Ray Ranson speaks out (1 Viewer)

[Coventry La La La]

It's all about Coventry City - Ranson


Coventry City Chairman Ray Ranson has admitted that the club will be around for a lot longer than him.

Ranson, whose offer to resign in 2009 was rejected by the then board, told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire: "I'm only interested in one thing and that is taking Coventry City forward. I remember when the club was £40 million in debt and losing £10 million a year with a squad that was worthless.

"We've bought players and, yes, we've sold them. We are custodians of the football club. Coventry City will be around for a lot longer than Ray Ranson. ​

"I'm not denying the fact that I've been disappointed with certain discussions and that was a long time ago.​

"I'm a big boy and can look after myself. It's not about Ray Ranson, it's about Coventry City Football Club."​

Ranson Offered His Resignation Over Transfer Sales​

In the wake if the resignation of Coventry City's vice chairman Gary Hoffman over the transfer of Conor Thomas to Liverpool last month, it has now emerged that City chairman Ray Ranson offered his own resignation in the wake of the transfers out of the club of Scott Dann and Dan Fox in 2009.​

The Coventry Telegraph are reporting that Mr Ranson was dissuaded from resigning the chairmanship of the club by former chairman, now life president, Joe Elliott and vice chairman Gary Hoffman.​

It is believed that Mr Ranson was also against the transfer of Conor Thomas and that the move was forced on the club by the owners Sisu.
The Coventry City Board of Directors is now divided and engaged in a power struggle between the Sisu Representatives and the Coventry City supporting board members.​

When Mr Ranson became chairman of Coventry City in the wake if the Sisu takeover in August 2008, he said that the policy of the club would be to nurture home grown, young and talented footballers and bring them into the side as they attempted to gain promotion to the Premier League.​

It is now becoming evident that the controllers of the club's finances, Sisu and its representatives on the board, are at odds with this policy and it is they who are having things their way at the moment.​

City Chairman on owners​

Coventry City Chairman Ray Ranson has said that club owners SISU are supportive of the club.​

With Gary Hoffman having resigned from the Board, Joe Elliott moved to Life President, new Board members have been been appointed to the City Board.​

Speaking to BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, Ray Ranson said: "The message to the fans is that the shareholders are very supportive of the football club. ​

"When we took over the club we said we'd invest a minimum of £22 million and that's far exceeded.

"It's never been used for player trading sales - it's been recycled to pay for players' wages and shareholders stand by the club. It goes back into the football club and recycled."​

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[dutchman]

If the only way the club can pay its way is to sell it's most promising players, then that is what it will have to do.

Not saying I like it mind

I also think SISU totally misunderstood the nature of football when they bought the club. It's never a one-off investment, you have to keep paying and paying and paying.

 

[Pigeon]

Well the fans asked for more transparency from the club about what exactly is going on and we got it. It doesn't look like a good situation at all- no where near in fact. However, as long as I have a footie club at the end of the day i'll just have to grin and bear selling our best assets to stay afloat and hopefully a bit of luck swings our way as soon as possible!

 

[cov_russell]

The worrying thing is if next season, we lose Westwood and Gunnarsson, the board doesn't renew King's contract and SISU are unwilling to invest in the squad where does that leave us? This may be a worst case scenario but that would be 3 of our best players gone with no return. Would our squad be competitive at Championship level?

 

[SkyBlueMania]

I have a lot more respect for Ranson now, i fell quite bad that i thought he was the one pulling the evil strings in the background. It sounds like he really feels part of Coventry now which is nice to hear. I wish i could say the same about SISU.

 

[SkyBluesAndy]

So with Ranson only being a minority shareholder I guess that means SISU as majority holders have the final say on matters such as the ins and outs of transfers - Dann and Fox sales for example. Ranson is also not an employee of SISU as we all initially thought, they have simply joined to take over the club and Ranson is the face of it all and SISU hide in the background. I've always stood behind Ranson, I thought the ways he tries to attract fans to the club were always good and I've said without making the ticket prices stupidly cheap and putting an expensive squad out he has tried different initiatives to get as many people in as possible on the limited resources SISU supply. He has put alot of effort into this club, and alot of fans have got on his back - but would they have done so with the facts coming to light today?? SISU have made the wrong investment, would anyone else buy them out is the question now.

 

[hamil99]

The worrying thing is if next season, we lose Westwood and Gunnarsson, the board doesn't renew King's contract and SISU are unwilling to invest in the squad where does that leave us? This may be a worst case scenario but that would be 3 of our best players gone with no return. Would our squad be competitive at Championship level?

Don't think we'd survive, the leagues well competitive and simply we don't come up to scratch if we loss gunner westie and king without top notch replacements, and to be honest I dont think sisu will pay up......

 

[BenInTurin]

Why on earth wasn't ranson more up front sooner?

 

[Disorganised1]

It might be interesting to see what Gary hoffman does now.

 

[Nick]

What I don't get is all of these successful Coventry Businessmen who are / were on the board who have loads of money who love the club so much.

Where were they when we needed them before before SISU took us over?

If they are all so successful and love the team so much then why don't they team up to buy us out?

 

[SkyBluesAndy]

What I don't get is all of these successful Coventry Businessmen who are / were on the board who have loads of money who love the club so much.

Where were they when we needed them before before SISU took us over?

If they are all so successful and love the team so much then why don't they team up to buy us out?

Simply put - it probably wasn't as simple as that

 

[Disorganised1]

What I don't get is all of these successful Coventry Businessmen who are / were on the board who have loads of money who love the club so much.

Where were they when we needed them before before SISU took us over?

If they are all so successful and love the team so much then why don't they team up to buy us out?

Well allegedly certain people would not put money in because they wanted a criminal investigation to be run to investigate where the money had gone that certain people received from Tesco for that part of the site. Or so I overheard a complete stranger saying in a pub somewhere.

 

[BenInTurin]

If I was a successful businessman I wouldn't just throw my money at the city no matter how much I love them. It's a massive investment, buying into something that will certainly be running in the red for years before you could get it back into the prem. Many people have said, you could go for it one year, spend millions hoping to make the prem, but if you don't you're going to go out of business.