Welcome to the second of our weekly blogs in which we at PSB group have our say on the key issues affecting OUR Sky Blues.
HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED
It's been another busy week. After the Sky Blues somewhat undeserved defeat against Leyton Orient at home most of us left the Ricoh scratching our heads yet again looking at the league table thinking the unthinkable may actually be happening.
Coventry City playing in League One again was something none of our group thought we would see in our life times. To see them play in League Two would be unthinkable.
How far our club has dropped in the last 15 years or so. We have gone from owning a stadium that we all still love in Highfield Road and watching Premier League football week in week out, with every single season packed with incident . Admittedly we used to scrape it some years and just about stay in the division but boy we had some great memories.
One memory that sticks out was Tottenham Hotspur away in 97 when we travelled there as huge underdogs needing a win to stay up and both Sunderland and Middelesborough to slip up. Goals from the unlikely source of Paul Williams and a more obvious goal scorer Dion Dublin kept the sky blues up in miraculous fashion.
The away end erupted in a fashion unrecognisable today. The hairs on the back of your neck stood up and still do to this day thinking about it. The players were as emotional as the fans and celebrated with us. That was a day we were all proud to sing loud and clear 'We are staying up say we are staying up'
Contrast that with the Coventry City of 2015. We rent a ground that was built for us off a franchise rugby club with no Coventry connection, we are in a League One relegation battle and there seem to be a distinct lack of emotion or relationship between fans and players these days.
Maybe this is the way of it at most clubs now and a sign of just how much football has changed but it hurts us at PSBG to see what our beloved Coventry City has become.
Hearing 'we are staying up' chanted in the stands these days hurts a lot. Staying up in the Premier League was an achievement and one worth celebrating but for a club like Coventry City staying up in league one is no achievement. We are embarrassed that our club is even involved in a League One relegation battle. Yes we will all breath a sigh of relief when we have achieved safety but none of us should be getting excited.
We as a club are better than that. Our fans deserve much more.
The neglect from past and present owners has caused this and there needs to be change NOW and we at PSBG will continue to strive for it.
TONY MOWBRAY
We at PSBG were delighted with the appointment of Tony Mowbray. We weren't expecting such a high profile appointment but then the later announcement that his deal was only till the end of the season made it more understandable.
Steven Pressley was a very loyal manager and would always get on with his job no matter what tools his was given to work with or in SISU'S case what tools he was actually left with.
This week Tony Mowbray has publicly declared
"SISU back my ambition and i'll stay! " which is maybe something Steven Pressley should have said a long time ago. We should all rejoice that we now have a manager in the Coventry City hotseat with a great reputation in the game. Rest assured if SISU do not back him he will be off and will no doubt get a more high profile job than the one he is currently in. However with the right backing and a bit of ambition Coventry City could still be an attractive challenge.
It would certainly look great on your CV if you turned this club around. Alternatively with no ambition or backing then this is probably one of the worst jobs in football and Tony knows that.
So SISU it's over to you. Do you want to back a decent manager and get out of this division (if we stay up) or do you want to continue our tragic decline?
Let us know. Action however will speak far louder than warm words.
CCFC PLAYERS & ABUSE
This is a subject that we really shouldn't have to write about but it keeps rearing its head.
Like most city fans we at PSBG get really frustrated leaving city games after witnessing a bad defeat or having seen us play poorly with certain players having absolute shockers. Many times we have got back to London after a game and spent the night in a pub having passionate debates about what we've just seen.
That surely is what football is all about. However recently we have listened to fans in the stands verbally abusing players whilst booing them off the pitch at half time and full time. This isn't anything new (although it happens far more frequently than it used to) but does it really help our players in the current situation ?
Even more shockingly we see fans targeting players on twitter, tweeting their personal account details and other social networking sites and abusing them to an unreasonable level.
Some people will say that they are paying customers so they have every right to vent there frustration which is right but does abusing our players really help them?
If a player is clearly low on confidence they certainly wouldn't be feeling great about the next game if they're being targeted on twitter or in the stands etc by their own fans.
Criticise players as much as you want but don't go out your way to abuse them personally. They are probably as frustrated as we are.
BIG REDA
Now Reda seems to be our Marmite player. You either love him or you hate him. We simply want to see him on the pitch instead of in the stands injured.
Reda is a player that receives a lot of stick. He is injured more than not but let's be realistic here he would prefer to be fit and well on that pitch than on the treatment table. His contract is up in the summer so he has a very uncertain future. You can see when he is out on the pitch how much it means to him and you can also see how frustrated he is. It wasn't that long ago that he was still our top goal scorer yet had only played half as many games as anyone else and also let's not forget he is a defender. The stats don't lie. We have won more games with him in the side. We reckon that with a decent pre season under his belt under Tony Mowbray that he's worth another 12 month contract. If he can stay injury free he will be a very useful addition in this league.
4 POINTS
Now 4 points is a good return from the week and I think most of us would taken that before the week started. A 0-0 draw away at Notts County could have been even better had we been more clinical in front of goal. That though has been Coventry City's story since Wilson and Clarke left. We are just not prolific in front of goal and next year that has to be our priority. With Tony Mowbray at the helm however we have confidence in him rectifying our goal scoring problem in the transfer market (subject to being backed by our current owners).
He likes attack minded teams and doesn't mind leaking a goal or two as long as he knows he has the attackers to get one or two more at the other end which is great and how football should be played. Much better that than the policy of going 1-0 up and then defending for the next 45 minutes.
Saturdays crucial 3 points at home against Colchester was well deserved. Apart from the early stages of the second half we were well in control. It wasn't always pretty but as mentioned in last weeks blog we don't care how dull the game is at this stage of the season we just want the 3 points. Once safety is confirmed then we can concentrate on building an exciting attacking team but safety comes first.....and we are almost there so it shouldn't be too long before we can relax.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
We note with interest the recent statement from the Sky Blue Trust following the response from Rugby District Council to its freedom of information request.
It appears from this response that the only meeting that SISU have had with this particular local authority since September 2013 was on March 11th. That's 6 days after the SCG meeting in which Tim Fisher talked about the meetings they had already had with Rugby District Council.
FOOTBALL ACTION NETWORK
PSBG have been approached by FAN ( Football Action Network) to see if we are able to participate in their political flashmob event taking place in London on Saturday. The event is aimed at the main political parties during the general election period to highlight the issues fans have with club owners and the direction the game is going in. Unfortunately the short notice given and the fact that all of our group will be at the Bristol City game means we cannot attend but would urge anybody who can be in London on Saturday to support the demo if they can.
The first of 3 flashmobs takes place at Labour Party HQ in Brewers Green at 10.30am before moving on to other party headquarters at 30 minute intervals.
SUMMER/PRE SEASON
This summer will no doubt have lots of twists and turns, hopefully we will be in League One. We of course have SISU's date at the appeal court to look forward to on July 7th. Maybe once SISU lose yet another court case this will spell the end for them or is that just wishful thinking ? Time will tell !
Will Tony Mowbray stay ? Indeed as we mentioned earlier will he be backed?
If he does walks then at least that will confirm the extent of SISU's ambitions
We will know when they release their next 5 point plan of complete rubbish to pull the wool over our eyes yet again that even the miniority that are still fighting the corner for SISU will surely then realise that SISU don't care about you or me or the club or the City of Coventry.
PSB THOUGHTS
We will finish with a plea to our club owners.
Back Tony Mowbray. Show some real ambition. Build a team capable of promotion and we may just start to believe in you!
Alternatively you can continue as you are and watch the club you own eventually die with an ever disappearing fanbase.
A season ticket boycott is something we would never ever want to do (unless we moved to Sixfields again of course ) but if we see no imminent change in the way this club is being run then we would take the step of urging fans to join us and boycott Season Tickets.
We hope it does not come to this. Let's see you start spending some money in places other than the courts, the team for instance. That would be a great start.
We don't care who runs the club. We just want them to run it properly with honesty and ambition. Do that and you may just win back some of the missing thousands of fans who've walked away from the club during your tenure.
PSBG