Last night’s Champions League victory over Sparta Prague was not the first time the Czech side travelled to Manchester to face the Blues. Back on 11 December 1967 Sparta were at Maine Road ready to face City but the game was called off that evening as fans queued to enter the ground. The pitch had been frozen earlier but as the ground thawed it became waterlogged.
That night Sparta invited City to a friendly in Prague but that game never occurred either.
Of course the 1967-68 season ended with City as League champions.
I’m always conscious that time moves quickly within football and that names of legendary players that your parents were familiar with may not be known by your children. Today, as it was 101 years since his birth yesterday (he was born on 22 October 1923) I’m publishing here a brief folklore piece I did on Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann. Hopefully, some newer/younger football fans may be familiar with the name. If not this may help…
It is one of City’s greatest stories involving a true Blue legend and a remarkable example of how Manchester has always been a welcoming city. Bernhard Trautmann was born in Germany in 1923 and, as a keen young athlete, he became a member of the Hitler Youth. He had high hopes of representing Germany in the decathlon at the 1940 Olympic Games and went to Berlin for several training camps. Sadly, war was to end all possibility of him becoming an Olympic hero.
Indoctrinated throughout his teenage and early adult life, Trautmann became a paratrooper during World War Two. The simple facts of what followed are astounding:
After being captured and escaping from the Russians and the Americans, Trautmann became a Prisoner of War held by the British.
He began playing as a goalkeeper while a prisoner.
He joined St Helen’s Town.
City’s goalkeeping crisis meant the Blues were desperate for a ‘keeper, any ‘keeper!
Trautmann given chance and joined City.
Protests and season tickets returned in disgust, but some including Rabbi Altmann spoke in support
Known as ‘Bert’, Trautmann soon became a hero to City fans.
In 1955 he became the first German to play in the FAC final.
1956 he helped City win the FA Cup.
In the 1956 final Trautmann was outstanding, diving brilliantly at times and bravely often. With a little over 15 minutes left to play the ‘keeper made a daring save at the feet of Birmingham’s Murphy. The collision left Bert in tremendous pain and film of the final shows that his head and neck were at an odd angle. The ‘keeper bravely played on, despite obvious pain. No one knew the full extent of the dramatic injury and then a second collision occurred a short while later. These were the days before substitutes and City had been down to ten men the previous year. Bert knew that it had cost them the final, but the pain was excruciating.
City won the FA Cup and in the days that followed the full extent of Bert’s injury was revealed. It was claimed he had ‘broken’ his neck and that a slight knock could have killed him.
Bert’s home city of Bremen, Germany, is well worth a visit and his boyhood home is still standing. There is also a small square named after him, next to his first football club Tura Bremen – where he played as a midfielder! Significantly, the square uses the English version of his name, adding to the view that Trautmann did so much for Anglo-German relations.
Bert once told me “I was born in Germany but I grew up in Manchester”. Now his birth city recognises his significance to our city.
On this day (23 October) in 2011 Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City defeated Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United 6-1 in the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford. The City goals came from Mario Balotelli 22, 60; Sergio Aguero 69; Edin Dzeko 90, 90+3; and David Silva 90+1. United’s was scored by Darren Fletcher 81.
The City win equalled the record score in a Manchester derby – also set by City and also in a League derby at Old Trafford (in a season City also got relegated!). You can read about that one here:
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
Today would’ve been legendary Manchester City ‘keeper Bert Trautmann’s 101st birthday. Here for subscribers is a small article about him that looks back to a day when I visited his birth place and first football club. It also talks of his involvement in women’s football.
Subscribe to get access – Monthly
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or there’s a special annual subscription below. Monthly subscribers get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022.
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or there’s a special annual subscription of £20 per year (works out about £1.67 per month). Annual subscribers get access to everything posted since the site was created in December 2020.
On this day (21 October) in 1987 Manchester City’s incredible run of 34 league games away from home without a win finally came to an end with a 4-2 win at Bradford (the first of two consecutive significant results at Bradford for the Blues). Those of us there that night will never forget the feelings of finally winning away from home.
For months we’d been hoping for a win and our travelling support seemed to increase game after game as we waited for that victory. You just had to be there and, fortunately for me, I was there on this Wednesday night in October.
It was however a tense night… Subscribers can read the story below, along with contemporary match reports.
Subscribe to get access
Read more of this content when you subscribe today.
It’s Wolves v Manchester City today (20 October 2024) and there are dozens of stories referencing Wolves on this website. There have been major finals and significant league games. Here’s the playing record so far:
Competition
Played
Won
Drawn
Lost
League
120
51
24
45
FA Cup
3
0
1
2
League Cup
6
4
0
2
European
0
0
0
0
Other
0
0
0
0
One of the away games I vividly remember going to came in October 1987 and is a great contrast with City’s modern day records:
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
It’s Wolves v City tomorrow and a nice opportunity to remember an interview I did with Steve Daley who, for many, many years was City’s record transfer. It wasn’t Daley’s fault his transfer was so expensive but it was something that was always hurled at him if he had a poor game. In this interview we discuss his transfer, City fans and the ridiculospending City were doing at the time we did the interview. It was a great time to interview Steve and I enjoyed it immensely, helping fill in some gaps.
This interview is available to subscribers below.
Subscribe to get access – Monthly
Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month to subscribe or sign up for a year at the special price of £20 (works out about £1.67 a month). Monthly subscribers can cancel anytime, so why not give it a try for a month? Monthly subscribers access everything posted since 1 October 2022 whereas annual subscribers get everything posted since the site started in December 2020 (see below).
It costs £20 to subscribe for a year (here). Books, interviews (audio and written), images, features and more have been posted to this site so far. More to come.
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
With Manchester City playing Wolves tomorrow here’s a match programme cover from a game between the two. This was a Christmas fixture from 1980. Some of the players look happy others seem to have a fixed stare as if to say ‘do we really need to hold this Christmas banner?’
That day City defeated Wolves 4-0 with goals from Tommy Hutchison (2 goals; holding the banner above the ‘a’ in Christmas), Bobby McDonald (3rd player from right) and Kevin Reeves (4th player from right).
You can find out more on the 1980s, John Bond (including a fairly frank audio interview I did with him years ago) and City elsewhere on this website. Subscribers get access to a lot of extra content. To subscribe see the following:
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
Here’s an interesting article from fifty years ago today (18 October 1974). Back then the Mirror’s Frank McGhee thought he had a solution to the problem of debt at leading football clubs. His solution was for clubs to move in together. He talked of City and United sharing. His best line though – and typical of the period (which demonstrates how we should never assume today’s ‘giants’ have always been giants nor should we assume they always will be) – was about Spurs not being able to fill their own ground but Frank Sinatra would.
Well worth reading.
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
On this day (17 October) in 1980 John Bond was officially appointed Manchester City’s manager. The season would end with him guiding the Blues to the FA Cup final.
Back in November 1995 I interviewed John at his home. At the time I was researching my in-depth history of the club called Manchester The Greatest City (later updated as Manchester The City Years).
I met John at his home and spent a good few hours with him chatting about the Blues and his career. I loved doing this interview and was always grateful for the time he gave me. He was quite frank, open and honest – which delighted me because he was a great talker. He was also happy for me to quote everything he said in the interview. I did end up quoting him extensively in the book (and in others I’ve produced).
You can listen to the first 17 minutes of the interview here. He talks about the steps taken by City to appoint him; the interview (and the directors involved in that notorious filmed interview for the City documentary in 1980-81); the signing of Tommy Hutchison, Bobby McDonald and Gerry Gow. As I said earlier, he is quite frank in his comments and that may surprise a few.
This audio recording of the first 17 minutes of the interview is available to subscribers. If you want to listen then please subscribe below. Other sections can be listened to (see below for details).
Of course as this interview was recorded on my old cassette recorder the quality isn’t the best but I’m working on improving that for future pieces.
Subscribe to get access
If you would like to listen to this frank interview and read 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) or £3 a month if you’d like to sign up for a month at a time. Each subscriber gets full access to over 1600 articles posted so far and the hundreds scheduled to be posted in the coming months.
Gary James' Football Archive 