Wembley, August 2007.

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A very Happy New Year to Sky Blues everywhere! Hopes that Operation Premiership might be achieved within a year have been derailed in recent weeks. But any dressing room dissidence there may have been was not in evidence in a spirited comeback at Ashton Gate in the Cup.  

If we are to believe press reports of the alleged route Micky Adams and his players took to get to Loftus Road by tube, it is amazing that they got there at all: if you are going from Hanger Lane to White City or Shepherds Bush, what would you be doing changing at Hammersmith? 

City made it in time that afternoon, which is more than could be said of Dagenham and Redbridge. On account of passenger action - to use the favoured euphemism – the train on which they were travelling got stuck at Stevenage. By the time the team alighted, their Conference game with York City had had to be put back an hour. However, Conference officials were not sufficiently concerned as to enquire how a team with a 3.00 o’clock kick-off ahead of them in Yorkshire could risk an 11.00 a.m. train from London. 

Such events brought to mind the occasion in 1910 when City arrived grotesquely late for a Southern League game at Northampton. The club decided, as possibly did Dagenham, that they would save money by travelling on a later train. The train broke down at Long Buckby and the match, scheduled for 3.30, kicked off at 4.58 with most of the Coventry team still pulling on their shorts. The game was then abandoned because of bad light.

The delay at KitKat Crescent had the side-effect of giving York fans time to linger in the club shop where Keith Houchen, along with the author, was signing copies of a new book. The author - who had taken the 10.00 a.m. train from London - enjoyed his day at the wonderful York club in all but one respect. A York fan had run into a Sutton United fan the previous week. Hearing of Houchen’s book signing, the Sutton fan asked his new-found friend whether he could buy a copy for him and get it inscribed, ‘To all at Sutton United’. When informed that this would be for a charity auction, Keith duly obliged but I am afraid that the author couldn’t bring himself to be quite as generous.   

All our efforts at CCLSC in the autumn went towards the 30th Anniversary Dinner. The general consensus is that the evening was a towering success. This was a tribute, more than anything, to the efforts of Ian Spriggs. Ian spent hours and hours, and devoted his attention to the tiniest of details, in bringing about this happy occasion.

Cancer Research is receiving our cheque. Our auction raised over a thousand pounds, far more than we dared hope. We are so grateful to all of you who donated items and to everyone who bid for them. With the fifth anniversary of Terry’s passing and the tragic death of Denise McAllister, this has been a subject close to all our hearts.

Paul Fletcher was laid low with shingles, Jimmy Hill was in hospital that day with a nasty foot infection, and Mal Brannigan was also indisposed, but 76 people enjoyed a splendid time. We were very grateful to Ken Sharp for presenting a slide projection about Operation Premiership, and delighted to welcome both Geoffrey Robinson and Joe Elliott for the first time. Micky Adams, with Robin Morden’s promptings, entered into the spirit of the occasion, as did Jon Gaunt. Micky, along with Colin Heys, made our presentation to Jenny Poole. It is incredible that this glamorous lady should have been secretary now to every Coventry City manager since June 1968. 

We were able to announce a recent award for our website as well as to celebrate the publication of two new books, one of which was Jim Brown’s wonderful new history of Highfield Road. The evening gave us the chance to pay public tribute to some of those people who are most vital to our contact with the football club — Jenny, Raj, and Dan and his ticket office staff. We are extremely grateful to everyone at the Regent’s Park Marriott Hotel for everything they did for us.

Right : Raj (centre) with some hangers-on

In toasting Terry and absent friends at the end of the evening, we were thinking very much, too, of Mick Oakes who died recently. Mick lived in Bedworth and had been a member for a long time. He regularly attended our end-of-season events at Highfield Road. Mick had a deep feeling for Coventry City and a considerable knowledge built up as a supporter since the Jimmy Hill days. Those who were privy to this knowledge, and to his judgement on matters Sky Blue generally, enjoyed a treat. Even to those of us who hardly knew him, there was an instinctive aura and warmth about the man that made us wish we knew him better.

The play-offs are disappearing like a hare round the bend. Nevertheless, however long Operation Premiership takes, CCLSC’s reaffirmation in November will be at its service. 

Jonathan Strange, Chairman

Wembley, January 2007.
 

The World Cup is done and we are back to what really matters. At the end of a moderate tournament, press and pundits sank into a sea of self righteousness over Zidane. Leaving aside the stylishness of the maestro’s head butt, what actually hurt was the perverse honesty of it. The shallow etiquette we applaud over empty gestures of sportsmanship disguises other players who are actually cheating each other stupid.  

A fortnight before the wonderful semi-final in which Italy counter attacked with such élan to put out the hosts, the studio pundits were still pedalling a caricature of football in Italy built on the 0-0 culture of the 1960s. Meantime, England, investing in attacking football by taking only one fit and experienced striker to the World Cup, were long since back in the hutch. The great cliché of the tournament became the ‘England only produce their best against the better teams’ one, ignoring the evidence that we have been failing to do precisely that for the last forty years. Still, we were able to console ourselves with a good dose of the ‘cheating foreigners’ bit. Leaving aside matters Portuguese, I wondered whether Thierry Henry had been inspired by watching the video of Michael Owen trying to get David Burrows sent off with a similar ‘fly in the eye’ stunt a few years ago at Highfield Road. On that occasion, the silence of Andy Gray and his cohorts was deafening. Three cheers for Clive Tyldesley. Incidentally, why can’t the Alan Hansens of this world ever talk about ‘France’ and ‘Italy’ rather than ‘The French’ and ‘The Italians’? 

Our real heroes have been getting to know the names of a team’s-worth of new team-mates in preparation for the 46 match challenge, or will it be 48 or 49, that is already underway. The club has been bouncing salaries and transfer fees around in the last few weeks like servers on the Centre Court. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. 

At CCLSC, I am confident that we have the most talented and best balanced team to respond to the challenges our supporters’ club faces. And challenges they are. We are establishing an up-to-date data base of members’ details to improve our service to you. It is imperative that we restore our membership levels, and it is up to every one of us to sell CCLSC to both new and lapsed members. 

There are also a lot more tickets to be sold for our 30th anniversary dinner on 23 November. This will be one of the most important events in our history. Paul Fletcher, Coventry City’s managing director will be making an important speech and Jimmy Hill and Coventry City’s president Mike McGinnity will be among many other very distinguished guests. We will be making a special presentation to a mystery guest — one of the most significant figures in the club’s history. I urge you to buy your tickets. Don’t leave it until the last moment. We need your commitment now.  The cost of one ticket or — not forgetting your partner or spouse — of two tickets, is very low by London standards and lower than we have been able to charge for social events at Highfield Road. We all remember the stunning success of our 20th and 25th anniversary dinners and I know that we can look forward to the Marriott Hotel meeting the same high quality of cuisine and attention that we enjoyed before. This is an important opportunity for CCLSC to get acquainted with the new regime at Coventry City and to reassert our significance. Don’t miss it. 

One of the knock-on effects of teething problems at the Ricoh Arena has been the difficulty of mounting the Christmas dinners and end of season socials that Ian made such a huge success of at Highfield Road. Now that the football club has unpacked its case at its rented home, it has been pursuing the possibilities on our behalf and we are looking forward to mounting our first social at the Ricoh at the end of the season. 

It was great to see George and Robin Ogleby being able to present our Player of the Season award to Gary McSheffrey. Gary had richly deserved it for the second year running. It is no longer practicable to circulate the voting book after each match. When it eventually catches up with us, it is sometimes not easy to remember whether Bourton was better than Lauderdale that day or Smith less bad than Jones. We have decided therefore to give all members the opportunity to vote for their Player of the Season in a traditional 1-2-3 at the climax of the season. 

The most significant development at Coventry City over the last year has been the appointment of an executive triumvirate to run the club. Paul Fletcher, formerly chief executive at Arena Coventry Limited, and Ken Sharp and Mal Brannigan, have brought an  experience and skill that has enabled the club to do more than just crawl around scraping up the crumbs when it sets about its summer shopping. 

The club has recognised that the level and quality of communication with us, the fans, has been inadequate and that it also needed to take steps to avoid some of the banana skins it could so easily have avoided over issues such as the club logo fiasco and the inadequate tribute to Noel Cantwell. That was why it was ready to respond to the initiative of the Sky Blue Trust in establishing a consultative group with supporters. CCLSC were flattered and grateful to accept the Sky Blue Trust’s invitation to be an original part of this. The people that the consultative group are in touch with are the likes of Messrs Fletcher, Sharp and Brannigan. They are not the board, not the investors. They are the people who were appointed to make things better and whose jobs depend on it. If you have a complaint, a suggestion, or feel that you can offer some advice, get in touch with them. They really are prepared to listen. 

Good luck to all at the Ricoh this season, and book your tickets for the dinner NOW.

Jonathan Strange, Chairman

Wembley, August 2006.

Distant hopes of a play-off position have receded, but any such aspirations were to be scoffed at a few months ago. After a gung-ho debut at the Ricoh Arena, the team wobbled its way through the autumn, leaving Micky Adams to mount a spirited but, nonetheless, realistic defence when he attended our Q and A evening. However, the team rallied and has gone on to produce some distinctive and resilient performances. Sadly, these have been confined very much to the audience at the Arena.

The Arena, itself, is proving a major success, although it took a long time to come to terms with the problems presented by living in rented accommodation and having to live out of a suit case. Mike McGinnity stood down as chairman due to continuing ill health, and we wish him a well-earned rest. Geoffrey Robinson took over as acting-chairman and appointed a triumvirate, led by Paul Fletcher who swapped his shirt as ACL boss, to run the football club. There is an encouraging sense of purposefulness and direction around the club at the moment, both on and off the field. I have been fortunate to be privy to this at meetings of the Joint Consultative Group. Paul Fletcher and Ken Sharp have keenly engaged with Mark Trevorrow, the chairman of the Sky Blue Trust, and other supporters’ representatives, both to air thoughts and information and also to listen to ideas and opinions.

Messrs Fletcher, Sharp and Brannigan have been appointed to meet given targets. They have no vested interest or ulterior motive. The intention, quite simply, is to put in place a structure to support a realistic aspiration for Premiership football at Coventry within three years. It is a tall order. Therefore, it is in their interests to talk and to listen. They cannot afford to leave too many banana skins lying about. The first objective of this new executive level at the club was to reassure the staff, but then to urgently address core problems about overall efficiency and effective communication.

On a small scale, CCLSC has been suffering from a similar problem as the football club. I am keenly aware of hiccups in communication and efficiency that some members of CCLSC have experienced. Our most urgent objective is to establish a comprehensive database of information about our members which we can make use of in the most expeditious way. Membership has been at a low level this season, and I am ensuring that everything is being done to restore numbers this year.

Of course, the depressing run of form since relegation has tested the enthusiasm of the most devout and devoted of us. It is also true that CCLSC’s attraction has modulated over the years. When we set out in 1976, there was no internet or e-mail, no teletext, no ClubCall (although Coventry City had pioneered this with Sky Blue Rose). Fanzines were few and far between. There was no Sky Television. We were grateful if the BBC or ITV snatched a few highlights, with the likes of Huw Johns to steer us through them, and JH in the studio. We were unlikely to find a report in the London editions of the national press unless City were playing a ‘glamour’ team, and even then the report might try to explain away a Coventry win by pointing to a famous opposition absentee when half of Coventry’s regulars were also missing.

The focus of CCLSC for so long was the Saturday outing together. Rail privatisation, extensive track maintenance work, and changing habits have made the persistence and success of Colin Henderson and the stoicism of the remaining travellers all the more commendable in sustaining this tradition. For all that, CCLSC needs to take stock, to identify its soul and its function, to emphasise its selling points, to discover what members think and want. And this is more than just tired-out marketing-speak.  It may be useful to issue a questionnaire, and we are considering this. In the meantime, please give all of this some thought, and let us know what you think about CCLSC. It is your club.

This brings me to the important and exciting prospect of our 30th anniversary dinner in November. The evening represents a crucial opportunity for bringing CCLSC members together, and demonstrating to the new regime at the Ricoh Arena, as well as distinguished old friends, what we feel about ourselves and the football club we love. As they say, please book now to avoid disappointment.

You will find full details and an application form to download on this site. If you have any queries, please contact our Social Secretary Ian Spriggs, or myself.

Jonathan Strange, Chairman

Wembley, April 2006.

Welcome to our website, surely the best of its kind in the country. It is vital for clubs like ours to be able to communicate in as wide a way as possible and a good website is crucial to this.

There seems to be a more rational basis for optimism for City fans as we approach the new season than at any comparable moment since relegation. Being able to re-sign almost all of the players Micky Adams wanted to keep is no guarantee of success, but play-off aspirations in the past have been hampered by trying to put together an unrecognisable jigsaw puzzle for which we did not even have enough of the pieces. Let’s hope that this time we are in for a pleasant surprise.

Efforts to ensure that City could meet the needs of assembling a presentable playing staff, and the blow of having to abandon plans for a prestige curtain-raiser at the Ricoh Arena, have taken their toll on the club’s cash flow. 

Coventry City have been determined in all the necessary cost-cutting that the one thing that could not be compromised or spared was the Academy. The club needs to raise £250,000 if the Academy is not to be downgraded to a Centre-of-Excellence. Such a development would be detrimental to the club’s ability to attract young talent. Think of all the players, from George Curtis to Willie Carr and through to Gary McSheffrey, who have played such influential roles down the years. If the club is ever again to compete in the top echelons of the game, it will need to be done very largely by grooming its own talent.  

The football club has launched a joint appeal with the Sky Blue Trust. You can read their statement elsewhere on this site. I urge you to help. This could be the most important money any of us have ever spent in supporting our club.  

Dreadful recent events in the capital reinforce the need for what we cherish as football fans.

For nearly thirty years, Coventry City London Supporters’ Cub has been bringing people together from a variety of backgrounds, in the South-East and, in many cases, from all over the world. The objectives are spontaneous and clear: to support our favourite football club. Our goals are ones attached to nets; our enemy, at worst only the Villa. 

At our new home, as we get used to a different slant to the sun, where to find our Bovrils and burgers and the tick of a clock as time runs down, we offer all who go to work there, Sky Blue or otherwise, our warmest good wishes. Here’s to a happy, successful - and safe - season. 

Jonathan Strange, Chairman

Wembley, August 2005.

Coventry City was renowned for the numerous and innovative ways in which the club sold itself to the public. It all started with a free handout of pop and crisps. It’s funny, forty years on, to recall how that made headline news. It was followed with the Sky Blue Special, Radio Sky Blue, closed circuit television relays, the Sky Blue Pool, Sky Blue Rose (Rose McNulty, the ClubCall voice of her day), matchday magazines and even a restaurant good enough to boast a Michelin star.

Some of these developments have become integral to the currency of the game. Meantime, the image football conveys to the world is increasingly governed by the information we summon up on a monitor in the corner of our homes.

As a supporters’ club, it is vital to have a thriving website to enable us to keep in touch with the increasing number of members for whom this is the automatic medium and link for news about both CCFC and CCLSC.

We are fortunate in the skills and dedication of those who have devoted so much time to developing our site. As more and more people go online, the site will become a crucial catalyst for our opinions.

We all hope that City kick off in the Jaguar Arena as a Premiership club. Whatever the case, we need to give serious thought - both individually and collectively – to our travel arrangements. The Sky Blue Trust is initiating and coordinating ideas for transporting fans to and from the stadium in the most beneficial manner and has invited us to contribute our thoughts.

It is important to hear members’ views on travel and to establish a discussion about it. Please let us know on the website or talk to Colin Henderson and other committee members.

The season is well underway. It is going to be one of the most important in the club’s history. Have a good one, and let’s get planning now for next year.

Jonathan Strange, Chairman.

September 2004, Wembley, London.