Hi, Andy Turner here, CoventryLive’s Coventry City correspondent ready to join you all on what promises to be a humdinger of a season like no other.
When Doug King first arrived at the club he set out his ambitions, pulling no punches with the target of seeing the team make the play-offs in three of his first five years.
Mark Robins got off to an encouraging start as the Sky Blues progressed to their first promotion final at Wembley in 2022/23 when they cruelly lost out to Luton Town in a penalty shootout. But although 2023/24 didn’t quite go to plan as City fell just short of a top six finish, the mere fact that they had been up there battling and competing with the best in the division suggested the club were continuing on their upward curve.
There were mitigating circumstances, of course, not least the fact that Robins had lost his best two players in Gustavo Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres – both of whom had helped power the side to the national stadium in their final few months – sparking a significant reshaping of the squad.
With virtually a new team bedding in, City made a sluggish start to last term and that cost them at the tail end of the campaign when the club’s incredible FA Cup exploits caught up with them in the league.
But although Coventry failed to make the play-off cut, the fact that they’d seen off Premier League Wolves in such spectacular comeback style in the quarter-finals of the competition they famously won in 1987, and went on to almost repeat that incredible feat with another huge performance against Manchester United in the semis showed yet more progression.
The exciting endings to the two previous seasons also put Coventry City back on the map – a culmination six or seven years in the making on the pitch under Mark Robins. It’s a million miles away from the club dubbed a ‘basket case’ by one of it’s former chief executives just a few short years ago, plagued by mismanagement off the field and starved of investment, the Sky Blues were known more for their bad owners, administration, transfer embargoes, protests and groundshares than anything remotely resembling success.
Thankfully that’s all behind the club now and under new ownership King has brought hope, backed up by a new-look training ground which has seen significant investment for the first time since Jimmy Hill had the place built back in the 1960s. More than that, he’s swept a new broom through the entire football club, employing a performance director, Dr Claire-Marie Roberts, who has been instrumental in raising standards at Ryton which now has a real five-star feel about it.
There’s a renewed professionalism about the club which finally has the financial backing to catch up with it’s peers, having been left trailing in their wake for so many years in terms of resources and backroom manpower, from the latest hi-tech cryo chamber to aid muscle recover and a huge new gymnasium, to an increased sports science/medical department and fine dining quality food in the refurbished kitchens.
