Reflecting on SISU (1 Viewer)

Grendel · Tuesday at 10:23 AM

ovduk78 said:
Was that when we were in the PL or D1? I can't remember when Richardson left

He left during the first championship season.

The options were using the admin system as it was or lumbering along cutting costs. The external debt was not that huge but the loans made and money invested by those with a vested interest drove the decision making.

McGinnity should have never been anywhere near the club. Elliot would suck up to anyone who gave him a fancy title and Robinson really was the decision maker.

At least in a nest of vipers Richardson could hold is own.

Joy Division · Tuesday at 10:26 AM

Coventry City under Sisu

A decade of decline

ccfcundersisu.coventrytelegraph.net

Grendel · Tuesday at 10:34 AM

The other thing thats never that well documented is I am sure that one of the companies owned by the McGinnity family bought HR back when the stadium was delayed and rented it to the the club at inflated cost before then reselling it back.

pusbccfc · Tuesday at 10:47 AM

Liquid Gold said:
Sisu’s stewardship can be broken down to different eras with very differing objectives. One thing that was so frustrating with them and their communication was that you had no idea things had shifted.

Era 1 - Ranson
Sisu didn’t ever want to be involved in football club ownership. They were sold a dream by Ransom of them fronting the money, him masterminding a promotion. They agreed at a fixed figure and that was burned through having Coleman as manager. Ranson came back when he had exhausted the funds and Sisu said no causing RR to throw his toys out the pram and quit the project.

Era 2 - Clown Car Cost Cutting
Sisu are now lumbered with running a business they never wanted direct control of and have no experience of. Their own men (orange Ken etc.) take control and in an attempt to learn more about the football business they make some egregious errors souring everyone to them. They ended up giving into their instincts anyway and going straight for cost cutting. This resulted in us losing key players for nothing and not being able to replace them. To nobody’s surprise we got relegated which further depreciated their asset.

Era 3 - Stadium Dispute
But of overlap with the last era but this is where joy started to see the millions that they’d put in disappear into nothing. They starting thinking about an exit strategy and decided that buying the stadium and selling it along with the club as a package would be the best way to get a ROI. The team wasn’t considered at all and we had to play out of the city as court cases were more important. Anything of value was sold as soon as possible.

Era 4 - Silo
Ironically the best period of ownership where they just isolated the club and let the people there run it, only providing minimal funding to keep the club afloat. Boddy & Robins with complete freedom to do as they pleased built a reasonably functional football club.

You could put together something from the council too. They were equally as culpable for our lost decade.

It's a shame Boddy had his critics on here. He did an excellent job under the circumstances.

alexccfc99 · Tuesday at 11:06 AM

Their PR during the Sixfields move was an absolute disaster and it is no co-incidence that people were a lot more sympathetic to the club and it's cause during the St Andrew's stint when they didn't try to act so confrontational, Fisher was basically silenced and Boddy was doing all of the comms

By no means saying they were good owners, but time has been a lot kinder to SISU than it has been to CCC and Wasps - That is a fact and they had some of the treacherous bastards in Coventry City Council sussed from day dot

clint van damme · Tuesday at 11:13 AM

pusbccfc said:
It's a shame Boddy had his critics on here. He did an excellent job under the circumstances.

Well I was one of them and in true SBT fashion, even though I'm seen as a bit anti King (which Im not) I got pelters when I said he was right to get rid of Boddy!

What I would say, and what I didn't appreciate at the time, was how good his relationship was with Robins and how crucial that was.

But knowing what it was that made King decide to get rid of him I still think it was the right decision but I do think I he deserves a bit more credit for the job he did than I gave him.

Offhegoes · Tuesday at 11:18 AM

chiefdave said:
Pretty simple to me, they were conned by Ranson who wanted to play football club owner. He persuaded them that they would get a relatively quick, and more importantly large, return on investment. They never wanted to particularly own a football club, they wanted to make money.

When it all went to shit they were left with something they didn't know what to do with. They treated it like any other business when we, as fans, know the rules of business don't really apply. If they did the majority of clubs in the country wouldn't exist!

Never liked Ranson. Looked a miserable, nasty little f*cker. Coleman was nearly as bad, with his habit of waffling on about absolutely nothing pre & post match.

chiefdave · Tuesday at 11:25 AM

alexccfc99 said:
Their PR during the Sixfields move was an absolute disaster and it is no co-incidence that people were a lot more sympathetic to the club and it's cause during the St Andrew's stint when they didn't try to act so confrontational, Fisher was basically silenced and Boddy was doing all of the comms

By no means saying they were good owners - But time has been a lot kinder to SISU than it has been to CCC and Wasps - That is a fact and they had some of the treacherous bastards in Coventry City Council sussed from day dot

The PR all round was a disaster. They, at least initially, just did not think they needed to communicate with the supporters or present and argument that supported their actions. Meanwhile the council & ACL were engaging Weber Shandwick for a full scale PR campaign including fake profiles on places like this.

If day one they'd come in and shouted about the rent being fucking ridiculous and killing the club, or that we needed to own the ground, then maybe people would have been more sympathetic. But of course the reason we ended up with SISU was because they weren't interested in those things. It was quick promotion and cash in.

Liquid Gold · Tuesday at 11:29 AM

The fake profile era was mad. You’d get someone never having posted before going full on with the script.

Worked on way too many people too.

I often wonder what it was like for the employees just sat on here arguing with us. Bet they thought we were right sad bastards.

alexccfc99 · Tuesday at 11:31 AM

chiefdave said:
The PR all round was a disaster. They, at least initially, just did not think they needed to communicate with the supporters or present and argument that supported their actions. Meanwhile the council & ACL were engaging Weber Shandwick for a full scale PR campaign including fake profiles on places like this.

If day one they'd come in and shouted about the rent being fucking ridiculous and killing the club, or that we needed to own the ground, then maybe people would have been more sympathetic. But of course the reason we ended up with SISU was because they weren't interested in those things. It was quick promotion and cash in.

Their PR definitely improved when we went to St Andrew's as far as I am concerned, hence why more people attended and people weren't marching through the city demanding they sold the club, whilst frustrated folk understood/accepted why the club was taking those steps - They passed most of the heat on to Wasps and The Council

As I said, SISU were tolerated more when Fisher was moved into the background and we never heard from him, he rubbed people up the wrong way, Boddy was a football man who could connect with people, the complete opposite of Tim

hopesprings · Tuesday at 11:38 AM

alexccfc99 said:
Their PR definitely improved when we went to St Andrew's as far as I am concerned, hence why more people attended and people weren't marching through the city demanding they sold the club, whilst frustrated folk understood/accepted why the club was taking those steps - They passed most of the heat on to Wasps and The Council

As I said, SISU were tolerated more when Fisher was moved into the background and we never heard from him, he rubbed people up the wrong way, Boddy was a football man who could connect with people, the complete opposite of Tim

Yep Fisher was a very odd character and I've never heard how he had an engineering background at UNI disappeared and was reinvented years later in finance ......would love to know the full background only out of curiosity as quite frankly now he is nothing to do with City I really dont give a toss about him

Godiva · Tuesday at 11:39 AM

Oh, how I miss OldSkyBlue57!

alexccfc99 · Tuesday at 11:46 AM

hopesprings said:
Yep Fisher was a very odd character and I've never heard how he had an engineering background at UNI disappeared and was reinvented years later in finance ......would love to know the full background only out of curiosity as quite frankly now he is nothing to do with City I really dont give a toss about him

Thought as a football chairman he was a disaster but had nothing against the man, he was just Joy's mouthpiece at the end of the day and you couldn't accuse him of being anonymous, he always used to front up to disgruntled supporters even in the dark days of Sixfields so he had some balls on him to do that I guess

According to LinkedIn he works in the private education sector these days

KenilworthSkyBlue · Tuesday at 11:49 AM

pusbccfc said:
It's a shame Boddy had his critics on here. He did an excellent job under the circumstances.

Boddy was very much a L1 CEO. He had absolutely zero imagination or knowledge of how to generate extra revenue for the club beyond traditional means. Against his counterparts in the Championship he was massively out of his depth.

But what he was good at was providing consistent communication between board level and fans while essentially doing the basics right. He definitely played a role in helping to build the club back up from the brink, which he deserves some credit for.

alexccfc99 · Tuesday at 11:56 AM

KenilworthSkyBlue said:
Boddy was very much a L1 CEO. He had absolutely zero imagination or knowledge of how to generate extra revenue for the club beyond traditional means. Against his counterparts in the Championship he was massively out of his depth.

But what he was good at was providing consistent communication between board level and fans while essentially doing the basics right. He definitely played a role in helping to build the club back up from the brink, which he deserves some credit for.

You are probably right in fairness, but Boddy sanctioned the Two Tone kit, which the club ended up shipping off to all corners of the globe to people who didn't even support the club so credit where credit is due there

Danceswithhorses · Tuesday at 12:03 PM

Godiva said:
Oh, how I miss OldSkyBlue57!

You mean Oldskyblue58 ?
But yes, much missed.
He would have loved to have seen us transformed, doing well in Championship, and owning our stadium again.

GC1976 · Tuesday at 1:25 PM

Calista said:
Is there any way on here to make a thread invisible?

100% agree. Bury this thread ! Reflecting on SISU on the best week possibly in the history of the last 40 years. …
WHY ?..

itsabuzzard · Tuesday at 3:28 PM

Liquid Gold said:
The fake profile era was mad. You’d get someone never having posted before going full on with the script.

Worked on way too many people too.

I often wonder what it was like for the employees just sat on here arguing with us. Bet they thought we were right sad bastards.

They'd be right.

Londonccfcfan · Tuesday at 5:33 PM

The only positive is they appointed Mark Robins.

Sisu are also glad they didn't own the Arena during Covid. That would have bankrupted them. Probably ensured wasps went bankrupt.

jto123 · Tuesday at 5:47 PM

Londonccfcfan said:
The only positive is they appointed Mark Robins.

Sisu are also glad they didn't own the Arena during Covid. That would have bankrupted them. Probably ensured wasps went bankrupt.

Yeah, that was a weird ironic twist.

Cally Fedora · Tuesday at 5:53 PM

jto123 said:
Yeah, that was a weird ironic twist.

Hmmm. And we now own it

wingy · Tuesday at 6:28 PM

Cally Fedora said:
Hmmm. And we now own it

And we sacked him.🫣

SkyBlueBarmy84 · Tuesday at 8:57 PM

Side bar, but Boddy is still at every home game - sat in the Chairman’s Club - anyone know if he was given an honorary (or active) role within the club? Or is he just there as a supporter?

SkyBluePower · 2025-08-27T12:37:17+0100

I’m pretty sure he said after leaving he comes back because he loves the club now. Although I would bet as part of his severance we chucked him a Vice Presidents membership for life. He is at every home game.

jto123 · 2025-08-27T19:20:06+0100

How Coventry City Football Club has finally ended its 25-year stadium saga - BBC News

A deal was announced on Saturday ahead of the club's 7-1 win at their new home - the Coventry Building Society Arena.

www.bbc.com

Best simplified explanation. Richardson, Council, Higgs, Wasps and SISU all responsible. A toxic mix.

Liquid Gold · 2025-08-27T23:22:11+0100

it’s a miracle we survived with that bouquet of cunts trying to get their silver penny at us from every angle.

Reflecting on SISU (1 Viewer)

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