Rise Together , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Adam Sloman

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

152 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Rise Together: Coventry City Under Mark Robins examines the rebirth of Coventry City FC from 2017 to 2020. Having sunk to the depths of English football's lowest professional division, the Sky Blues were a million miles from the FA Cup-winning heyday of 1987 and the glitz and glamour of Premier League football. After a decade of decline, a constant churn of managers, coaches and players, the arrival of Mark Robins for a second spell in charge would end all that. Backed by a fanbase desperate for success, winning the 2017 Football League Trophy was just the beginning. Robins would mould Coventry City into a side capable of something few at the club had achieved before - success. That first trophy at Wembley would be followed by two more - victory in the 2018 League Two play-off final, then the League One title in 2020. With off-the-field issues continuing to dog the club, including a second move out of Coventry, the story of Rise Together is one that every football fan will appreciate.

Informations

Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	31 janvier 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781801502160
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Adam Sloman, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801500524
eBook ISBN 9781801502160
---
eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Prologue
1. How did it come to this?
2. Robins returns
3. A grand day out
4. The rebuild begins
5. League Two 2017/18 part one
6. League Two 2017/18 part two
7. The play-offs
8. Wembley - May 2018
9. City s summer
10. League One 2018/19
11. Playing at home
12. League One 2019/20
13. Champions, coronavirus and Coventry City
14. Working with Mark Robins
Epilogue
Statistics
Photos
To my late dad, Barrie, for sharing with me his love and passion for Coventry City. To my wife Sarah for indulging me in my obsession, allowing our house to be filled with hundreds of Coventry shirts, programmes, books and photos. To my children, Lily and James - I apologise. You are City supporters for life - our wonderful trips to Wembley might never come again - and I have loved every minute of our time at football together.
Play up Sky Blues!
Introduction
COVENTRY CITY had, for many years, been a staple of English football s top flight. However, following their relegation in 2001, Coventry had become synonymous with failure and by 2017 this once-proud club had fallen to its lowest position in the football pyramid for 59 years.
The return of a former manager would ultimately inspire the Sky Blues to rise once again.
Acknowledgements
THIS BOOK has been a huge passion project for me - it is hard to sum up my love for Coventry City Football Club in a few words (not a wise thing for an author to admit), but this would not have been possible without the following people: Sarah Sloman (the world s most patient and understanding wife!), Mark Robins, Jason Winter, Martyn Lufkin, Simon Williams, Dave Boddy, Dominic Hyam, Jack Grimmer, Samantha Riman, Marc McNulty, Liam Kelly, Andy Turner, Clive Eakin, Mark Hornby, Julie Hyam, Steve Hyam, Dominic Jerams and Glenn Watkin.
Prologue
THE 2015/16 season had given a lot of Coventry City supporters something that was hard to come by: hope.
The City faithful had been bereft of that most valued commodity since the days of the Premier League, arguably since May 1987.
The loss of Highfield Road, multiple managers, hundreds of players, a move out of its home city and a strained relationship with Wasps RFC had worn heavy on City s supporters, so when Tony Mowbray succeeded Steven Pressley, there was plenty to be done.
1
How did it come to this?
UNDER TONY Mowbray, Coventry City had secured survival in League One thanks to a win away at Crawley Town, and Mowbray was clear with his intent - City had to be promoted back to the Championship.
Mowbray had been appointed in March 2015, taking the reins of a City side just one point outside of the relegation zone.
Survival went right to the wire, but with that victory over Crawley to close the 2014/15 season City were safe, and Mowbray was ready to get to work.
Ten players departed that summer as Mowbray built a team around loan stars like Adam Armstrong, Jacob Murphy and Ryan Kent, blended with the latest from City s academy production line as the likes of James Maddison and Ga l Bigirimana combined to create a team of genuine attacking threat and guile.
The club also hit the headlines in October 2015 when Mowbray brought in Joe Cole. Then struggling for games at Midlands rivals Aston Villa, the former Chelsea and England star was a huge success at City, and later credited his time at the Ricoh Arena with reigniting his passion for football in the twilight of his career. Some supporters were sceptical though, sensing another player past their prime, using City for one last pay cheque. But Cole was different - his abilities on the pitch still apparent for all to see.
The Sky Blues topped the league or remained in the promotion places for a hefty chunk of the season, ultimately going to the summit with the 4-1 defeat of the then leaders Gillingham in November 2015. City would sweep aside the likes of Crewe Alexandra (5-0 away win) and Bury (6-0 home win) with ease, but ultimately their season would collapse as the Sky Blues won just three matches between 2 January 2016 and 12 March.
The Sky Blues would end the 2015/16 season eighth in the League One table, five points outside the play-off places, taking the highest points tally by any City side since 1980/81. Mowbray apologised to supporters but was adamant that the following season his side would do better, and they would get out of the division.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph after City beat Oldham Athletic 2-0 to conclude 2015/16 he said, We are disappointed. It s a progression on last season, finishing eighth as opposed to a last-day victory to stay up, but we set our targets high, and we ve fallen just short. Next year eighth is the minimum that we will require - we ve got to push on because we ve got to get this club out of the league. I hope the supporters will stick with us next season because we re trying to build a team that will get this club back to where it needs to be. There will be bad days but if we all stick together, we ll get there in the end.
Sadly, very few of the squad would get the chance to stick together as over the break Mowbray s team would be dismantled.
Armstrong had been a sensation, scoring 20 goals on his way to earning a place in the League One team of the season. Armstrong, Murphy and Kent all returned to their parent clubs, Cole retired, while fellow midfielders Romain Vincelot and John Fleck departed on free transfers.
Once again there was a huge turnover of players. Six loan players would join in the summer, while Mowbray would make seven permanent signings, with the loans of Jodi Jones and Ga l Bigirimana becoming transfers to City from Dagenham Redbridge and Glasgow Rangers respectively.
City began the 2016/17 campaign in disastrous fashion, failing to win any of their first ten league games and scoring just twice in the first five.
The Sky Blues would fall to defeat against Swindon Town, Bradford City, Fleetwood Town and Gillingham. On 29 September, following City s sixth draw - a 2-2 against AFC Wimbledon - Mowbray resigned.
The club said in a statement, Without a win in the first ten league games, Tony felt on a professional level he was no longer able to take the club forward. Coventry City would like to thank Tony for all his energy and dedication over the past 18 months. We would also like to wish Tony all the very best for the future and put on record he will always be welcome at the club. Mark Venus will take responsibility of first-team duties with immediate effect.
Mowbray left City after 76 games in charge, recording 26 wins, 26 defeats and 24 draws.
Speaking to BBC Sport following the Wimbledon game he said, The table doesn t lie. It s embarrassing to go ten games without a win. I m an honourable guy. I won t be a burden to this club. I know this club needs every penny.
His post-match interview identified deeper issues at the club - pointing to the failure to secure players for the long term, rather than the loans that the squad had been built from just a year earlier. He added, The players work extremely hard, but it s a man s game. They re babies in a man s league. I probably let them down by not getting in the big 6ft 4in centre-half we were after, who could have been a man and help us keep clean sheets. We knew what the budget was, but we didn t get our targets. You can t build a club off loans. They have to invest in footballers they can keep and build on.
Long-time assistant Mark Venus took temporary charge and in his first game, he led City to a 2-0 away win at Port Vale. Though they would lose 3-0 to Charlton the following week, Venus seemed to have helped City turn a corner with back-to-back victories over Oxford and Rochdale, before a draw away at Walsall and another home win over Chesterfield.
The revival would not last long as City collapsed to six consecutive defeats. Speaking after a 3-1 reverse away at Southend, the interim boss reacted angrily to BBC Coventry and Warwickshire s Geoff Foster when asked if the defeats hurt.
Let me just explain to you. Let me just say one thing. I came here to the football club on behalf of football to work on football. And if I don t do very good on football I just walk away. I have got nothing else. I work hard every day work hard, 12 hours a day for this football club. I m trying hard, trying very hard to keep it going. It isn t doing very well. It needs help. Does it hurt? What do you think? What do you think?
Venus, perhaps unaccustomed to the pressure of first team management, was clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning. It s the toughest part of my career. Of course, it hurts. I stand here because I m upset so yes it hurts, very much so, he added.
Everyone can see the team needs a new manager, but it needs some new players as well. Everyone needs a bit of help at the football club. It s a sad state, it s a sorry football club. We have to stop it and turn it