With the Sky Blues on the edge of a Dawning Of A New Era, is there a future for City Reserves? Kev Monks investigates.
This season has not been the best for Coventry City Reserves team who have three away games left to play. Whilst results are not the be all and end all as with the first team, what I consider as a reserve team’s raison d’etre, is its role in bringing young players through and getting them banging on the first team manager’s door demanding to be given their chance.
Apart from Claus Jorgensen who was a first team squad member until Peter Reid’s appointment, there has been no-one else in my opinion coming through to oust any current first team player.
At every reserve game I go to, and I write as someone who has only missed one reserve game this season but had someone at the game I missed due to not being able to get home on the night, always do a Man Of The Match poll.
Having totalled up the votes received, out of the top four, only Andrew Whing has appeared for the first team whereas the other three in Craig Reid, Andy Hall and Liam Nicell currently have no idea if they will be offered a contract for next season.
The Academy side under the guidance of directors Steve Ogrizovic and Brian Borrows has been excellent, winning 15 games this season and should hopefully have progressed to the Academy League Play-Offs, so the problem is clearly not at that level. Therefore, the fault for the player conveyor belt not working must lie at Reserve Team level.
Granted that Steve Ogrizovic and Brian Borrows had the goalscoring talents of Patrick Suffo as well as Bjarni Gudjonsson now basking in the milder climate at Plymouth at their disposal earlier in the season, but the City legends were able to get some good performances out of the sides they fielded.
Norwich away is a case in point. Coventry were far by the better team on the night but momentary lapses saw Norwich score three goals in three minutes.
Playing well and not getting any points is after all part and parcel of football and something, we as Coventry City supporters are well used to.
Under the current leadership of Alan Cork and Darren Robinson, both like the men they took over from, have other roles in the club, in the nine games so far played, only twice had the reserves put in a performance to match that at Carrow Road.
The standard of the opposition has been given as one reason why the performances have been what I consider as “substandard”.
Now long gone are the days when one could see the cream of this country’s players turning out for the reserve team. Apart from the odd exception (Sol Campbell appearing for Arsenal Reserves against City in September), reserve sides are mainly made up of younger players plus a few out of favour pros and if players are to make it into the first team, then playing against the odd top class Premiership or Championship will stand them in good stead.
The whole reserve situation is something Micky Adams will need to give serious thought to.
With Adrian Heath leaving at the end of the season and Alan Cork likely to be promoted to assistant manager whilst continuing with his dressing room responsibilities. Our erstwhile first team manager could look at getting in a dedicated reserve team manager whose sole responsibility would be to drive the young players towards a first team future.
This may involve an expense however, it would save Adams time, effort and money in looking at loan and free transfer players, if three or four good young players are lining up to be the next Gary McSheffrey or Calum Davenport’s every season.
Cost of staging and travelling to matches is also an important factor especially at Coventry City. Whilst the FA Premier Reserve League does generally offer a good standard of football, it is not cheap to compete in.
For away games, there is the cost of travel to the likes of Norwich, Ipswich, Southampton or Portsmouth as well as pre match meals etc. Home games mean either playing on the first team ground or using a ground up to Conference standard.
As the club will only be tenants at the Stade de Foleshill, playing reserve team matches at the Arena next season in front of a few hundred people is unlikely, so a new venue will have to be sought. City were paying £3,000 a game to play at Nuneaton Borough this season and the new home of the Warwickshire based club at Nuneaton Rugby club may again have to facilitate the Sky Blues if they are to continue in this league.
Although a backward move in my opinion, it may make financial sense to drop into the Pontins League especially if Adams does decide that the reserve team is not a big cog in the player production line and play the likes of Stoke, Tranmere and Huddersfield at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon at the Alan Higgs Centre, thus making a £36,000+ saving and more than covering the cost of transport to away matches.
Hopefully Micky Adams will have this all in hand and we await their plans with interest.
I’ll be happy to talk if Mr Adams or any other club officials has any comments regarding any aspect of this article.