Category Archives: Joe Mercer

Back in the late 1960s there was a popular Manchester City chairman whose family had been involved with the club since the very beginning of the club. That was Albert Alexander. Here’s a profile I wrote in 2012 on him. It’s about 900 words long and is free to read. Enjoy!

Albert Alexander was the second generation of the Alexander family to play a prominent role in the development and history of Manchester City.  His father, also Albert, had been involved with the Club from the 1890s and had held various positions including vice-chairman, and even manager for a spell in 1925-26.

Like his father, the younger Albert dedicated his life to the Blues.  Inevitably, he spent most of his boyhood watching the Club develop and, as he grew, he became more involved with behind the scenes work at the Club’s first home Hyde Road.  He was a member of the Ground Committee which performed crucial activities such as stewarding and ground maintenance.

Alexander also managed the Club’s A team and provided support in whatever way necessary to ensure the Blues succeeded.  He was more than happy to work through the ranks and take on any duty necessary.  His son Eric, who was Chairman in the early 1970s, remembers that his father had suffered during the First World War but that didn’t stop him from putting his energies into the Blues:  “He was a very good footballer and cricketer but he was gassed in the Great War and had to give it up.  It affected him throughout his life, although it’s fair to say he recovered enough to fulfil a happy normal life apart from playing of course. 

“He took up golf, but his love for football was such that he started the ‘A’ team at City.  He started it in 1921 and ran it through until 1963.  He enjoyed working with the youngsters and developing them.  He gained an awful lot of satisfaction from that, particularly when players like Matt Busby developed their skills and style as part of the ‘A’ team.”

Ultimately, after many years of loyal service Alexander became a City director.  This came after the Blues became aware that Manchester United were hoping he would join their board.  It is highly likely Alexander would have turned the Reds down, and it was appropriate that he became a director at Maine Road.  It was an honour he deserved for years of dedication to the City cause.

While director he felt the passion all fans feel for the Blues and he also felt the pain and worries during the Club’s struggles in the early Sixties.  He wanted better and, in 1965 as fans demonstrated following City’s lowest attended League game, he came out to face them and talk with them about his hopes and ambitions for the Club.  He apologised for City’s appalling decline.  It says much about his courage and the respect fans had for him that they dispersed.  It is doubtful whether any other director would have been respected in this manner at such a low point.

Understandably, Alexander who was City’s Chairman by this point wanted to see his side successful and later that summer he appointed Joe Mercer as manager.  It was a brave decision as Mercer had been out of work for a year and had suffered a stroke at Aston Villa.  Other names, such as former City hero Peter Doherty and Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, had been expected to be appointed by the media, so this move could easily have been seen negatively.

Alexander guided City through the successful years of the Mercer-Allison period and was probably the first Chairman to be hugely popular with fans.  Everyone seemed to love ‘Little Albert’ as Mercer dubbed him.

Many of City’s achievements during these years were dedicated to Alexander by Mercer, while journalist Bill Fryer commented in 1970:  “He is highly revered in the game and by the public, and I have no doubt good deals have been done for City out of Albert’s friendships because in reality the whole of football is a ‘club’.”

Sadly, despite the Chairman’s popularity, his final years saw him suffer at the hands of the 1970 takeover battle.  Alexander found out about the takeover when he received a knock on his door at breakfast one day.  It was a complete shock to him.

The takeover destroyed much that was good about City at this point, including the Mercer-Allison partnership.  However, it is rarely mentioned how the takeover affected Alexander, the man who had guided City with distinction through some dark days when no one else wanted to know.  He had taken the Club from the lowest point it had experienced since joining the League, to a position of strength with trophies galore.  Those bidding for control wanted the glory, Alexander’s motives were somewhat different – like all true fans he wanted City no matter what. 

Alexander stood down as Chairman and was made Life President – an honour first given to Lawrence Furniss seven decades earlier, proving the significance of this recognition.  Unfortunately, Alexander’s health was deteriorating by this point and he passed away soon after.

Manchester City owes a great deal to the dedication of Albert Alexander and the other members of his family.  The Alexanders helped guide the Blues from the 1890s through to the reign of Peter Swales, and in some ways on via the continuing involvement of Eric Alexander (still a regular attendee until his death in 2019).  Their contribution should never be forgotten.