Now the dust has settled a bit after yesterday's sacking of manager Chris Coleman after two and a half years in charge of the Sky Blues, attention will inevitably turn to the question of the new manager charge with bringing long overdue success to the club.
Coventry City chairman Ray Ranson has moved to explain why he and the board decided enough was enough and Chris Coleman had to go. It wasn't a knee jerk reaction to the dismal 0-4 home defeat to Watford last Sunday, nor was it entirely due to the eleven match run without a win.
Ranson explained, “It is very sad but the view of the board is that we need a change. It is public knowledge that I had a very good working relationship with Chris and it is very disappointing from a personal point of view that we have had to make this decision.”
The board had an emergency meeting on Monday night before the club’s annual awards dinner and decided Coleman's fate. They decided to keep the current backroom staff, assistant manager Steve Harrison, first-team coach Frankie Bunn. Goalkeeping coach Steve Ogrizovic, of whom Ranson said had a job for life at Coventry, will also stay.
“The way the season has finished has been a major factor but it has been a reflection over the last couple of years, and the decision has been made to look for fresh impetus,” said Ranson. "He took it like I expected him to take it, like a man. "
Mr Ranson made a rare visit to the Ryton training ground to break the news to Chris Coleman and the players. The players are said to have been shocked at the news of Coleman's dismissal as he was a very popular manager and well liked in the dressing room.
Ranson paid tribute to his now former manager saying, “He has been an absolute pleasure to work with. He has never undermined us as a board and the players really liked him. So it is a really sad day but a decision we have made in the best interests of Coventry City Football Club.”
Mr Ranson was asked if the fans disenchantment and threats of not renewing season tickets had anything to do with his decision, he said, “The fans are highly influential and can vote with their feet and that’s the last thing we want, but that wasn’t the reason for parting company with Chris. It is a number of things and we are just trying to look forward now and get the right man in."
“I am chairman of the football club and I take full responsibility for bringing Chris in and we did have a very good relationship.”
When asked where he thought things had gone wrong, he said, “I think it is the inconsistency but I think we have far better players in my opinion, and Chris’s opinion as well, than the ones we inherited, and these players shouldn’t be finishing in 19th.”