The Sky Blues are now almost certainly safe from the threat of relegation and look set to be playing in League One next season.
Although certainly a relief it is in no way any sort of achievement and none of us at PSBG will be lighting any cigars anytime soon.
Being a 3rd division club for what will now be the 4th consecutive season is something the current owners should be deeply ashamed about.
The fact that they are the ones largely responsible for our demise is bad enough. That they have done absolutely nothing to try and arrest this decline is an utter disgrace. The supporters of Coventry City FC deserve so much better.
Things have to change ! The clubs 5 point plan issued on 2nd January offered no ambition, no solutions, no excitement and most critically no sense that the current downward spiral was about to change.
Today therefore we offer our 10 point plan as to what we as lifelong supporters of the Sky Blues feel needs to happen if OUR club is ever going to start moving forward again.
1 Appoint Tony Mowbray - Think Long Term.
2 Provide financial backing.
3 Replace existing Board.
4 Create a proper Scouting network.
5 No short term loans.
6 Negotiate best possible deal with Wasps.
7 Get the kids back to the Ricoh.
8 Build links with schools.
9 Improve matchday experience.
10 Create new elected supporter representation.
1) The first point is so obvious that it shouldn't even need mentioning but we take nothing for granted with these owners.
Tony Mowbray is a quality manager who with the right backing and a real demonstration of ambition will get the club into the Championship. However it is safe to assume that his return to football and the excellent job he has done at City in a short space of time will already be generating interest from other clubs. Some of whom will share Mowbray's ambition. SISU now need to demonstrate that same level of ambition by firstly signing him on a 2 or 3 year contract. Thereafter they need to give him something to work with in terms of a promotion chasing budget. He also needs to be allowed to bring in his own backroom staff. People he trusts and knows can get the best out of the players at his disposal. To show clear intent of their backing for Tony Mowbray SISU should announce his long term appointment as soon as we are mathematically safe from relegation,which one way or another should be after the Crewe game. Certainly we see no reason why this shouldn't happen before the season finale at Crawley. Once appointed both Mowbray and supporters need to know that the policy of selling our best young players before they've realised anything like their true value has ended. If we are to have any chance of moving forward we need to resist all overtures from clubs sniffing around at the likes of Maddison,Haynes and Thomas.
2) The natural follow on from the first point is for a playing budget to be established that gives Mowbray a realistic hope of achieving his aspirations. We urge SISU to stop hiding behind SCMP and invest proper equity into the club. The owners of clubs that look set to be promoted from League One this season have all done exactly that. Not one of them is a bigger club than Coventry City. They just maybe have the mentality of wanting to be a bigger club and backing their appointed managers to achieve that goal.
3) There is a total disconnect between the club board of directors and the supporters of CCFC. Most fans we speak to are sick of hearing Tim Fisher pontificating about what's best for OUR club when he has presided over and been the chief architect of a flawed strategy that not only saw us playing for over a season at Sixfields but then becoming mere tenants at the Ricoh while a more focused individual with more interest in the football clubs place in the community and with more regard to its heritage and tradition and who placed less emphasis on "battering people in court " would by now we believe have ensured our status as outright owners of the stadium. Tim Fisher needs to go if the club is to expect any sort of trust or loyalty from fans. Whilst we find it hard to find any positives about Mr Fishers tenure we do accept that Steve Waggott has done some good. His appointment of both Mark Robins and Tony Mowbray certainly deserves recognition as does the key part he played in the return to the Ricoh ( if left to Tim Fishers negotiation we suspect we'd still be playing in Northampton). That said we do question his role in some of the awful signings we made during Steven Pressleys reign.
The club however needs a fresh start at board level. It needs to re-connect with the fans. It needs people with vision who are in touch with the community who understand what this club means to its' supporters and who truly empathise with the misery we've had to endure during the SISU years.
We therefore urge Joy Seppalla to appoint both a new Chairman and Chief Executive so we as a club can start moving forward together. Owners and fans united with one common goal to get the club back where it belongs.
4) We at PSBG found it incredulous when we read Tony Mowbray's comments about the lack of a scouting network at the club. Not only did it fly in the face of what we had seen both Steven Pressley and Steve Waggott say previously but it also emphasised just how shortsighted our owners really are. Not content with depriving its managers of the resources with which to improve their playing staff it also appears arrogant enough to assume Coventry City will attract decent players based on past reputation despite the fact that there is nobody out there looking for those future gems that we are desperately going to need if we are to return to better times. We therefore back wholeheartedly Mowbrays desire for a proper, fit for purpose wide ranging scouting set up that helps to facilitate that.
We have already seen some positive comments from Steve Waggott on this subject and we cautiously welcome that but experience has taught us when dealing with SISU that actions speak louder than words. We call for this to be treated as a priority and a new network to be set up before the new season is underway.
5) We firmly believe that success will not be achieved by hiring players on short term loan deals. It is a short sighted policy, rarely does it yield a positive return and it does nothing to create stability and a long term strategy. We do however see a place, in the right circumstances, for season long loans as long as they are the exception rather the norm. We therefore propose a policy of permanent signings and season long loans only. We note that the 5 point plan alluded to this direction of travel and we welcome that. However as is so typical of our owners no sooner was the ink dry on this particular statement than yet more short term loanees arrived through the revolving door.
6) Talk of a new stadium appears to be just that...talk ! We've spoken to hundreds, maybe thousands of city supporters and hardly any of them believe there will be a new stadium built. The clear gulf between Tim Fishers statements and the Freedom of Information responses from the surrounding local authorities has been frankly embarrasing.
We have already raised the subject of Tim Fishers flawed strategy. We won't dwell on that. The simple fact is this. The Ricoh Arena now belongs to Wasps RFC. We urge Tim Fishers successor to leave no stone unturned in doing everything they can to establish the best possible deal to maximise revenues from the football clubs involvement at the Ricoh. The time for rhetoric,bluster and propoganda has passed. We are all thoroughly bored and sick to the back teeth of it. Negotiations to get the best possible deal from our tenancy with Wasps should start immediately and are long overdue. We need also to start acting like a proper business. The lack of merchandise in the club shop is embarrassing. Which other clubs supporters have had to wait so long just to get a replica shirt for the team they support. This situation cannot carry on. Neither can the lack of a retail outlet on matchdays. Come August there has to be a club shop at the Ricoh for the first home game of the season.
7) Without the next generation of Coventry City supporters this football club has no future. We therefore urge SISU to think beyond short term gains to develop some long term thinking in getting OUR kids up to the Ricoh.
We acknowledge that this years season ticket prices have largely been reasonably priced but clearly they have failed to entice few other than the absolute hardcore to home matches. We believe the emphasis needs to be on attracting families and younger supporters back to the Ricoh. We offer the following key proposal.
Scrap the charge to join the JSB's. If any of our kids choose to support the Sky Blues in the current era the very least they deserve is free membership. We therefore say make all under 16's free Junior members and allow them, for next season only initially, free entrance to all home matches at the Ricoh when accompanied by a paying adult. If attending on their own charge no more than a fiver per game. Get them back into the Sky Blue habit. Give them an entertaining product they want to come back for and reap the long term benefits. Get them more involved with the club too, make them feel part of something special. Organise open training sessions at the Ricoh or Ryton, arrange meet the player events or open trials. Anything that gets the club back where it belongs, at the heart of the community and in particular back as a integral part of the lives of Coventry youngsters.
8) The Ricoh Arena is a fantastic world class stadium. To see it barely a quarter full on CCFC matchdays is heartbreaking. We believe the club should be doing far more to fill those thousands of empty sky blue seats.
Working alongside the plan to allow children in for free we see the need for the creation of a properly funded school engagement plan at both primary and secondary level. A plan that not only works to get schoolchildren along to games along with their friends from an early age but that creates a community that they want to be part of. A plan aimed at all pupils in the Coventry and Warwickshire area.
9) Despite the obvious high quality of the Ricoh as a stadium it is also fair to say that the matchday experience is poor. Since their recent arrival Wasps have shown what can be done.
We feel that Coventry City could do a lot more. Not all of the problems are entirely down to the club owners. The PA system is shocking for a relatively new stadium and is in desperate need of improvement. Members of our group have been to a huge number of stadiums all over the world. Not all of them have been as good as the Ricoh but many have been far better in helping to whip up the crowds by creating inspirational atmospheres. The Sky Blue Song and Mr Blue Sky have their place but we know from experience the grounds that pump out high volume,high energy tracks usually are the ones that help kick start home fans into life. Surely if there's any advantage at all to be gained then we need to identify and grasp it firmly. There are however other pressing matters. For instance bringing the fans closer together,nearer to the action to help create a better atmosphere. It's a simple suggestion, far from a new idea but one that has been constantly ignored. We call on the club to shut off the top sections of the stadium. Not only bringing fans closer to the pitch but also making a more compact gathering of supporters. We also suggest appointing the away fans area closer to home fans to help generate a better atmosphere. There are so many other good ideas that have been put forward and seemingly ignored. It's time for our club owners to start listening.
10) The Supporters Consultative Group (SCG) is not fit for purpose. It is unrepresentative and has consistently failed to challenge the club owners despite its many failings. We believe that the SCG should be scrapped and a new democratic, properly constituted body should be established with members elected by fellow Coventry City supporters not hand picked by the club owners.
We also believe that there should be proper supporter representation on the CCFC board. Again with membership determined by election rather than selection. The supporters of Coventry City choosing for themselves who they want to represent them.
We offer this plan as a genuine offer of help to get OUR football club back where it belongs.
We urge SISU to listen. Not only to us at PSBG but to the thousands of other Coventry City supporters who are desperate for change, desperate for a fresh start and desperate to have the club they support return to its former proud self.
SISU....The ball is in your court.
Preservation Sky Blues Group (PSBG)