kendall. (Altho in fairness, the money wasted on Phelan and Curle was to do with Reid not Swales).
 

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