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http://backpagefootball.com/the-coventry-case-the-sad-demise-of-a-football-club/59158/
The FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, 16th May 1987. It is the 62nd minute, and Dave Bennett of Coventry City sends a pinpoint cross into the penalty area. Keith Houchen launches himself full length at the ball and sends a spectacular diving header crashing into the back of the net, past the hapless Ray Clemence in the Tottenham goal.
This was arguably the greatest moment in the history of Coventry City Football Club, and the defining moment in a 3-2 victory which saw Coventry win their first ever major trophy (and only one to date).
Thirty-four years on however, the picture is looking somewhat more bleak for the Sky Blues. Since the 1987 Cup victory, the club’s demise has perhaps been even more spectacular than Houchen’s header itself. The club has been relegated to League One with a shoestring squad, is riddled by crippling debt, is merely a tenant in it’s stadium and has gone through 10 managers in the last 11 years.
So what has gone wrong for Coventry?
From an outsider looking in, everything would suggest that Coventry should be at least a top level Championship side. A state of the art new stadium, a club of decent historical stature and most importantly the only major club in a City of 300,000. It is all in place for Coventry to be a success, and for a while they were.
Coventry stayed in the top flight of English Football between 1967 and 2001 without being relegated (that’s 34 years for those of you too lazy to do the maths) and as aforementioned won their first major trophy during that period. When they were relegated only Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool could boast longer tenures in England’s top flight. Coventry were essentially an established Premier League unit and able to attract bigger names, and due to a few hair-raising relegation battles they invested heavily in the team.
Players were brought in for big money- Robbie Keane signed for £6million, Craig Bellamy for £6.5million, Mustapha Hadji joined from Deportivo for £4million and even once they were relegated in 2001 to what was then Division One- they were still prepared to pay £5million for Lee Hughes from West Bromwich Albion. Couple these amounts with the large wages (which had just begun the astronomical rises to the crazy wages today) you have a large amount of money leaving the club. Whilst this may have been seen as sound investment at the time, spending such large amounts of money on players would prove disastrous when Coventry were relegated in 2001- when the club frankly did not have the income to support the amount spent on players.
The FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, 16th May 1987. It is the 62nd minute, and Dave Bennett of Coventry City sends a pinpoint cross into the penalty area. Keith Houchen launches himself full length at the ball and sends a spectacular diving header crashing into the back of the net, past the hapless Ray Clemence in the Tottenham goal.
This was arguably the greatest moment in the history of Coventry City Football Club, and the defining moment in a 3-2 victory which saw Coventry win their first ever major trophy (and only one to date).
Thirty-four years on however, the picture is looking somewhat more bleak for the Sky Blues. Since the 1987 Cup victory, the club’s demise has perhaps been even more spectacular than Houchen’s header itself. The club has been relegated to League One with a shoestring squad, is riddled by crippling debt, is merely a tenant in it’s stadium and has gone through 10 managers in the last 11 years.
So what has gone wrong for Coventry?
From an outsider looking in, everything would suggest that Coventry should be at least a top level Championship side. A state of the art new stadium, a club of decent historical stature and most importantly the only major club in a City of 300,000. It is all in place for Coventry to be a success, and for a while they were.
Coventry stayed in the top flight of English Football between 1967 and 2001 without being relegated (that’s 34 years for those of you too lazy to do the maths) and as aforementioned won their first major trophy during that period. When they were relegated only Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool could boast longer tenures in England’s top flight. Coventry were essentially an established Premier League unit and able to attract bigger names, and due to a few hair-raising relegation battles they invested heavily in the team.
Players were brought in for big money- Robbie Keane signed for £6million, Craig Bellamy for £6.5million, Mustapha Hadji joined from Deportivo for £4million and even once they were relegated in 2001 to what was then Division One- they were still prepared to pay £5million for Lee Hughes from West Bromwich Albion. Couple these amounts with the large wages (which had just begun the astronomical rises to the crazy wages today) you have a large amount of money leaving the club. Whilst this may have been seen as sound investment at the time, spending such large amounts of money on players would prove disastrous when Coventry were relegated in 2001- when the club frankly did not have the income to support the amount spent on players.
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