REBUILD MY CLUB
Coventry’s legendary ’87 skipper Kilcline demands they fix his beloved Sky Blues and despairs: How could it happen? There only seemed to be backward steps.. it’s an alarming slide
BRIAN KILCLINE chokes on the dust from the ceiling he’s just ripped down and shakes his head in disbelief at the plight of his old club Coventry City.
Man-mountain ‘Killer’ was the centre-half who led the Sky Blues in their finest hour – the 1987 FA Cup win over Tottenham.
Now he surveys the wreckage of his latest house renovation and admits there’s an analogy there somewhere with what’s happened at the famous old club.
Coventry are potentially just six weeks from oblivion – being homeless and facing expulsion from the league.
Kilcline says: “The club was managed properly back then. But what do I know? That’s probably why I’m ripping down ceilings now and getting covered in dust rather than being involved in football.
“When you do what I do, it can be quite destructive at times, and it strikes me that’s what you see when you look at Coventry these days.”
The legal wrangle between the club’s owners, SISU, and rugby club
Wasps, who own the Ricoh Stadium, shows no sign of being sorted.
Wasps won’t talk about letting Coventry play there, unless SISU drop their ongoing legal action. It’s a mess and Kilcline knows all about that
He renovates houses for a living up in Holmfirth, the West Yorkshire village where TV comedy Last of the Summer Wine was filmed.
And Kilcline, now 56, said: “How can it happen? There doesn’t seem to have been any forward steps – just backward ones. It’s an alarming slide
The days when he paraded around the city on an open-top bus seem light years away.
He had struggled to go up and collect the cup after limping off near the end of normal time, following a shocking challenge on Gary Mabbutt that virtually sent the Spurs captain
into orbit. He said: “The referee came up to me and you can see him saying, ‘What the f ***** g hell was that?”
“He didn’t even book me. I’d definitely have got sent off for that today. But I went off anyway, I couldn’t move after that.
“My leg just locked up. There was an internal bleed inside the muscle. I remember we did the open-top bus and, the day after, they had to slice the leg open and drain it.”
Happy days! The defining moment of a career which also took in Notts County, Oldham, Newcastle, Swindon and Mansfield.
“It’s so sad. I’m genuinely lost for words. The Cup win was obviously the big thing in the club’s history, but it’s scary to think that was over 30 years ago,” said Kilcline. “I feel so desperately sorry for the supporters in the city (left, fighting to save their club) and all over the world. A lot can happen in 30 years, both negative and positive, but it’s hard to see any positives right now.
“Funnily enough, I tore down a ceiling only the other day and there were some old newspapers in there.
“I took a look at the football results and Manchester City had drawn with Gillingham in the old
Third Division, I think. That just shows you never know what’s around the corner, but it does all look a bit bleak, and I honestly can’t believe Coventry find themselves in this position.” Kilcline spent seven years with the Sky Blues (getting it in the neck from a ref in 1990, below), but football is very much a thing of the past for him. He said: “I loved playing, had some great times, and it’s enabled me to do the things I do now. But the footballer is not who I am. It’s something I did. “I remember doing some painting and decorating in Coventry once. I went to get some paint and a couple of lads passed me.
“One of them said, ‘Oi mate, you look just like that footballer, Kilcline.’ I said, ‘Yeah, a lot of people say that’, and I just carried on walking. I couldn’t be bothered.”
Yet, his sadness at how far City have slumped is clear. He added: “I don’t know anything about the politics of all this, but it’s just hard to know how it’s been allowed to happen.
“You’d like to think common sense will prevail and it could get sorted, but you do wonder.”