Howard Kendall Profile

City chairman Peter Swales brought in Howard Kendall in December 1989 to rescue the Blues from impending relegation, following promotion from the old Second Division the previous May and a shattering 5-1-derby day victory over Manchester United in September. The former Everton manager proceeded to perform major surgery on the Blues’ squad, moving out fans’ favourite Ian Bishop and Trevor Morley - scorer of the goal that promoted City at Bradford seven months earlier - to West Ham United in exchange for winger Mark Ward and recruiting former Everton players Peter Reid, Adrian Heath, Alan Harper and Wayne Clarke to bolster the midfield and attack.

Ironically, Kendall’s first City game was a televised goalless draw at Goodison Park which was followed by home wins over Norwich City and Millwall as the Blues rose from bottom place in the table. Subsequent defeats in the League and Cups brought City back down to earth as doubts set in that the new regime at Maine Road could keep City up. However, the form of central defender Colin Hendry - ironically previous manager Mel Machin’s last signing for the club - and the introduction of £1 million striker Niall Quinn from Arsenal proved instrumental in preserving City’s top-flight status. Survival was achieved with a few weeks off the season left via wins against Aston Villa, Q.P.R, Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich. This convinced the Blues’ support that Swales had in fact made the correct choice in bringing Kendall to the club. Indeed, when it became public knowledge that the F.A. would not be renewing England manager Bobby Robson’s contract after the coming World Cup it was assumed that Kendall was in pole position to take over but he distanced himself from speculation by insisting he wanted to continue his work to revitalise Manchester City.

More squad surgery followed during the close season; Neil Pointon become another ex-Everton recruit in a deal which saw youth product Andy Hinchcliffe go to Goodison in exchange and Watford goalkeeper Tony Coton arrived to oust the popular Andy Dibble. Mark Brennan joined from Middlesbrough and with four strikers in Heath, Quinn, Clive Allen and David White to choose from the attack was the only department unchanged. The Blues took the field at Spurs on the opening day of the season employing new captain Paul Lake as a sweeper but the tactic was cruelly exposed in a 3-1 defeat. Lake was to receive an (eventually career-ending) injury following a pure accident in a 2-1 home win over Aston Villa and Kendall abandoned the sweeper system.

City won their first four home fixtures and drew four more away before a bizarre home derby encounter with United saw the Blues throw away a 3-1 lead in the last few minutes to two Brian McClair headers. A 1-1 draw at Sunderland a week later proved to be Kendall’s last game as City manager. Everton sacked his former assistant Colin Harvey after a disastrous start to the season and asked City permission to interview Kendall for a return to Goodison as his replacement. Unsurprisingly Swales denied the request but felt he should inform his manager of the enquiry as a matter of courtesy. Kendall responded by asking his chairman permission to talk to Everton and shortly afterwards was confirmed as their new manager in an announcement which stunned English football. During the press conference announcing his return to the Toffees Kendall was asked why he’d made such a dramatic decision to abandon City at such short notice and replied with “Manchester City was a love affair but Everton was a marriage. We had a separation but it turns out not to have been a divorce. I would have left Manchester City for one club only and that club is Everton F.C.” This was seen as an outright betrayal by the City faithful, who had been aware of a “get-out” clause in Kendall’s contract which allowed him to talk to anyone offering him a manager’s job at any time during his time at Manchester City. In fact, Swales’ initial job offer to Kendall the previous November had been declined because the chairman refused to offer Kendall such a clause, but he had no option but to include it once all other attempts to quickly recruit a new manager had failed. Even then it had widely been assumed - both inside and outside Maine Road - that Kendall would only activate the clause should the England manager’s position become available. Once he had confirmed he was not interested in that position during the summer, the fans had naturally assumed that Kendall intended to stay at City for at least the duration of his contract. Not surprisingly, City fans would forever view Kendall as a traitor and his achievement in restoring them to challenging for the upper echelons of the top flight after a decade of relegation and promotion struggles would therefore be forever overlooked.

nice tale, but why ?

bluealf wrote:nice tale, but why ?

Someones got to get some City talk going