Save Our City – The Downfall of Coventry City Football Club

Seeing as this is my first blog I decided to tackle a subject quite close to my heart, Coventry City football club. Once a great family club with a rich history, which includes the 1987 F.A cup final victory over Spurs and being one of the founder members of the premier league, has in recent years turned into a debt ridden club which fails to fill even half of its 32,609 seater stadium and constantly sells its best players. As a season ticket holder I have witnessed firsthand the demise of the club and I can say without any doubt that this demise is down to the owners SISU Capital Limited. In this blog I will explain the reasons as to why SISU have done their level best to ruin the club.

The Ricoh Arena

Since relegation from the premier league at the end of the 2000/2001 season after 34 years in the top flight of English football and up to 2007, City went through 8 managers (including caretakers) not one being able to make the play-offs, many having to sell their best players and little or no funds to acquire new players. The club found themselves having to file for administration in late 2007 with reported debts of £38 million. On The 14th December 2007 City found themselves hours away from entering administration but former footballer Ray Ranson and the SISU group successfully completed the takeover. With this many fans thought the future looked bright for Coventry City.

Chris Coleman

Iain Dowie

However this was not exactly the case, the same pattern of managers being given no funds and having to sell their best players occurred, for example the likes of Scott Dann, Danny Fox and Leon Best were all sold to generate funds for other players or in other words so SISU could recoup the money they had put into the club. Managers Iain Dowie and Chris Coleman failed to do any better than the eight that had preceded them, both talented managers Dowie who had been promoted with an unfancied Crystal Palace team into the premier league in the 2003/2004 season and Chris Coleman who had previously managed Fulham and Real Sociedad. But this is what happens when the owners of a football club do not have any aspirations, just to make a quick profit for themselves.

Aidy Boothroyd

Then came Aidy Boothroyd a successful manager in the past with Watford who like Dowie, took a perennial struggler in Watford into the premier league through the play-offs in 2005/2006. The appointment of Boothroyd in the summer of 2010 raised some eyebrows in the city, as his reputation as a long ball merchant seemed to put many fans off before a ball had been kicked. Despite these criticisms Boothroyd or Hoofroyd as he was known by many fans, took city too fifth by mid December after the clubs best start to a league campaign in 10 seasons. However during the last few games of 2010 city picked up a number of injuries and suspensions which included a bad injury to the influential skipper Sammy Clingan. Due to the good position of the club and the injuries and suspensions occurring, Boothroyd hoped that the owners would back him in the January transfer window so the club could push on and cement their place in the play-offs. Yet the owners had other ideas and not one player was bought or loaned. As a result the club fell to 19^th in the table and Boothroyd was sacked. Again a promising manager wasn’t backed by SISU and a reoccurring theme was starting to show.

After the sacking of Boothroyd, the owners looking to cut costs by not appointing a well known manager on high wages appointed the chief scout at the club Andy Thorn as manager. The appointment which had come about because of their lack of aspirations for the football club actually worked rather well, Thorn bought attractive flowing football to the Ricoh for the last 10 games of the season with the likes of Marlon King, Aron Gunnarsson and Lukas Jutkiewicz flourishing. This open passing style produced optimism for the summer transfer window and season ahead. However yet again SISU would do everything they could to destroy this optimism.

Andy Thorn

During the summer of 2011 the optimism previously mentioned slowly began to wane. With players like Marlon King, Aron Gunnarsson and Kieran Westwood being key to success of the last 10 games of the previous season, extending their contracts was the vital issue. Despite this all three players were allowed to leave on free transfers with both King and Gunnarsson citing that their reasonable wage demands were not met. SISU not seeing the promise the team had shown would rather free up wages for themselves than maintain a potentially promotion chasing team. Add to this that a promising youngster Ben Turner was allowed to join Cardiff on transfer deadline day and that the only money spent was 500k on striker Cody McDonald who was very much unproven at championship level.

Despite all this SISU had a chance to retain some dignity and respect when the chance occurred to sell the club in August 2011. The club’s former vice-chairman and lifelong city fan Gary Hoffman and a team of investors offered to buy the club from SISU for a pound, with the promise of pumping £30 million into the club. With many expecting SISU to cut their losses and sell up they defied belief and rejected the offer from Hoffman. With this SISU showed for sure that they wanted to bleed the club dry and recoup all of their investment, even though this seemed impossible with the club having hardly any assets to left to sell. The future of the club looked bleaker than ever with rumours of administration floating around once again and the direction of the club being unknown.

The Saviour? Gary Hoffman

As it stands now as I write this blog the club is adrift at the bottom of the Championship 3 points from safety and has just sold its top goal scorer Lukas Jutkiewicz to Middlesbrough and SISU seem to just be allowing the club to fall into the third tier of English football. There is a glimmer of hope as in recent months Gary Hoffman has again began talks with SISU over a potential takeover, but for many Sky Blue fans it all seems too little too late.