With a day to go until the start to the new season for Coventry City there remains uncertainty over what is going to happen at the club.
Two possibilities are on the cards with regards to the football clubs finances. The CVA meeting which has now been put back twice should finally give us the answer come Friday. The first possibility is that everyone agrees on the CVA and the club will come out of administration after a 28 day cooling off period. This would mean manager Stephen Pressley would have just 24 hours to get the paperwork through for any new signings.
We do currently have trialists with the club but if they are good promising players with other clubs are looking at them then I fear we will lose everyone of them. All players want contracts signed off so they can concentrate on the football and let their wages take care of themselves. To ask players to wait until the end of august for this to happen, well I just can’t see it happening myself.
On the plus side we may finally have a transfer deadline day to remember. Very rarely does anything happen at the club on the final day of the transfer windows in terms of incoming players with the rare youngster being sent out on loan. Obviously I would prefer for it all to be sorted by then but that is an impossibility for us now so we have to find some enjoyment where we can.
The second scenario is that of ACL rejecting this proposed CVA and in turn forcing the club into liquidation causing a 15 point deduction. This is not what anyone wants as once again it will be the fans who suffer along with the players who deserve more.
It is looking more likely than ever that liquidation will be the result with relations between Sisu and ACL seemingly broken forever. This brings us to where we will be playing our home games next season and an offer was put on the table by ACL in what they see as a last ditch attempt to keep Coventry at the Ricoh Arena.
It is in a lot of people’s opinion including mine that it is another empty offer from ACL. Yes it is considerably less money in terms of the rent and is more around the figure SISU have been looking for. However it still remains that the club will have no income from other match day revenues and also have no option to buy into the stadium itself which they have stated on numerous occasions as the only way forward for the club.
The deal is now done with Northampton and is all in place for us to play our first game there on Sunday 11th August. My personal feeling is we will be playing there despite other viable alternatives to remain at the Ricoh which is what every City fan wants.
The petition signed by over 15,000 fans along with the club only managing to sell in the region of 100-300 season tickets shows how much city fans are against this groundshare with Northampton.
Right now I cannot see how any of us city fans are going to be able to enjoy this season no matter which scenario takes place.
The club looks like it will remain in turmoil for the foreseeable future but one thing us fans have got to try and do is to make sure the players know we are right behind them despite everything going on. Yes this is going to be difficult with us fans not going to the clubs home games at Northampton but I know of plenty of fans who are planning on travelling for the away games.
The away games this year almost have to become our home games. Our away support has been second to none in recent times and I reckon it needs to step up again to really show this squad that we do still care about them.
There are currently a lot of Coventry boys in the squad and there are going to be dreams coming true for a lot of them. The fans are a huge part of players dreams and we have to make sure we remain a part of them in one way or another whilst continuing our protests against SISU and their running of our club.
We have players in this squad who will fight if given the right support and Captain Carl Baker is the best example of that. He will lead by example and if he plays well then this team can achieve whatever it wants to achieve.
Our opponents on Saturday will undoubtedly be confident about getting their first win under their belts. We definitely look on the face of it as the team that will probably be the easiest to beat. Am I worried that we will be that team, well I would be lying if I said I wasn’t but this is more of a fear than actual opinion.
Crawley are our first opponents and have had a much more stable build up to the new season than ourselves. They are a club on the up who many consider to have let their standards slip slightly last year. No doubt they will be looking to put that right this season and like all other clubs will be looking at the top 6 and a potential promotion to the championship as motivation for the new season.
They are a solid side who have learnt the league well and will come out fighting on that opening day. If City’s players turn up and fight then no matter what the result I will be left feeling content but I am quietly confident that we will come away with 3 points. Liquidation and a 15 point deduction may well derail this though ad have too much of an effect on our young squad which could see this squad pretty much relegated before the season has even begun.
Let’s hope this young squad can do us proud and give us something to smile about come five o’clock on Saturday.
PUSB!!
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