When should Swales have left?

[spacecadet]

Someone has already said it, 1972.

 

[john@staustell]

Interesting to hear peoples thoughts on this? Obviously we lost the 1974 League Cup Final to Wolves which he admitted himself was a shock after expecting to win it. But two years later we obviously beat Newcastle and then were runners up to Liverpool the following season. How did people respond to the spend/spend Allison return years? should he have gone before then?

Then the obvious milestones include the 1981 Cup Final loss, relegations in 83 and 87 and then the disaster that was the 1993 QF against Spurs the day the Umbro Stand was opened.

Perhaps when Howard Kendall was allowed to return to Goodison Park?

In the early years I've mentioned did City have alternative owners/chairman lined up. I know when Francis became active we had the likes of Mike McDonald sniffing around but what about before then?

Maybe one for Gary James perhaps?

the return of allison and the appointment of alan fucking ball were "milestones" that ruined our club. both unbelievably bad appointments. the first was naieve, the second disastarous from the very first day.
it took a billionaire to come along to fix things.

we are a very very lucky club.

Yep all true. Franny sacked Horton without a plan and ended up with his pal Mr Ball. Both Swales and Lee were far too emotionally involved - big supporters of the club who's heart took them where anyone sensible would not. We needed a cold, clinical chairman as we now have.

2 billionaires came along - although Frank was only on paper as it turned out.

But without Frank buying up all those silly little shares there would be absolutely no Sheik.

 

[lancs blue]

I still remember an article in the MEN shortly after he appointed Ron Saunders. The gist of it was "if he fails I'll resign", needless to say that was the first in a long list of broken promises.

 

[M18CTID]

He helped us with tickets when we were teenagers in the 70's, and I wouldn't say he was bad for the club in the early/mid 70's, but I think he lost the plot after he appointed Allison to replace Book and spunked millions on players that took us backwards.

It took us decades to recover from that period of madness, but he loved the limelight and was often on TV telling everyone the money was' staying in football, Brian'.

It was a general decline over decades. I don't personally think there is a date when it could be said he should have gone, but he had outstayed his welcome years before he finally went.

I'm not so sure Lee was much better than Swales for that matter, either. Swales had the club at heart, however misguided his stewardship may have been. Lee just wanted to make money out of us.

I have mixed feelings about Swales. Ultimately, he didn't set the club up for sustained success, but I also remember the help he gave my friends and I when we wanted tickets for big games, like the Wembley finals, when we were young, so maybe I'm a bit biased. I didn't have the hatred towards him that a lot of City fans did towards the end of his tenure.

A bit biased? I'd say you're being a lot more than a bit biased lol. We're all entitled to our opinions of course but I couldn't disagree more with your post. It actually worries me just how much leeway some blues are prepared to give Swales compared to Lee, especially as Swales had far longer at the helm and fucked up time after time after time. Lee was by no means perfect but I wouldn't mind betting that if he hadn't come in when he did, we could've been staring at administration or worse as Swales had run us into the ground. And to say Lee was only in it for the money and Swales wasn't is bizarre. Swales was obsessed with money - why else would he routinely fiddle attendance figures to the extent that he did?!!!

I wouldn't say I hated Swales though - in a way I pitied him but he could've done us all a favour including himself if he'd fucked off a lot sooner than he did. On the one occasion that I did get to speak to him, he didn't come across as too unpleasant and the one time I really felt for him was when City were away at Luton and we were the first club to play there after Luton imposed their ban on away fans. Swales was on Grandstand beforehand debating it with Luton's utter **** of a chairman David Evans. Swales was sticking up for those City fans banned from entering Kenilworth Road and I do believe he was showing genuine empathy but because Evans was an MP and a better orator, Swales was struggling to get his points across.

 

[Bozzie]

Certainly at the time when Swales was in charge the Chairman was really only required to get one decision correct and that was appointing the right manager. Despite having far more attempts at it than most football club Chairmen, it's difficult to see (with the exception of Howard Kendall) when Swales ever made the right call.

 

[jimharri]

Certainly at the time when Swales was in charge the Chairman was really only required to get one decision correct and that was appointing the right manager. Despite having far more attempts at it than most football club Chairmen, it's difficult to see (with the exception of Howard Kendall) when Swales ever made the right call.

Tony Book.

 

[Bozzie]

Certainly at the time when Swales was in charge the Chairman was really only required to get one decision correct and that was appointing the right manager. Despite having far more attempts at it than most football club Chairmen, it's difficult to see (with the exception of Howard Kendall) when Swales ever made the right call.

Tony Book.

Stand corrected on that one.

 

[oz1975]

If he had gone earlier it could have changed the entire course of history and maybe not for the better. Instead of being where we are now we could have ended up like Villa - remember just 5 years ago they were on the verge of competing with us to take the CL place? Unable to make that final push without the investment we had they have now gone into stagnation and a very real threat of relegation. That could have been us if we hadn't had the money to buy players we have in recent years.
I guess what I'm trying to say is for all the shit we went through with Swales, we are now in a good position. Would you swap places with any other team at the moment? I doubt many blues would.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I was thinking, reading this thread, did Swales actually attend City games regularly before he got involved? He talks about being a fan but was a a season ticket holder? The first club he got actively involved with was Altrincham, which makes me wonder whether he just saw us a a means to an end.

 

[aguero93:20]

I agree with the 1972 posters.