Max Biamou (9 Viewers)

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
He hadn’t nothing to do with signing mccallum

So if the recruitment (even for U23) is not part of his remit and is decided by others you can't argue he's been given more money can you? All players signed for U23's haven't been signed by him and thus can't be included in his transfer spending. And that's assuming all first team signings were entirely his decision - not uncommon for players to be bought/sold against the wishes of a manager.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
I hate to be that person but... He did.

When?


Jimmy resigned on the eve of the club's debut in the First Division, to become Head of Sport for London Weekend Television. The news was a bombshell to both the supporters and players alike but his mind was made up. He later revealed that if Derrick Robins had met his request for a ten-year contract he would have stayed. After the impact he had on the club, many feel that it was a tragedy that Jimmy never took the opportunity to test his abilities at the highest level. Whether he would have been a success or not will never be known.


The manager: In charge at Coventry from 1961 to 1967, winning promotion twice but never managing in the top flight.
 

stevefloyd

Well-Known Member
I don’t skull away I’m here daily I hope we do beat these teams

I just think with the defence and poor strike force we are in trouble,robins tactical changes don’t give me much confidence either but I’m fully behind them and hopefully we pick up points.
To be fair to the defence they have been pretty good of late its just the lack of goals thats killing us, I would imagine theres tension building in the players thinking "we mustn't make a mistake because we cannot score many/any" and individual errors because of tension is a catch 22. Score goals releive tension enjoy playing and winning
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
Jimmy Hill's got one and much of his tenure was in the lower leagues and never managed us for a single game in the top flight.

Not saying MR should get one btw.

For me even if we go down he gets a decent chance next season. It was a hard enough job to start with without our current injuries.

Basically at this time I can't see an affordable replacement that'd take this club forward any better. Be careful what you wish for.

He did manage games in the top flight
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
When?


Jimmy resigned on the eve of the club's debut in the First Division, to become Head of Sport for London Weekend Television. The news was a bombshell to both the supporters and players alike but his mind was made up. He later revealed that if Derrick Robins had met his request for a ten-year contract he would have stayed. After the impact he had on the club, many feel that it was a tragedy that Jimmy never took the opportunity to test his abilities at the highest level. Whether he would have been a success or not will never be known.


The manager: In charge at Coventry from 1961 to 1967, winning promotion twice but never managing in the top flight.


Now you are getting into the obscurities of football management...

Hill's retirement from football was announced on 17 August 1967, but he agreed to stay on as 'General Manager' until a replacement was found. Noel Cantwell was the replacement, but he did not come in until 13 October 1967.

City played 11 First Division games between Hill retiring and Cantwell arriving. Hill was 'General Manager', but actually acted as team manager for those 11 games - Won - 2, Drew - 4, Lost - 5.
 

NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Now you are getting into the obscurities of football management...

Hill's retirement from football was announced on 17 August 1967, but he agreed to stay on as 'General Manager' until a replacement was found. Noel Cantwell was the replacement, but he did not come in until 13 October 1967.

City played 11 First Division games between Hill retiring and Cantwell arriving. Hill was 'General Manager', but actually acted as team manager for those 11 games - Won - 2, Drew - 4, Lost - 5.
That is correct, he handed over to Noel Cantwell, at the Spurs game at Highfield Road on the pitch.
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
That is correct, he handed over to Noel Cantwell, at the Spurs game at Highfield Road on the pitch.

That's right, it was against Spurs. We lost again that day too (2:3), but we put in a much better performance than when we got walloped 4:0 by Sheffield Wednesday the previous week (Wednesday were a poor team).

I think the difficulty with the question of when Hill 'retired' arises because of misreporting over the years. The use of the term 'General Manager' also probably doesn't help.
 

Sick Boy

Super Moderator
Back end of last season Baka showed some improvement. I suspect hence contract extension along with our limited budget. But he hasnt kicked on this season at all. Personally I would have let him go in the summer.
Both him and Biamou are out of contract, if we stay up both will be let go, I’m sure.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
Now you are getting into the obscurities of football management...

Hill's retirement from football was announced on 17 August 1967, but he agreed to stay on as 'General Manager' until a replacement was found. Noel Cantwell was the replacement, but he did not come in until 13 October 1967.

City played 11 First Division games between Hill retiring and Cantwell arriving. Hill was 'General Manager', but actually acted as team manager for those 11 games - Won - 2, Drew - 4, Lost - 5.

Fair enough. I knew Cantwell arrived after the season started so I thought there'd been a temporary inbetween as I thought Hill started his TV work at the start of that season.
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
Fair enough. I knew Cantwell arrived after the season started so I thought there'd been a temporary inbetween as I thought Hill started his TV work at the start of that season.

Thinking about it, Jimmy Hill may have sought to perpetuate the idea he was 'General Manager' rather than 'Team Manager' as the win rate of 18.18% achieved in those 11 games is terrible. It certainly looks bad against the 44.33% win rate he achieved in the non First Division games.
 

NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Thinking about it, Jimmy Hill may have sought to perpetuate the idea he was 'General Manager' rather than 'Team Manager' as the win rate of 18.18% achieved in those 11 games is terrible. It certainly looks bad against the 44.33% win rate he achieved in the non First Division games.
I don’t believe that managers in those days paid much attention to such win percentages and would he have been overly concerned with such a statistic when he was leaving the front line to go to another industry albeit covering football?
Surely he had enough goodwill in the bank from promotions and the building of a football club if he had to come back to management? It was said that Hill was often offered positions back in management for a number of years after he left us but nothing tempted him to leave his TV career.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
Thinking about it, Jimmy Hill may have sought to perpetuate the idea he was 'General Manager' rather than 'Team Manager' as the win rate of 18.18% achieved in those 11 games is terrible. It certainly looks bad against the 44.33% win rate he achieved in the non First Division games.

Always difficult to say given we'd just got promoted (although the jump wouldn't have been as big as today) and would depend on which teams we played in those games. Like this season, when we started with some really hard games. What league position were we in at the time?
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
I don’t believe that managers in those days paid much attention to such win percentages and would he have been overly concerned with such a statistic when he was leaving the front line to go to another industry albeit covering football?
Surely he had enough goodwill in the bank from promotions and the building of a football club if he had to come back to management? It was said that Hill was often offered positions back in management for a number of years after he left us but nothing tempted him to leave his TV career.

I agree, win percentages and statistics like possession during games were much less important in those days. I just wondered Jimmy might have 'claimed' those games if we had won more of them.
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
I agree, win percentages and statistics like possession during games were much less important in those days. I just wondered Jimmy might have 'claimed' those games if we had won more of them.

In Jim Brown’s book he mentions that Hill retired on the eve of the new season but writes it in a way that made me think Cantwell had the whole season. Must admit I’ve learned something!
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
Always difficult to say given we'd just got promoted (although the jump wouldn't have been as big as today) and would depend on which teams we played in those games. Like this season, when we started with some really hard games. What league position were we in at the time?

If you look at a mini-league of the teams that eventually ended up in the bottom six positions in the league (Stoke, Sheffield Wednesday, Cov, Sheffield United and Fulham) we were third bottom after 10 games (when Noel Cantwell took over):

Sheffield Wednesday - 16 pts
Stoke - 12 pts
Wolves - 11 pts
Cov - 8 pts
Fulham - 7 pts
Sheffield Utd - 7 pts

In those 11 games Cov played a mixed bag of teams. There were some good sides - Man City (who won the league, Chelsea (who finished 7th), West Brom (who finished 8th) and Arsenal twice (who finished 9th). We also played a group of mediocre teams (Forest twice, Southampton and Newcastle) and both Sheffield teams (who were poor).

Fulham and Sheffield Utd both got relegated and we finished third from bottom, 1 point clear of Sheffield Utd and with a goal average the was 0.18 better. Good job we drew our final game of the season (against Southampton) while Sheffield Utd were losing 1:2 against Chelsea.
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
In Jim Brown’s book he mentions that Hill retired on the eve of the new season but writes it in a way that made me think Cantwell had the whole season. Must admit I’ve learned something!

I think we were lucky to get Cantwell as Aston Villa really wanted him as assistant manager. I think Malcolm Allison may have recommended Cantwell to Cov and suggested to him that it might be a good idea to come here (Cov were supposed to have offered Allison the job before Cantwell took it).
 

NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
I think we were lucky to get Cantwell as Aston Villa really wanted him as assistant manager. I think Malcolm Allison may have recommended Cantwell to Cov and suggested to him that it might be a good idea to come here (Cov were supposed to have offered Allison the job before Cantwell took it).
There is a bit of background to Cantwells appointment. He was Captain of Manchester United up to and including their league Championship win in 67, a few months before he joined us and was keen to go into management. He was part of the West Ham team with John Bond and Malcolm Allison and Frank O’Farrell who all become famous Managers(Cantwell was Bobby Moore’s best man) and had been asked by Busby to stay on at Old Trafford and replace him on his retirement. He felt that would be a long time away and decided to join us to replace Jimmy Hill, who he had replaced as chairman of the PFA when Hill joined us. It was Hill who recommended Cantwell and that was one reason why he stayed on and introduced Cantwell to the crowd to smooth the way as his successor.
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
There is a bit of background to Cantwells appointment. He was Captain of Manchester United up to and including their league Championship win in 67, a few months before he joined us and was keen to go into management. He was part of the West Ham team with John Bond and Malcolm Allison and Frank O’Farrell who all become famous Managers(Cantwell was Bobby Moore’s best man) and had been asked by Busby to stay on at Old Trafford and replace him on his retirement. He felt that would be a long time away and decided to join us to replace Jimmy Hill, who he had replaced as chairman of the PFA when Hill joined us. It was Hill who recommended Cantwell and that was one reason why he stayed on and introduced Cantwell to the crowd to smooth the way as his successor.

Interesting stuff. I wonder if Cantwell was considered for the Man Utd job when Busby's successor (Wilf McGuiness) was sacked (December 1970). By the end of 1970 Noel had already done some good work at the Sky Blues and should have looked a good prospect.
 

cov donkey kick

Well-Known Member
Remember the cantwell era it took till the 3rd season at the club when we finished 6th and
Even the first 2 seasons were enjoyable in my memory and from his tenure he gave us our only euro campaign in which we beat bayern Munich at home 2\1 being the highlight so his tenure shouldnt be forgotten and was a shrewd move by JH and adds to his lasting legacy at that time
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
If you look at a mini-league of the teams that eventually ended up in the bottom six positions in the league (Stoke, Sheffield Wednesday, Cov, Sheffield United and Fulham) we were third bottom after 10 games (when Noel Cantwell took over):

Sheffield Wednesday - 16 pts
Stoke - 12 pts
Wolves - 11 pts
Cov - 8 pts
Fulham - 7 pts
Sheffield Utd - 7 pts

In those 11 games Cov played a mixed bag of teams. There were some good sides - Man City (who won the league, Chelsea (who finished 7th), West Brom (who finished 8th) and Arsenal twice (who finished 9th). We also played a group of mediocre teams (Forest twice, Southampton and Newcastle) and both Sheffield teams (who were poor).

Fulham and Sheffield Utd both got relegated and we finished third from bottom, 1 point clear of Sheffield Utd and with a goal average the was 0.18 better. Good job we drew our final game of the season (against Southampton) while Sheffield Utd were losing 1:2 against Chelsea.

So from that it seems in that first season the results under both JH and NC were pretty comparable in terms of league position etc.
 

NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Interesting stuff. I wonder if Cantwell was considered for the Man Utd job when Busby's successor (Wilf McGuiness) was sacked (December 1970). By the end of 1970 Noel had already done some good work at the Sky Blues and should have looked a good prospect.
Apparently he was looked at when Busby did retire after coming back when McGuiness was fired. They decided on Frank O Farrell but it was suggested that Cantwell had turned it down, no dea if that was the case, with us going in to Europe.
 

NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
So from that it seems in that first season the results under both JH and NC were pretty comparable in terms of league position etc.
Once Cantwell was in place it took us until 16th December to win a game, the 5-1 thrashing of Burnley which coincided with the return of Bobby Gould, who scored three,to the team then we had three wins on the trot in end of Jan/ February and then four more wins by mid April but didn’t win in the last five games. Squeaky bum time.
 

NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Remember the cantwell era it took till the 3rd season at the club when we finished 6th and
Even the first 2 seasons were enjoyable in my memory and from his tenure he gave us our only euro campaign in which we beat bayern Munich at home 2\1 being the highlight so his tenure shouldnt be forgotten and was a shrewd move by JH and adds to his lasting legacy at that time

One of the first chants I heard from the West End was to the tune of the first Noel. Noel Noel, Noel, Noel, that is the name of that bastard Cantwell. From our own supporters. He got a rough deal that’s for sure because he was not Jimmy Hill.
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
So from that it seems in that first season the results under both JH and NC were pretty comparable in terms of league position etc.

Pretty much. Cantwell didn't produce a decent league finish until 1969-70 (6th and qualification for Europe), the next season we were down to 10th and the 1971-2 season he left in March (after we lost to Leeds and we hadn't won in the league since New Years Day).
 

Woodingdean_Sky_Blue

Well-Known Member
One of the first chants I heard from the West End was to the tune of the first Noel. Noel Noel, Noel, Noel, that is the name of that bastard Cantwell. From our own supporters. He got a rough deal that’s for sure because he was not Jimmy Hill.

I don't think he was particularly liked by opposition fans when he was a player, either. I suppose it was a time when the 'dark arts' played more of a role in the game.
 

cov donkey kick

Well-Known Member
One of the first chants I heard from the West End was to the tune of the first Noel. Noel Noel, Noel, Noel, that is the name of that bastard Cantwell. From our own supporters. He got a rough deal that’s for sure because he was not Jimmy Hill.
That's exactly as it was, and know matter who it was the manager to kick of the post j. H era was cursed with our expected success which after our euro games upto the 87 sillet side never got off to further success.
 

dadgad

Well-Known Member
Cantwell was a disciplinarian and expected each man to pull his weight.
We were lucky to get him and wouldn't have survived that first year without him and Maurice Setters.
 

Cov kid 55

Well-Known Member
One of the first chants I heard from the West End was to the tune of the first Noel. Noel Noel, Noel, Noel, that is the name of that bastard Cantwell. From our own supporters. He got a rough deal that’s for sure because he was not Jimmy Hill.
I don’t remember it like that. My memory is that we used to chant ‘Noel, Noel, that is the name of our Manager Cantwell.’ The opposition fans would reply ‘that is the name of that bastard Cantwell’.
 

Irish Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
I don’t remember it like that. My memory is that we used to chant ‘Noel, Noel, that is the name of our Manager Cantwell.’ The opposition fans would reply ‘that is the name of that bastard Cantwell’.
I remember it like that. I think it was only after he was sacked that the alternate version was sung by some City fans for a while.
 

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