Jim’s column 11.8.2018

A major milestone is looming in Coventry City's history as the appearance of the 1000th player to
wear the club's shirt approaches. The four debutants on Saturday against Scunthorpe took the total
of City players to have appeared in first-class competitive games since the club joined the Football
League in 1919 to 998. I'm guessing that new signings Junior Brown and Amadou Bakayoko will
get a game either today at AFC Wimbledon or in midweek at Oxford and that the milestone will be
met.
The 998 include any player who appeared for the club in league, FA Cup, League Cup, Football
League Trophy, Texaco (Anglo-Scottish) Cup, Simod Cup, Zenith Data Cup, Southern Floodlit Cup,
Division Three (South) Cup, Play-offs, Charity Shield or European Fairs Cup (I may have missed a
couple there). It does not include players who played in the war years (1939-1946) when there was
no first-class football. It includes players who only made substitute appearances (there are a few of
those) but not those who sat on the bench but were never used.
It's interesting to note the progress towards the 1000 mark
100th player: Harry Deeming (1925) – 6 years '
200th player: Frank Corbett (1931) – 6 years
300th player: Tommy Briggs (1950) – 12 years (excludes 7 war years)
400th player: John Mitten (1963) – 13 years
500th player: Steve Jacobs (1980) – 17 years
600th player: Roy Wegerle (1993) – 13 years
700th player: Steve Walsh (2002) – 9 years
800th player: Robbie Simpson (2007) – 5 years
900th player: Michael Petrasso (2014) – 7 years
1000th player: ? (2018) – 4 years
The timespan between each century illustrates the turnover of players at the club. The period of
lowest turnover was between 1963 and 1980 which included the Jimmy Hill era when so many of
his team were fixtures in the team and transfers were few and far between.
The last four years has seen the heaviest turnover and reflects the changing nature of the game when
new managers want to build their 'own' team and largely discard what they inherited. In addition the
growth of the loan market has seen an acceleration in the number of players used. For example 34
of the 100 since Petrasso in 2014 and 64 of the 200 since Robbie Simpson in 2007 have been
loanees.
Fellow historian Paul O'Connor analysed the timescales of the players and points out that there is a
clear correlation between performance on the pitch and number of players used. There was a high
turnover in the 1920s as the club struggled under several managers. The 1930s were relatively
stable as Harry Storer's team brought success to the city. Jimmy Hill repeated that success in the
1960s and with only two other managers (Cantwell and Mercer/Milne), the period of 1963-1980
had the greatest stability. Things began to change in the early 80s with the team involved in more
relegation battles, a greater turnover of managers and players and this accelerated in the late 90s as
loans became very common.