Help Billy McNeill Make City Great Again!

A little over forty years ago when my Manchester City season ticket book arrived this leaflet was inside. Billy McNeill’s quote told ‘us’ supporters how our support would be absolutely vital helping him make City great again. I’ve kept hold of it all these years because, within only a couple of months, Billy McNeill had left (September 1986) – we stayed to fight on! Looking back I don’t blame Billy – he was sold a life at Aston Villa that seemed better than what he had at City (in the end it was worse!). Years later I interviewed him and brought this up. He admitted that leaving was the biggest mistake he’d made. I kept the leaflet because, like thousands of fans, I did stay during the bad days and (as with Billy’s move to Villa) things did get worse. There was a lot of positivity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but the period 1996 to 1999 was not so great.