How Peter Swales became City Chairman
Part One: Forward with Albert
At the start of the 1967-68 season Manchester City launched its first club magazine. The brainchild of Dick Carpenter, who had recently been appointed City’s first-ever press officer, The Official Magazine of Manchester City carried a surprisingly confident message for a club that had finished 15th in the league the previous season.
Over its centre pages, manager Joe Mercer declared:
‘Mountains were made to be scaled; honours were made to be won. We want to add to the honours list. We intend to do so. And we believe we can.
The aim, chairman Albert Alexander wrote, was ‘the best team, the best amenities’. Ground improvements at Maine Road were being drawn up, along with a goal of increasing the number of development association agents from 300 to 500. The new social club—opened in April 1966—had been so successful an expansion was planned. New supporters clubs and junior facilities were also on the way, the Official Magazine revealed.
The 74-year-old Alexander had also widened the expertise in the City boardroom during his two years as chairman. The architect who designed the social club, Gordon Parry, had become a director and had been tasked with overseeing improvements at City’s 16.5 acre Maine Road site. John Humphreys, managing director of family owned sportswear manufacturer Umbro, had also joined the board. His commercial contacts, which included close ties with Adidas and the FA, were now available to the club. Surgeon Sidney Rose also became a director, overseeing improvements to the club’s the medical facilities.
And, as in previous eras, whenever a City chairman shows ambition the trophies soon follow.
Sizable fees had already been spent on new signings, including a ludicrously-talented 20-year-old midfielder called Colin Bell. But it was the arrival of 23-year-old forward Francis Lee in October 1967 that turned a promising team into a great one. City were 10th in the table when Lee made his debut. But almost overnight, a free-scoring “holy trinity” with Bell and winger Mike Summerbee was formed. By May, City had powered their way to the League title, scoring double the number of goals as the previous season.
As 1960s Britain swung, no side played with more swagger than City. By 1970 they’d won all three domestic trophies and a UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. With one of the biggest fanbases in football, healthy finances and youth teams full of future stars, a long, glorious era lay ahead.
The 60-page Official Magazine did, however, point to one cloud over the horizon.
Unrest had been stirring among a group of City shareholders. In March 1964 a consortium led by 30-year-old Moss Side-born property developer Peter Donoghue made a £100,000 takeover bid for the club. The offer was firmly rejected. So the group, which included two members of City’s Development Association, Chris Muir and Michael Horwich, hired private detectives to track down missing shares.
By the time of the club’s Annual General Meeting in September, the group had acquired 11.6% of the shareholding. Donoghue stood for election to the board at the AGM, but only received 232 votes to his opponents’ 1,280 and 1,248. However, Donoghue also announced he had secured an option to buy the stake of former chairman Walter Smith, while his supporters vowed to buy up as many shares as possible.
Political change was also making the board fearful. Donoghue, who was a Labour councillor along with Muir, had been chosen as a Labour candidate for the 1964 General Election. That raised the prospect of a Labour government led by Harold Wilson, the first Prime Minister to identify as a football supporter, aiding their takeover plans.
City’s board decided a new defensive strategy was needed. On the day of the General Election, on 15 October 1964, the club's six directors signed a Deed of Covenant which stated that
‘in the event of a director's death or his otherwise leaving the board, the shares should still remain with the club’.
What ‘remain in the club’ meant in practice was that the shares of departing directors would be divided among the remaining signees. As the board still controlled a majority of the club’s shares, the aim was to prevent Donoghue’s group from acquiring a big enough stake to force a takeover.
However, the covenant would soon have unexpected, and far-reaching, consequences.
In the 1965-66 season, three of the covenant’s signees, directors Alan Douglas, Doug Hamer and Phil Longshaw, died. Their shareholdings were then divided up among the three remaining signees: chairman Albert Alexander, vice-chairman Frank Johnson and director William Hume.
Donoghue had by now withdrawn from the takeover group due to ill-health, leaving Muir as its head. Muir received 346 votes in his failed bid to be elected to the board at the 1966 AGM, representing 18.3% of the shares. But after travelling the country to lobby other shareholders, he finally won a seat on the board at the AGM in October 1967, ousting Hume by 908 votes to 817.
After Hume’s shareholding was divided up between the covenant’s two remaining signees, Alexander held a 28% stake and Johnson 25.1%. It was the first time in the club’s history that the majority of its shares had been owned by just two people.
Hume’s departure also meant that Alexander now relied on Johnson’s support to remain as chairman. In the summer of 1968, fearing deadlock on the six-man board, Gordon Parry was removed as a director and replaced by Alexander’s son, Eric.
The change meant that Alexander’s allies controlled four of the six boardroom votes. But if Johnson’s stake fell into the hands of the takeover group, a vote of no confidence would result in all four being removed from the board.
It was a situation that one key figure at the club was keen to exploit.
That Johnson fella was a real blister!