As before, there’s a lot to interest and perhaps surprise here. This is the third part of my interview with John Bond from November 1995. I loved every minute of our chat but some of the things that were said stunned me at the time.
In this clip John talks about the aftermath of the 1981 FA Cup final with Tottenham; the way he thought City would challenge and the transfer of Trevor Francis. Within this section came the first time ever that I’d been asked to turn off the cassette recorder while the person I was interviewing explained something to me. We agreed that everything on the tape could be quoted – hence the reason I’m happy to play this now – but anything off tape would have to be checked. All these years later I still respect John’s wishes of course.
When you listen to the recording you’ll recognise the point where the tape is switched off and some related comments have been edited out. I have to stress that John’s comments seem a little out of sync because of that and it is worth explaining that his comments were not about anybody alive today. They merely explained something that had happened that he did not like or agree with but these comments were not about a footballer from the time or anyone alive today (2021).
So, here exclusive to subscribers is the third part of my interview (like the other parts it lasts about 17 minutes):
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If you would like to listen to the third part of this frank interview (and the other parts) and read all the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year, here) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time (below). Annual subscribers have access to everything posted since December 2020.
Subscribe to get access
If you would like to listen to the third part of this frank interview (and the other parts) and read all the in-depth articles on this site (including the entire Manchester A Football History book) then please subscribe. It works out about £1.67 a month if you take out an annual subscription (£20 per year, above) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time (here). Monthly subscribers have access to everything posted since 1 October 2022.
Gary James' Football Archive 