With events on the field being pretty much typical Coventry City, a few wins here and there, interspersed with the usual performances against teams struggling at the foot of the table and the nightmares like Queens Park Rangers, I managed to catch up and speak with Jojar Dhinsa, the man behind the only current bid to take over Coventry City and give the club back to the fans.
It was an interesting conversation, as you would expect from a man who is the Asian Business Man Of The Year. As someone who actually comes from this city (how many current Board members can say that) , he made some good points about the club should be open to examination and that it was the fans that mattered not the players who move from club to club at their agents whim and prefer pounds to loyalty.
He, like all of us want City back in the Premiership and feels that he has the drive and determination to put City in a position where they are able to mount a serious challenge for firstly promotion then bigger and better things.
I’m concerned about his reasons for wanting the new arena (I refuse to use the current title after the way the workers at that company’s Browns Lane plant have been treated).
If it is to put the stadium back in the hands of Coventry City FC, so that all the money can be reinvested in the teams all the way from the youngest age group plus girls/ladies upwards then all well and good as people from Coventry and Warwickshire will benefit from this. But if it is to be used as development property then I would be dead against it.
It seems likely that Mr Dhinsa’s bid will be successful as Mike McGinnity looks frailer by the day and certainly can’t be wanting much more of the hassle he gets as Chairman, especially as he has a nice property in Mallorca to retire to and once he‘s gone, the rest will certainly follow.
From what he told me, Mr Dhinsa has already been met with rejection by Ken Taylor, the leader of Coventry City Council, so he might encounter some problems there, especially as they are as thick as thieves with the club, police etc through the Masons organisation. (Remember the Portsmouth game when the club and police were cleared of all blame but a number of City fans were jailed by way of appeasement.)
But if he can get rid of Coventry City Council who also treat their workers very shabbily, down-grading many of their staff who do important work to keep those of us who live and/or work in the City safe whilst their Chief Executive Stella Menzie, gets another massive pay rise and all the other agencies involved then his takeover won’t be a bad thing.
The way Mr Dhinsa has gone about it by getting involved that Birmingham printed rag that the CET has become thanks to Trinity Mirror is wrong, he would have been better talking to McGinnity and then talking to directly to the fans through the websites and fanzines and then he would have looked far less like a media junkie and self publicist that many have him down for.
At the moment all we have is a war of words between Dhinsa and the club,everyone confused as to what is going on.
But hey that’s my view, I’ll leave you to make up your own mind.
Play up Sky Blues