Blues Get McSheffrey - Coventry Fans Get The Blues
By CovSid67
August 16 2006
So Gary McSheffrey has finally gone - time for a reality check people: nobody has died! Even the biggest clubs in the world have failed to hold onto their biggest assets, so get over it!
People have complained that the Coventry City are once again guilty of selling their best players (Player), that the words 'Operation Premiership' have a hollow, worthless ring to them - but at least this time that player hasn't been under-valued! Spent wisely, this money could - COULD! - be the making of us.
I'm a massive fan of said player, and am probably only just behind Mr. McSheffrey himself in being massively disappointmented that he has left .... but the reported £4 million we have received for him is fantastic business. And, after all, football now comes second to the business side of things, doesn't it?
Wealthy, breaking even, or heavily in debt, £3.5 to £4 million is just too much money for any club to turn down for a player whose career has almost totally been spent in the second tier of English football. While transfer fees are not relative, a fair few proven Premiership players have cost far less! (Some of them several times over!).
McSheffrey was a Coventry Kid (Which some people seemed to have a problem with) who it sometimes seemed under more pressure than most to play well and/or score, because he was properly bothered about the result for more reasons than just personal pride. He was a Coventry born, Coventry City fan, who cared about Coventry City. And there aren't to many people you can say that about....
Some Coventry City fans complained McSheffrey wasn't the finished article - they obviously forget that he is still young, and still learning. They obviously also seem to have forgotten that he has spent most of his career playing against second rate defenders, so has been unable to test himself properly, and therefore isn't a world class player .... yet! (And possibly never will be). But he's a cut above most in the Championship.
And maybe he would have been sold for far more, far sooner, had McAllister or Reid actually realised his potential. Instead, both seemed to blame him for an entire side playing badly. When Coventry City lost, he was usually the fall-guy.
People also complained that he was greedy - our problem in the past has been that we haven't had any greedy players!! You don't score as many goals as he's managed without missing the target a few times. I've even seen Thierry Henry miss the odd sitter....
His 64 goals in 146 appearances (Plus 45 as a substitute) makes impressive reading, with the best of those probably his first goal in Coventry City colours, against Crystal Palace: Hedman's punt down-field, superbly controlled with one foot, before volleying home with the other. A truly top quality strike.
We will miss his goals, we will miss his assists, but he has gone - time to move on. And while I don't expect us to be playing in the Champions League within the next two years, (As I've written elsewhere) selling Wayne Rooney to Manchester United saw Everton enjoy a superb season where they finished in the top four of the best league in the world.
Negativity over his leaving could destroy any hopes of a Top 6 finish this season. No Championship player is irreplaceable, no team is built around one individual. It's time for somebody else to make that left-midfield place their own, and to become a hero amongst Coventry City supporters.
Goodbye Gary McSheffrey, and good luck for the future - and now the pressure is off, I would only expect him to get better. If he doesn't, I'm sure Coventry City supporters would be only to happy to see him return for a cut-price fee in the future!
To quote Teletext upon reporting the sale: