Coventry La La La
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Club could go either way
Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd has said the club is at a crossroads and has the potential to go up as well as down.
In the past Boothroyd has been happy to toe the party line and agree, in public at least, with the board room decisions, but recently the veneer has begun to peel and Boothroyd's frustrations are now beginning to show.
When the 17 year old Conor Thomas was played in the FA Cup tie at Birmingham, Boothroyd enthused over highly rayed youngster claiming he had a bright future, but little did any one realise at the time, that future would not be managed by Boothroyd, but at Liverpool. It was not long before the fears of many were revealed and that the decision to sell Thomas to Liverpool was a board room decision and taken without Boothroyd's knowledge or consent.
Boothroyd has claimed long before the transfer window opened he had a list of players he wold like to try to bring into the club, but as it turned out none appeared and along with Thomas, Michael Doyle also left the club.
It must now be apparent to everyone how bad the financial situation is at Coventry City and it will not be improved by the falling gate receipts at The Ricoh. City chairman Ray Ranson said last year that the club needed to average have a season of 23,000 to break even, this season the average gate is a little over 14,000 s the club lose more money with every home game they play.
Promotion to the Premier League would boost the income of the club, but to achieve that they need to keep their better players and to be able to bring in a few more quality players, but that is not possible with the current state of the club finances.
The situation has frustrated the City boss and he has now stepped from quiet acquiescence and is now questioning the club hierarchy about where they want to take the club.
Boothroyd said, “We’re a club at a crossroads in many ways. Potentially it can be anything it wants to be, and potentially it can keep being average and stay where it is. We’ve had some momentum but as a group we’ve got to decide what we want to do, where we want to get to, what we want to achieve."
"That’s what management, leadership is all about. We’ve all got to step up and be accountable. Fans want to know what’s happening because Sheffield United are spending, Preston are spending, and we’re not. That’s where we are and we get on with it."
“I have a list of players I would like to act upon but we didn’t do that in the transfer window because we don’t currently have the resources.We’ve got some players who perhaps need to move on and until that happens, until people want them, we can’t free up that money and sometimes when you do free up money it’s needed in other areas."
“Boom or bust is no good, you’ve got to decide what you want to do and what the time scale is, get people into key places and let them get on with it. Life’s been injected into the club and we’ve got to a stage where we’ve got some momentum.
"We have to have a strategy and that’s being formulated at the moment. That’s as much as I can tell you.”
Boothroyd sympathises with the fans frustrations at the lack of competitiveness and success, but has pleaded for patience
He said, “All our supporters want us to be in the Premier League, but it doesn’t happen just like that. A magician doesn’t come to you and say ‘there you go.’ It takes a lot of hard work, support from all areas and a little bit of luck."
"At the moment we haven’t got any luck whatsoever but it will even itself out because of the time we’re spending on the training pitch, the work we’re doing. We’ll be better for these experiences, but what we don’t want to happen is to be here talking about the same things in a year’s time."
"We need to be a stronger, more professional club. We want the sky blue shirt to strike fear into teams, not have them thinking ‘they’re a bit milky.' We’ve had that and we don’t want it any more. That takes decisions, strategy and sometimes a little bit of calculated risk."
