Pivotal Sky Blue Moments (1 Viewer)

junglej13

Well-Known Member
I happen to know when Heskey went to Liverpool, he was persuaded by Oneal to sign a new contract so Leicester could benefit from a fee for him. A player moving on but helping his home town team. Classy. McCallister should have been offered the same.
Basically what Dion did here.
 

Liquid Gold

Well-Known Member
Wycombe away in the L1 promotion season was a big moment. Hadn't won away all season up that point and although we'd only lost 3 games we'd drawn far too many. We were at the back of a long chasing pack with a poor Goal difference. Matty Godden's hattrick and crushing the league leaders on their own patch was the catalyst for the unbeaten run and promotion.

View attachment 20305
The run we went on after this was exquisite. I've never seen a city team that was so clearly head and shoulders above the rest of league.

I hope we get to see it again sometime.
 

slowpoke

Well-Known Member
No evidence to suggest your assumption is correct. Allison did nothing as a manager but was very successful number two to Mercer, thought he was the main man but was exposed when in the top job. Thought nothing of back stabbing Mercer at Manchester City and was exposed as a fraud once in the position.
You can only judge things as they were in 1967/68 Malcolm Allison’s forte was working with and moulding young players and that was what we were all those players Cantwell got rid of were in their early to mid twenties Ronnie Rees for example was one of the best wingers in the country either wing his replacement for the same money Ernie Hannigan in comparison was poor you can add Willie Carr, Mick Coop and Graham Paddon to them with Jeff Blockley and Dennis Mortimer a year or so behind. All hypothetical of course but with those young players and adding the type of player he would have attracted could have been a difference to years of struggling but we’ll never know.
Also Cantwell signed strikers galore for big fees wasting thousands while the two he ditched Gould & Tudor did well.
 

Fergusons_Beard

Well-Known Member
What about actually giving Chris Coleman the managers job?

He took probably our most talented squad of youngsters since relegation from the Prem and turned them into the most boring, defensive and flaky team we had.

Massive opportunity missed to go back up.


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NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Do you really believe what you have posted to be the case? Were you a fan in those days? Surely we can only judge the past in hindsight?
Cantwell had a very good career and was captain of the Manchester United 67 title winning side before joining us. He joined in October and we were already at the bottom without the injured Curtis and Bobby Gould who didn’t play for Cantwell until December when he got a hat trick v Burnley in a 5-1 win at HR.
I bow to no man in my admiration for Ronnie Rees but Hannigan had a better season than Rees and Gould felt he couldn’t turn down the salary offered at Arsenal.
It was Gerry Baker, Ernie Hannigan, Maurice Setters and Neil Martin that kept us up joined by Caitlin, Hunt and Setters towards the end of the season. That was the mission and thanks to Cantwell it was successful. During Cantwell‘s time he had one fault, he was not Jimmy Hill.
 

slowpoke

Well-Known Member
You are correct you can only judge in hindsight and if you read the title of this thread it says pivotal moments and in my opinion not hiring Malcolm Allison at that time and hiring Noel Cantwell who had no manager experience at all was a mistake and possibly a pivotal moment at that time Allison went on with Joe Mercer to win half a dozen trophies with Manchester City who became one of the best teams in the country, Noel went to Peterborough.
 

covboy1987

Well-Known Member
What do you think are the pivotal moments where it all went wrong or right?
Not giving Jimmy Hill the contract he wanted (10 years)
Not employing Brian Clough as manager - he went to Forest instead.
Selling Highfield Road.
Sacking Eric Black and employing Peter Reid. Not saying Black would have been that good but light years ahead of Reid.
Most of the managers from Coleman onwards.
Selling Wilson too cheaply.
Letting Sisu take all the shares.
The most pivotal moment in our recent history in my opinion was a game in 2010 - Coventry 2 Leeds 3 - We were 4th or 5th in the championship and lost the game - The following week it was discussed we needed 2 or 3 new players to make a decent challenge for promotion or operation premiership it was named as I recall –The signings never came and It seems from that moment the wheels came off and we fell from challenging for promotion and ending up in league 2
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
Think we asked for help and they stepped in

Well they saw regeneration of land and a sports stadium with little contribution. Not very helpful at all
 

Torquay Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Sacking Dave Sexton was a strange one . 2 seasons in charge with a very young team and playing nice football which admitidly did make for some unpredictable scorelines. They beat Man U 2-1 away then Leeds 4-0 to follow up with 1-5 at home to Notts County . But they were young and learning and a very exciting team.
Jimmy sold Gary Thompson (my favourite player at the time) for financial reasons without telling the manager. I think this was the end for Sexton and me for a bit. Fell out with Jimmy over that one.
 

Terry_dactyl

Well-Known Member
Huddersfield sacking Mark Robins after one game of the season.

Just checked, Wilson scored 2 that game...perhaps his sale was more significant than just financial gain.

Edit: it was his debut
 

slowpoke

Well-Known Member
Jimmy Hill was involved in two large pivotal moments the massive 5 years as manager that propelled us to the top division but there was a few years later him being chairman/ managing director not sure what his title really was the first as manager deserved that statue but his second coming perhaps that statue deserved to be thrown in the canal. It was a difficult time though our finances were through the floor but his all seater decision was a disaster cutting out gates by a few thousand at a stroke certainly affected our finances Sexton managed to get a crop of good young talent coming through our youth set up but it was flogged off just as it was starting to blossom.
 

Irish Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Jimmy Hill was involved in two large pivotal moments the massive 5 years as manager that propelled us to the top division but there was a few years later him being chairman/ managing director not sure what his title really was the first as manager deserved that statue but his second coming perhaps that statue deserved to be thrown in the canal. It was a difficult time though our finances were through the floor but his all seater decision was a disaster cutting out gates by a few thousand at a stroke certainly affected our finances Sexton managed to get a crop of good young talent coming through our youth set up but it was flogged off just as it was starting to blossom.
I know that the all seater stadium resulted in a big drop in attendance.From memory I think that you had to buy tickets in advance of the game, no pay on the gate. This was a radical change, particularly pre Internet days as it meant that you had to turn up at the ticket office sometime in the week to get the ticket. This put a lot of people off.
Sitting in the rain on the open kop could'nt have been much fun . Chopping out a huge chunk of the lower kop to put the seats in wasn't a great idea either. It made an eyesore of that end of the ground.
 

SlowerThanPlatt

Well-Known Member
The most pivotal moment in our recent history in my opinion was a game in 2010 - Coventry 2 Leeds 3 - We were 4th or 5th in the championship and lost the game - The following week it was discussed we needed 2 or 3 new players to make a decent challenge for promotion or operation premiership it was named as I recall –The signings never came and It seems from that moment the wheels came off and we fell from challenging for promotion and ending up in league 2

This was the game Turner was clearly injured and Boothroyd left him out there. He never played again and signed for Cardiff whilst injured I think
 

South West Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
What about actually giving Chris Coleman the managers job?

He took probably our most talented squad of youngsters since relegation from the Prem and turned them into the most boring, defensive and flaky team we had.

Massive opportunity missed to go back up.


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Can’t really remember the squad under Coleman. Instead of me researching it, care to enlighten me who the talented youngsters were?

Talented youngster season for me was 15/16 when we sunk like a rock in the new year. Wasted so much that session under Mowbray who brought class players in on loan.
 

SlowerThanPlatt

Well-Known Member
Can’t really remember the squad under Coleman. Instead of me researching it, care to enlighten me who the talented youngsters were?

Talented youngster season for me was 15/16 when we sunk like a rock in the new year. Wasted so much that session under Mowbray who brought class players in on loan.

Had the likes of Westwood, Fox, Dann, Gunnarson. They were 22-23 though
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
What do you think are the pivotal moments where it all went wrong or right?
Not giving Jimmy Hill the contract he wanted (10 years)
Not employing Brian Clough as manager - he went to Forest instead.
Selling Highfield Road.
Sacking Eric Black and employing Peter Reid. Not saying Black would have been that good but light years ahead of Reid.
Most of the managers from Coleman onwards.
Selling Wilson too cheaply.
Letting Sisu take all the shares.

I agree with most of those but would also add in MR leaving the first time and us deciding to reemploy him.

There are others which are pure speculation on signings etc and even if the rumours were true there's no guarantee they'd have been as good here as they were elsewhere.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
McAllister leaving on a free same summer as selling Keane. Should have tied McAllister down long before Liverpool turned his head. Cba to do the maths but the 2 of them going can't have been far off 2/3rds of our goals taken out of the team. What could go wrong?

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Up until that final season McAllister (IMO at least) had been pretty underwhelming for what we were paying him. Had we got him onto a new contract at that time it would've been questioned because he wasn't doing enough to warrant it. He then had a great stint with us in the last year of his contract which is why Liverpool came calling. I don't think they would've done without that upturn in form. Had he had his Cov career in reverse (started well and then been largely ineffective for two years) less people would've been bothered about his leaving.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
I happen to know when Heskey went to Liverpool, he was persuaded by Oneal to sign a new contract so Leicester could benefit from a fee for him. A player moving on but helping his home town team. Classy. McCallister should have been offered the same.

Liverpool signed McAllister because he was on a free. Had he cost them a fee they wouldn't have signed him.
 

SlowerThanPlatt

Well-Known Member
Up until that final season McAllister (IMO at least) had been pretty underwhelming for what we were paying him. Had we got him onto a new contract at that time it would've been questioned because he wasn't doing enough to warrant it. He then had a great stint with us in the last year of his contract which is why Liverpool came calling. I don't think they would've done without that upturn in form. Had he had his Cov career in reverse (started well and then been largely ineffective for two years) less people would've been bothered about his leaving.

Yeah, Doyle is the most obvious beneficiary of this, McSheffrey the opposite.
 

Sky Blue Dal

Well-Known Member
Pivotal negative moment for me was selling Highfield road from under our feet even before from what I was told that the Arena2000 was not even agreed at that time.

The other is leaving the Ricoh for Sixfields with the backdoor open to allow The Wasps in. Should have just paid a lower rent we could afford and stayed put. What is the chances the Council would have evicted the local football club. Would not have gone down well if they had.
Still remember the Tory opposition In a sort of a way hinting to them to do that but our owners were too pig headed to listen to anyone including us fans.
 

NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
You are correct you can only judge in hindsight and if you read the title of this thread it says pivotal moments and in my opinion not hiring Malcolm Allison at that time and hiring Noel Cantwell who had no manager experience at all was a mistake and possibly a pivotal moment at that time Allison went on with Joe Mercer to win half a dozen trophies with Manchester City who became one of the best teams in the country, Noel went to Peterborough.
Allison was no managerial veteran either, Allison had zero success as a manager with any English club and you are squeezing the narrative to suit your point. Cantwell got us in to Europe, Allison ruined Man City. Allison not coming to Coventry wasn’t detrimental to our club and in hindsight a lucky escape.
As a side note it was Cantwell, Allison, John Bond ,Dave Sexton and Ken Brown who were the founders of the academy of Football at West Ham whilst players and it was Cantwell who schooled Bobby Moore in his junior days and was the best man at his wedding. He also managed the Republic of Ireland whilst managing us for a season.
 

wingy

Well-Known Member
The most pivotal moment in our recent history in my opinion was a game in 2010 - Coventry 2 Leeds 3 - We were 4th or 5th in the championship and lost the game - The following week it was discussed we needed 2 or 3 new players to make a decent challenge for promotion or operation premiership it was named as I recall –The signings never came and It seems from that moment the wheels came off and we fell from challenging for promotion and ending up in league 2
This was the time of the boardroom changes and a protracted pursuit and signing of Marlon King ,a quality striker no doubt,but from there and the game you mention the wheels came off.
It wasn't pretty.
 

DannyThomas_1981

Well-Known Member
Recent history:
Notts County away. Max's second goal after 20-30 minutes of continuous pressure from County after half time with the tie in the balance was one of our most important goals in recent history. If you look at the respective clubs today in terms of League position - that game was very very important.

Going back in time:
Big Ron was appointed on reputation (way past his best) and we gave him millions - only to disastrously take us to the brink of relegation. Followed by a very inexperienced Strachan who consistently failed to address key issues with the team. He should have gone far sooner. If we'd had a decent manager combined with the funds available at that time - we should have been in with a good shout of Europe...instead given poor consecutive management by the two clowns above we headed through the relegation trapdoor.
 

Travs

Well-Known Member
The most pivotal moment in our recent history in my opinion was a game in 2010 - Coventry 2 Leeds 3 - We were 4th or 5th in the championship and lost the game - The following week it was discussed we needed 2 or 3 new players to make a decent challenge for promotion or operation premiership it was named as I recall –The signings never came and It seems from that moment the wheels came off and we fell from challenging for promotion and ending up in league 2

On a similar note, and i've mentioned this on here before... first season down in the championship, fairly early on, we were doing well and were at home to Norwich... i think (possibly incorrectly) that Norwich were top and we were 2nd... a win for us would have put us either top, or clear in 2nd with a decent gap above the playoffs...

It was an evening match and i was in the West terrace, it was the match where Ritchie Partridge scored an absolute screamer to give us the lead. We were cruising to victory but then a horrific deflection right near the end gave them an underserved equaliser.

We drew 1-1, never managed to create that gap over the chasing pack, and our form dipped from there.

I honestly believe that had we held on and won that match, we would have gone straight back up automatically. Even the national radio/tv pundits were saying at the time that we were looking like a Premier League team just waiting to go back up.

And the rest is history...!
 

JimmyHillsbeard

Well-Known Member
On a similar note, and i've mentioned this on here before... first season down in the championship, fairly early on, we were doing well and were at home to Norwich... i think (possibly incorrectly) that Norwich were top and we were 2nd... a win for us would have put us either top, or clear in 2nd with a decent gap above the playoffs...

It was an evening match and i was in the West terrace, it was the match where Ritchie Partridge scored an absolute screamer to give us the lead. We were cruising to victory but then a horrific deflection right near the end gave them an underserved equaliser.

We drew 1-1, never managed to create that gap over the chasing pack, and our form dipped from there.

I honestly believe that had we held on and won that match, we would have gone straight back up automatically. Even the national radio/tv pundits were saying at the time that we were looking like a Premier League team just waiting to go back up.

And the rest is history...!
Bringing in Jim Smith as the assistant manager Roland Nilssen didn’t need. He signed Paul Trollope and Horacio Carbonari and literally organised fights between players in training.
 

blunted

Well-Known Member
Recent history:
Notts County away. Max's second goal after 20-30 minutes of continuous pressure from County after half time with the tie in the balance was one of our most important goals in recent history. If you look at the respective clubs today in terms of League position - that game was very very important.

Going back in time:
Big Ron was appointed on reputation (way past his best) and we gave him millions - only to disastrously take us to the brink of relegation. Followed by a very inexperienced Strachan who consistently failed to address key issues with the team. He should have gone far sooner. If we'd had a decent manager combined with the funds available at that time - we should have been in with a good shout of Europe...instead given poor consecutive management by the two clowns above we headed through the relegation trapdoor.
I lived in the Black Country when Ron was manager at West Brom. Their fans seemed to think Ron had got lucky inheriting a brilliant team. Think it was Ronnie Allen then Johnny Giles who built most of the team that built his rep. They were brilliant however. beating us 6-1 I remember when I went. At Man U he seemed to buy good players with absolutely no idea how they would fit together. Using Birtles as a traditional centre forward that did not work. Did he sell Laurie Cunningham?
 

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