Was Alan Ball as bad as people remember?

M18CTID said:
I had very little time for him and his comments about enjoying watching Liverpool thrash us 6-0 wound me up to fuck. However, as others have said, it was the first 10 or 11 games that did for us. We were fucking awful in those matches by and large and couldn't even claim we were unlucky in any of them with the possible exception of the away derby where we lost narrowly, (that was the game where no away fans were allowed as United were still doing up the North Stand so I watched the screening at Maine Road), and unless I'm mistaken Neville got away with a professional foul on Rosler which should've got him a red card, and Quinn missed a sitter that he should've buried. After that initial run, our results improved immensely and so did the football, and we only went down on goal difference. I actually thought we might have a good chance of bouncing back straight away under him and while he only lasted 3 games the following season, I think it was clear even at that early stage that it wasn't going to happen. We beat Ipswich at home in the first game on a Friday night in a half-decent performance but then went to Bolton and lost 1-0. I wasn't at that game but by all accounts we were every bit as bad as we were at the start of the previous season. I was at Stoke though and before we knew it, we were 2-0 down and the City fans were joining in en masse with the "Fuck off Alan Ball" chant.

All in all, he was the wrong appointment but don't anyone try and tell me that Brian Horton should've been kept on. There's some serious re-writing of history going on here - either that or some posters didn't watch any of our games between mid-December 1994 and mid-April 1995. Our football initially under Horton and in particular following the signings of Rosler, Walsh, and Beagrie was indeed entertaining and that carried on into the start of the 1994-95 season, but it was mainly at home where we played well as the away results were shocking. There was the 3-0 at home to West Ham, the 4-0 against Everton, and the famous 5-2 against Spurs which was a great advert for attacking football from both sides. When we won at Ipswich in early December 1994 I think we were 6th in the league but that was as good as it got because we then embarked on a prolonged downward spiral of form that saw us dragged into a relegation battle. It was only the back-to-back wins over the Easter weekend at home to Liverpool and away to eventual champions Blackburn (both great results of course) that saw us pull away from trouble but even with a couple of games to go there was an outside chance that we could be relegated. We eventually finished just 4 points clear of the drop zone. Horton was a decent bloke by and large and like many blues I backed him to the hilt when that wanker John Maddock decided to appoint him, but the way some go on you'd think he was the best manager in our history. He fucking wasn't and his CV before or since City hardly makes for spectacular reading.
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Leave our brian alone. Ball was dog shit
 
Even Frank Clarke couldn't pull us out of the nosedive Ball put us in. Seem to remember he only bought players smaller than him.
 
SatOnTheWall said:
The basic problem was that Alan Ball was appointed two months too late (he got the job just a week before the season started if memory serves). The first ten games were effectively our pre-season, cos we had no manager for the actual pre-season. The blame for that lies squarely with the Chairman, who sacked Brian Horton with absolutely no fucking idea what he was going to do next. It was very convenient for f h lee that Ball took all the flak. He still is taking all the flak. If Ball had been the issue, things would have improved at least to a degree when he left. But we all know how well it went after his departure, don't we?

I never saw franny lee play for City and the rest of my family did, so I was the only one to not be blinded by lee the player. lee the chairman (such as he was) was in my opinion the single biggest blight on Manchester City in my lifetime, if not in the whole history of the club. Lower mid-table first division when he took over, third division when he left.
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Horton wasn't sacked he was told by Lee that he wanted to bring in Mr X, don't know who it was, if Mr X did not come then Horton would stay in place if Mr X came he would look after Horton but he wasn't prepared to wait and see. Horton knew that Huddersfield were looking for a manager and he fancied that cant blame him as I would have done the same Mr X left Lee down and this is why he turned to Ball, he wasn't a mate of Lee's.

I cant agree that
"Lee single biggest blight on Manchester City",
"if not in the whole history of the club"

Lee picked up the 20 year mess left by swales, the business was close to bankrupt when he took over. Swales did his best due to his bitterness with Lee to wreck his takeover he hamstrung the club with his exit deal and it only recovered when the Sheikh took over. Lee was then forced to spend a big chunk of the take over money on the Kippax stand rebuild he was also let down by Colin Barlow I think Lee made a mess of things but he did his level best to turn things around in the best interest of the club whereas swales was only interested in what the club could do for him and his huge ego, City was a vehicle for his ambition, he wasn't a City fan and never saw another game once he left despite having hospitality seats as part of the deal waheas Lee still attends games
 
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