Speaking on the latest edition of the official Man City Podcast, Horton who was in charge of the Club between 1993 and 1995, reveals how he was alerted to national newspaper headlines reporting on how the then City chairman Francis Lee had decided to remove him.
In a fascinating and revealing Podcast, Horton – who in his long, distinguished career as a player and manager, was involved in more than 2,000 game - also discloses how he tried – in vain – to bring a teenage Luis Figo to the Club.
“I was at an awards dinner after our last game of the season and the following morning Frank Clark said: ‘Have you not seen the national papers?’ I said: ‘No I haven’t’,” Horton told the Podcast.
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“And he showed me – ‘Brian Horton sacked at Man City.’ That was the first I heard about it. I tried to get hold of Francis. I couldn’t get hold of him.
“Eventually I got Julia, my secretary, to get hold of Francis and I went to his house and just didn’t like way it was done.”
Regarding the bid to sign Figo – who over the course of a glittering career with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Portugal went on to become of Europe’s greatest ever players, Horton reveals in the Podcast how only City’s slender finances at the time prevented the deal.
“Tony Book and I flew over to Ireland to watch Luis play,” Horton revealed.
“Wow, what a player. I came back and said to Francis, whatever it takes, try and get him if we can. We got his agents, some English agents involved and met him and it was just too much.
“What a great coup that would have been if we could have pulled that one off.”
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