Remembering Swales

The best thing that could be said about him in all honesty he was Amateur, but he was not alone at the time that's how the game was run by many clubs back in the day and I dare say there are a many still run the same way.

It has taken a very long time for the club to recover, and I still don't think we are completely over it shades of the amateur still persist over the club but they are getting quite rare as we kick on
 
Peter Swales was, and still is, one of the greatest comedy characters of all time.

The hair, the Cuban Heels, the total ineptitude, his Captain Ahab-like obsession with utd, the questionable attendance figures, John Maddock, The Platt Lane Stand all serve as reminders that he, more than any other factor, was why we were a national joke for so many years.

No true City fan would have treated Paul Lake like that either.

A clown and a buffoon, but very much part of our colourful history and for that reason I cannot bring myself to hate him even though I probably should.
 
I worked on a YTS at the club and Swales invited me in the first day for tea and a chat, and came across as really affable. However, he was a disaster, not to the same extent as Lee (who seemed more concerned with the restaurant in the kippax than the team on the pitch) - but nonetheless, if you could do it wrongly, Swales generally did.
 
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.

Swales was just looking for another market to screw where he would not have to pay the tax. No I do not have any evidence - just how I feel about the man and the time.
 
Bert Trautmann's Parachute said:
I worked on a YTS at the club and Swales invited me in the first day for tea and a chat, and came across as really affable. However, he was a disaster, not to the same extent as Lee (who seemed more concerned with the restaurant in the kippax than the team on the pitch) - but nonetheless, if you could do it wrongly, Swales generally did.

Swales was a far bigger disaster than Lee could ever have been. His 20 years of mismanagement left whoever took over from him between a rock and a hard place. Millions in debt and immediately faced with a £13m bill to redevelop the Kippax because of the aftermath of the Taylor Report. Yes, Lee made some poor appointments but it's hard to see how the club could have done much more than survive in the immediate post-Swales years.
 
I met Swales a couple of times in 1977. He believed he was on course in making City the biggest club in the England: he was so sure we would win the title that year and then go on to be the Kings of Europe!

Completely deluded: How he became one of the most powerful men at the FA escapes me. He probably cost us the title in '72 by being influential with all the boardroom in-fighting and getting his way with Allison and pushing Mercer 'upstairs.'

You only have to look at what he did to Maine Road. He thought it was still the best ground in England. Summed up his Chairmanship for me. Just on a power trip.
 
I remember a few years back and the City director Ian Niven (I think it was him) was flogging some City memorabilia (I think it was a club sign or something like that, that used to be over the entrance to the main stand) and I asked at a forum where did Niven (or whoever it was) get it from in order for him to be able to flog it - surely it belongs to the club. The answer was Swales hired a skip one day and was throwing everything out!
Niven simply ''dipped' in and took the item in question, as did a few others luckily enough to get to the skip on time!
 
i will never forget a quote from swales in the manchester evening news

we will never sell paul stewart not even for £2million
and he was spot on we sold him for £1.5million
 
one of the worst tricks played was the trevor francis advert on radio piccadilly, come and watch me play at maine road this season, season tickets available, then for him to be sold before the season started?
 

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