LAYING FOUNDATIONS
We Were Really There: The Rebirth of Manchester City, by David Bernstein, with Tim Rich, published by Pitch Publishing, Price: £25
THE son of a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, David Bernstein loved Manchester City so much he ended up rescuing it. Appointed chairman in 1998 when City were eight games away from relegation into Division Two, he saw time in the third tier as ‘a blessing in disguise’.
At one point Bernstein, who has collaborated with the great Tim Rich on this short book which brings in other witnesses, writes that ‘you can’t run football on nostalgia’, which accounts for the sweeping changes he set in motion after the reigns of Peter Swales and Francis Lee.
Mixing ‘passion with a cool and dispassionate head’, Bernstein writes that he brought ‘unity, stability and professionalism’. Bobby Charlton gave him the ultimate compliment when he admitted that he was worried about United’s rivals by the end of his chairmanship.
Over a period of five years, as detailed in a book that puts on record the events which ultimately led to City becoming World, European and English champions in 2023, Bernstein: appointed Colin
Bell as an ambassador; brought in competent PR and finance professionals; reinstated the boardroom table, which was in storage because the boardroom was used for female guests on matchdays; and allowed the club to drink champagne again after promotion back to the Premier League.
“Our derbies with Bury and Stockport had given way to Man Utd,” he writes. There’s a nice cameo from actor Adam Rickitt’s dad Peter, who was brought in to oversee the bid from Rangers to buy some of City’s shares.
Bernstein compares Kevin Keegan to Boris Johnson for his lack of ‘intellectual depth’, but Keegan did bring a better calibre of player and at one stage led City to 15 consecutive home wins on the way to promotion. Steve Coppell was the right manager at the wrong time and left after 33 days; the end of the Joe Royle era is just wretched.
If City had stayed at Maine Road, they would be an ‘Everton-sized’ rather than a Liverpool-sized club. As it was, Bernstein negotiated their move to Eastlands, where they were ‘the only game in town’, and also gave it the name the City of Manchester Stadium. Today’s City team is full of stars, but none of them are starry. It is, some might reckon after reading We Were Really There, a very David Bernstein type of team.
Rating out of 10: 8