A couple of weeks ago, after a particularly poor 1-0 loss to Hull the Chairman of Coventry City sacked manager Aidy Boothroyd. The loss to Hull made it one win in the previous 16 games. At Christmas they were 5th in the table and looking comfortable there. Results were good and the team was drawing well.
Since Boothroyd was sacked and replaced by assistant Steve Harrison (a former Vancouver Whitecaps player) and chief scout Andy thorn they managed 4 points in the last two games. In the league they are safe enough and did enough in the first half of the year to avoid relegation, despite sitting 19th after what can only be described as “lemming like” drop down the table.
Boothroyd had a very direct style of play, not what you would describe as sophisticated. Teams worked it out and when the goals stopped at Christmas there was no alternate plan. When a team is winning, fan can accept some unattractive football, when a team goes onto a slide like Coventry did it’s never going to be acceptable to anyone.
The squad has not received significant investment since Boothroyd took the job a year ago. He is also the 9th manager in the last 10 years at the club, and it’s been a few years since there has been any money to spend on players. Players like Freddy Eastwood, and Gunnarsson are journeymen players at this level, they are not going to carry a team and the rotating door on the manager’s office is not going to change that.
As is usual the manager takes the responsibility for failure of the team, the board must take some of the blame in the results over the last three months. Looking at the table today it could be said that sitting 19th in the table the team is right on expectations. In the previous three seasons the team has finished 21st, 17th and 19th,
It could be argued that Boothroyd’s side wasn’t underperforming; they were right on pace for a similar finish in the table.
The team is in financial trouble, it’s alleged they are loosing about 4 million pounds a year. A big contributor to that is that they don’t own the Ricoh Stadium, don’t get to take advantage of the non-game day revenue streams. The investment group that owns the club could not afford to buy the ground despite an option to do so last year.
Somebody has to take the blame for the disappointment of the last four years; this is a team that is just good enough to hang on Championship football. Looked at as a body of work the last four years it’s difficult to blame the Boothroyd (and Coleman, Dowie and Adams before him) for everything. And if the manager is not culpable, then the board and owners are.
The books make pretty disturbing reading, and the club either needs outside investment, new owners or find a way to live with in their needs.
As long as CCFC stay in the championship they should be able to stay solvent, drop to League One and receivership becomes possibility. It would give them an opportunity to reorganize, in a similar way to Southampton. A lot of sort term pain, but in the longer term may be the best way forward.
After four years of underperformance it’s time for the board and ownership to stand up, stop blaming manager who was not given the resources to do the job requested of them.