Category Archives: 1889-90

True Blues – Walter Chew

Continuing the weekly series of ‘True Blue’ figures associated with the early years of Manchester City, here’s an article on Walter Chew, a man associated with the first known season of St Mark’s (though there are serious doubts on whether the 16 year old played in the earliest known game). Chew went on to be a key figure in the club’s formative years but there are some myths out there about him and that time. Please note: My MCFC v AVFC programme article earlier this season included a typo which said he was 15 at the time of St Mark’s earliest known game. That should’ve read 16 (his obituary above is from August 1948 which says he was 84 at the time of his death, meaning he’d have been 16 in November 1880). You can find out more about Chew and the latest research below:

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There will be another ‘True Blue’ featured next Monday. Use the tag ‘True Blues’ to find other profiles in this series.

The full series of True Blue profiles will feature:

Lawrence Furniss, John Allison, Joshua Parlby, Walter Chew, William Sumner, Tom Maley, St Mark’s community leaders, Billy Meredith, John Chapman, William Beastow and James Moores.

Manchester City in the Early 1990s

We hear so much about the Premier League era and how the game has changed, so for today’s feature I’ve decided to take a look at the early 1990s and the birth of the Premier League. It’s almost thirty years since the structure of league football changed forever and during that time some clubs have benefitted from the new structure and others have found life difficult. City have experienced both extremes of course.

The narrative that we often hear about the Blues’ journey over the last thirty years is that they’ve gone from a struggling club to a hugely successful one and, while it is true City are highly successful today and that the Blues entered their lowest ever point in the late 1990s, it is wrong to assume that the position the club found itself in by 1999 was typical of the club’s full history. 

So, here for subscribers, I’m taking a look back at the early 1990s and remind ourselves where the Blues were; who their rivals were; and the state of football at that time:

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City’s history via 16 players

I’m always keen to find links between today’s Manchester City and the key players of the past and so I set myself the task of trying to find connections from the club’s first competitive game in 1890 through to the Premier League successes of today.

The idea was to see how few players I could find to form a chain through the decades.  Subscribers can read the result of my efforts below:

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