Franny Lee will forever be remembered as one of Manchester City's greatest players, but his time as chairman did not go how anyone wanted.
A successful businessman not only after his playing career but during it, Lee could not resist the idea of buying his way back into the club where he had won domestic and European honours in a bid to restore it to its former glory in the 1990s. However, the Forward with Franny movement sent the club tumbling out of the Premier League and they were relegated down to the Third Division shortly after he resigned in 1998.
Lee's time in charge was marked by a series of managerial failures, from replacing popular coach Brian Horton with Alan Ball to hiring Steve Coppell only to see him resign after just 33 days. However, a new autobiography released following the legend's death reveals how Lee lined up United No.2 Brian Kidd to replace Horton and went to the stage of appointing Asa Hartford as his assistant and setting their eyes on Gareth Southgate as their first signing... only for it all to fall apart.
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"It was all agreed and we shook hands on the deal. Brian Kidd was in the bag as the new manager of Manchester City!" Lee wrote in Triumphs, Treachery and Toilet Rolls. "We were prepared to give him an initial budget of £10m, a lot of money back then.
"Southgate was to be just the first. That’s how far we’d gone down the line for Brian Kidd. It was cut and dried, signed and sealed – and then it wasn’t. I was absolutely furious – and completely banjaxed. And so, the search for a new manager began again."
The book
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