Sky Blues
Active Member
What we know:
*Mark Robins generally performed well as Coventry's manager.
*He was five months into a three-year contract.
*He knew the financial constraints on City when he moved here.
*Robins is from Lancashire and has managed two Yorkshire clubs before.
*Robins resigned as Barnsley boss after a disagreement over the club's budget.
*City have been approached by more than one club about Robins' services recently and they have "reluctantly" allowed him to talk to Huddersfield.
*Huddersfield are in a division above City this season.
*It is reported that there is a "six-figure" buy out clause in his contract.
*Last Tuesday, Coventry saw their hopes of progressing to the the JPT final all but dashed in the last week.
*Robins spoke to the board and owner about future plans for CCFC last Wednesday and, when the Cov Telegraph asked him the following day about speculation linking him with Town and Blackpool, he said he was "more than happy as manager of Coventry City".
*Defeat to Yeovil this weekend dented play-off hopes.
*Robins met "the owner" (does Fisher mean Joy?) yesterday but, according to Fisher, Robins still wanted to talk to Huddersfield after "we had done everything we could".
*City continues to lose money and have not settled the rent dispute with ACL.
*The club signed a loan player yesterday.
Have I missed anything? What does the evidence suggest?
You might be able to think of more, but so far I can see several potential scenarios:
1. Robins wants to return to the north for personal or family reasons.
2. Robins thinks he will be offered more money to manage Huddersfield.
3. Robins thinks his career aspirations would be best served by being Huddersfield boss rather than City boss.
4. Defeat against Yeovil (maybe combined with heavy first-leg defeat against Crewe) made Robins think the club could not realistically achieve promotion or trophy success this season and he has lost belief in the project.
5. Defeat against Yeovil (maybe combined with the Crewe defeat) made SISU think the club could not realistically achieve promotion this season and made them say or do something over the weekend which caused Robins to lose belief in their previous assurances.
6 (which may or may not be an extension of 5). Robins got wind of something that made him fear for his long-term future or ability to manage the club (such as a transfer embargo, administration, liquidation proceedings) and decided it would be a good time to investigate other employment opportunities.
7. Sisu rejected the Huddersfield offer for PR reasons, but were actually happy to take the money and said something to Robins that suggested he would be better off elsewhere.
Now be honest with yourself, if you were in one of those scenarios in your workplace what would you do?
For that reason, if Robins were to go for reasons 2 or 3 I would be disappointed to lose a good manager and, particularly in the case of scenario 3, think he could be misguided, but I might understand why he felt a move was best for him (even though it is not good news for us).
If he were to leave for reasons 1, 5, 6, or 7, I could understand Robins deciding to go and I would not hate him for it.
If he was to go for reason 4 I would be bitterly disappointed in him.
Of course, life is never simple and it might be a combination of these factors or something else entirely that is affecting what is happening. I'm just trying to make sense of what is happening from the scant information currently available. Maybe we'll know more soon...
*Mark Robins generally performed well as Coventry's manager.
*He was five months into a three-year contract.
*He knew the financial constraints on City when he moved here.
*Robins is from Lancashire and has managed two Yorkshire clubs before.
*Robins resigned as Barnsley boss after a disagreement over the club's budget.
*City have been approached by more than one club about Robins' services recently and they have "reluctantly" allowed him to talk to Huddersfield.
*Huddersfield are in a division above City this season.
*It is reported that there is a "six-figure" buy out clause in his contract.
*Last Tuesday, Coventry saw their hopes of progressing to the the JPT final all but dashed in the last week.
*Robins spoke to the board and owner about future plans for CCFC last Wednesday and, when the Cov Telegraph asked him the following day about speculation linking him with Town and Blackpool, he said he was "more than happy as manager of Coventry City".
*Defeat to Yeovil this weekend dented play-off hopes.
*Robins met "the owner" (does Fisher mean Joy?) yesterday but, according to Fisher, Robins still wanted to talk to Huddersfield after "we had done everything we could".
*City continues to lose money and have not settled the rent dispute with ACL.
*The club signed a loan player yesterday.
Have I missed anything? What does the evidence suggest?
You might be able to think of more, but so far I can see several potential scenarios:
1. Robins wants to return to the north for personal or family reasons.
2. Robins thinks he will be offered more money to manage Huddersfield.
3. Robins thinks his career aspirations would be best served by being Huddersfield boss rather than City boss.
4. Defeat against Yeovil (maybe combined with heavy first-leg defeat against Crewe) made Robins think the club could not realistically achieve promotion or trophy success this season and he has lost belief in the project.
5. Defeat against Yeovil (maybe combined with the Crewe defeat) made SISU think the club could not realistically achieve promotion this season and made them say or do something over the weekend which caused Robins to lose belief in their previous assurances.
6 (which may or may not be an extension of 5). Robins got wind of something that made him fear for his long-term future or ability to manage the club (such as a transfer embargo, administration, liquidation proceedings) and decided it would be a good time to investigate other employment opportunities.
7. Sisu rejected the Huddersfield offer for PR reasons, but were actually happy to take the money and said something to Robins that suggested he would be better off elsewhere.
Now be honest with yourself, if you were in one of those scenarios in your workplace what would you do?
For that reason, if Robins were to go for reasons 2 or 3 I would be disappointed to lose a good manager and, particularly in the case of scenario 3, think he could be misguided, but I might understand why he felt a move was best for him (even though it is not good news for us).
If he were to leave for reasons 1, 5, 6, or 7, I could understand Robins deciding to go and I would not hate him for it.
If he was to go for reason 4 I would be bitterly disappointed in him.
Of course, life is never simple and it might be a combination of these factors or something else entirely that is affecting what is happening. I'm just trying to make sense of what is happening from the scant information currently available. Maybe we'll know more soon...
