Define then ? '60's or 00's - 10's ? Waggy, Houghton & Butler were 3 of the best we ever signed, and blended in well with the rest of the team way back when. Don't think we've ever pulled 3 like that in one season ever since, despite getting to the top division. It was tougher & more expensive relatively speaking to get to Div 1 from Div 2 in those days. Blame TV money would be my answer.
Define it was tougher relatively speaking to get in division 1 in those days? We paid comparatively millions for those three players. Did they not play to the level they should have? Poorly coached? Too easy for them and wanted an easier life?
Harold Needler ran out of money - although some rumours suggested Britten told him he didn't need to invest any more. Bottom line was those 3 players were not enough to pull off promotion to the top flight, other clubs had better all round teams because they spent more widely in developing full/more widely talented squads. We scored a lot, but in the meantime conceded a lot of goals. Teams that were capable of promotion spent more in a more efficient manner. Mind you, City were exciting to watch.
http://thetwounfortunates.com/great-football-league-teams-42-hull-city-1965-6/ when you look at the full team you couldn't say the defence was poor just not as good as the attack.
Yet, for the rest of the 1960s, the Tigers struggled against meaner defences and forward lines more comparable with their own. flat track bullies then
As far as I remember Needler didn't run out of money as such but felt he had invested enough. However, like others, he just wasn't prepared to see it through, as rightly said, the defence just wasn't in the same league as the forward line, and 3 or 4 really good players in defence position could have seen us get to the top flight earlier.
You're right John. Needler didn't run out of money by any stretch of the imagination. It was a euphemism I used to suggest he was disinclined to invest any more, or as suggested, Britten advised him he didn't need to boost the squad significantly to get to the next level (Div 1 in those days). I'd have thought when Terry Neill arrived ( an aging but still useful defender) that Neill would have pushed for improving City's defence to advance the cause, but he had other ambitions on his mind. A shame. We had a very loyal set of goalscoring forwards/attacking midfielders, and as you say, some tweaking at the back might just have got us into the top league 40 years earlier !! Had the latter happened, I may never have emigrated Incidentally, Harold Needler, a friend of one of my great uncles, gave me a reference which eased my entry into Canada. Hoveringham had a subsidiary sand & gravel company over here.
Yes, always felt Neill was just with us to learn the managerial aspects of football just for Arsenal's benefit.
Terry Neill had too many players getting old at the same time, it was a good shout to get in Knighton & Baxter for Bramall Lane in 71, and it seemed to have doe the trick. Did well selling Chillo to Cov when he was past his best and with a dodgy back, and good though Pearson was he never combined well with and ageing Waggy. Phil Holme, Peter Fletcher etc were all downgrades on what had gone before. Needler's death in the mid 70s was the start point of a long slow decline as his son never embraced the challenge with any vision or ambition. Similar to what we have now: just drifting along, waiting for someone to take it over and make a go of it.