Jimmy Scoular

Appointed 50 years ago.

The good old days.

Good article on his first season on WalesOnline.

Opinions Gents, best City manager of the last fifty years? And why?

Scoular was manager when I started watching City at 12 years of age. We had the occasional good season in Div 2, interspersed with more regular relegation struggles.

However, during that time, we did have the European games to look forward to. Those were really special, as there were not that many teams that were able to play in Europe each season and there was very little football on TV.

In all of the European campaigns, City never disgraced themselves, even though they were up against some formidable sides.

We had the prospect of really good times to come under Malky, but the PL was a complete anti-climax, so I think my vote on this would have to go with the Scoular years.

Scoular was in post for 9 years from June 64 to Nov 73 and was popular with fans because of his 100% commitment in everthing he did. This included training when he was liable to kick his own players in training games which he always joined in as if they were cup finals. He got away
with it because the ethos of football was different with a 100% British team containing a lot of local players who knew what to expect. Today there would be queues of ambulances outside the training ground and the PFA called in.
Like most City managers until the Tan era he had to wheel and deal because of a negligible budget but, despite success in the Welsh Cup followed by some superb results in Europe, he was not a particularly succesful manager in League 2 (today's championship). The team's placings over 9 years were 13th, 20th, 20th, 13th, 5th, 7th, 3rd, 19th, 20th, and were struggling again in Nov 73 when he was sacked by Chairman David Goldstone. His league record was w - 131, d- 109, l - 151. 33.5% win ratio.
Nevertheless, he remained popular with supporters who appreciated the difficult circumstances he had to work under - similar to many City managers of the last century which many current watchers aren't aware of having virtually only known success.
He was replaced by ex Man Utd manager Frank O'Farrell who stayed only 158 days before taking up an appointment in Iran - even that was better than working for City in those days.

Interesting stuff. Obviously, being a thirty something I've seen my fair share of City disasters which is absolutely why I refuse to moan about our current "predicament". My main hope at the beginning of each season is "I hope we don't get relegated", anything else is an absolute bonus.

Last season was disappointing not because we did relegated, it was more that it felt avoidable. But that's City in a nutshell!