Coventry City chairman Ken Dulieu has backed his manager Andy Thorn to bring success to the club and said his appointment as manger was inspired.
Dulieu is presiding over a board that is trying hard to put the club on a stable financial footing that will accord with the 'Financial Fair Play' rules that will restrict club to spending no more than a strict percentage of their turnover. A job made even harder because the club does not own their own ground.
Mr Dulieu is hoping that the attractive and attacking football advocated by Thorn will bring back the crowds to Coventry City and they will bring in more revenue to the club's coffers, which i turn would be used to further strengthen the squad..
Mr Dulieu said to the CT: “The turnaround has started. The appointment of the new manager was an inspired decision. He is a very charismatic guy and has got an excellent relationship with Steve Harrison and Steve Ogrizovic so the camaraderie in the squad is excellent, one of the best I’ve ever seen in pre-season training."
"We had a very good end to the season and that style of play will not change, I think it will bring people through the turnstiles. We are hoping to have some inward movement before the transfer window closes. There are a couple of holes in the squad Andy wants filled and we are working on that."
"We can’t go out and spend fortunes, that is not going to happen, but we have to trade more cleverly than we did in the past; we have to manage our assets very well."
“I can give you an example of good trading. Sadly Keiren Westwood’s contract was allowed to expire. I guess last year he would have been worth a few million but unfortunately we couldn’t sell him and the lad went on to a bigger club."
“What we have done is brought in two goalkeepers, the cost of which will be less than it would have cost to put Keiren on the field. They also have a value today, which Keiren didn’t because he was out of contract and that is an example of what we have to do.”