Continuing the series of features on the 1960s, here’s a subscriber article on Manchester City during the 1968-69 season. Another trophy winning season. If you’d like to read this 6,000 word article , plus all other articles on the site, then please subscribe (see below). As with most of the other features in this series it includes words from interviews I have performed with those who were there.
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On this day (17 May) in 2023 Manchester City defeated Real Madrid 4-0 (5-1 on aggregate) in the UEFA Champions League semi final. It was one of the most incredible games of football I have ever seen. For me, it was City’s best European performance at the Etihad and, from what I can remember, no European game at Maine Roadbettered it (older Blues may talk about the ECWC semi in 1970 – I was only a baby – but surely the Madrid victory bettered that too?). I’d go further and say that in terms of overall performance, atmosphere and style, considering who City were playing, that that was the greatest City game of all time – yes, that is debatable I know!
Pre match MCFC V Real Madrid waiting for the team
Obviously, we had the high drama of Agueroooooooo in 2012 but most of that game had been a frustrating mess of a match. The Madrid game was brilliant, breathtaking and wonderful from the moment it started through to leaving the stadium many, many minutes after the final whistle. The game was incredible – I don’t normally do superlatives so when I do I genuinely mean it.
There’s a certain amount of ‘completing the circle’ in City’s European journey – Alan Oakes captained City’s first European Cup game against Istanbul’s Fenerbahce in 1968, so the entire continental journey started there and in 2023 the Blues won the CL final in that city. It also felt appropriate that the man we’ve been singing about when we’ve sung our going to Istanbul chant these last few years was the man who scored twice against Real Madrid. Ber-nar-do!
Players pre match MCFC V Real Madrid
I know City had been to a Champions League final before but last year was significantly different. City have suffered at the hands of English clubs Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea over the years in Europe and it never quite felt right. Playing continental royalty like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and then Inter Milan took it to a different level. As did the final of course!
2023 Champions League Final Istanbul v Inter Milan
Many Blues had waited a long time for European glory. I was a toddler when City had previously won a major European trophy and I always dreamed of seeing City match or eclipse what Mercer’s men did in 1970. From Marsh’s debut to Pleat’s jig; ‘Look at his face’ to Tueart’s overhead; Beating AC Milan to Hutchison’s own goal; FA Youth Cup winners to Ball’s ‘hold the ball in the corner’; Bournemouth 3-3 to Morley’s Bradford goal; Reeves’ wonderful FAC goal to York away; 5-1 to 6-1; Bananas at Stoke to relegation at Stoke; FMC Final to Dickov’s rescue; Swales Out to Thaksin’s Albert Square singing; Kippax Last Stand to Etihad’s safe standing; Foe’s last goal at Maine Road to Aguerooooooooooo; Pearce’s good luck beanie to Bernardo’s cup; the invisible man to Emptyhad; James up front to Walker in nets… it had been a long time coming!
The young Gary
So this CL semi final thrashing of Real Madrid was so important and led to a wonderful final in Istanbul (let’s not mention the post match issues today!).
Rival fans may not agree unless they’ve experienced it themselves but multiple relegations are character building and make moments like Real Madrid, the the final, even more incredible. You don’t need to experience a relegation to enjoy success, but if you’ve suffered relegations (I’ve been through five) and those dismal, dismal days then reaching points like 2023 are heightened.
Final moments MCFC V Real Madrid 2023
In 2023 there were the usual negative voices about money. Show me a truly successful club who hasn’t spent! Not only that but City beat Bayern and Real in 2023’s European campaign (plus in the PL the usual collection of clubs that had been spending big for decades)… hardly poor relations. Hardly clubs with no history of success. These are European giants. Real Madrid have won more Champions League/European Cups than all English clubs put together. They are European aristocracy. Beating them – and the entire campaign – was a massive achievement for City, overcoming major obstacles and competing in a Premier League that in the previous 12 years or so had seen more of the top clubs challenge and tighter points totals between 1st and 2nd than in previous decades.
Malcolm Allison once said to me: ‘Celebrate every success as if it’s your first, because it could be your last.’ As a man who had been to the top and helped City win a European trophy I guess we should always remember his words. 2023 was a year like no other and it should always be celebrated.
After the whistle. 2023 Champions League Final Istanbul v Inter Milan Champions League Porto 2021Champions League trophy at Istanbul 2023
On this day (18 September) in 1968 Manchester City’s first European Cup fixture against Fenerbahce ended goalless at Maine Road. This was the first time two British clubs from the same city had competed in the European Cup. Here’s a match report of the City game:
Francis Lee (left) and Mike Summberbee (right) threaten the Fenerbahce goal in City’s first European Cup tie in 1968.
Subscribers can read a feature about that game here:
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Congratulations Manchester City. So many thoughts, emotions and memories this weekend as the Blues won the Champions League for the first time. In one of those wonderful coincidences of fate it’s significant that City’s first ever European Cup away game was against a team from Istanbul (Fenerbahce) in 1968 and that the trophy was finally won there almost 55 years later.
If you’ve not seen it before have a look at City goalkeeper Harry Dowd’s cine film from 1968 and that first European Cup trip. Will McTaggart and I were grateful to Harry’s family when they loaned this to the North West Film Archive for preservation and copying. We were able to show some of it (and Harry’s other films) in our Boys in Blue film show a few years back. So many of the sites will be familiar but so much has changed too.
I was only a baby when City first competed in Istanbul but now, as a grown adult with adult children of my own, I was able to experience the final in the flesh. Nothing beats that!
It has been a wonderful journey over these decades. I was born at a time when Manchester City were a power. A major club with a significant trophy-winning pedigree and glamour. They were one of Europe’s finest and they won their first major European trophy in 1970 (the European Cup Winners’ Cup – at the time UEFA’s second most important competition).
1970 ECWC
In my life City have now won: 1 European Cup, 1 ECWC, 8 League titles, 4 FA Cups and 8 League Cups but it’s not been easy.
People will talk about investment and money and, like the majority of trophy-winning clubs, that has happened of course. But there’s also been considerable years of under-investment, of people benefiting from the club in terms of prestige, status and personal finance, and not putting anything back.
The City that was swashbuckling and winning trophies of my early childhood was cast aside by those running my club. They allowed others to seize the initiative – In the 1970s City won three times as many trophies as United; by the time I was 15 City had not spent any time during my life outside the top flight (United had) and remained the 3rd best supported club; When I was 25 City were still the last Manchester side to win the League… I could go on my club was downgraded by those in charge during the late 1970s & 1980s who placed a club that had been profitable into one that was in debt with a stadium that was needing investment. They treated some injured players, like Paul Lake, appallingly. Penny-pinching all the way while they had their ‘status’.
A shock relegation in 1983, exacerbated by the penny-pinching and debts being piled on (oh, and some directors then buying up large numbers of shares at low prices which they would later profit enormously from!), meant City were starting to fall behind.
Our chairman Peter Swales appeared on TV often saying things like: ‘You can’t plan in football. You take every game, every week and every season as it comes.’ How we all thought ‘you’re the top man, if you’ve got no plan – any plan – we’re doomed!’
Youth development helped City compete at the end of the 80s and early 90s, finishing 5th two years running and building for a positive future. Then our directors messed it all up with managerial changes and a takeover was launched by former hero Francis Lee. After a bitter battle, which also split our supporters club, Lee gained control but the club had been badly managed and was in a worse state than he’d expected. A new stand had to be built (the old board’s ‘plan’ was going to include some plastic seats being bolted on to the old Kippax terracing – that’s the kind of forward looking ‘plan’ those guys specialised in!) and the club’s merchandising set-up meant that individuals gained more than the club. There appeared to be lots of ‘dodgy’ contracts issued during the final weeks of the old board’s reign if the material Lee showed me several years back is correct.
Lee made a massive mistake – appointing Alan Ball as manager – and after that the playing side collapsed and the real fall from grace followed. The Swales days had robbed the club of its assets and then we fell. Thankfully, David Bernstein, Chris Bird, David Makin and John Wardle, plus supporting figures like Dennis Tueart and Alastair Mackintosh, saved the club and the rebirth happened. I would like to stress though that City were only out of the PL from 1996 to 2000 and then again 2001-02. Five years and only one of which was in the third tier, so when people talk about City as coming from the 3rd tier that’s true but it was not the club’s normal position – that was as a leading top flight team.
The years 1983 to 2002 were the ones out of character (in general) with the club’s 143 year history, not 2008 onwards – though these are now incredibly special times at a level not experienced before despite the success the club has previously enjoyed.
Since 2002 City have been a Premier League club once more and then of course there’s the investment from 2008 which has not only got City back to a period of strength within the game that it held when I was a toddler, but those in charge have planned and grown the club to a level never before seen. Their planning and direction – evidenced from day one – has taken City to a new height. People will talk about money but if it was just about money then why didn’t the club find League success 2 years after being purchased like Chelsea did? Or reach a CL final within 5 years like Chelsea did? This was never just about money. It was about planning and changing the way football clubs operate for the long term.
All these years after the investment City have finally found European success at the highest level and it’s incredible. It has been a long journey from Istanbul to Istanbul.
Oh, what a night! Last night was one of the most incredible games of football I have seen. It’s certainly City’s best European performance at the Etihad and, from what I can remember, no European game at Maine Road has bettered it (older Blues may talk about the ECWC semi in 1970 – I was only a baby – but surely last night bettered that too?). I’d go further and say that in terms of overall performance, atmosphere and style, considering who City were playing, that that was the greatest City game of all time.
Pre match MCFC V Real Madrid waiting for the team
Obviously, we had the high drama of Agueroooooooo in 2012 but most of that game had been a frustrating mess of a match. Yesterday was brilliant, breathtaking and wonderful from the moment we got up yesterday through to leaving the stadium many, many minutes after the final whistle. The game was incredible – I don’t normally do superlatives so when I do I genuinely mean it.
There’s a certain amount of ‘completing the circle’ in City’s European journey – Alan Oakes captained City’s first European Cup game against Istanbul’s Fenerbahce in 1968, so the entire continental journey started there and this year the Blues have reached the final to be played in that city. It also felt appropriate that the man we’ve been singing about when we’ve sung our going to Istanbul chant these last few years was the man who scored twice. Ber-nar-do!
Players pre match MCFC V Real Madrid
I know we’ve been to a Champions League final before but this year it feels different. City have suffered at the hands of English clubs Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea over the years in Europe and it never quite felt right. Playing continental royalty like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and now Inter Milan takes it to a different level. This time it just feels right. Football can shock and it’s the unpredictability that makes it such a wonderful game, so nothing can be taken for granted at all.
Champions League at Porto
Many Blues have waited a long time for this. I was a toddler when City last won a major European trophy and I always dreamed of seeing City match or eclipse what Mercer’s men did in 1970. From Marsh’s debut to Pleat’s jig; ‘Look at his face’ to Tueart’s overhead; Beating AC Milan to Hutchison’s own goal; FA Youth Cup winners to Ball’s ‘hold the ball in the corner’; Bournemouth 3-3 to Morley’s Bradford goal; Reeves’ wonderful FAC goal to York away; 5-1 to 6-1; Bananas at Stoke to relegation at Stoke; FMC Final to Dickov’s rescue; Swales Out to Thaksin’s Albert Square singing; Kippax Last Stand to Etihad’s safe standing; Foe’s last goal at Maine Road to Aguerooooooooooo; Pearce’s good luck beanie to Bernardo’s cup; the invisible man to Emptyhad; James up front to Walker in nets… it’s been a long time!
The young Gary
As I said, I know we’ve been to a CL final before but, to paraphrase Barry Davies, ‘look at this season…. Just look at this season!’
Congratulations on reaching the final to Pep, the players, the management, the officials and, most importantly, those fans who have been to City’s lowest points and are now experiencing the highest. Rival fans will not agree unless they’ve experienced it themselves but multiple relegations are character building and make moments like this even more incredible than they already are. You don’t need to experience a relegation to enjoy success, but if you’ve suffered relegations (I’ve been through five) and those dismal, dismal days then reaching points like these are heightened.
Final moments MCFC V Real Madrid 2023
I’m sure there’ll be the usual negative voices about money. Show me a truly successful club who hasn’t spent! Not only that but City have beat Bayern and Real in this campaign (plus in the PL the usual collection of clubs that have been spending big for decades)… hardly poor relations. Hardly clubs with no history of success. These are European giants. Real Madrid have won more Champions League/European Cups than all English clubs put together. They are European aristocracy. Last night and this entire campaign so far has been a massive achievement for City, overcoming major obstacles and competing in a Premier League that in the last 12 years or so has seen more of the top clubs challenge and tighter points totals between 1st and 2nd than in previous decades.
It’s too early to celebrate and football can be cruel, but let’s ensure we all enjoy these moments. Malcolm Allison once said to me: ‘Celebrate every success as if it’s your first, because it could be your last.’ As a man who had been to the top and helped City win a European trophy I guess we should always remember his words. Hopefully, we’ll be celebrating on Sunday and then again next month.
Champions League Porto 2021Champions League trophy at Porto 2021
On this day (21 October) in 1953 the second game played under floodlights at Maine Road occurred with Turkish side Fenerbahce (later famous for being Manchester City’s opponents in the Blues first European cup match) defeated 5-1 by City. You can read more about these first floodlights and the opening games here:
On this day (18 September) in 1968 Manchester City’s first European Cup fixture against Fenerbahce ended goalless at Maine Road. You can read about that game here:
Subscribe to get access – Monthly
This article is available to subscribers. It costs £3 per year (cancel anytime) to subscribe and monthly subscriver get full access to all the articles, interviews and books published since 1 October 2022. There’s also a special annual option (see below).
This article is available to subscribers. It costs £20 a year (£1.67 per month) to subscribe and for that you get full access to all the articles, interviews and books already published since the site was created in December 2020 and throughout your subscription.
Manchester City at Sporting tonight… The great coach Malcolm Allison was a major trophy winner at both clubs, so here’s a feature on Allison’s Manchester City career with particular emphasis on his boasts, and City’s first European days for the Blues.
This article is available to subscribers to this site. If you’re not a subscriber, do a few searches on here and see what content is already on my site. This includes audio interviews with John Bond and others, plus the entire contents of two of my books.
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