COVENTRY IN CRISIS
Already on fourth manager of the season Fed-up fans have no place to call home Non-stop legal battles for hated owners
For the first time since leading Coventry City to their finest moment 30 years ago, John Sillett will be back at Wembley with the prospect of silverware coming to his club.
The Checkatrade Trophy cannot compare to the FA Cup, but Sillett believes beating oxford United in the final a week on Sunday can have a galvanising effect during this bleakest of seasons.
‘It will be the first time in 30 years I’ll go down Wembley Way with passion and feeling,’ Sillett, the former Coventry manager, tells Sportsmail. ‘It will make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck — and I haven’t got many now!’
At 80, Sillett can still recall in detail how he and George Curtis set up Coventry to stun a Tottenham side containing ossie Ardiles, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle in 1987. Keith Houchen’s diving header sent the game into extra time at 2-2, and a Gary Mabbutt own-goal gave Coventry victory.
Sillett also has his finger on the pulse of the modern Coventry, a club in crisis. They are 14 points from safety at the bottom of League one, on to their fourth manager of the season, without a proper place to call home, their academy status in jeopardy, and owners Sisu engaged in a bitter battle against a city council who have a role in the current crisis.
As Tony Mowbray, Mark Venus, russell Slade and now Mark robins have stepped into the dugout for a combined six league wins, fan protests have mounted.
They include a pitch invasion for the visit of Sheffield United, blue flares at Northampton, plastic pigs thrown from the stands alongside Charlton supporters, and tennis balls launched to delay a defeat by Millwall. Attendances at the 32,609-capacity ricoh Arena have fallen to below 8,000.
The club Sillett took to top-10 finishes in the old First Division three decades ago is hurtling into the bottom level of the Football League and there are fears worse could be to come.
‘ It is a tragedy what has happened to our club, I’ve shed tears,’ Sillett says. ‘I was a player there under Jimmy Hill, I coached the youth team, then the reserves, and took over the first team. My heart and soul is in it. I feel so sorry for the supporters.’
Coventry’s problems trace back to the move out of Highfield road in 2005 and the decision, amid financial difficulties, to rent the ricoh Arena. The agreement denied Coventry access to matchday revenues so they receive just £75,000 annually from sales of food, drink and parking. This compares with the £1million-aseason matchday revenue at Highfield road.
After gaining control of Coventry in 2007, hedge fund Sisu defaulted on the £1.3m rent agreement and relocated 30 miles away to Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium for the 2013-14 season. A move back to the ricoh was agreed in 2014 for an annual rent of £100,000, but Wasps rugby club bought the stadium two months later.
Terms expire at the end of next season and chief executive Tim Fisher this week told a Sky Blue Trust supporters’ meeting that Coventry rugby Club is the preferred destination, but the 3,000- capacity stadium would need drastically upgrading. Amid all the uncertainty, one constant remains. Sisu have faced calls to sell up but look set to remain.
A petition started by the
in September has gained 20,000 signatures but earned the newspaper a ban on talking to club officials.
Chief reporter Simon Gilbert says: ‘ We are not saying, “Walk away” — if Sisu did that tomorrow it would be a disaster. We are asking that they put the club up for sale after a decade of failure.’
Sisu have cut costs to the bone but that has left the club speeding into the fourth tier. There is little by way of a recruitment team and robins, who earned a first win in charge on Tuesday night, has sounded a similar note to that of his predecessors.
‘There is no real down-time for staff,’ he said. ‘They are working their socks off to try to turn this club around.’
The Checkatrade Trophy final has at least invigorated fans, with a remarkable 41,000 tickets sold.
‘The potential for the club is massive but it needs regenerating,’ says Jan Mokrzycki of the Sky Blue Trust. ‘The majority of fans are looking at this as one day in a miserable season where we can smile and be proud to be Coventry fans. People of my generation had Wembley in ’87 but a lot who are younger have never been a part of something. Football is all about memories.’
That is what Houchen did with his diving header, one of the FA Cup’s iconic goals. ‘I know what a big thing it can be,’ says Houchen. ‘I was with Port Vale at the end of my career and we won the Autoglass. This could just be the fillip to get things going.’
Sillett feels the same. ‘What a chance for us to start putting things right: Wembley. Grab it with both hands.
‘I’ll take a hanky with me and when they walk out I might be wiping a tear. I don’t care what cup it is, they are at Wembley, lift it high and be proud.’