The 1970s: 1971-72 Mistreating Mercer

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with a 4,700 word article on the entire 1971-72 season – a hugely significant season though one that’s often neglected. You can read this below. This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s will run throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. There will be flashbacks to great games, players and more. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 4,700 word article is on the 1971-72 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1970s: 1970-71 Takeover Madness

The series of features/articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s continues with a 5,200 word article on the entire 1970-71 season. You can read this below. This series of articles and features on Manchester City in the 1970s will run throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. There will be flashbacks to great games, players and more. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything. If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? You could even subscribe for a month and see what you think. The following 5,200 word article is on the 1970-71 season and is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month (above) or £20 a year (here) to access everything posted since the site was created in December 2020. This special rate works out about £1.67 a week and gives access to everything posted, including PDFs of 3 of my books.

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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.

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The 1970s: Series Starts Now!

The series of articles covering Manchester City in the 1970s starts today with the story of the opening months of 1970. By the end of April the Blues would have two major trophies on the shelf, including the club’s first European trophy (won before so many of today’s perceived European giants). This series of articles and features will run throughout January with indepth articles some days and smaller ‘on this day’ style posts on others. There will be flashbacks to great games, players and more. Every day in January will offer something to enjoy.

Subscribers will get access to everything, while some on this day material will be free for all to view.

If you want to know more on this incredible decade for Manchester City Football Club then why not subscribe and read it all? The following 5,600 word article on the successes of 1970 is available to subscribers below. Enjoy!

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The 1980s: Why Did Bond Sit In The Directors’ Box?

It’s December 1980 and the City match programme’s letters page contained this letter about new City boss John Bond. Back then many managers would prefer to sit in the directors’ box at games as it would give them a good view and John Bond chose to do that for many games during his opening months as manager (often throughout his actual time at City to be fair). It wasn’t so unusual but this fan wanted to understand why and wrote to the City programme looking for an answer.

It’s actually the sort of question that would seem more appropriate today as few managers ever really spend time in the directors’ box. I certainly wouldn’t expect Pep to sit up there on a regular basis.

Just one of the many things that has changed over the decades. The letter writer claimed that Malcolm Allison never sat in the directors’ box – that’s not true. There are plenty of occasions in the 60s & 70s when Allison sat up there.

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.

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Manchester City V Real Madrid, 19 December 1979

On this day (19 December) in 1979 Manchester City’s first meeting with Real Madrid occurred. Back then it was viewed as a prestigious friendly, or at least that’s what it was supposed to be, but it turned out to be a controversial game with implications for the Blues for some time. Here’s an 1800 word article with images of that game and the controversy surrounding it.

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The 1980s: Allison Jibes

Continuing the series of articles covering the 1980s. Today’s is an on this day (1 December) from 1980. It’s a newspaper story about former boss Malcolm Allison and his comments about Manchester City. Allison claimed he was responsible for the form of City AFTER they’d sacked him. Joe Corrigan was angry by the comments and so was John Bond, but Bond did admit that Allison was 90% responsible for Bond’s achievements at West Ham as a player. Have a read of the piece but if you want to know more about the trials and tribulations of this period then why not subscriber and read the following ten thousand word long read on the 1980-81 season. Enjoy!

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Tomorrow’s feature is on the 1981-82 season.

The 1980s: 1980-1981 Gow, Hutchison & McDonald

A new daily series of articles for subscribers starts today covering the 1980s. This will be a seasonal journey through a truly important decade in the history of Manchester City Football Club. Today’s article is a ten thousand word long read on the 1980-81 season. Enjoy!

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Tomorrow’s feature is on the 1981-82 season.

Flashback to 1993: Radio Interview About Joe Mercer

Late in 1993 Jimmy Wagg interviewed me on GMR about my new book on Joe Mercer. Next month it’ll be 30 years (I know!) since that book came out and so I thought I’d post the recording of the interview with Jimmy from that year. The quality is not great (neither are my answers at times!) but you can now hear the recording on my website.

If you want to hear why I did the book and the answers I gave back then have a listen now. Here goes (again apologies for the quality of the recording):

While you’re here why not have a look at all the other articles, interviews, videos and material on this site. Subscribers get access to everything and this includes PDFs of the entire Manchester A Football History book; From Maine Men To Banana Citizens (my first book) and Farewell To Maine Road. There are also audio recordings of my interviews with John Bond, Malcolm Allison, George Graham etc. It costs £3 per month or £20 per year. Details of how to subscribe below:

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.

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Today in 1978: Kaziu Deyna

On this day (10 November) in 1978 it was reported that Polish international Kaziu Deyna signed for Manchester City. It was some time before it was all sorted out however! Back in 2003 I wrote this profile of former Manchester City player and Polish World Cup star Kazimierz Deyna. Deyna was such an important and unusual signing at the time he joined City that I feel this article is still appropriate and of interest to subscribers to my blog today.

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Malcolm Allison

Today (14 October) marks the anniversary of the death of legendary Manchester City coach Malcolm Allison. He passed away in 2010. I’ve interviewed Malcolm often over the years and you can listen to one of those interviews here:

Here’s also an article I published in September this year on Allison. It included comments from a variety of interviews I have performed over the decades. Allison’s views on then young footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips are captured and comments from various people who know Allison well are included.

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