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Best manager we've ever had? Give me Jimmy Schoular and Eddie May, anyday. Much preferred the teams we had out under Dave Jones, than Malky's too. Good attacking sides in the main. Pity he couldn't get us over the line, and promotion to the premier league
If you were to ask my grandfather, in his lifetime, who City's best manager was he would state the manager of the FACup winning team of 1927, Fred Stewart
If you were to aks my dad who City's best manager was in his lifetime, and 81 he has seem them all, from the 46/47 season, he would say Billy McCandless. The man at the helm as we were crowned as champions of Division 3 South and who returned us to the old Second Division in 1946–47 season.
My take is that you have probably only been going down to watch the team since the Sam Hammam era, i.e from Bobby Gould onwards?
Gary Medel was a bigger name than any of the five listed in the summer of 2013 and yet he came here and, although it tends to be forgotten now, Steven Caulker's signing was greeted with glee by most supporters because, at that time, he was regarded as a real prospect. So, I would disagree that the players listed were never going to come here in the summer of 2013 - yes, we became second favourites before, for example, Southampton started chasing Wanyama and Capoue was always going to sign for Spurs over us, but I think, come transfer deadline day, they would have signed for us if no one else was in for them.
So basically, most of the managers in your time of supporting City, have been in the "pretty dire and very grim" class
Also if I am being 100% honest, part of me won't accept Malky as the best manager in living memory, due to the money he had at his disposal (especially compared to very other manager in my lifetime), the fact that we played in red and had a horse dung of a badge, when promoted. However, I do believe Malky had the nous to keep us in the premier division. If Tan had any nous as a football club owner, he should have waited until the final whistle of our last game of the season, V Chelsea, then sacked him.
Yep it all went downhill from the Bennet / Hemmerman era that I first watched but as mentioned I've been through the Ashurst and Burrows years and I also thought Jones worked miracles in the transfer market and played some great football at times too.
My one negative against Malky was he never stood up against the red despite the fact he knew how wrong it was but I'm judging on what I know and witnessed not mere rumours.
On results alone it's impossible to deny he was up there with the best. Not the greatest team to watch admittedly but we were a team and effective. Like you, I have little doubt that without the fall out with the owner, Malky's side would have "dug out" enough points to survive that first season.
His era was probably the first time that I felt we had real direction as a club on the pitch and he was incredibly popular right to the end too as was witnessed with the support he was getting in the days running up to his sacking. Of course, now, people "never liked the guy from the start"
The moment something is proved against Malky my mind will change but for now with the facts in front of me, he's been very harshly treated
It's not like Tan has every buried something.
Tan is a dodgy snide f'er knee deep in his own scandal of corruption so he can F right off he wants to take the moral high ground.
Agents creaming off the top, whilst wrong, is the least of the issue of the current professional game. Its as honest as WWF these days, even less so as at least in WWF you know its all a fix.
Malky of course is with a shout of the best City manager, the bloke did well, yes sure he sent some text that were not right, but they were private texts between 2 blokes, sure it has tainted his time here for some, but he created a team that was hard to beat and gave us something to shout about
For me its Eddie May, but i loved that era, the sense of the team being our team, we really were the big fish in the small pond, arriving at towns around the county on the train was special, everything clicked for me at that time, i guess it was my age though, the football was good, the away were great, the clothes and music were spot on, great days
The only thing it will show the public is the vast amounts agents make fir doing nothing but arranging a meeting. It will probably show a cut for the manager on the deal too. Like we dint know already Vincent....whatever next.....tell us how much more they earn from sponsorship and image rights ? I wish I was Gareth Bales agent....I also wish I was given a mac Donald's franchise just like that....money for nothing and ......
When Malky first arrived he was like a breath of fresh air and did wonders. Once it became clear that the premier league was a reality, something quite obviously seemed to change. In hindsight I think that part of that something was that MM suddenly saw himself as one of the big boys and may have been enticed by big boy perks.
For all the good MM did while with us you have to wonder what the hell the Cornelius deal was all about, which is where I believe it started the very fast downward spiral. I understand that there was possibly some issue between MM and VT prior to this however at that point something serious developed between the 2.
In summary MM was a very good manager but as it stands there is a big question mark hanging over his running of the club towards the end.
Those names are great but only really feasible as Tan was willing to back financially. Malky brought some decent players here but he didn't get any on the 'cheap'.
I was a massive fan of Malky but the fact Tan is spending the money trying to 'smear' Malky makes me think that there may be something behind it. No smoke without fire? Who knows. Footballing-wise he only made one mistake. I don't think he deserved to get sacked when he did. I don't even care about his 'banter' as some people's lines in the sand are totally different.
To be potentially corrupt though, that would lose all respect for me - There was absolutely no need.
Gunnarsson. Cowie and Taylor didn't cost a penny in transfer fees between them and were all stalwarts of the team which got to a League Cup Final, while two of them were regulars in the side which won the Championship, as was Conway, another one who we didn't pay a fee for. Gestede came on a free and it wasn't Malky's fault that he was sold for a fraction of the amount Villa and Middlesbrough paid for him, while Conway is another one who we should have got more for. Helguson was signed for a modest fee and was a big part of the promotion team and while Jordon Mutch was hardly a cheap buy, we sold him for a healthy profit - there were some excellent signings for modest fees during the first half of Malky's time with us, but, like many managers, the problems began to arrive when he was given serious money, by Cardiff City standards anyway, to spend.
Not wanting to judge MM abilities as a manager, because even though i wasn't the biggest fan its hard to argue that he isn't wasn't one of the best managers that we have ever had. He spent money because he had money available to him, every manager will spend in that situation and then every managers signings do not work out.
However if there are allegations out there. Then ideally we want them heard in an open court surely. If the judgement at the end of it is that MM did no wrong, then the matter is pretty much ended for MM and he can get on with his career elsewhere (i think he has now served his time on the matter of the txts).
It would be better for the fans of the game as a whole if the whole matter of payments to agents, and what they actually do for this money will be better to be open. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a culture of paying an agent, simply to have access to his network of players is common. However that doesn't make it correct.
Many of the problems about the transfers in question and the alleged offences were due to the fact the club's officers lacked experience in transfer dealings especially when large sums were involved and must have ratified the deals which have later been found to be suspect. That is due to a failure of Corporate governance for which the Board and owner must have some responsibility.