Category Archives: Free

Manchester City’s 1976-77 Season

As League Cup holders Manchester City expected to challenge for honours again in 1976-77. It became a remarkable season with some incredible highs; important transfers; return form injury and much more. You can read all about that season in this 2000+ word article.

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This article is available to subscribers. Annual subscribers get access to everything posted on this site since December 2020 (including PDFs of 2 out of print books and audio interviews with Malcolm Allison John Bond etc.) while monthly subscribers get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022. It costs £20 for annual subscription (above) and £3 per month for monthly subscription (here)

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Happy Christmas

Merry Christmas to all. On this day (25 December) in 1896 Manchester City played their first competitive Christmas Day fixture.  The game, staged within sight of the present day Etihad Stadium, was a derby match with Newton Heath (United).  It was played at Bank Street, Clayton (behind the Velodrome and the current BMX site). It was a Manchester derby which ended in a Newton Heath victory.

Stan Bowles

On this day (24 December) in 1948 the great maverick Mancunian footballer Stan Bowles was born. Here’s a profile of him…

Bowles joined City as an amateur on 27 July 1965, becoming an apprentice on 1 October 1965 and then professional on 29 December 1966.

Then in 1967 things really began to happen and Bowles’ first game was as a substitute in a League Cup tie at home to Leicester City. He scored two goals in the second half and the following Saturday he made his League debut another memorable one. He scored two again!

Lots of stories have circulated over the years about his time at City. Like Mario Balotelli many years later some are truthful; others are exaggerations and some are completely make up.

The stories go that Bowles once missed a flight to Amsterdam where City were to play against Ajax, and that Bowles’ interest in the horses led to Joe Mercer saying: ‘If Stan could pass a betting shop like he can pass a ball, he’d be a world beater.’ Suspensions and other issues led to Stan refusing to sign a new contract and he asked to leave. That in itself led to him being suspended for 14 days on the advice of the Football League.

Inevitably Bowles moved on, first to Bury (July 1970) and then to Crewe (September 1970).

A spell at Carlisle followed and then in September 1972 a bid of £110,000 took him to Loftus Road where he won five England caps as a QPR player.

Seven years later Nottingham Forest’s Brian Clough bought him for £210,000 but sold him again less than a year later after further issues. Further spells were reported at Orient, Brentford, Hounslow and Epping.

In 2015 it was announced he was suffering with Alzheimer’s Disease, like his former boss Joe Mercer.

At City Bowles made a total of 20 first team appearances, scoring 4 goals, but he remains recognised as a hugely talented player.

There are articles on this site mentioning Bowles. Here’s a selection:

Welcome to Gary James’ Football Archive

City Make History With Foreign Player Rule?

On this day (23 December) in 1995 there was a great deal of speculation that Manchester City would be the first team to field four ‘foreign players’ which wound PFA chief Gordon Taylor up considerably. There had been a rule in place limiting the number of foreign players to three but this had been challenged by English clubs, following the historic Bosman judgement in the European Court of Justice.

Basically, before Bosman challenged the restrictive trade practices UEFA insisted that a maximum of three foreign players could appear for clubs. The Bosman judgement was immediately considered by Premier League clubs who felt it meant they could play as many players from the European Union as they wanted (though the maximum of 3 from outside the EU was still a limit).

The Premier League, supported by the FA, said the ruling meant that City and other clubs could play as many EU players as they wanted. At Maine Road Alan Ball had brought Danish under-21 international Ronnie Ekelund on loan and together with Eike Immel, Uwe Rosler and Georgi Kinkladze it was suggested he would play against Chelsea on 23 December 1995.

In the end Ekelund came on as substitute for Rosler, so 4 ‘foreign players’ had appeared that day but only 3 at any one time (though there’s a whole other discussion to be had about players from other United Kingdom countries and Ireland and whether they should count as that day the Republic of Ireland’s Niall Quinn played, as did Gerry Creaney from Scotland and Welsh international Kit Symons!).

As for the game… City lost 1-0 to Chelsea!

Ekelund had a brief up and down career at City, making only 6 (plus 3 as sub) appearances and he was soon off to Barcelona, while the change to the ‘foreign player’ rule was to have a massive impact on the development of football in England, paving the way for the multitude of talented players at City today.

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If you have enjoyed this piece and would like to support my writing while also accessing further great content, then why not subscribe? Those who subscribe on an annual basis get access to everything posted on this site since December 2020 (including PDFs of 2 out of print books, and audio interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison etc.). Those subscribing on a monthly basis get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022. It’s £20 a year (subscribe here) or £3 per month (subscribe below). Why not try it for a month?

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If you have enjoyed this piece and would like to support my writing while also accessing further great content, then why not subscribe? Those subscribing on a monthly basis get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022. It’s £20 a year (subscribe above) or £3 per month (subscribe here). Why not try it for a month?

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Rocastle-White Swap

On this day (22 December) in 1993 David White left Manchester City after years of dedication to the Blue cause. He was transferred to Leeds United in a swap deal for David Rocastle. It was a sad loss for the Blues but it was also a new beginning for Rocastle.

You can read more on the 1993-94 season here:

Manchester City Season – 1993-94

There are lots of articles on this site that mention David White. Take a look at:

Welcome to Gary James’ Football Archive

Newcastle 0 Manchester City 4

On this day last year (Sunday 19 December 2021) Manchester City (the Premier League leaders) defeated Newcastle 4-0 at St James’ Park. City were on a run of seven consecutive league wins but this was not the easy, walkover the score suggests.

Ruben Dias scored an early goal with the second coming from Joao Cancelo – an incredible strike. In the second-half, a Riyad Mahrez volley made it 3-0 and the fourth came from Raheem Sterling.

Here are the highlights:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/newcastle-united-0-4-manchester-city-extended-highlights-63775519

City Come From Behind To Win 3-1

Today (16 December) in 2001 Manchester City went a goal behind at home to Bradford City before Lucien Mettomo headed a equaliser. Goals from Kevin Horlock and Shaun Wright-Phillips helped the Blues achieve a 3-1 victory before 30,749. You can see the goals here (for those seat counters out there: notice that the empty spaces are surrounding the relatively small number of Bradford fans. The away section held approximately 3,000 at this point, plus segregation):

There are a variety of articles on here about this era, Maine Road and the players. Some are free to read and others are for subscribers. Do a few searches and see what you like. Here’s a search on ‘Bradford’ mentions:

Welcome to Gary James’ Football Archive

Trautmann’s Back

On this day (15 December) back in 1956 was Bert Trautmann’s first League game after his devastating injury in the 1956 FAC final. It was also filmed by the BBC and ended in a 3-2 victory by Wolves.  It wasn’t a great Trautmann performance sadly and the general perception is that he was rushed back too soon. Here’s a match report of the game:

Lots of articles about Bert Trautmann appear on my website. Some are freely available while others are for subscribers only. Take a look at them via the following link and if you’re interested in any that are only available to subscribers then please subscribe. Thanks.

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/bert-trautmann/