The "Swales Out" Campaign

[Balti]

Does anyone know if Bernard Halford is considering writing a book about his time at City.
That would be a bombshell.

what he could tell us would be mind blowing, he'd never write it though.

now that would be a good read!

 

[Blumers Bloomers]

The number of managers we got through with Swales is astonishing and hopefully, unlikely to be repeated any time soon. The story concerning Reid's departure makes for interesting reading.

I think we played a match on telly under Reid and after a memorably poor performance by Keith Curle, we ended up getting beat. The post-match interview was conducted where Reid, visibly anger after defeat, was prodded and pushed by the interviewer about Curle's poor performance.

I think what was asked was along the lines of, "Does a performance like this justify the £2.5M spent on Curle?"
Anyway, Reid had had enough. He responded with something like, "Hang on a minute, we paid nowhere near that amount of money for him".

Of course, the figure Swales was putting about in public was not accurate. This outburst cost him his job and cost us the years of stability that we craved (at least I think that's what we wanted). After the interview, Swales phoned Reid at his home at 3 in the morning, pretty much telling him he'd be gone the next time we got beat. And that was the end of Peter Reid.

I thought the sacking was Reid was over Sam Ellis (his assistant at the time for you young uns reading this).........wasnt it a case of the players couldnt stand him, Swales got wind of this and told him to get rid of Ellis, which Reid refused to do, so Swales sacked him?

5th in the league at the time as well IIRC...........

 

[There is a Light]

The number of managers we got through with Swales is astonishing and hopefully, unlikely to be repeated any time soon. The story concerning Reid's departure makes for interesting reading.

I think we played a match on telly under Reid and after a memorably poor performance by Keith Curle, we ended up getting beat. The post-match interview was conducted where Reid, visibly anger after defeat, was prodded and pushed by the interviewer about Curle's poor performance.

I think what was asked was along the lines of, "Does a performance like this justify the £2.5M spent on Curle?"
Anyway, Reid had had enough. He responded with something like, "Hang on a minute, we paid nowhere near that amount of money for him".

Of course, the figure Swales was putting about in public was not accurate. This outburst cost him his job and cost us the years of stability that we craved (at least I think that's what we wanted). After the interview, Swales phoned Reid at his home at 3 in the morning, pretty much telling him he'd be gone the next time we got beat. And that was the end of Peter Reid.

I thought the sacking was Reid was over Sam Ellis (his assistant at the time for you young uns reading this).........wasnt it a case of the players couldnt stand him, Swales got wind of this and told him to get rid of Ellis, which Reid refused to do, so Swales sacked him?

5th in the league at the time as well IIRC...........

You may be right about Sam Ellis, but as I remember it we had finished 5th, 5th and 9th. We had an awful end to that last full season and then a dodgy start to the next. The football wasn't exactly attractive either.

 

[buzzer1]

I thought the sacking was Reid was over Sam Ellis (his assistant at the time for you young uns reading this).........wasnt it a case of the players couldnt stand him, Swales got wind of this and told him to get rid of Ellis, which Reid refused to do, so Swales sacked him?

5th in the league at the time as well IIRC...........

You may be right about Sam Ellis, but as I remember it we had finished 5th, 5th and 9th. We had an awful end to that last full season and then a dodgy start to the next. The football wasn't exactly attractive either.

Yes i remember going to the Spuds game away, i think it was the first away of the season and we were proper shite, think David Brightwell was centre half.

 

[Balti]

Wasn't the fundamental problem down to the fact that Lee didn't actually 'buy the club'. He ousted Swales as Chairman right enough and became a shareholder but Swales and Boler still owned almost as many shares as Lee did after the so-called 'takeover'. Lee and his consortium held only around 42% so did not have a controlling interest. The rest of the shareholders remained the same and Lee was not wealthy enough to buy a greater shareholding or buy success by himself on the pitch even with best intentions.

So where was the money that would make the difference on the pitch going to come from? Clearly the likes of Greenalls and later BSkyB chose to be large-ish minority shareholders at various times but were involved for very specific reasons and would never invest further to try and create success on the pitch. The much smaller shareholders did not appear to be part of the equation as far as further significant investment or the board room power struggle was concerned.

Yet there was always another major shareholder on the board throughout this period. He bought in from Swales in '84 and a few years later held a third of the shares just as Swales did after a rights issue.

That of course was Steven Boler. The power behind the throne(s). Yet this man barely gets a mention when these threads/ discussions take place.

Three short years after the Lee 'revolution' Boler again backed a rights issue with Wardle and actually increased his shareholding again to become the largest single shareholder in the club (as his estate was even after his death) right until the time that Shinawatra came in.

Ashley Lewis represented his interests on the board and, I believe, those of Brenda Swales too. A City fan was said to have spat in her face during the protests which forced out and possibly led to the death of her husband so I don't suppose that she had much enthusiasm for City.

I wonder about Steven Boler's motivations after Swales was forced out. Always a major shareholder and yet apparently only prepared to boost his shareholding on the cheap and at no time offering any obvious additional investment to boost playing fortunes on the pitch. Or business drive on the board. A man who was disgusted with the treatment of Swales and stopped going to City and yet then two years later, the year Swales died, went on to become the largest single shareholder in the club. A man whose son, allegedly a ST holder at OT, owned said shareholding after his death. The same son Mark Boler who briefly sat on the board before Shinawatra thankfully cleared the decks.

At the very least Boler appears to have been a blocker to progressive restructuring at board level which would have allowed outside investment in the club, or a wholesale sale, for much of our dark period .

If he bore a grudge about the treatment of Swales, as well he might, then who knows what his private motivation might have been for taking this shareholding position in the club and yet apparently doing nothing else to further the cause of MCFC?

(Imagine having a partner in your carpet business who does nothing else to contribute and waits for you to work your balls off, risk your own money and hopefully deliver him a nice profit at some point. He'll buy some more of your business on the cheap though if you're struggling and the price is right. He used to really like his previous long-term partner, the previous owner, that you shat on though).

Swales and Lee clearly had the best interests of City at heart despite their flaws. I wonder though about this shadowy background figure Boler whose significant influence, and board representation, lasted right up until 2007!

Ghost of Swales indeed........

 

[pauldominic]

I think you'll find it was on Lever St before it ever made it to the Arndale.

Think you will find he started out in Sheffield on the market..then had mixed shops records/clothing in Sheffield...(Branson i mean)

I've no idea where Richard started out life, but I spent a fortune on singles and albums. I went to the arndale centre and also a record store in wilmslow.

Some of them ended up smashed because of the potential damage to my credibility, but boys are easily led astray aren't they.

 

[Fame Monster]

The number of managers we got through with Swales is astonishing and hopefully, unlikely to be repeated any time soon. The story concerning Reid's departure makes for interesting reading.

I think we played a match on telly under Reid and after a memorably poor performance by Keith Curle, we ended up getting beat. The post-match interview was conducted where Reid, visibly anger after defeat, was prodded and pushed by the interviewer about Curle's poor performance.

I think what was asked was along the lines of, "Does a performance like this justify the £2.5M spent on Curle?"
Anyway, Reid had had enough. He responded with something like, "Hang on a minute, we paid nowhere near that amount of money for him".

Of course, the figure Swales was putting about in public was not accurate. This outburst cost him his job and cost us the years of stability that we craved (at least I think that's what we wanted). After the interview, Swales phoned Reid at his home at 3 in the morning, pretty much telling him he'd be gone the next time we got beat. And that was the end of Peter Reid.

I thought the sacking was Reid was over Sam Ellis (his assistant at the time for you young uns reading this).........wasnt it a case of the players couldnt stand him, Swales got wind of this and told him to get rid of Ellis, which Reid refused to do, so Swales sacked him?

5th in the league at the time as well IIRC...........

Tbh mate, that's not coming from me. It's from a genuine itk from the club at that time. Whether you take his word for it or not is up to you, but I don't see any reason why he would lie to me about it. Obviously, something like that, even now, is not common knowledge for a lot of reasons. As I said though, the interview about Curle probably lead to a much quicker exit.

 

[bainy]

The "Swales Out" campaign was a pivotal moment in our recent history. I thought I'd jot down a few memories of this battle and see what others remember.

My first memory of a groundswell of opinion was in the mid eighties, I susepct during the relegation season of 1987. Leaflets were given out on the Kippax describing the man's lies and incomptetence. At this point we'd recovered fromt he shockr elegation of 83 yet were on our wy back down again. Fans were horrified as most had grown up with City at the top table - back then the fact that we'd only won one trophy in 17 years was decreed as a major issue.

I'm sure the first demonstrations started then, outside the Main STand after games, and I remember bricks being thrown at the windows there which got caged. This campaign petered out and we eventually got ourselves back to the top division again, even into the top 6, but simmering resentment of him never died. I remember an away game, I'm sure it was Everton, at the beginning of a season, , maybe 1990, where a banner was unfurled saying "£6m? Swales you fucking liar" and it was removed. He'd promised us A fortune to spend to ensure season ticket sales then spent nothing.

Thingsd were building to a head again after Swales appointed John Maddock as his henchman, and he immediately sacked the popular Peter Reid after a couple of poor performacnes right at the beginning of a season. This was the catalyst and the hatred boiled over and the demos started again.

This time Franny Lee saw and opprtunity and very publically, through Alec Johnson of The Mirror, announced his intention to oust Swales. I was living in London and still remember seeing the back back of the Mirror one day "Franny Lee Steps Forward at City!" it screamed. The fans were united. He was the man to save us. Hell, The Mirror, followe dby the Sun, threw their weight behind Franny and the demonstrations reached a huge crescedo. This may seem odd, but there's be 3000 fans chanting "We want Swales Out" on the forecourt ofter the game and both the Mirror and The Sun were giving out badges spporting Franny Lee with their logo on. i've still got one somewhere.

Swales hung on as the pressure increased. He started to realsie his time was up as the campaign intensified. Franny Lee got organsied, recruited Colin Barlow and began to wipe the floor with Swales in the PR war. Outside the Main Stand it was bedlam every week. Riot police were charging, the lot.

We the fans got organised. Fans called for himsto stand down at the AGAM. There was even a show of hands of shareholders which showed a majority wanted him out. But it mattered nothing because the major shareholders stood by him. We had a sit in on the Kippax after one game. There was a display of candles one televised game which Swales tried to disrupt by having them removed from people. The battle raged. The fans upped their game and things got nasty. Sometimes the whole ground appeared to chant "We want Swales Out!" One night a leaflet was handed round the pubs in South Manchester with Swale's address on. The police had to secure his property and he went into hiding. A story emereged that City fans broke into a nursing home ad verbally abused his sick mother. This was never proved, incidentally.

Swales knew he couldn't hang on but still seemed detirmined not to sell to Franny. He tried to find other buyers for the club and I think he even found a potential one.

Then, one board meeting, at Swales's house, I believe, his henchmen finally turned on him and for the first time outvoted him on Franny Lee's offer. He was finished, a broken man, and died soon after.

The minute's silence for him at Maine Road was perfectly observed.

Who here was involved? And who can flesh out my vague memories, which might be tainted by time?

Me. I was certainly involved. He was a disaster.

I knew something was wrong when Tony Book was kicked upstairs.

We had a side packed with internationals and potential / future internationals. We'd also come second in the league behind the dippers.

Joe Corrigan, Kenny Clements, Dave Watson, Mike Doyle, Willie Donachie, Asa Hartford, Gary Owen, Peter Barnes, Dennis Tueart, Mike Channon, Brian Kidd.

Imagine if Bell hadn't been injured by Buchan (never forgave him for that).

Wasn't Swales responsible for selling Lee as well?

Everything went downhill after Tony. Allison ripped the heart of the team out and within a year or two we were fighting relegation. Joe Corrigan almost single handedly kept us up in about '78/79.

My first season as a season ticket holder and big joe truly was superb!
Swales was a clown - however he was city through and through.
I always looked forward to the first home match of the season in anticipation of all the ground improvements that had been promised by swales - i soon learnt that this usually meant a bog seat had been replaced. He did however one year treat us to a new range of crisps called 'footballs' (i think) and they were thrown into the crowd at half time!!

 

[pauldominic]

Franny to Colin Bell, 'You're sacked, you can finish at the end of the day'.

I don't think they speak to this day.

Have you ever seen the Sky "Legends" City program which gets rerun from time to time? Lee, Summerbee and Tommy Booth are on it, talking City.

You can sense the tension betwen Buzzer and Lee on that.

I never heard about that although I can well believe it.

 

[bluwes]

ALLEGEDLYReids sacking was to do with Ellis and a betting scam with some of the Apprentices, who complained to the management about being ripped off