better days
Well-Known Member
THE JOURNEYMAN | GREGOR ROBERSTON
Extraordinary Mark Robins has fans flocking back to Coventry City
Gregor Robertson
Monday October 25 2021, 12.01am, The Times
The bond between Coventry City supporters and their club, and their city, has been stretched and pulled at for almost a decade. There have been protests against the club’s hedge-fund owners, SISU, years in exile in Northampton and Birmingham, a points deduction, two relegations, labyrinthine stadium disputes and litigations but, finally, Coventry are home and looking to the future with a flicker of hope.
Almost 24,000 fans were in attendance for Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Derby County, which halted the Sky Blues’ 100 per cent start at the newly named Coventry Building Society Stadium. Season-ticket sales, fast approaching 11,000, are their highest since 1969-70, when Coventry were in the old First Division. Supporters who refused to watch their team play ‘home’ games at St Andrews, even as Coventry won promotion from League One in 2019-20, have returned in their droves to watch Mark Robins dynamic young team who are fourth and looking up.
The job Robins has done since returning to a club destined for League Two in 2017 has been nothing short of extraordinary. The 51-year-old has been an anchor in the storm. Robins stolid disposition masks a sharp wit but has been the perfect fit for a club riven with rancour and mistrust.
Victory at Wembley in the 2017 EFL Trophy final, before a 45,000-strong Sky Blue army, demonstrated the potential and now, after two promotions in three years, Robins has moulded a team with their sights on a return to the top flight for the first time in two decades.
On Saturday the Derby coach Liam Rosenior, who stood in for an ill Wayne Rooney, described Coventry as the best team Derby have faced this season. Few teams marry industry and tactical acumen as adroitly. There are no dogmas other than hard work.
“He’s not stuck rigidly to either an ethos or a formation, because of a [former Coventry manager] Tony-Mowbray-style evangelical belief in the correct way to play football,” says Joey Crone, presenter of the Coventry podcast, the Nii Lamptey Show. “He has a preference for three at the back, wing-backs, and playing good football. But actually, last season, there were times when we played Max Biamou, who came from non-league, but was big and good in the air, and we went very direct to negate teams pressing.”
Coventry’s foundations are solid. Robins, despite his stellar work, rarely enters the conversation when bigger jobs become available, but you get the impression that it would take something pretty special to pull him away from the Sky Blues.
Godden has his sights set on promotion to the Premier League
His assistant, the former Chelsea Under-21 coach, Adi Viveash, is a trusted ally and an astute tactician. Robins has forged strong relationships with the owner, Joy Seppala, the chairman, Tim Fisher, and the chief executive, David Boddy. The fans’ relationship with SISU may be irreparable but, “with every day that passes, and every year, that toxic resentment towards the owners just dissipates a little bit more,” Crone says.
The club’s recruitment team, headed since 2018 by Chris Badlan, Norwich City’s former head of European recruitment, drives a club with one of the smallest budgets in the second tier to punch well above its weight. “I think that’s why I love it here because you have a certain amount of autonomy to do what we want to do,” Robins says. “That’s why things, in my opinion, work. There’s a trust there which has built up over a period of time, and the fact that I have been here a long time has meant that I have been able to earn that trust.”
The 51-year-old built a sound body of work as manager of Barnsley, Huddersfield Town and Scunthorpe United but admits that Coventry is the club that have got under his skin. Robins has been able to call upon valuable experiences gleaned during his first steps into the dugout with Rotherham in 2007, a club facing administration, a 17-point deduction in League Two and exile from their home at Don Valley, an athletics stadium based in Sheffield.
This is a Coventry team, meanwhile, that is filled with young players — signed either on loan, for modest fees, or graduates from an increasingly fruitful academy— who are ripe for development. Callum O’Hare, a crafty former Aston Villa attacking midfielder, and Gustavo Hamer, a £1 million recruit from PEC Zwolle, are examples of the club’s savvy recruitment. The striker Viktor Gyökeres is the latest to shine.
Nearly 24,000 fans watched on against Derby and they’ve had plenty to cheer with Coventry's superb home form this season
The 23-year-old joined on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion in January, scored three goals in 19 Championship games, mostly from the bench, and in truth did not look like someone on whom the lion’s share of Robins’s meagre budget should be spent in the summer. Nine goals in 14 games — and a Sweden recall — later, however, and that £1 million fee suddenly looks like a snip.
The Sky Blues faithful are not getting carried away just yet. Until Robins came along, of course, 48 years and 25 managers had been and gone without a top-six finish at any level. As David Whitlock — a fan of 60-years sitting near the press seats — informed me before kick-off, during Coventry’s 34-year stay in the top flight, between 1967 and 2001, the club staved off relegation on the final day nine times. “Coventry City fans are not ambitious,” Whitlock smiles. “It’s just great to be back in Coventry, watching some good football.”
Extraordinary Mark Robins has fans flocking back to Coventry City
Gregor Robertson
Monday October 25 2021, 12.01am, The Times
The bond between Coventry City supporters and their club, and their city, has been stretched and pulled at for almost a decade. There have been protests against the club’s hedge-fund owners, SISU, years in exile in Northampton and Birmingham, a points deduction, two relegations, labyrinthine stadium disputes and litigations but, finally, Coventry are home and looking to the future with a flicker of hope.
Almost 24,000 fans were in attendance for Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Derby County, which halted the Sky Blues’ 100 per cent start at the newly named Coventry Building Society Stadium. Season-ticket sales, fast approaching 11,000, are their highest since 1969-70, when Coventry were in the old First Division. Supporters who refused to watch their team play ‘home’ games at St Andrews, even as Coventry won promotion from League One in 2019-20, have returned in their droves to watch Mark Robins dynamic young team who are fourth and looking up.
The job Robins has done since returning to a club destined for League Two in 2017 has been nothing short of extraordinary. The 51-year-old has been an anchor in the storm. Robins stolid disposition masks a sharp wit but has been the perfect fit for a club riven with rancour and mistrust.
Victory at Wembley in the 2017 EFL Trophy final, before a 45,000-strong Sky Blue army, demonstrated the potential and now, after two promotions in three years, Robins has moulded a team with their sights on a return to the top flight for the first time in two decades.
On Saturday the Derby coach Liam Rosenior, who stood in for an ill Wayne Rooney, described Coventry as the best team Derby have faced this season. Few teams marry industry and tactical acumen as adroitly. There are no dogmas other than hard work.
“He’s not stuck rigidly to either an ethos or a formation, because of a [former Coventry manager] Tony-Mowbray-style evangelical belief in the correct way to play football,” says Joey Crone, presenter of the Coventry podcast, the Nii Lamptey Show. “He has a preference for three at the back, wing-backs, and playing good football. But actually, last season, there were times when we played Max Biamou, who came from non-league, but was big and good in the air, and we went very direct to negate teams pressing.”
Coventry’s foundations are solid. Robins, despite his stellar work, rarely enters the conversation when bigger jobs become available, but you get the impression that it would take something pretty special to pull him away from the Sky Blues.
Godden has his sights set on promotion to the Premier League
His assistant, the former Chelsea Under-21 coach, Adi Viveash, is a trusted ally and an astute tactician. Robins has forged strong relationships with the owner, Joy Seppala, the chairman, Tim Fisher, and the chief executive, David Boddy. The fans’ relationship with SISU may be irreparable but, “with every day that passes, and every year, that toxic resentment towards the owners just dissipates a little bit more,” Crone says.
The club’s recruitment team, headed since 2018 by Chris Badlan, Norwich City’s former head of European recruitment, drives a club with one of the smallest budgets in the second tier to punch well above its weight. “I think that’s why I love it here because you have a certain amount of autonomy to do what we want to do,” Robins says. “That’s why things, in my opinion, work. There’s a trust there which has built up over a period of time, and the fact that I have been here a long time has meant that I have been able to earn that trust.”
The 51-year-old built a sound body of work as manager of Barnsley, Huddersfield Town and Scunthorpe United but admits that Coventry is the club that have got under his skin. Robins has been able to call upon valuable experiences gleaned during his first steps into the dugout with Rotherham in 2007, a club facing administration, a 17-point deduction in League Two and exile from their home at Don Valley, an athletics stadium based in Sheffield.
This is a Coventry team, meanwhile, that is filled with young players — signed either on loan, for modest fees, or graduates from an increasingly fruitful academy— who are ripe for development. Callum O’Hare, a crafty former Aston Villa attacking midfielder, and Gustavo Hamer, a £1 million recruit from PEC Zwolle, are examples of the club’s savvy recruitment. The striker Viktor Gyökeres is the latest to shine.
Nearly 24,000 fans watched on against Derby and they’ve had plenty to cheer with Coventry's superb home form this season
The 23-year-old joined on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion in January, scored three goals in 19 Championship games, mostly from the bench, and in truth did not look like someone on whom the lion’s share of Robins’s meagre budget should be spent in the summer. Nine goals in 14 games — and a Sweden recall — later, however, and that £1 million fee suddenly looks like a snip.
The Sky Blues faithful are not getting carried away just yet. Until Robins came along, of course, 48 years and 25 managers had been and gone without a top-six finish at any level. As David Whitlock — a fan of 60-years sitting near the press seats — informed me before kick-off, during Coventry’s 34-year stay in the top flight, between 1967 and 2001, the club staved off relegation on the final day nine times. “Coventry City fans are not ambitious,” Whitlock smiles. “It’s just great to be back in Coventry, watching some good football.”
