Malcolm Allison

Malcolm Allison began his career as a player with Charlton after the Second World War and he spent six years there before moving on to West Ham in 1951. A strong and reliable centre-half, he was a regular in the Hammers team for the next six seasons, before an unfortunate injury cut short his career.

He had fallen ill after a game against Sheffield United in September 1957 and, after being diagnosed with tuberculosis, he had to have a lung removed and never played professionally again.

The most flamboyant manager in Manchester City’s history, Allison was nothing if not a bundle of contradictions and claimed he was always a City fan after listening to the Blues get beaten by Everton in the FA Cup Final of 1933.

He was a dedicated student of the game and a real football thinker, yet could often be heard making outlandish claims for the most average of footballers. He took his work extremely seriously, yet often seemed like a cartoon figure with his Fedoras, bottles of champagne and dalliances with sexy stars. What can’t be denied, however, is that Allison’s partnership with Joe Mercer produced the most successful and exciting period in City’s history.

Once he had been forced to hang up his boots, Allison was determined to make it as a coach and, after working at West Ham, took over as manager of non-league Bath City in 1963. After moving to Plymouth he left for Manchester City in 1965 as assistant manager to Mercer and helped craft a superb side that swept all before it between 1968 and 1970. Allison had no truck with City’s footballing neighbours. “I loathed the bumptious, patronising tones of their players, their hangers-on and many of their supporters,” he said. “It became a challenge to me when I drove past city parks and saw 90 per cent of the kids wearing red shirts.”

By 1972 Allison had decided that he wanted to be top dog but, with City undergoing massive internal political upheaval, he ended up leaving for Crystal Palace in 1973.

After a topsy-turvy time at Palace and short stints at Galatasaray in Turkey and back at Plymouth, Allison came back to City as manager in 1979. It was an unmitigated disaster and he left for Palace again in 1980. Stints with a number of other clubs never saw Allison scale those giddy City heights again, apart from a golden period out of the British spotlight where he won the Portuguese league and cup with Sporting Lisbon.

Allison’s last job was at Bristol Rovers in the early '90s, but since then his health has declined and he is now in a care home suffering from Alzheimer’s. It’s a sad end for one of football’s greatest entertainers.