Sideways Sammy

The thought of playing outside the top-flight had once been unthinkable for Coventry City fans. For much of the past 25 years, the thought of returning had been similarly unthinkable. It’s not just that it’s been a long wait to return to the Premier League for the Sky Blues, it’s that it’s barely ever been a realistic prospect.

That iconic ‘We Will Be Back’ sign, displayed by Coventry City fan, John Mullaney, at Villa Park when top-flight relegation was confirmed in 2001 initially reflected a mentality that the Sky Blues’ rightful place was in the top division. As the various travails of the following 25 years out, the sign felt less a signal of hubris and more a sad reminder of what this football club once was.

Coventry City have been through almost all of the possible lows a football club can experience in that spell outside of the top-flight. From two further relegation, spells in exile from their home city, to the very real prospect of no longer existing as a football club, simply having a team to support has felt far greater a concern than any on-field success.

That all changed when Mark Robins returned to the club, won the Checkatrade Trophy in front of 40,000 Sky Blues fans with relegation to League Two all but certain, with the following journey already firmly locked away in Coventry City folklore. Mark Robins was the man who taught Coventry that success was possible, something the city has grown rather accustomed to in recent years.

The change in mentality has been accelerated under the ownership of Doug King. Any accusations that he was some kind of stooge for previous owners, SISU, were shattered pretty quickly when he funded a complete rebuild of the squad following Play-Off Final defeat to Luton Town and the sales of Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer. Looking at that summer’s recruitment, Milan van Ewijk, Bobby Thomas, Liam Kitching, Jay Dasilva, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Haji Wright and Ellis Simms now form the spine of a Premier League team. It’s not just about been about the money spent but the value the club has got out of it that marks the evolution of Coventry City under Doug King.

What feels telling about this football club these days is the change in mentality between that Play-Off Final against Luton Town in 2023 and that final glorious month in the Championship back in April of this year. In 2023, the thought of making the Premier League felt like a delirious fever dream, like that at any moment fans would wake up and they’d be back watching the Sky Blues chasing their tails against Swindon Town in front of 8,000 home fans. In 2026, it’s now almost impossible to casually get a ticket to Coventry City games, the whole matchday experience feels very slick (maybe overly so), fans go to games expecting their team to win.

In retrospect, that penalty shoot-out defeat to Luton Town feels a blessing in disguise for Coventry City. The Sky Blues are now ready for Premier League football.

This coming season will provide a stern test of how much firmer the foundations laid over the past three years are. Around £100 million (and counting) has been spent on the squad over the summer and it could be argued that this team is only slightly stronger than it was before the transfer window open. It underlines just how hard it is to compete in the Premier League these days that taking even the tiniest step forward can cost the GDP of a minor sovereign nation.

The challenge this season is about finding the balance between harnessing the positivity that comes from promotion against the challenge of trying to stay in a division where the dice are loaded against Coventry City while also not losing sight of how the club can continue to grow over the longer term. The track record of recently-promoted clubs (last season aside) suggests that relegation is likely and anything above 18th-place will represent exceeded expectations.

Football is a fickle sport, nothing feels better than winning and nothing feels worse than losing. Coventry City could stay up this season and still be on a path to losing their way, they could go down but still be on the right track. As that Play-Off Final defeat to Luton Town showed, there are no endings in football, it’s all about how you react to adversity.

This season is likely to provide a lot of adversity, a lot of opportunities to over-react, to throw away what has turned Coventry City from English football’s great losers to one of its biggest success stories. It’s as much up to the fans as it is the players, coaching staff and owner to demonstrate what the Sky Blues are one of the biggest stages in the world’s game.

Relegation or survival this season, let’s not lose sight of how hard we’ve had to fight for this moment in the sun. This season is what we have been working towards for a quarter of a century.