More From Ranson

Last updated : 12 December 2008 By Covsupport News Service

As well as speaking to the CT about his year in charge of Coventry City, Chairman Ray Ranson has issued this statement to City supporters.

They say a year flies by when you are having fun and I cannot believe that it is 12 months since we took over the running of the football club, said Ray Ranson to the club's commercial department in a column in the club's e-zine.

No-one imagined for a single moment that it was going to be easy and there have been some surprises along the way but I believe that we have made considerable progress in several key areas in the past year.

We are possibly the only football club in the country without an overdraft thanks to the backing of SISU Capital and when you think how close we were to going out of business that is something that we should view very positively.

We are working closely with ACL and are moving forward on several key areas. We have had talks with the board about the future of the Ricoh Arena but for the short term we are concentrating on building up the business and also making sure we have the best chances of success on the field.

To that end, the big development in the first year has been the appointment of Chris Coleman as manager.

I have, as I am sure you know, long admired Chris. He is one of the brightest young managers in the game and I was delighted that he agreed to take the job.

Chris is a realistic manager. He knows that we desperately want success but that we are not prepared to throw money at players merely as a short term fix. That has been tried before and simply does not work.

Our aim is to get into the Premier League but we are not running before we can walk. We want to bring in young players who we believe can improve our squad, have an affinity with the club, and will still be at a good age. Combined with players who have a little more experience and know-how, such as Clinton Morrison, this will give us the required balance.

I believe we have achieved that with several additions to the playing squad in the last 12 months.

Chris has said that he would like us to be further up the table - and that is true of all of us - but I think there has been a marked improvement since the end of last season and there are glimpses of further potential.

I know that it is never easy following a football team and that there has not been a great deal to shout about in past few years. But we are asking for people to be understanding of our aims and be patient for the reasons I have said.

We are fully aware that we will, with some decisions, not please all of the people all of the time and if we do ever upset people, then I apologise.

But I hope from our first year supporters understand our aims, and can see how hard we are working to achieve them for the benefit of all associated with the club.