After some of the most miserable months I can remember in 59 years as a Coventry City supporter, the last couple of weeks have seen us look forward to slightly better times. However has that much changed ?
1) We have signed a promising young striker, who scored a hatful of goals, with one season’s experience with a 4th Division team
2) A ‘crocked’ centre half has been sold for a reasonable fee to another Championship team. We do have number of central defenders so that part of the squad has not been that weakened. We will also receive a compensation fee after Scott Dann, another ‘Ambling Alp’, has been sold to Blackburn Rovers for a decent fee. By the way what ever happened to the ‘Gunnarsson compensation fee’?
3) Our owners SISU seem to have learned something about PR after three years of abject silence. They have made some positive comments in the local press but whether they really understand the culture of a football club – I doubt it !
4) Our PR Guru Leonard has been strangely quiet recently – which may be a good thing? Paul Clouting , ‘ticket seller extraordinaire’ at both Ipswich and Derby has been doing sterling work on that front for City – let’s see what the gate will be tomorrow?
5) Thorn has been a ‘breath of fresh air’ after the last three managers and seems a genuine decent chap – the last three custodians each had ‘something of the dark side’ about them. It seems to me that once you have been at the helm at CCFC getting another decent job in the Football League is fraught with difficulty. Adams is languishing in the bottom League, Coleman is lost in a small town between Athens and Salonika trying to win promotion back to the Greek First Division and Aidey, when he is not assisting Sky in Northern ‘Tank Towns’, is stuck in that ever expanding darkened room where a growing number of unemployables take advice from Terry & George. With his shorty dark mackintosh and ‘allegedly’ less than pleasant personality, a position as George’s minder could be a potential part time role to supplement his Sky earnings. One would imagine Thorny would happily go back to being Chief Scout somewhere, digging out is dog eared ‘little black book again’?
6) Even people close to the club are calling for us to draw a line in the sand and give SISU a chance. If FDR was still around he would be bellowing ‘ Happy Days are here again’, however, shrewed politician that he was, he would be keeping his ‘Day of infamy’ speech ready in his top pocket.
So summing up – let’s wait and see what happens in the Loan Department, as there is no doubt we are still two or three players short, if we wish to make a decent fist of things this season
My view is that SISU are still taking more out than they are putting in and they are preparing for the day when they depart – probably at the end of the season. This has been clearly a disastrous investment for them. They have reduced the day to day costs of running a ‘modest’ Championship football club which is a good thing but as far as PR is concerned they have been clueless, although they have made an effort in the past few weeks they still struggle in that quarter.
I still reiterate that a Hedge Fund is a totally unsuitable organisation to own a football club, but they were sold a ‘dream’ that was ‘pup’ and that has left us ‘the custodians of our football club’ to ‘Dream On’, (a minor hit by a long forgotten folk duo from Leamington, who appeared on ‘New Faces’ in 1974 and have since disappeared from view.)
I personally want them gone after the end of this season, if not sooner, and we can only hope that ‘local hero’ Gary Hoffman and his consortium can put together a viable proposal that is not derailed by devious leaks from certain parties.
The recent craven toadying by people who are genuine supporters of the club and no doubt have the club’s best interest at heart has been an another unedifying experience.
