Sunday 23 February 2020

Jim's column 21.2.2020

I try and keep an eye on former Coventry City players and follow their careers. Last week Colin Heys came up with one I wasn't aware of, Ruben Lameiras, who is back in his home country of Portugal playing for Famalicao. Ruben left Coventry in the summer of 2017 after making 69 appearances for the club including the EFL Trophy final in 2017 and joined Plymouth Argyle. After suffering relegation from League One with the Sky Blues that season he endured another torrid season last year with Argyle which saw the Pilgrims relegated to League Two.

Despite being offered a new deal at Home Park, Ruben decided to move to the Portuguese side who were promoted to the top flight for the first time in 25 years and it seems that he is making a success of things as Colin points out that World Soccer magazine have identified him as 'one to watch'. Famalicao are doing remarkable well too, lying in sixth place in the Primeira Liga and through to the Cup semi finals for the first time in their history, not bad for a club whose stadium holds just over 5,000.

Another former City player who came across my radar recently is Phillipe Clement who is managing Belgian league leaders Club Brugge who played Manchester United in the Europa League this week. Phillipe spent one unhappy, injury-ridden season at Coventry in 1998-99 having joined from Genk and made just 16 appearances, eight of them from the bench before returning to his homeland to play for Club Brugge. His injury problems cleared up after his move and he went on to make over 300 appearances for Brugge in the next 10 years as well as winning 38 full caps for his country. He's still relatively new at the management game but led Genk to a surprise league title last season and was lured away to Brugge who currently lead the Belgian League by 11 points.
                                                                Philippe Clement                     

Nearer to home, National League side Barrow are seven points clear at the top of the table and look favourites to gain promotion to the Football League after almost 50 years in non-league. They lost their place in the league in 1972 in times when the bottom four sides in the old Division Four had to seek re-election in a vote with the best non-league sides. That year Barrow were unfortunate to face, in the vote, Hereford United, who had captured the nation's hearts with their FA Cup exploits earlier that year. Poor old Barrow lost out and have never got near returning to the league until this season. They are managed by Cov kid Ian Evatt, who played almost 600 senior games for Derby, Northampton, Chesterfield, QPR and Blackpool including a season in the Premier League with the Seasiders. Ian, in his first full-time management role, is supported by his assistant, former City defender Peter Atherton who made 120 appearances for the Sky Blues in the early 1990s. Another at barrow with a Coventry connection is striker Dior Angus, son of former Nuneaton, Northampton and Fulham defender Terry Angus.
                                                                        Peter Atherton

Colin Heys also alerted to me to the fact that former Coventry loanee Chuba Akpom is a star in Greece with PAOK Salonika. He left Arsenal in 2018 to join the Greek side and was a member of the team that won the domestic double last season with Chuba scoring the winner in the Cup final. He is a regular again this season and has appeared in the UEFA Champions League.

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