Category Archives: Seasons

IN SEARCH OF THE BLUES – Neil Pointon (interviewed in April 2005)

On this day (July 11) in 1990 Howard Kendall signed Neil Pointon for Manchester City from Everton. He went on to make a total of 86 appearances over a two year spell with the Blues.  Here’s an interview I did with Neil in April 2005. I met him at his home to talk about his career and life, including that Manchester derby and his tackle on Ryan Giggs.

This interview is available to subscribers to this website below. If you are interested in subscribing: It costs £20 per year (works out about £1.67 a month) or you can pay a month at a time (£3 per month) and still access everything for as long as you are a member. The archive now contains around 400 articles/posts including the entire contents of 2 of my books: you can download PDFs of the 2010 edition of Manchester A Football History and my very first book From Maine Men To Banana Citizens. There are also archive audio interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison and George Graham.

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Brian Kidd

The news has been released that Brian Kidd has left Manchester City after 12 years in a coaching role there. Brian was of course a truly successful footballer with both Manchester clubs and has been a legendary coach with both clubs too, helping Ferguson, Mancini, Pellegrini and Guardiola find major trophy success.

He is one of the nicest men in football and his presence will be missed.

On leaving Brian has said: “It has been a privilege to be part of such an exciting chapter in this Club’s history.

“I can only thank Pep, Roberto and Manuel for their leadership during a period of huge change and challenges for everyone involved here. I hope to have offered them enough help and support along the way to have made a difference and played a small role in the different teams’ successes.

“Having also played for Manchester City, it was very special to return and throughout the last 12 years I have felt the warmth of the leadership, the staff and of the fans throughout. I am incredibly grateful to all of them.

“I would also like to say what an honour it has been to witness the evolution of the Club under the stewardship of Sheikh Mansour and leadership of Khaldoon Al Mubarak.

“I am a Manchester man, and the work that has been done to improve the City of Manchester and the local community is fantastic. I wish only the best for Manchester City moving forwards.”

When the time is right I’ll post a detailed profile of Kiddo here but for the moment here are links to a few stories already posted to this site:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/2021/01/22/brian-kidd-nets-four-highlights/
Kidd’s Double

MCFC v LFC, October 1977

Historic Name That Ground – Week 2 Answer

On Monday I asked ‘can you name the ground featured in the image above? I know it looks a little familiar to many of the subscribers, followers and visitors to this site. It’s an image from the 1920s. So, can you work out which stadium this is.’ Well, the answer is…

Murrayfield Stadium. So, why did I say this looked familiar to those who visit this site? Well, believe it or not the stadium was modelled on Manchester City’s Maine Rd stadium. Maine Rd was opened in 1923 and the architects of Murrayfield visited Maine Rd while designing their new stadium, which opened in 1925.

Obviously, there are differences but the general look and style of the place is similar – one huge main stand which didn’t quite go the full length of the pitch (both stands ran about 3/4 of the length of the pitch with a terraced section from stand to corners); a huge, banked terracing opposite which curves down to the corners and two similar sized terraces behind the ends. Have a look at these images from inside Murrayfield in 1925 and see:

Next ground on Monday.

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If you have an old image of a ground that you think it’d be worth including in this weekly quiz then please get in touch. They don’t have to be from the 1900s to 1960s – even ground images from the 70s and 80s may prove a challenge to identify these days. You can email me at gary@GJFootballArchive.com Thanks.

Opening Winning Sequences

Pep Guardiola officially became Manchester City manager on July 1 2016 (five years ago today). When he arrived his opening run of competitive games prompted much discussion on the opening achievements of his predecessors. I ended up trawling through the opening months of every City manager to establish whether Pep’s opening results (ten successive wins!) were the best achieved by any Blues’ boss.

Here for subscribers is the result of that trawl…

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Coming Tuesday: A Complete PDF Of My 1st Book To Download

From tomorrow (Tuesday June 22 2021) subscribers to my site will be able to download a PDF of my entire first book. It was published back in 1989 and, Ignoring yearbooks, this was only the 6th book (and two of those were more like pamphlets published in the 1930s & 40s) ever published specifically on Manchester City.

Watch this space tomorrow for more details.

The book was published in April 1989 and I talk a little bit about it here:

The 200th Post – Joe Mercer

and here:

A Writing Flashback!

One-nil in your semi-final

From World War Two up to and including 2011 Manchester City won every FA Cup semi-final they played with a 1-0 scoreline.  That’s five games.  In 2013 I caught up with two of the goalscorers – Tommy Booth (1969) and Paul Power (1981) – to discuss their memories of those games. Here for subscribers is what they said:

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Historic Name That Ground – Today’s Answer

Earlier today I asked ‘Can you name the ground featured in the image above?’ Well, the answer is…

Manchester City’s Maine Rd stadium being built in 1922. This end was the Scoreboard End/later North Stand original terracing being constructed, looking towards Maine Road itself. Note the church in the top right corner – that was replaced by the MCFC Social club and shop in 1966.

Starting Monday for the next few weeks I’ll be posting one image of a football ground taken in the past each week. Some will be easy (believe it or not there are some grounds that have not changed much in all those decades!), others not so. You’ll be able to post your view in comments at the bottom of each page.

The following Friday I’ll post the answer.

While you’re here why not subscribe to my site and you can then access every article, interview, audio recording etc. already posted and those that will be posted during your subscription. It costs £20 per year (about £1.67 a month) or you can sign up on a monthly basis at £3 per month (you can cancel at any time, so you could sign sign up for a month, access everything you want and then cancel). You can subscribe below:

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25 Years Ago – The 1996 Manchester Bomb

25 years ago today (June 15 1996) I was in Manchester Central Library doing some research for my book Manchester The Greatest City when a terrorist bomb went off close to M&S and the Arndale Centre. The explosion was felt across the city and in the library flecks of white paint floated down moments later, creating a surreal site. It looked like it was snowing.

I’ve written about the day before and maybe, when the time feels right, I’ll post more about it here but for the time being it’s worth pointing out that though no one died hundreds were injured. Many of these were seriously injured and it has affected them since.

In addition some lost there homes – there were houses on top of the Arndale centre back then – and businesses suffered too. Many closed down for good (a major loss was the old Corn Exchange – the building survived and was ‘gentrified’ but the small businesses that had operated in there mostly disappeared for ever).

I know we all talk positively of the changes to the city since the bomb but we should also remember those who suffered and the trauma faced.

More here on the day:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-36474535

City’s history via 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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99 Dreams

Here for subscribers is a flashback piece to the 1998-99 season and, in particular, the games with Wigan Athletic which included the last competitive match at Springfield Park. Enjoy!

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