Royle, was appointed City manager on 18 February 1998. He had a reputation for playing defensive midfielders, which led to his Everton team being nicknamed the "Dogs of War". Royle viewed Kinkladze as an unaffordable luxury in a relegation battle, and in his first board meeting as Manchester City manager, he opened proceedings with the words "We have to sell Kinkladze". After playing the first two games under Royle, a 1–2 loss on 18 February against Ipswich Town, and a 3–1 win against Swindon Town on 23 February, Kinkladze sustained an ankle injury, which sidelined him for a month. He made his return at Port Vale on 14 March, despite having taken little part in training in the preceding week. Port Vale were a team with a physically robust approach, and used the muddy conditions to their advantage. Kinkladze was played out of position on the right wing, much to his displeasure, and gave a performance that the Manchester Evening News summarised as "barely noticeable". Vale defeated City 2–1, and Royle severely criticised Kinkladze for a lack of effort, dropping him for the next six games. In 2005, Royle explained his view of Kinkladze in his autobiography: "To the supporters he was the only positive in all that time. To me, he was a big negative. I am not saying that City's ills were all down to Kinkladze, but there was too much about the whole Kinkladze cult phenomenon that wasn't right ...too often since his arrival, the team had under-performed. I couldn't help deducing that contrary to popular opinion, he would be my weak link not my strong one." With two games remaining, Manchester City were in the relegation places, and Kinkladze was restored to the starting lineup for the home match against Queens Park Rangers (QPR). The QPR team contained Vinnie Jones, who had a violent reputation and played using the axiom "if their top geezer gets sorted out early doors, you win". Jones tried to apply his philosophy to Kinkladze, even targeting him in the tunnel before the start of the match. Kinkladze opened the scoring with a free kick, but City could not maintain their lead. Defending described by The Observer'''s reporter as a "calamity" culminated in an unusual own goal from Jamie Pollock, and meant the match ended in a 2–2 draw. City were relegated for the second time in three seasons despite a final