Mark Robins won’t be losing any sleep over Coventry City this season.
Nor will his players. The Sky Blues’ chief gave the green light to a slumber specialist visiting the club’s re-vamped training base this week to give his squad tips on what to do when the lights go out.
He said: “Yes, someone’s been in this week, looking at the best things we can do to help ourselves and recover as best we can. We’ve got Stoke City today, Bristol City on Tuesday then we go again on Friday night. So recovery is important.
“Why not look at every aspect and maximise it? That was why performance director Claire-Marie Roberts came in – to put things in place like that. The takeaways from it were personal to the individual. But we’re trying to work in a way that helps us.
“Last year, Callum O’Hare was player we identified that needed more rest, for example. In terms of sleep patterns, some people need to have theirs regulated. I’m making no apologies for it. We’re trying to give ourselves the best chance possible to be successful.”
Robins is in his eighth campaign as Sky Blues’ chief and has overseen steady growth. The Sky Blues lost out in the play-off final on penalties to Luton in May last year – and they were denied a glorious comeback victory over Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final by a dodgy VAR call.
It was a blow to lose O’Hare on a free transfer to Sheffield United but they have spent significant money on Huddersfield Town’s Jack Rudoni, Luis Binks from Bologna and Brandon Thomas-Asante from West Brom.
Robins said: “We’re looking to go higher. But that’s the dream of all 24 in this division. We’ve added new faces and money’s been spent on and off the pitch. Expectations levels will go up – and that’s happened since the new owner Doug King came in.
Coventry have made Luis Binks’ loan move permanent this summer (
Catherine Ivill/AMA)
“He made it clear that he wanted three play-off seasons out of five. Why not? I’m fine with that. This summer, we’ve added more players than we have done in the past. Good ones, too. We’ve now got better depth in the squad than we’ve had in my time here.
