Charles Green? Who is he?

[Rodley]

Donachie left us to join Man City when Joe Royle became their new manager

Was that City in L1? If so, didn't they get consecutive promotions?

 

[Linz]

Just merging with an old thread... thought it may be of interest to some.

 

[Pinchy]

I think the rumour was that Donachie was the driving force behind Spackmans success. Not sure where Donachie ended up following working with him.

Green was running the team, mate, not Donachie.

 

[Silent Blade]

Was that City in L1? If so, didn't they get consecutive promotions?

No, they were in the 2nd tier and got relegated at the end of the season before they got consecutive promotions

 

[BushBlade]

Spaceman? Surely not? He's the most ludicrously over-rated puppet-manager in our history but that's a football, not a criminal, offence.

Well, it should be.

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

I've just spent a week in Scotland and Green and his cohorts have been all over the news bulletins:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...harles_Green_charged_after_court_appearances/

 

[DiggerBlade]

McDonald was well versed in trying to fool the fan's into thinking the club was moving forward with financial affairs.

I know of one particular incident where McDonald asked Steve Bruce to parade Oliver Tebilly as our new £1.2m acquisition but Bruce refused outright telling McDonald he would not be part of such a stunt to fool its supporters.

 

[Revolution]

Spaceman? Surely not? He's the most ludicrously over-rated puppet-manager in our history but that's a football, not a criminal, offence.

Every bit of success we had and might have had that season was, ironically, down to the very people who brought it all tumbling down - Mike McDonald and Charlie Green.

Pinchy - I was flicking through "Fit and Proper" this weekend and was reminded of this post.

After 1 year of his ownership, McDonald had achieved the following:

- saved us from relegation
- brought in Howard Kendall, who was doing an excellent job
- spent a lot of money to dramatically improve the playing squad, resulting in a challenge for automatic promotion
- built the John Street stand

I remember coming back from Bradford on Boxing Day, after our 7th away win, and hearing that a late goal by Bolton denied us the top spot.

After that, Bolton never looked back and walked the division and we faded from contention for automatic. This was partly due to injuries, but in my mind mainly down to Kendall - that win at Bradford was our last away win of the season. We drew 7 and lost 4 of the remaining away games, and didn't take the lead in any of them. We made the playoffs thanks to a late upturn that had a lot to do with the signing of Fjortoft and Tiler.

After that non performance at Wembley more money was thrown at the problem - Deano, McGrath, Dellas, Borbokis...and then McDonald started to fold his tent in November 1997, which culminated in us backing into the playoffs and losing, of course.

I would agree with you that McDonald was largely responsible for what we achieved (though I know nothing about Spackman's abilities, save that whoever thought to use 3-5-2 with those players was a decent tactician, but that the team despite its talents dropped too many points even before the selling began) but then he set the club back 5 years with what he did in the next 18 months.

Why did he do this? I know he was always harping on about our gates not rising sufficiently, but I have always assumed that Green's largesse re contracts got him in genuine financial trouble. Such a shame. He's not the only chairman to fold his tent too early, but perhaps it was unavoidable.