The end of the season is almost upon us and today is the final home game of the season. Thankfully Andy Thorn and Steve Harrison have steered the club away from tricky relegation waters before today as the final two games are, on paper, daunting tasks. My comments in last week’s column generated more than the average feedback with the vast majority of readers agreeing with my view that a long-term management appointment was premature until SISU’s intentions were clearer. I did not believe Thorn would commit to being the manager of a club in such turmoil and can only imagine that he has been given firm re-assurances that the club’s future under SISU is secure and that means either more money being ‘invested’ by SISU or an additional investor. Without one or the other the fans are still led to believe there will be a cashflow issue sometime over the summer. If , as rumours persist, a consortium is being gathered to buy City out then Thorn runs the risk of not being the choice of the new owners.
The other rumour that refuses to go away is that the council will not sell their share in the Ricoh Arena to SISU. If this is true then it is one more reason why SISU should seriously consider any offer to buy their shares in the Football club. Once again the supporters are being kept in the dark about their club and the owners’ intentions.
The promotion and relegation issues affecting the Championship are not totally resolved but it is now certain that City will renew rivalries with Brighton & Hove Albion next season. The south coast side, ably managed by former Chelsea and Spurs’ Gus Poyet, return to our league after a five-year interlude in League One., and next season will be playing in their new stadium on the outskirts of Brighton. Their promotion is timed perfectly and the new 22,500-seater stadium will be significantly fuller than the 8,000 capacity former athletics stadium at Withdean. The last time City played the Seagulls in league football was in early 2006 - a 2-0 home win with Dennis Wise scoring both goals.
As we welcome Brighton, and probably Southampton, who look set to take the second automatic place, we say goodbye to Preston North End. North End’s eleven-year stay in this league comes to an end and leaves Coventry City as the longest-serving club in tier two of the English game. Preston have, for most of that time, punched above their weight and reached the play-offs four times. Two frightening statistics - in the last ten seasons the Sky Blues have never won at Deepdale and have only finished above Preston on one occasion, 2004-05.
Sheffield United’s plight under former City boss Micky Adams also looks doomed. The Blades have been in this league for nine of the last ten seasons (the other season was that controversial one in the Premier League) and like Preston have only once been headed by the Sky Blues in a final table. When you look at these facts you realise how dreadful City’s performance has been in the last ten seasons and how lucky they have been not to be relegated.
I recently had some correspondence with Jim Dobbin, a lifelong City fan who now lives on the Isle of Man. His late father, also Jim, was the tailor to the Sky Blues in the Jimmy Hill era and knew a lot of the players well, especially goalkeepers Arthur Lightening and Bob Wesson. Jim has a pewter tankard given to his father by Lightening after City played a friendly game with then First Division Burnley in may 1962. The game was to commemorate the opening of the rebuilt Cathedral and Jim wanted the details of the game.
Burnley, who the previous week had lost the FA Cup final to Tottenham and finished runners-up to Ipswich in the league, brought a strong team to Highfield Road and outclassed City 4-2. It was the last time that City wore their pre-JH all white kit before switching to the famous Sky Blue strip that summer.
The match details requested by Jim are as follows:
Line-ups: City: Lightening: Sillett, Austin, Farmer, Curtis, Brian Hill, Humphries, Johnny Byrne (West Ham – a guest), Dwight, McCann, Imlach.
Burnley: Blacklaw: Angus, Buxton, Adamson, Cummings, Miller, Price, Bellamy, Pointer, Robson, Harris.
The scorers were: Robson (21 min), Price (37), Pointer (78 & 82), Byrne (87), Humphries (89).
Attendance: 7,416 (probably lower because the terrace admission price was increased from 2/6 to 5/-)
Monday, 2 May 2011
Monday, 25 April 2011
JIM'S COLUMN 23.4.11
Three more points against Millwall last Saturday made the Sky Blues safe from relegation for another season. The replacement of manager Aidy Boothroyd with caretaker boss Andy Thorn has galvanised the team and eleven points from six games has put Thorn in with a shout of being the next City manager. However with little or no news on funding or ownership changes any talk of a long term appointment is a waste of time. Since the tsunami of news when the new board were appointed three weeks ago things have gone quiet at the Ricoh and no-one has elaborated on the comments that Sisu’s latest transfusion of money would only last until the summer. HMRC and other creditors (including presumably the football club who were owed money that caused the transfer embargo to be enforced) have been pacified for the moment, but players will need paying through the close season as will HMRC for the PAYE liabilities. A permanent appointment is highly unlikely until Sisu’s longer term intentions are clearer or a new owner comes over the hill on his white charger. Frankly, if I was Andy Thorn I would be loathed to take the job until the fog around City’s future clears.
Marlon King became the first Coventry player to score a brace in two successive league games since Micky Quinn achieved the feat in 1992. Since then Dion Dublin (1997-98), Darren Huckerby (1998-99) and Cedric Roussel (1999-2000) have done it including a Cup game, in fact Huckerby scored successive hat-tricks against Macclesfield and Nottingham Forest but no-one has done it since the club were relegated in 2001. In 1992 Quinn had a golden period when he arrived courtesy of new vice-chairman John Clarke’s £250,000 donation. ‘Quinny’ scored ten goals in six games including three successive braces at Southampton (2-2) and at home to Liverpool (5-1) and Aston Villa (3-0). Marlon, now on 11 goals, could be on target to take McSheffrey’s record of the most league goals (15) in a season since relegation.
Days after Portsmouth’s Haydn Mullins became the first City opponent to receive a red card this season Millwall’s Neil Harris became the second, and the fastest ever at the Ricoh Arena, his expulsion being timed at 67 seconds after coming on as a substitute. The previous record was held by Michael Mifsud, sent off after 11 minutes against West Brom in 2007. I believe Harris is only the second opposition substitute to be ordered off at the new stadium, the other was Colchester’s Teddy Sheringham in 2008. The mild-mannered Claus Jorgensen remains the only City substitute to be sent off at the Ricoh, although another affable substitute, Brian Borrows, received his marching orders at St James’ Park in the late 1990s and Carl Baker ‘saw red’ at Millwall this season.
Harris joins a select group of miscreants to be sent off as a substitute against the Sky Blues including Clive Allen, the first in 1992, when playing for Chelsea, Trevor Benjamin (WBA), Nicky Summerbee and West Ham’s Steve Lomas.
City’s fastest ever red card was timed at 24 seconds and received by loanee Peter Clarke at Cardiff’s Ninian Park in 2004.
Marlon King became the first Coventry player to score a brace in two successive league games since Micky Quinn achieved the feat in 1992. Since then Dion Dublin (1997-98), Darren Huckerby (1998-99) and Cedric Roussel (1999-2000) have done it including a Cup game, in fact Huckerby scored successive hat-tricks against Macclesfield and Nottingham Forest but no-one has done it since the club were relegated in 2001. In 1992 Quinn had a golden period when he arrived courtesy of new vice-chairman John Clarke’s £250,000 donation. ‘Quinny’ scored ten goals in six games including three successive braces at Southampton (2-2) and at home to Liverpool (5-1) and Aston Villa (3-0). Marlon, now on 11 goals, could be on target to take McSheffrey’s record of the most league goals (15) in a season since relegation.
Days after Portsmouth’s Haydn Mullins became the first City opponent to receive a red card this season Millwall’s Neil Harris became the second, and the fastest ever at the Ricoh Arena, his expulsion being timed at 67 seconds after coming on as a substitute. The previous record was held by Michael Mifsud, sent off after 11 minutes against West Brom in 2007. I believe Harris is only the second opposition substitute to be ordered off at the new stadium, the other was Colchester’s Teddy Sheringham in 2008. The mild-mannered Claus Jorgensen remains the only City substitute to be sent off at the Ricoh, although another affable substitute, Brian Borrows, received his marching orders at St James’ Park in the late 1990s and Carl Baker ‘saw red’ at Millwall this season.
Harris joins a select group of miscreants to be sent off as a substitute against the Sky Blues including Clive Allen, the first in 1992, when playing for Chelsea, Trevor Benjamin (WBA), Nicky Summerbee and West Ham’s Steve Lomas.
City’s fastest ever red card was timed at 24 seconds and received by loanee Peter Clarke at Cardiff’s Ninian Park in 2004.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
JIM'S COLUMN 16.4.2011
City’s upturn in form continued at Fratton Park on Tuesday evening with a convincing 3-0 win over Portsmouth. The win completed the club’s first ‘double’ of the season, after City’s opening day victory at the Ricoh. It ensured that the Sky Blues did the ‘double’ over at least one team for the eleventh season in a row. You have to go back to 1999-2000 for a campaign where City didn’t achieve the ‘double’, that team, boasting Robbie Keane, Gary McAllister and the Moroccans may have been dubbed ‘the Entertainers’ but failed to win a single away game.
As I said last week City have met Pompey very infrequently over the last 45 years but it was still the first win at Fratton Park since August 1966 when goals from Ray Pointer and Bobby Gould secured a 2-0 win. Tuesday’s victory was City’s biggest away victory for almost three years, when a 5-1 win at Colchester helped save City’s bacon and only the second time this season the team have scored more than two goals. Coincidentally two of those goals at Colchester were from the penalty spot, Elliott Ward the man on target at Layer Road. Marlon King emulated Ward’s feat at Fratton and took his tally of league goals to nine. His scoring form is excellent and although he is unlikely to better Gary McSheffrey’s 15 goals in 2005-06 (the best by a City player in the post-Premiership era) he may well reach 12 which would be the best total since Gary’s record campaign. Marlon’s goals per game ratio however is the best in the modern era with nine in 20 starts.King only settled in the side in November after fitness issues and the conundrum is why the team have they slumped to the lower reaches of the table whilst King has been relatively prolific with his goalscoring.
Portsmouth’s Haydn Mullins became the first City opponent to receive a red card this season for his handball offence ensuring that one record stays intact; it is 14 years since we went through a whole season with no opposing players sent off.
Next Friday, Good Friday, City play host to Scunthorpe in what will be the first Good Friday afternoon home game since the club joined the Football League in 1919. Traditionally Coventry factories worked on a Good Friday and were closed on Easter Monday and Tuesday and as result the club would usually play home and away fixtures against the same club on the Monday and Tuesday, with occasionally an away game on Good Friday. In the days before floodlights (i.e. pre-1955) the Tuesday game would take place in the afternoon and with few at work a big crowd was usually guaranteed. Only once in almost 100 years have City played at home on Good Friday, an evening game with Sheffield United in 1975. In 1913 and 1914, when City were a struggling Southern League side they played afternoon games on Good Friday. I understand that some Coventry firms still work on Good Friday and fans working for these are likely to miss the game and the decision to play on Friday will have upset many people of a religious persuasion.
As I said last week City have met Pompey very infrequently over the last 45 years but it was still the first win at Fratton Park since August 1966 when goals from Ray Pointer and Bobby Gould secured a 2-0 win. Tuesday’s victory was City’s biggest away victory for almost three years, when a 5-1 win at Colchester helped save City’s bacon and only the second time this season the team have scored more than two goals. Coincidentally two of those goals at Colchester were from the penalty spot, Elliott Ward the man on target at Layer Road. Marlon King emulated Ward’s feat at Fratton and took his tally of league goals to nine. His scoring form is excellent and although he is unlikely to better Gary McSheffrey’s 15 goals in 2005-06 (the best by a City player in the post-Premiership era) he may well reach 12 which would be the best total since Gary’s record campaign. Marlon’s goals per game ratio however is the best in the modern era with nine in 20 starts.King only settled in the side in November after fitness issues and the conundrum is why the team have they slumped to the lower reaches of the table whilst King has been relatively prolific with his goalscoring.
Portsmouth’s Haydn Mullins became the first City opponent to receive a red card this season for his handball offence ensuring that one record stays intact; it is 14 years since we went through a whole season with no opposing players sent off.
Next Friday, Good Friday, City play host to Scunthorpe in what will be the first Good Friday afternoon home game since the club joined the Football League in 1919. Traditionally Coventry factories worked on a Good Friday and were closed on Easter Monday and Tuesday and as result the club would usually play home and away fixtures against the same club on the Monday and Tuesday, with occasionally an away game on Good Friday. In the days before floodlights (i.e. pre-1955) the Tuesday game would take place in the afternoon and with few at work a big crowd was usually guaranteed. Only once in almost 100 years have City played at home on Good Friday, an evening game with Sheffield United in 1975. In 1913 and 1914, when City were a struggling Southern League side they played afternoon games on Good Friday. I understand that some Coventry firms still work on Good Friday and fans working for these are likely to miss the game and the decision to play on Friday will have upset many people of a religious persuasion.
Monday, 11 April 2011
JIM'S COLUMN 9.4.2011
It was another memorable Legend’s Day at the Ricoh Arena last Saturday with 48 former players and relatives of former players attending the Watford game. Many thanks to everyone who attended and made it a day to remember!
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone at CCFC, Compass, who put on a marvellous lunch, and the G Casino who hosted the evening activities. They were fantastic on our big day and we couldn’t have done it with out you all!
The Former Players Association committee, plus our hard-working fundraisers Gill Young, Dave, Leslie, and Grant, all worked hard to make it a special day.
Thanks to all our patrons and the club’s associate directors, with special mention to John Clarke and Joe Elliott, for their generous donations to the CCFPA, it is much appreciated!
Finally to the most important people, the fans and the former players of Coventry City, you were brilliant. Billy Bell asked me to say that he was honoured to introduce the former players parade at half time and the reception they received was truly awesome! He said: ‘When Ernie Machin was wheeled on to the pitch to that wonderful reception, I have to admit it brought a tear to my eye.’
Billy went on: ‘Credit also to the Watford fans who treated the boys with the respect they deserve and gave them warm applause throughout. The fun in the E-On lounge before the game and the craic in the Casino was brilliant. I knew I had to many when I woke up on Sunday morning to find my suit in bed and I was hung up in the wardrobe! The messages of thanks from the former players for a cracking day, for me, makes all the hard work involved worthwhile.’ Here’s to the next one!
It was the fifth Legends Day and the 2-0 victory over Watford means the Sky Blues have never lost on Legends Day!
Photographs of the day (kindly taken by our own photographer Tony Thomas) and a report can be found on the FPA’s website www.ccfpa.co.uk
This week City travel to play two old foes from the Second Division days of the 1960s. Today they are at Derby’s Pride Park and on Tuesday it’s Fratton Park. Older fans will remember Easter 1966 when City’s defeats at Derby and Portsmouth wrecked the promotion hopes. City were well placed for promotion before a 2-0 defeat at Fratton on Easter Saturday, then, on Easter Monday afternoon, a late Alan Durban goal gave the Rams the points on the day Bill Glazier made his return after a year out with a broken leg. City lost only one of their remaining six games but were pipped at the post by Southampton.
City have not got a great record at Pride Park in recent years and have won only once in seven games since they were relegated in 2001. That was a 3-1 win in October 2003 near the end of Gary McAllister’s reign as manager, when Stephen Warnock and Patrick Suffo (2) netted.
The visit to Fratton Park is the first in the league since Pompey were promoted to the Premiership in 2003. That season City got a creditable 1-1 draw thanks to a Calum Davenport goal after losing 1-0 to a Peter Crouch goal the previous campaign. During City’s 34-year unbroken period in the top flight they only encountered Portsmouth once, in 1987-88, and drew 0-0. So you have to go back to August 1966 for City’s last win at Fratton but they have only met there on four occasions since, including last season’s 1-1 FA Cup draw.
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone at CCFC, Compass, who put on a marvellous lunch, and the G Casino who hosted the evening activities. They were fantastic on our big day and we couldn’t have done it with out you all!
The Former Players Association committee, plus our hard-working fundraisers Gill Young, Dave, Leslie, and Grant, all worked hard to make it a special day.
Thanks to all our patrons and the club’s associate directors, with special mention to John Clarke and Joe Elliott, for their generous donations to the CCFPA, it is much appreciated!
Finally to the most important people, the fans and the former players of Coventry City, you were brilliant. Billy Bell asked me to say that he was honoured to introduce the former players parade at half time and the reception they received was truly awesome! He said: ‘When Ernie Machin was wheeled on to the pitch to that wonderful reception, I have to admit it brought a tear to my eye.’
Billy went on: ‘Credit also to the Watford fans who treated the boys with the respect they deserve and gave them warm applause throughout. The fun in the E-On lounge before the game and the craic in the Casino was brilliant. I knew I had to many when I woke up on Sunday morning to find my suit in bed and I was hung up in the wardrobe! The messages of thanks from the former players for a cracking day, for me, makes all the hard work involved worthwhile.’ Here’s to the next one!
It was the fifth Legends Day and the 2-0 victory over Watford means the Sky Blues have never lost on Legends Day!
Photographs of the day (kindly taken by our own photographer Tony Thomas) and a report can be found on the FPA’s website www.ccfpa.co.uk
This week City travel to play two old foes from the Second Division days of the 1960s. Today they are at Derby’s Pride Park and on Tuesday it’s Fratton Park. Older fans will remember Easter 1966 when City’s defeats at Derby and Portsmouth wrecked the promotion hopes. City were well placed for promotion before a 2-0 defeat at Fratton on Easter Saturday, then, on Easter Monday afternoon, a late Alan Durban goal gave the Rams the points on the day Bill Glazier made his return after a year out with a broken leg. City lost only one of their remaining six games but were pipped at the post by Southampton.
City have not got a great record at Pride Park in recent years and have won only once in seven games since they were relegated in 2001. That was a 3-1 win in October 2003 near the end of Gary McAllister’s reign as manager, when Stephen Warnock and Patrick Suffo (2) netted.
The visit to Fratton Park is the first in the league since Pompey were promoted to the Premiership in 2003. That season City got a creditable 1-1 draw thanks to a Calum Davenport goal after losing 1-0 to a Peter Crouch goal the previous campaign. During City’s 34-year unbroken period in the top flight they only encountered Portsmouth once, in 1987-88, and drew 0-0. So you have to go back to August 1966 for City’s last win at Fratton but they have only met there on four occasions since, including last season’s 1-1 FA Cup draw.
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
JIM'S COLUMN 2.4.11
It was a case of Déjà vu at the Ricoh Arena this week with the club’s desperate financial plight taking over as the main news item from last week’s story about the team’s vertical drop towards League One. A high-powered press conference, talk of administration, financial injections and a new team on the board with their serious talk and furrowed brows. Yes there are new faces in the boardroom, some of them allegedly with questionable pasts, but they make the same old noises. They blame all the problems on the previous regime, talk about making the club financially viable again and state the obvious that the club must own the stadium in the future. Call me cynical but most City fans could have written the script for the press conference on Wednesday.
An added ingredient this week was that HMRC sent their bailiffs to the Ricoh looking to seize the club’s assets in lieu of unpaid PAYE tax. It can only have been like something from a Monty Python sketch.
HMRC bailiff: ‘So there are no assets?
CCFC representative: ‘No, we own nothing, just eleven football shirts’ (according to Ray Ranson in 2008) ‘We have got a training ground, but we’ve mortgaged that now. If you had come in January we had a talented 17-year old but we sent him to Liverpool’.
Joking apart, this is a serious problem. In normal circumstances HMRC would commence bankruptcy proceedings against a non-payer, so someone needs to pay them pretty quickly. But what a state this football club is in – Derrick Robins and Phil Mead, the men who quietly and frugally built the club up in the 1950s and 60s must be turning in their graves at the thought of the bailiffs turning up.
The faces in the boardroom are mostly new but the owner, SISU, is unchanged and little was said to reassure the long-suffering fans that much will change. SISU have had three years to progress the stadium ownership issue and have achieved little. Before SISU, Paul Fletcher, easily the best Chief Executive in the modern era in my opinion, resigned in frustration at the lack of progress with the owners of the stadium (and too much tinkering from a chairman who thought he knew best). In the three years since SISU saved the club in the last crisis there has been little or no progress on the playing side. On Wednesday the new chairman got off to a bad start when his assertion that a meeting was planned with the council was exposed as a myth by council leader John Mutton.
One way forward may be for all the parties (including the politicians) to get off their high horses, stop posturing and sit down together and thrash out a solution that benefits the football club’s supporters and the city of Coventry. Until that happens our football club will just stagger from this disaster to the next.
Today is the fifth annual Legends Day organised by the Former Players Association and over 50 former players including family members of some of the late greats (George Mason, Ray Straw and Frank Austin) are expected to attend. A full list of all confirmed guests can be found on the Former Players Association website at www.ccfpa.co.uk Ensure you are in your seats at half-time to see the men who made Coventry City famous paraded on the pitch. It promises to be a great day with the celebrations starting in the Arena Exhibition hall at 11.30 where the E-type Jaguars are on display and carrying on throughout the day at the Ricoh and culminating in a party open to all at the G Casino after the game.
An added ingredient this week was that HMRC sent their bailiffs to the Ricoh looking to seize the club’s assets in lieu of unpaid PAYE tax. It can only have been like something from a Monty Python sketch.
HMRC bailiff: ‘So there are no assets?
CCFC representative: ‘No, we own nothing, just eleven football shirts’ (according to Ray Ranson in 2008) ‘We have got a training ground, but we’ve mortgaged that now. If you had come in January we had a talented 17-year old but we sent him to Liverpool’.
Joking apart, this is a serious problem. In normal circumstances HMRC would commence bankruptcy proceedings against a non-payer, so someone needs to pay them pretty quickly. But what a state this football club is in – Derrick Robins and Phil Mead, the men who quietly and frugally built the club up in the 1950s and 60s must be turning in their graves at the thought of the bailiffs turning up.
The faces in the boardroom are mostly new but the owner, SISU, is unchanged and little was said to reassure the long-suffering fans that much will change. SISU have had three years to progress the stadium ownership issue and have achieved little. Before SISU, Paul Fletcher, easily the best Chief Executive in the modern era in my opinion, resigned in frustration at the lack of progress with the owners of the stadium (and too much tinkering from a chairman who thought he knew best). In the three years since SISU saved the club in the last crisis there has been little or no progress on the playing side. On Wednesday the new chairman got off to a bad start when his assertion that a meeting was planned with the council was exposed as a myth by council leader John Mutton.
One way forward may be for all the parties (including the politicians) to get off their high horses, stop posturing and sit down together and thrash out a solution that benefits the football club’s supporters and the city of Coventry. Until that happens our football club will just stagger from this disaster to the next.
Today is the fifth annual Legends Day organised by the Former Players Association and over 50 former players including family members of some of the late greats (George Mason, Ray Straw and Frank Austin) are expected to attend. A full list of all confirmed guests can be found on the Former Players Association website at www.ccfpa.co.uk Ensure you are in your seats at half-time to see the men who made Coventry City famous paraded on the pitch. It promises to be a great day with the celebrations starting in the Arena Exhibition hall at 11.30 where the E-type Jaguars are on display and carrying on throughout the day at the Ricoh and culminating in a party open to all at the G Casino after the game.
Monday, 28 March 2011
JIM'S COLUMN 26.3.11
The Coventry City funfair has a new ride. As the team’s hair-raising drop towards League One accelerates we now have the Chairman’s Merry-go-round to add to the perennial attractions, the Manager’s Revolving Door and the Sky Blues Roller Coaster. According to press reports this week chairman Ray Ranson is set to leave the football club. The stories seem to indicate that he is going to resign because his power has dwindled but who knows what the truth is about goings-on at the Ricoh Arena.
Since SISU and Ranson arrived in December 2007 like knights on a white charger to save the club at the eleventh hour from the jaws of administration information regarding the club has been strictly limited. The new owners saved the club, sure, but from day one the owners have alienated the old shareholders, the supporters and the media. That was their legal right, I know, but no one knows what is going on at the club we all love and care for. Details of SISU’s £20 million plus investment were thin on the ground at the start and little has changed in the intervening 3 ½ years.
A condescending stance to shareholders was evident from day one and a similar approach was taken with the Supporters Consultative Group who, whilst not a powerful group did offer excellent feedback from the club’s customers.
Because of the secrecy surrounding our owners and the absence of plans and accounts no one outside the club has ever really understood what SISU’s strategy was, nor what the plans are now. Fans on the board, Gary Hoffman and Joe Elliott have been sidelined and new unknown men have arrived. The only true City fan left is John Clarke, promoted to vice-chairman this week, the man who holds the record for the shortest tenure as chairman (nine days in 1993). The way things are going this week he might soon hold the record for the shortest reign as vice-chairman! Then again he might be chairman again soon.
At least with Ranson departing the club will save the club some money as I understand he was the first paid chairman since the infamous Bryan Richardson. Mike McGinnity and Geoffrey Robinson, Ranson’s predecessors, certainly had their faults including sharing with Ranson an inability to recruit a decent manager, but at least they did the job for nothing.
City’s chairmen over the last fifty years are as follows:
1960-1973 Derrick Robins
1973-1975 Peter Robins
1975-1977 Sir Jack Scamp
1977-1980 Phil Mead
1980-1983 Jimmy Hill
1983-1984 Iain Jamieson
1984-1990 John Poynton
1990-1993 Peter Robins
1993 John Clarke
1993-2002 Bryan Richardson
2002-2005 Mike McGinnity
2005-2007 Geoffrey Robinson
Next Saturday is the fifth annual Legends Day organised by the Former Players Association and over 50 former players are expected to attend with a number making their first appearance including John O’Rourke, Kevin Drinkell and Ernie Machin. A full list of all confirmed guests can be found on the Former Players Association website at www.ccfpa.co.uk Ensure you are in your seats at half-time next week to see the men who made Coventry City famous paraded on the pitch.
Talking of Kevin Drinkell, the former City striker who had such a bad time at Highfield Road after an illustrious career at Grimsby, Norwich and Rangers, he is hosting a book signing and question and answer session at the Royal Warwicks Club on the ring road next Friday evening from 7.30 pm. His book ‘Drinks All Round’ was published last autumn but the bad weather forced him to cancel his signing session in Coventry at the time.
Next Saturday evening (2 April) sees the return of the Coventry City Quiz at the Queens Head, Cubbington, kick-off 7.30. If you want to enter a team of three (£6 per team) in this fun quiz with prizes and food laid on contact the organiser John Hannon at j.hannan@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk
Since SISU and Ranson arrived in December 2007 like knights on a white charger to save the club at the eleventh hour from the jaws of administration information regarding the club has been strictly limited. The new owners saved the club, sure, but from day one the owners have alienated the old shareholders, the supporters and the media. That was their legal right, I know, but no one knows what is going on at the club we all love and care for. Details of SISU’s £20 million plus investment were thin on the ground at the start and little has changed in the intervening 3 ½ years.
A condescending stance to shareholders was evident from day one and a similar approach was taken with the Supporters Consultative Group who, whilst not a powerful group did offer excellent feedback from the club’s customers.
Because of the secrecy surrounding our owners and the absence of plans and accounts no one outside the club has ever really understood what SISU’s strategy was, nor what the plans are now. Fans on the board, Gary Hoffman and Joe Elliott have been sidelined and new unknown men have arrived. The only true City fan left is John Clarke, promoted to vice-chairman this week, the man who holds the record for the shortest tenure as chairman (nine days in 1993). The way things are going this week he might soon hold the record for the shortest reign as vice-chairman! Then again he might be chairman again soon.
At least with Ranson departing the club will save the club some money as I understand he was the first paid chairman since the infamous Bryan Richardson. Mike McGinnity and Geoffrey Robinson, Ranson’s predecessors, certainly had their faults including sharing with Ranson an inability to recruit a decent manager, but at least they did the job for nothing.
City’s chairmen over the last fifty years are as follows:
1960-1973 Derrick Robins
1973-1975 Peter Robins
1975-1977 Sir Jack Scamp
1977-1980 Phil Mead
1980-1983 Jimmy Hill
1983-1984 Iain Jamieson
1984-1990 John Poynton
1990-1993 Peter Robins
1993 John Clarke
1993-2002 Bryan Richardson
2002-2005 Mike McGinnity
2005-2007 Geoffrey Robinson
Next Saturday is the fifth annual Legends Day organised by the Former Players Association and over 50 former players are expected to attend with a number making their first appearance including John O’Rourke, Kevin Drinkell and Ernie Machin. A full list of all confirmed guests can be found on the Former Players Association website at www.ccfpa.co.uk Ensure you are in your seats at half-time next week to see the men who made Coventry City famous paraded on the pitch.
Talking of Kevin Drinkell, the former City striker who had such a bad time at Highfield Road after an illustrious career at Grimsby, Norwich and Rangers, he is hosting a book signing and question and answer session at the Royal Warwicks Club on the ring road next Friday evening from 7.30 pm. His book ‘Drinks All Round’ was published last autumn but the bad weather forced him to cancel his signing session in Coventry at the time.
Next Saturday evening (2 April) sees the return of the Coventry City Quiz at the Queens Head, Cubbington, kick-off 7.30. If you want to enter a team of three (£6 per team) in this fun quiz with prizes and food laid on contact the organiser John Hannon at j.hannan@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk
Sunday, 20 March 2011
JIM'S COLUMN 19.3.11
The Coventry City manager’s revolving door was in operation last week as Aidy Boothroyd became the ninth City manager to lose his job since the club were relegated in 2001.
The full league record of those nine men is as follows:
Games W D L For Agst GD Points Wins % Goals/game
Gordon Strachan 183 52 52 79 203 262 -59 208 28.42% 1.11
Roland Nilsson 40 19 5 16 56 48 8 62 47.50% 1.40
Gary McAllister 68 17 25 26 73 91 -18 76 25.00% 1.07
Eric Black 23 11 3 9 38 24 14 36 47.83% 1.65
Peter Reid 29 9 8 12 36 45 -9 35 31.03% 1.24
Micky Adams 90 31 24 35 113 124 -11 117 34.44% 1.26
Iain Dowie 43 16 9 18 49 63 -14 57 37.21% 1.14
Chris Coleman 107 30 35 42 112 140 -28 125 28.04% 1.05
Aidy Boothroyd 36 11 8 17 38 46 -8 41 30.56% 1.06
Strachan’s record includes all his games in the Premiership and therefore his percentages are hardly comparable but the ranking (by wins percentage) of the other eight is:
1 Black
2 Nilsson
3 Dowie
4 Adams
5 Reid
6 Boothroyd
7 Coleman
8 McAllister
The frightening statistics show that in the last ten years:
· Only four managers have won more than one game in three.
· Five out of eight managers have been given less than 50 games in charge.
· Only Black and Nilsson have won more than they have lost.
· Only Black and Nilsson have a positive goal difference.
· Only Black and Nilsson have scored more than 1.3 goals per game.
I don’t have to remind City fans that it has been ten years of pain and mismanagement from top to bottom at the club. Goodness knows how much compensation has been paid out over the period to departing managers, not to mention departing directors. Probably enough to build a promotion side!
Aidy, the latest victim, was touted, like all his predecessors, as the one to get us back into the Premiership. Now nine months later he is victim number nine. I am not suggesting that the recent run of poor form does not warrant his sacking but one has to question the club’s managerial selection process. Anyone in business knows that time invested in recruiting staff can save you a lot of money - get the wrong person, spend money on their training and induction only to realise a year later that they are not very good and you have to release them and repeat the whole process. In football it is a double whammy, get the wrong manager and it costs you money and hampers the club’s progress. This is the single biggest reason for City’s failure to get anywhere near the play-offs in ten seasons.
I know it can be a lottery appointing a manager but I don’t believe good managers become bad managers overnight. Nilsson, Reid, McAllister, Black and Adams all have high-profile jobs in the game – in fact Nilsson will be in the Champions League next season after leading Malmo to the Swedish championship last season. Boothroyd will, I am sure, taste success again.
No, it is the Coventry City board that has take a long hard look at its recruitment policy and processes before diving in and appointing someone who has a good powerpoint presentation or comes over well in an interview or is a personal friend of a board member.
Preston North End are the only club that City have played in all ten seasons in this division. North End look odds-on to be relegated and bring an end to those meetings. There has therefore never been a better opportunity for City to win a league game at this bogey ground. In the last nine seasons City have picked up just two points and conceded 23 goals and in total City have never won in 14 league trips to Deepdale stretching back to 1949. A win today would go a long way to guaranteeing survival.
I received more suggestions for players with long careers against Coventry City. As I thought no one can top Peter Shilton’s record of playing against the Sky Blues 23 years after his first appearance but a few candidates for outfield players cropped up.
Last week I thought Teddy Sheringham might have held the record with 19 years and 12 days between his first and last appearance against City but Geoff Moore came up with Clive Walker, who first played for Chelsea in January 1978 and made his last appearance for Woking in the 1997 FA Cup tie (19 years 33 days). But he is beaten by Billy Bonds who played for Charlton as an 18-year old against the Sky Blues in March 1965 and made his final bow in November 1987, like Sheringham, aged 41.That is 22 years and eight months, just shy of Shilton’s longevity.
Last Saturday Hull’s substitute was 37-year old Nick Barmby who first played against City in early 1994. He would have to play for another six seasons to overhaul Shilts and Bonds.
14-year old David Woodfield who sits behind me in the Tesco Stand, celebrated his 100th Coventry City game last week (despite the disappointment of another home defeat). Dave is the third generation of the Woodfield family to be mad City fanatics following in the footsteps of his late grandfather Bert, whose memories of the great Clarrie Bourton could brighten the dullest day at Highfield Road, and his father Richard, the Bantam mascot in the early days of Jimmy Hill. Dave has seen little to cheer about in those 100 games and lets hope he sees some success in the near future. Well done Dave!
The full league record of those nine men is as follows:
Games W D L For Agst GD Points Wins % Goals/game
Gordon Strachan 183 52 52 79 203 262 -59 208 28.42% 1.11
Roland Nilsson 40 19 5 16 56 48 8 62 47.50% 1.40
Gary McAllister 68 17 25 26 73 91 -18 76 25.00% 1.07
Eric Black 23 11 3 9 38 24 14 36 47.83% 1.65
Peter Reid 29 9 8 12 36 45 -9 35 31.03% 1.24
Micky Adams 90 31 24 35 113 124 -11 117 34.44% 1.26
Iain Dowie 43 16 9 18 49 63 -14 57 37.21% 1.14
Chris Coleman 107 30 35 42 112 140 -28 125 28.04% 1.05
Aidy Boothroyd 36 11 8 17 38 46 -8 41 30.56% 1.06
Strachan’s record includes all his games in the Premiership and therefore his percentages are hardly comparable but the ranking (by wins percentage) of the other eight is:
1 Black
2 Nilsson
3 Dowie
4 Adams
5 Reid
6 Boothroyd
7 Coleman
8 McAllister
The frightening statistics show that in the last ten years:
· Only four managers have won more than one game in three.
· Five out of eight managers have been given less than 50 games in charge.
· Only Black and Nilsson have won more than they have lost.
· Only Black and Nilsson have a positive goal difference.
· Only Black and Nilsson have scored more than 1.3 goals per game.
I don’t have to remind City fans that it has been ten years of pain and mismanagement from top to bottom at the club. Goodness knows how much compensation has been paid out over the period to departing managers, not to mention departing directors. Probably enough to build a promotion side!
Aidy, the latest victim, was touted, like all his predecessors, as the one to get us back into the Premiership. Now nine months later he is victim number nine. I am not suggesting that the recent run of poor form does not warrant his sacking but one has to question the club’s managerial selection process. Anyone in business knows that time invested in recruiting staff can save you a lot of money - get the wrong person, spend money on their training and induction only to realise a year later that they are not very good and you have to release them and repeat the whole process. In football it is a double whammy, get the wrong manager and it costs you money and hampers the club’s progress. This is the single biggest reason for City’s failure to get anywhere near the play-offs in ten seasons.
I know it can be a lottery appointing a manager but I don’t believe good managers become bad managers overnight. Nilsson, Reid, McAllister, Black and Adams all have high-profile jobs in the game – in fact Nilsson will be in the Champions League next season after leading Malmo to the Swedish championship last season. Boothroyd will, I am sure, taste success again.
No, it is the Coventry City board that has take a long hard look at its recruitment policy and processes before diving in and appointing someone who has a good powerpoint presentation or comes over well in an interview or is a personal friend of a board member.
Preston North End are the only club that City have played in all ten seasons in this division. North End look odds-on to be relegated and bring an end to those meetings. There has therefore never been a better opportunity for City to win a league game at this bogey ground. In the last nine seasons City have picked up just two points and conceded 23 goals and in total City have never won in 14 league trips to Deepdale stretching back to 1949. A win today would go a long way to guaranteeing survival.
I received more suggestions for players with long careers against Coventry City. As I thought no one can top Peter Shilton’s record of playing against the Sky Blues 23 years after his first appearance but a few candidates for outfield players cropped up.
Last week I thought Teddy Sheringham might have held the record with 19 years and 12 days between his first and last appearance against City but Geoff Moore came up with Clive Walker, who first played for Chelsea in January 1978 and made his last appearance for Woking in the 1997 FA Cup tie (19 years 33 days). But he is beaten by Billy Bonds who played for Charlton as an 18-year old against the Sky Blues in March 1965 and made his final bow in November 1987, like Sheringham, aged 41.That is 22 years and eight months, just shy of Shilton’s longevity.
Last Saturday Hull’s substitute was 37-year old Nick Barmby who first played against City in early 1994. He would have to play for another six seasons to overhaul Shilts and Bonds.
14-year old David Woodfield who sits behind me in the Tesco Stand, celebrated his 100th Coventry City game last week (despite the disappointment of another home defeat). Dave is the third generation of the Woodfield family to be mad City fanatics following in the footsteps of his late grandfather Bert, whose memories of the great Clarrie Bourton could brighten the dullest day at Highfield Road, and his father Richard, the Bantam mascot in the early days of Jimmy Hill. Dave has seen little to cheer about in those 100 games and lets hope he sees some success in the near future. Well done Dave!
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