Francis Lee assesses the current Manchester City vintage as they aim to emulate his 1968 title-winning feat When he says - "You never went out after Wednesday, Christ almighty" - you almost believe his was a generation of monks. His memory of the tactics of that self-expressive time also raises a smile: "All the old coaching manuals said - deprive the good players of space and time, and kick them if you can." Unlike some old pros Lee enthuses about today's players. Of City, he says: "Vincent Kompany, I think, is one of the best central defenders City have ever had. He's the lynchpin of that defence. He's quick, he's a good footballer. He could play right-back or midfield. They've got an outstanding goalkeeper. An outstanding goalkeeper is worth 15 points. The full-backs are not like the ones we had. We had Tony Book, who was very quick, but very defensive. He wasn't a great attacking full-back by any stretch. Glyn Pardoe was good going forward because he was a converted centre-forward. I'd say defensively we were better than this team, but Kompany is top-drawer. Yaya Touré: when he starts to go forward and rampage a bit he's some player, you know. How he's not a centre-forward I don't know. On Wednesday, Lee was at the Etihad Stadium to observe the return of Tévez and is liberal with his insights about today's forward line: "Tévez was badly advised by his agent, adviser, whatever you want to call him. Even when they won the FA Cup he was still trying to play the unhappy player. Maybe the strength of the club is that they could afford to tough it out with him. You should never try and bluff anyone who has more money than you. And it's good for the club that they didn't let the agent win, because it puts a marker down for everyone else. He's a bloody good player, though. Tévez receives the ball very well with his back to goal, and if he knocks it off to Sergio Agüero his big strength is going forward with the ball at his feet. If Tévez starts getting the ball on the edge of the area and he knocks it off to Agüero he can attack defenders - and he's dangerous, because he has explosive acceleration. There'd be some big defenders crapping themselves, because they're very hard to mark. Balotelli is very talented but he'd drive you crackers if you were playing with him. He could have got five or six against Bolton, but in the second half he decided he wanted to stop, and walk with the ball, and gave it away. You can't do that. He's got three or four faults he's got to put right. He walks with his head down like he's lost a fiver. Sometimes you have to lift your team-mates. If you're walking round sulky and sullen you're making it harder for them. Lift your team-mates. If you've got outstanding ability and you're using it you lift your team by doing something destructive to the opposition. If you could stand still, Pele would still be playing. That mention of Pele brings some regal ghosts into the room. But Lee keeps nostalgia in check: "I was lucky enough to play against Cruyff and Pele and I was thinking I'm going to have to put this Messi in against them. Now it's touch and go whether he's better than both of them. I played against Cruyff and Holland at Wembley. He was tactically magnificent that night, when we were playing 4-4-2 and he dropped off our back-four and got lost in midfield and dictated the game magnificently. Alf Ramsey should have seen it. I played against Pele in the 1970 World Cup when we lost 1-0 and we should have won 5-0. I missed a good chance that day. Messi rides the tackles, he doesn't moan. He has an advantage. Some of those German and Italian defenders used to batter you. But don't take that away from the guy because his skill and ability are amazing. Lee is a bridge to all City's eras, good and bad. These days he is proud to see the new Etihad Campus take shape on an 80-acre site around the stadium and remembers his own four years as chairman from 1994-98 with a grimace. It was completely bankrupt when I went there. Around every corner was a huge problem. People hadn't been paid for a long time. We rebuilt the Kippax Street Stand. That cost £16 million. With the help of the city council we rebuilt the training ground at Platt Lane, which was in complete disrepair. The parents of kids used to take one look at it and say, 'no thanks. Just when we finished the Kippax Street Stand the opportunity came for us to have the new stadium, which was great for the club and the city. Howard Bernstein and the city council were outstanding. But we were fighting fires on too many fronts. I always used to look on the bright side and say - we'll get everyone on the same side and pulling in the same direction and it'll all come right. Then I found out everyone wasn't pulling in the same direction. I'd had enough. You just couldn't win. When the stadium was on the horizon everyone wanted to be in. Everyone wanted to invest in the club. Everyone wanted to be a director. Everyone wanted their name on a plaque. And I thought - I've had enough. I'd packed up training racehorses to run the club, and while we made a lot of progress off the field, we didn't make it on it. Now he says: "I'm like a ------ coach, ranting and raving at the television." But he sees an older game, too, beyond the modern religion of one-touch: "They say it's a passing game. It's not a ------ passing game. Pick the ball up and carry it. See what's on. And when you get there pass it by the defender. The game now is controlled by the ball, with free-kicks and so on. With England, if Banksy [Gordon Banks] was in goal, you could get Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Charlton - all the best strikers - and put 10 balls on the 'D," shoot at Banksy - and you wouldn't score. You couldn't move the ball in the air like they do now. And the pitches are so good. They're perfect for forwards beating people. For Lee no meal can end without a mention of his brawl with Hunter, which still does a lively trade on YouTube: "I always get asked about that. The most amazing thing is that Norman Hunter was an outstanding player who played 750 games, I played about 600 and scored nearly 300 goals, but the only thing anyone wants to know about is that incident. I'm the president of the Bolton Boys Federation and Norman came to do our dinner and said, 'Do you mind if I tell them? After the incident, I hadn't spoken to him for a long time. It wasn't play-acting you know. He had tapped me on the shoulder, hit me and split my lip with a gold ring. Life turns full circle. These days, as sheriff of Plebville, Franny Lee would have to arrest himself for his part in that fight.