Were you Swales out, or Swales in?

[Anonymous]

Reading all this just begs the question - was Swales actually a rag working undercover?

He took over a decent team that had a chance of going places, changed his managers as often as his underpants, sold good players and replaced them with over-priced dross, wrecked the club finances and infrastructure, relegated us and then sold a rotting hulk of a club to Franny Lee, when anyone who truly loved the club would have given up and gone years before.

Was he Louis Edwards' bastard son?

More something he cobbled together out of condemned mince and carpet tiles, rather than bastard son, methinks

 

[njmcfc1894]

i was 14 at the time (92-late 93) for the swales out protests but i used to stand in the kippax top corner near the section they sometimes gave away fans and about 10 mins to go same guy would come round asking who was protesting, i used to go, i remember security would have the barriers out already for it, sometimes police had to get involved especially if we'd lost as well.

i wasnt about for the ron saunders/allison/bond era so cant comment on the early protests but i think PS loved city too much and to the end he was so obsessed with getting above united that he wouldnt relinquish power, im sure it probably took his wife and close friends to make him do it, he even died 4 days before relegation so didnt have to watch the comical quinn/lomas/ball incident.

RE franny i think he did great stuff off field (badge,souvinier shop,stadium in place) but where it matters on pitch it was ridiculous, i liked brian the beard and unless someone with decent track record was coming in then he shouldve been left in charge.

Fuck it were champions now, it was all part of building up our resolve for the stoke relegation/york away/wycombe away/wycombe at home, you get the picture

UP THE BLUES

 

[reedy]

def. OUT

 

[Sky Blue]

I had one of those daft Forward With Franny badges....Swales out!

 

[cyberblue]

Think by the end everyone wanted him to go .Pity he didnt go earlier with a bit of dignity before he lost everyones respect

 

[Seosa]

I didn't have any feelings either way until 1981-82 when I saw him on a debate show talking about million pound footballers - he was boasting about how City were the 1st team to have 3 separate £1m plus players and how we'll keep on spending. Even at 13 or 14 I knew his approach seemed wrong especially as the Club started making cutbacks in coaching staff and playing squad that same season. Then he sold Trevor Francis and that made me totally Swales Out.

I took part in almost all the demos from 1984 onwards (I didn't do any before 84 and there were so many after 84 that I must have missed a couple somewhere along the way).

Over the last few weeks I've been researching film footage for the project I'm doing with the North West Film Archive on City and I have to say that seeing interviews with Swales from 1973 to 1981 I wish the demos had started a lot earlier. I cannot believe some of the comments he made publicly and wish we'd all been wise a little earlier.

A great club became a laughing stock under him and led to the situation where we're now seen as a club with 'no history' - it's the period 1978-2007 that's out of character with our history, not 2008 onwards!

This quote needs to sent to every City-hating bastard in the country. Wouldn't do any harm to send it Bayern & Borussia either...

 

[Pam]

Was anybody Swales "in". Anybody at at all? Didn't they ram-raid his carpet shop or something?

 

[Gordyola]

I was merely being flippant - as the rest of my comments I agree wholeheartedly. He was a true city fan and loved the club - he just couldn't see that he was killing it... frannie on the other hand... oh, right, err, bollocks.

I couldnt disagree more.

Swales was an opportunist with no affinity to City. He came in from Altrincham as a neutral with the remit to forge a strong board from warring takeover factions. He stuffed the board with cronies like Boler who had no interest in football and being Chairman it served as the platform for Swales to prosper within the FA hierachy. Noel White, his business partner, secured a place on the Liverpool board which was under the patronage of the Moores family.

Swales took over when City was a top club. We had overtaken United and had one of the best teams and grounds in the country. He loved City as one would a golden goose. He clearly loved the power, attention and status it brought. He liked to play the tycoon with gestures of pure vanity in buying £1m players whilst neglecting to apply basic business principles. Patronising to his own ends. The City/Allison/Bond tv documentary said it all.

The club was funadamentally so badly run that the downward spiral was inevitable under his stewardship. No manager stood a chance. If he had cared about the club he would have stepped aside. His initial remit was an interim role as "neutral honest broker" but power does have a tendency to corrupt. Financially it proved a nice earner too until there was nothing left to take out or flog off. Even then he clung on, holding out for rewards to leave. He knew what he was doing alright.

Frannie at least stopped the slide into oblivion. The problems off the field overtook those on the field. Lee actually does care about City and laid some foundations for the future like the move to the Etihad. He did things wrong but Makin & Wardle and Shinawatra also found that City was a black hole for investment. Compare the investment by ADUG in infrastructure and management.

Remember how Swales sold Lee to Cloughs Derby where he won another league champions medal? An early gesture of pique rather than strong management. Also remember that the White and Swales chain of electrical and record shops quickly slipped into oblivion once they had secured a place on footballs gravy train. Some of us do remember.

100% This ^^^^^^

 

[baildon blue]

Swales out for me never liked him after John Bond left and Trevor Francis the 80s were horrible years to be supporting City.

 

[mike4210]

Out for defo. Loved his barnett too