Author Archives: garyjamesfootballarchive

The 1890s: 1895-1896 Test Match Special

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1800 word article on Manchester City in 1895-96. An interesting season and one which started to pave the way for everything that followed while reminding those who ran the club that fans’ feelings always had to be considered!

This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

The 1890s: 1894-1895 Parlby’s City

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 2800 word article on Manchester City’s first season.

This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and the Club’s first national success.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

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More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

The 1890s: 1893-1894 Ardwick’s Last

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 2000 word article on Ardwick’s last season in the Football League, 1893-94 and the birth of Manchester City.

Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe

More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

The 1890s: 1892-1893 League Leaders

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1800 word article on Ardwick’s first season in the Football League, 1892-93

Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe

More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

The 1890s: 1891-1892 A Second Manchester Cup

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1100 word article on Ardwick’s exploits in the 1891-92 season. The last season before the club joined the Football League.

Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe

More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

The 1890s: 1890-1891 The Brewery Men

The series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s continues today with a 1300 word article on Ardwick’s exploits in the 1890-91 season. This team image has been coloured to show the club’s colours of that season. Note: the story of City adopting blue and white for the first time due to Masonic influence in 1894 is a myth. The Club had been wearing blue and white from as early as 1887.

Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe

More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

Jeremy Vine and Media Today

If you missed myself and Pete Boyle on BBC Radio 2 today at 1.30pm (UK time) talking about City and United then you can play it here

It was the Jeremy Vine show (after 1hour 40mins):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00209p6

Enjoy! I was on as a City supporter and Pete Boyle represented the United angle.

Sadly, our time was reduced and so I didn’t have chance to mention Sir Howard Bernstein, who died this weekend. Howard was a key figure behind Manchester’s redevelopment and was hugely influencial in the regeneration of east Manchester, including the stadium and the wider Etihad campus.

His death is a sad loss to Manchester. A politician who did what he said he’d do and helped improve the city.

Something that has been getting a bit of attention this weekend concerns MCFC sponsorship deals back in 2011. The journalist Nick Harris was complaining about it yesterday and implied the value was inflated and so on. It’s all fairly typical stuff but it is worth noting that Harris’ view has changed significantly since 2011. Back then he actually claimed City’s sponsorship was fair, and possibly even undervalued!

I won’t go into it all but here’s how his August 2011 piece was headlined:

Sir Howard Bernstein is mentioned in other articles on this site such as:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/sir-howard-bernstein/

The Financial Significance of Football to Manchester

Over the years I’ve done quite a few talks on the history of football to Manchester and have also focused on the financial significance of the sport to Manchester. Here are a few slides that spell out a few facts. Obviously, I normally include explanation behind a lot of this when I talk but nevertheless I think they may be of interest as stand alone slides.

These slides were from 2019 and so the figures will have changed since then but they do give a general feel for the financials:

The 1890s: 1889-1890 Illuminated Ardwick

Starting today: A new series of features on Manchester City in the 1890s! Ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC? Well, now’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick and the birth of Manchester City. It starts with the second half of the 1889-90 season for Ardwick and includes a story of a floodlit game.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or sign up a year at a time for the discounted annual fee of £20. This gives access to everything on the site, including PDFs of 3 of my books and various other articles, interviews and audio material. Each subscriber has access to all content posted during their subscription period too. Why not sign up for a month and see what you think?

Subscribe

More on the 1890s tomorrow. Why not subscribe and read this and all the other subscriber features?

The 1890s: Ardwick and Manchester City

A new series of features starts tomorrow. This series provides a season by season account of Ardwick AFC and Manchester City FC in the 1890s. Some are 2000+ word articles, others are a bit less, but each adds to the story of how the club evolved. So, if you’ve ever wondered how MCFC came into being and what happened to Ardwick AFC, here’s your chance to find out. This series covers the final years of Ardwick, the birth of Manchester City and Manchester’s first national title.

Watch this space tomorrow for details.