CET Article 3 - Long Version!

By CovSid67
November 6 2005

In December I'll be 38 years old, which means, in a perfect world, I still have at least half of my life left. Whether or not the second part will involve watching Coventry City is under review. Once upon a time this sort of statement would have been absolutely unthinkable....

In previous seasons I could reel off the entire Coventry City fixture list without error - now I barely know the next two matches we're playing. What's more, I don't really care, as I know we're unlikely to to anything worthy of note. The Arena dream is turning sour.

Watching my beloved Sky Blues used to be the highlight of my week (And yes, I did get out much!). This wasn't because we were beating anything and everything put in front of us - a la Chelsea this season (Until Betis, and now MU!) - but because the football was entertaining. And even when football wasn't quite worth the substantially lower entrance fee, those wearing Sky Blue at least looked bothered.

We've never really been blessed with the greatest players, but the majority that have passed by our place have at least been worthy of the ink used to sign their contract. Of the current crop, only McSheffrey for his goals, and Page for his attitude are worthy of note (Bywater was OK too, but wasn't ours anyway, and has sadly been re-called).

Some might say you stick with your team through the good times and the bad - well I think I've done my time. While I hate losing, I can just about stand it if the team look as if they are giving it their all. The current selection of players that our hopes rest with are not. They're not even close. Rotherham might have been relegated with ease last season, but at least they tried to give their supporters something to cheer.

This isn't about being a glory supporter either (Else I would have quit watching a good few years ago!). Should I choose to leave, it would hopefully only be for a while - with the idea to return when those that continue to go to games tell me the players are showing some guts and determination. When the players are deserving of support.

It's all very well blindly following your club wherever, whenever, but there has to be something given in return. The players have to at least look as if they care. Badge kissers are often criticised, but I would rather somebody pretended to care than didn't care at all.

On matchdays, as I try to leave my house, with my three year old daughter clinging on to me crying: "don't go to the football daddy!", by the time the final whistle has gone I'm often wishing I had listened to her. I don't think I've heard the word "abject" used quite so often as I have over the last few months....

There simply is no spark come match day for me at the moment, and I know this applies to most people I know that support Coventry City. My place of work is a depressing place first thing on a Monday morning, as week after week we discuss just what went wrong again....

We might have no money and a small squad, but the players have got what it takes - exceptional displays against Derby at the end of last season, and against QPR this season prove that. Sadly, these performances are the exception rather then the norm. Just why do our players need it to be a special occasion to give it their all in matches? Surely playing to this standard for 90/180 minutes a week isn't too much to ask?

Of the three Championship wins we've managed this season (All at home), a fair few people I've spoken to were less than impressed with our performance in two of those games! (Watford and Luton) - I guess we'll accept those six points as gratefully as any others that might come our way though, because winning is everything, isn't it?

It seems to me that at the start of the season it's about getting enough points on the board - not entertaining. Around the middle of the season, it's about consolidating - not entertaining. And towards the end of the season, it's usually about gaining enough points for to avoid relegation or to push for a top six place - not entertaining. This is the case at a lot of clubs (But Coventry City are the only team I'm bothered about), which makes the excessive fee to get in seem even more excessive.

If it really now only about winning, it seems obvious to me that supporters might as well just check the score on TV at 4.50 on a Saturday, without the bother of actually turning up on matchdays. I can think of better ways to spend £21 (Not that I have to pay to get in, but I still feel I'm being over-charged)....

Speaking of which, had Coventry City actually turned up for their recent match against Crystal Palace (Where the ticket price was reduced to £15), they might just have got closer to the dream of one day filling the stadium. As PR exercises go, this was a disaster, and gates will only get smaller as a result of this disgracefully inept display. Maybe we should ask the builders not to bother knocking down Highfield Road quite yet....

I know a fair few people that came along to watch Coventry City for the first time in years for that match, some for the first time ever - they won't be back. Myself, my brothers, and my sisters wanted to take my dad to this match as a birthday treat too. This display, for once, made socks seem like a decent present....

And just when we think we've reached the bottom of the barrel, we somehow manage to find a layer we haven't yet scraped away. Things have reached such an all-time low for some season ticket holders I know that they cannot be bothered to turn up on matchdays because they have had enough. Other people I have spoken to could not give away tickets to the recent match versus Luton. This is before the harsh cold winter kicks in, when the comfort of a fire and an armchair, or a long walk to watch a poor display, is the choice on offer .... not much of one though, is it?

The move to the Arena was a real chance for Coventry City FC to start afresh, yet things are as stale as they ever were - if not worse. The club is a shambles. Absolutely everything about the club. Some people that have been watching Coventry City for decades, and who hung on until the stadium was built in the hope things would get better, have finally had enough.

Maybe I expected to much from the Arena? Maybe we all did? I certainly expected the players to fight to keep our unbeaten record their for as long as possible - the way it was surrendered without a fight I still find unacceptable. It is a superb place to play football - how sad that the current team, for whatever reason, aren't bothering to.

Interestingly, with things having reached rock bottom as far as some (Most?) fans are concerned, it seems the club are trying to take get people on-side by inviting fanzine editors, website owners, etc, to meetings - a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted? The cynic in me says this has done before, and nothing has ever come of it. So why should it this time?

Maybe, to steal a line from one of the Coventry City message boards, the club has finally realised it's only asset is it's supporters? Or maybe they've finally run out of ideas (Like they had any anyway!), having taken the club as far down as is hopefully possible to go (I know there is further, but I'm trying not to think about that!), and now finally want our ideas to help dig them back out again?

Weren't the club supposed to ask the opinion of the Sky Blue Trust on a subject I think has been as important as any over recent years: matchday ticket pricing at the Arena. They didn't. But they did ask them if they would perform the slightly smaller task of helping to raise £250,000 to save the Academy. I'm sure the interest on the loans that certain people are taking from the club would be close enough to pay this each year....

I doubt that anybody would want to invest in our club (Especially since Jo Dhinsa scared the previous potential investors away, eh? Mr. McGinnity? Oh. He's gone....), so the clubs only chance of making money is off the supporters it usually seems to care so little about. The food and drink outlets seem to be making a fair wedge before kick-off and half-time .... but the club don't receive a bean for this.

Our biggest asset is a player we couldn't give away last season, while our great hope for the season has disappeared since signing on the dotted line. And the re-signing of a fair proportion of the squad that failed us so dismally last season has proved to be a big mistake. If we're looking for a new tune to run out to at the start of matches, may suggest "I Who Have Nothing"?

Trying to impress a potential investor by showing him the couple of square feet of the Arena that actually belongs to the club (Presuming they could actually find the football section of the Arena, as there's little reference to the fact a football stadium is around the site), then getting them to watch a Coventry City match, should have them out of the building and off the site as fast as the car park attendants will let them go! (Around 5.30 then....).

The final insult as far as I'm concerned is the rumour that the club has to ask permission to hang so much as a picture to let people know that Coventry City are anything to do with the site. Once upon a time this "dream" was going to be our licence to print money.

Getting back to the matter of the newly formed Joint Council, such is my cynicism towards it that, having put my name forward to go the the first meeting, I then turned down the chance after a re-think. Presuming my name is still on the rota, I'll wait and see if this time it really is anymore than hot air before giving up an hour or two of my time. I look forward to being proved wrong. Mind you, I look forward to winning the Lotto, but don't expect that to happen either....

The reality is, I'm more likely to be banned from the building for daring to say things are not so good with the club. Interesting to note that yet another journalist appears to have stopped writing his page for a local paper, just after daring to criticise. Coincidence, I'm sure....

I know that certain people at the club read the message boards - sadly, they are only making sure nothing to libelous is said, rather than taking on board some quality suggestions. Maybe if these people realised that a lot of fans know what they're talking about, and didn't ignore certain ideas, the club might not be in such a mess? Where I work, we are invited to make suggestions on how to improve things, and paid for those that are implemented.

I doubt we will ever become as big as Manchester United or Real Madrid (For "doubt" read "no way Pedro!"), but surely it's not that difficult getting the basics right? On and off the pitch? It seems to me if Coventry City can get it wrong, they nearly always have, probably always will, and it's getting past a joke. Even those that once classed us as potential rivals have stopped taking the urine....

And so ends my latest chance to moan about Coventry City, something I'm frequently accused of doing by those that know me - this is only because I care so much. Probably too much.