The Breaking up of great City teams?

[Wilf Wild 1937]

Does anybody know the truth about the Robinson transfer?

I believe that Nobby Stiles always reckons that he rated him at £100,000 and that he met Malcolm in a restaurant to discuss the deal.
According to Stiles the conversation when something like this:-

Stiles: "How much will you give me for Robinson?"

Allison: "£250,000."

Stiles: "£250,000. Are you mad?

Allison: "You miss heard me. I said £750,000."

Stiles silently to himself: "Shut up Nobby, just do the deal."

I'd really like to be told that this isn't what actually happened. The fee we paid for Robinson was ridiculous though.

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

Meant to add that Barnwell talked of the transfer in Sept 1979 himself. He said that City had insulted Wolves by offering only £600k 5 weeks before the actual transfer and that Barnwell felt he could only go if City doubled the amount (which they did - the fee was £1.2m before tax and the other add ons that followed transfers like this at the time). Everton offered £1.15m (before tax etc.) during the last week of August, shortly after Allison had increased his offer to £800k. Allison did say he was 'done' with the transfer when Everton's offer came in but Swales was also reported as saying that his job was to back his managers by finding the money to buy their preferred players.

What Barnwell told you makes a lot of sense, Gary.
I remember Swales once saying in an interview that he'd rather overpay for a player than miss out on him.
Swales whole chairmanship swung between apparent financial feast and financial famine. John Bond and Howard Kendall both commented
that they never really knew what money there was to spend. When Kendall returned to Everton he said one of the factors was that if he
wanted to spend £3m on a player he could do it there but not at Maine Road. Swales response was to spend the best part of £5m on
Keith Curle and Terry Phelan as a show of strength. He was a very vain and complex man was Peter. Sadly that was his and our undoing.
Malcolm was a man who needed firm control and a bit of common sense from above. Swales & Allison was the worst possible combination.

 

[petrusha]

I heard the one about Nobby Stiles, I remember a City supporting mate telling me about it when I was in sixth form in the mid-1908s. I always assumed it was apocryphal.

I just wrote a long reply to Gary's post and have managed to lose it somehow. No great loss to the board but annoying for me.

I do acknowledge Gary's post that Swales was doing his utmost to give Mal the resources that he wanted. I'm sure Mal's lukewarm stance on Daley owes much to a desire to distance himself from a deal that proved disastrous, and that he was badgering Swales that this was the player we needed.

Must say, I knew other clubs were in for him and kind of suspected some shenanigans with Villa connected with the Andy Gray deal. However, I never knew Everton were prepared to go over a million for the player.

It was a truly catastrophic deal, though. I can't think of another player who broke the transfer record and was then sold for 20% of the fee within 15 months.

Mad to think that Daley cost only marginally less than the aggregate fees we pulled in for Barnes, Owen, Kidd and Watson. And Michael Robinson cost almost exactly the aggregate fees received for the last three of thsoe players.

Both Gary and WW1937 are spot on that Mal needed reining in. Swales did the opposite. While Joe and Mal earlier had brought the absolute best out of one another, he and Swales combined to create the maximum disaster.

 

[Blue Streak]

Meant to add that Barnwell talked of the transfer in Sept 1979 himself. He said that City had insulted Wolves by offering only £600k 5 weeks before the actual transfer and that Barnwell felt he could only go if City doubled the amount (which they did - the fee was £1.2m before tax and the other add ons that followed transfers like this at the time). Everton offered £1.15m (before tax etc.) during the last week of August, shortly after Allison had increased his offer to £800k. Allison did say he was 'done' with the transfer when Everton's offer came in but Swales was also reported as saying that his job was to back his managers by finding the money to buy their preferred players.

What Barnwell told you makes a lot of sense, Gary.
I remember Swales once saying in an interview that he'd rather overpay for a player than miss out on him.
Swales whole chairmanship swung between apparent financial feast and financial famine. John Bond and Howard Kendall both commented
that they never really knew what money there was to spend. When Kendall returned to Everton he said one of the factors was that if he
wanted to spend £3m on a player he could do it there but not at Maine Road. Swales response was to spend the best part of £5m on
Keith Curle and Terry Phelan as a show of strength. He was a very vain and complex man was Peter. Sadly that was his and our undoing.
Malcolm was a man who needed firm control and a bit of common sense from above. Swales & Allison was the worst possible combination.

I've never heard those quotes made by Howard Kendall? where/when did he say that as I'd be very interested to know.