Gregor Robertson article from The Times (1 Viewer)

better days

Well-Known Member
THE JOURNEYMAN | GREGOR ROBERSTON
Extraordinary Mark Robins has fans flocking back to Coventry City

%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F4123fea4-34d5-11ec-b83a-bd8490b9f48d.jpg


Gregor Robertson

Monday October 25 2021, 12.01am, The Times

The bond between Coventry City supporters and their club, and their city, has been stretched and pulled at for almost a decade. There have been protests against the club’s hedge-fund owners, SISU, years in exile in Northampton and Birmingham, a points deduction, two relegations, labyrinthine stadium disputes and litigations but, finally, Coventry are home and looking to the future with a flicker of hope.

Almost 24,000 fans were in attendance for Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Derby County, which halted the Sky Blues’ 100 per cent start at the newly named Coventry Building Society Stadium. Season-ticket sales, fast approaching 11,000, are their highest since 1969-70, when Coventry were in the old First Division. Supporters who refused to watch their team play ‘home’ games at St Andrews, even as Coventry won promotion from League One in 2019-20, have returned in their droves to watch Mark Robins dynamic young team who are fourth and looking up.


The job Robins has done since returning to a club destined for League Two in 2017 has been nothing short of extraordinary. The 51-year-old has been an anchor in the storm. Robins stolid disposition masks a sharp wit but has been the perfect fit for a club riven with rancour and mistrust.



Victory at Wembley in the 2017 EFL Trophy final, before a 45,000-strong Sky Blue army, demonstrated the potential and now, after two promotions in three years, Robins has moulded a team with their sights on a return to the top flight for the first time in two decades.
On Saturday the Derby coach Liam Rosenior, who stood in for an ill Wayne Rooney, described Coventry as the best team Derby have faced this season. Few teams marry industry and tactical acumen as adroitly. There are no dogmas other than hard work.

“He’s not stuck rigidly to either an ethos or a formation, because of a [former Coventry manager] Tony-Mowbray-style evangelical belief in the correct way to play football,” says Joey Crone, presenter of the Coventry podcast, the Nii Lamptey Show. “He has a preference for three at the back, wing-backs, and playing good football. But actually, last season, there were times when we played Max Biamou, who came from non-league, but was big and good in the air, and we went very direct to negate teams pressing.”
Coventry’s foundations are solid. Robins, despite his stellar work, rarely enters the conversation when bigger jobs become available, but you get the impression that it would take something pretty special to pull him away from the Sky Blues.
Godden has his sights set on promotion to the Premier League

Godden has his sights set on promotion to the Premier League

His assistant, the former Chelsea Under-21 coach, Adi Viveash, is a trusted ally and an astute tactician. Robins has forged strong relationships with the owner, Joy Seppala, the chairman, Tim Fisher, and the chief executive, David Boddy. The fans’ relationship with SISU may be irreparable but, “with every day that passes, and every year, that toxic resentment towards the owners just dissipates a little bit more,” Crone says.
The club’s recruitment team, headed since 2018 by Chris Badlan, Norwich City’s former head of European recruitment, drives a club with one of the smallest budgets in the second tier to punch well above its weight. “I think that’s why I love it here because you have a certain amount of autonomy to do what we want to do,” Robins says. “That’s why things, in my opinion, work. There’s a trust there which has built up over a period of time, and the fact that I have been here a long time has meant that I have been able to earn that trust.”



The 51-year-old built a sound body of work as manager of Barnsley, Huddersfield Town and Scunthorpe United but admits that Coventry is the club that have got under his skin. Robins has been able to call upon valuable experiences gleaned during his first steps into the dugout with Rotherham in 2007, a club facing administration, a 17-point deduction in League Two and exile from their home at Don Valley, an athletics stadium based in Sheffield.
This is a Coventry team, meanwhile, that is filled with young players — signed either on loan, for modest fees, or graduates from an increasingly fruitful academy— who are ripe for development. Callum O’Hare, a crafty former Aston Villa attacking midfielder, and Gustavo Hamer, a £1 million recruit from PEC Zwolle, are examples of the club’s savvy recruitment. The striker Viktor Gyökeres is the latest to shine.
Nearly 24,000 fans watched on against Derby and they’ve had plenty to cheer with Coventry's superb home form this season

Nearly 24,000 fans watched on against Derby and they’ve had plenty to cheer with Coventry's superb home form this season

The 23-year-old joined on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion in January, scored three goals in 19 Championship games, mostly from the bench, and in truth did not look like someone on whom the lion’s share of Robins’s meagre budget should be spent in the summer. Nine goals in 14 games — and a Sweden recall — later, however, and that £1 million fee suddenly looks like a snip.
The Sky Blues faithful are not getting carried away just yet. Until Robins came along, of course, 48 years and 25 managers had been and gone without a top-six finish at any level. As David Whitlock — a fan of 60-years sitting near the press seats — informed me before kick-off, during Coventry’s 34-year stay in the top flight, between 1967 and 2001, the club staved off relegation on the final day nine times. “Coventry City fans are not ambitious,” Whitlock smiles. “It’s just great to be back in Coventry, watching some good football.”
 

better days

Well-Known Member
Great article

But joey cronie is now on my hit list. Don't bring up Tony's name
Tbh I've met Tony Mowbray a few times and he's a very decent bloke who tried to do his best for us
He wasn't given enough resources and we were forced to play essentially an U21 team in his final season
Mark Robins has done a great job but in some ways it's helped that the owners learnt that he has to have a better budget than TM was given
 
Last edited:

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
When searching the previous article was 2019 saying the move to Birmingham and the subsequent slow death of the club was tragic
 

covcity4life

Well-Known Member
Tbh I've met Tony Mowbray a few times and he's a very decent bloke who tried to do his best for us
He wasn't given enough resources and we were forced to play essentially an U21 team in his final season
Mark Robins has done a great job but in some ways it's helped that the owners learnt that he has to have a better budget than TB was given
100% agreed but sum twats on here don't understand that sisu learnt from it and instead believe they became perfect owners During mowbrays time and before robins returned thus mowbray ran recruitment badly all on his own.
 

Garryb80

Well-Known Member
Tbh I've met Tony Mowbray a few times and he's a very decent bloke who tried to do his best for us
He wasn't given enough resources and we were forced to play essentially an U21 team in his final season
Mark Robins has done a great job but in some ways it's helped that the owners learnt that he has to have a better budget than TB was given
He did spend the whole summer trying to sign kelvin Wilson though
 

Terry_dactyl

Well-Known Member
He did spend the whole summer trying to sign kelvin Wilson though
I remember leaving that first game of the season and hearing a swindon fan saying, “i think it’s fair to say they won’t be challenging for promotion”….I was thinking to myself, “our transfer business is nowhere near done. once we get Wilson and three or four more we’ll beat these fuckers easily”.
We didn’t and both us and swindon were relegated.
For the record I’d like to point out that I think we could beat swindon now. So ultimately I was right. Well done me.
 

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
Tbh I've met Tony Mowbray a few times and he's a very decent bloke who tried to do his best for us
He wasn't given enough resources and we were forced to play essentially an U21 team in his final season
Mark Robins has done a great job but in some ways it's helped that the owners learnt that he has to have a better budget than TB was given
To be fair, it’s consultancy 101 really isn’t it. Pair back resources until absolute breaking point then see where you actually need to reinvest.

Horrible to happen to your club, but I bet every single penny spent is necessary
 

Liquid Gold

Well-Known Member
Tbh I've met Tony Mowbray a few times and he's a very decent bloke who tried to do his best for us
He wasn't given enough resources and we were forced to play essentially an U21 team in his final season
Mark Robins has done a great job but in some ways it's helped that the owners learnt that he has to have a better budget than TB was given
Tony Bowbray
 

higgs

Well-Known Member
He tried to sign Tammy Abraham that summer and a whole bunch of others from top clubs.
He got a bit carried away alright with the players he went after and we ended up with none of them a gamble that didn't pay off for him or us. But the players we had like Armstrong Kent Murphy Cole Maddison were exciting to watch in league one for a while

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 

wingy

Well-Known Member
He got a bit carried away alright with the players he went after and we ended up with none of them a gamble that didn't pay off for him or us. But the players we had like Armstrong Kent Murphy Cole Maddison were exciting to watch in league one for a while

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Lamieras!+
 

wingy

Well-Known Member
Think he’ll be back in England soon. Doesn’t get a look in for his team in Portugal
I guess he'd be enjoying life over there though.
He was integral in that formation for a third of the season until Joe Cole came in really.
Just had a mad thought, I bet you know what it was lol.
 

SlowerThanPlatt

Well-Known Member
It’s hard to gauge the standard like the SPL. There’s the top teams and then a big drop off to the rest. Don’t think he’d be able to get a move back here
 

Bugsy

Well-Known Member

Frostie

Well-Known Member
100% agreed but sum twats on here don't understand that sisu learnt from it and instead believe they became perfect owners During mowbrays time and before robins returned thus mowbray ran recruitment badly all on his own.

Before the game up there a couple of weeks ago, Mowbray spoke pretty highly of Sisu tbf.

“I think Mark Robins has done a quite remarkable job. I know it’s still the same ownership, they’re good people that run that football club"
 

covcity4life

Well-Known Member
Before the game up there a couple of weeks ago, Mowbray spoke pretty highly of Sisu tbf.

“I think Mark Robins has done a quite remarkable job. I know it’s still the same ownership, they’re good people that run that football club"
He got on with them. That doesn't mean they helped set up a great Infrastructire or sorted a good budget out for him
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
He got on with them. That doesn't mean they helped set up a great Infrastructire or sorted a good budget out for him

In his first season he had:

Murphy
Armstrong
Fleck (?)
Maddison
Vincelot who was at the time playing well
Lameries (I was not a massive fan but some were)
Willis, Stokes and Ricketts were capable
He signed Cole

His massive error of judgement was to not sign a decent keeper and he admitted he never saw them as a priority and both cost us a lot of points
 

covcity4life

Well-Known Member
In his first season he had:

Murphy
Armstrong
Fleck (?)
Maddison
Vincelot who was at the time playing well
Lameries (I was not a massive fan but some were)
Willis, Stokes and Ricketts were capable
He signed Cole

His massive error of judgement was to not sign a decent keeper and he admitted he never saw them as a priority and both cost us a lot of points
I doubt we had budget for great keeper too. Burge fooled slot of people . Sunderland too

And so 1 great season of recruitment and 1 bad. Evens out.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
I doubt we had budget for great keeper too. Burge fooled slot of people . Sunderland too

And so 1 great season of recruitment and 1 bad. Evens out.

He said he was not interested as all they do is stop goals.
 

covcity4life

Well-Known Member
I get his thinking on that. If u score 3 or 4 a game u just need s competent keeper.

But we had lee burge. Sure if alot of resources could have got someone else in.
 

SlowerThanPlatt

Well-Known Member
I get his thinking on that. If u score 3 or 4 a game u just need s competent keeper.

But we had lee burge. Sure if alot of resources could have got someone else in.
Charles Cook played the majority of the season, 37 games. Last time I heard of him he wasn’t in pro football anymore
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top