Royle loses right to appeal.

Former boss Joe Royle has been refused permission by The House of Lords to counter-appeal against the appeal court decision which ruled he should return £420,000 he was originally awarded by City following his sacking back in 2001 following our relegation from the Premiership.
City originally paid Royle £150,000 which was the amount he was owed remaining on his contract based on the club playing in Division 1. However, Royle argued and succesfully sued the club, arguing that technically the club had breached the contract as they were still officially a Premiership club at the time of the sacking.
This was based on the interpretation that although the season had ended, and that season had resulted in relegation, the club had still to hand over their Premiership shares to the promoted sides.
City then launched an appeal at The House of Lords, which subsequently ruled in City's favour, saving the club nearly half a million pounds which with ironic timing was just at the time KK left the club armed with what was probably a rather tasty 'golden handshake'.
City have issued what is basically a rather brief terse statement which reads "It is hoped that this latest ruling will finally bring to an end the long running dispute."
This pretty much summed up City's attitude to the whole Royle dismissal situation and neither party emerged from this with a great deal of credit. City left themselves open to this kind of technicality by firing Royle as quickly as they did, amidst rumours that they had already approached Kevin Keegan to take over before doing so. Given the fact that Royle had been a former player for the club and had got them to the Premiership in successive seasons from the dark days of Division 2, City really should have avoided a situation which would lead to a long, drawn out bitter affair.
Royle though perhaps came out worse in the eyes of City fans though. Despite what he did for the club, and coupled with former Chairman David Bernstein's efforts helped restore the club to the top flight, the relegation proved that Royle had taken the club as far as he could and that he could not deliver the style of football the fans wanted (and got the following season under Keegan) and his treatment of players such as Wanchope, Weah and Brown bordered on the bizzare.
And by taking the club to court it was effectively him against the whole of Manchester City and this led to him being labelled greedy in trying to squeeze as much money as he could from a club he had guided to relegation, overshadowing his many achievements with City.
Thankfully the whole saga appears now to be over and both sides will hopefully avoid a game of tit for tat in the press and the relationship between Joe royle and Manchester City can be left where it should be - firmly in the past.