News Archive

BOOZY STAYING?

The deadline for loan transfers has passed, with some doubts over the future of Guillame Beuzelin.

Some sources are reporting the player has been told he can leave, and will be loaned out, with a view to a permanent move in the Summer. But the loan deadline has passed, with no official word on such a move.

Beuzelin signed an initial one-year deal when joining us, with the option of a further years contract extension. He has been in and out of the first team, and has been the kind of player capable of a killer pass at times, but also sometimes seems to be short of the pace and toughness required in the Championship.

Boozy is unlike other players we have at the club, and over the next day or so it should become apparent whether he is on his way, or staying with us.

There's a sense of relief at reaching the magical 50 point mark, and a sense of justice about today's result too - earlier in the season Doncaster beat us 1-0 in an evenly-matched but low-quality game with a long-range goal, and we did the same to them this time.

With eight games remaining, we should be completely safe with one more win, which would equal last season's final tally of points - though the division is so closely-fought that an even higher number of points might be required, and a club could conceivably go down with a record points high.

What will be important for Chris Coleman is to get a significantly higher total than last season, otherwise questions will have to be asked of how much we have really moved on over the last year.

It's not just the fans who need convincing that we'll have a real go at promotion next season - it's the players too. The good players who might well be tempted away in the Summer, especially if we finish in the bottom half of the table.

There's now an international break before we entertain third-placed Reading in a couple of weeks time to start our run-in, and we'll spend those two weeks as we've spent most of the season - in 14th place!

COLEMAN FACES UNFAIR FA CHARGE

Chris Coleman has landed himself in hot water with the FA following comments about Steve Bennett who refereed our FA Cup Quarter-Final with Chelsea, and has now been formally charged with improper conduct and/or bringing the game into disrepute.

The manager can expect a fine, and possibly some sort of dugout ban for his comments that the official was 'friendly towards Chelsea players' and 'smug' to City players.

While we were comprehensively outplayed by Chelsea, it is certainly true that during the game we were given very few decisions, any one of which could potentially have changed the nature of the game, had we scored from a free-kick.

Bennett's last game against the Sky Blues - yes, against us - was when Wolves defeated us 2-1 back in October, thanks to a ridiculous goal from Sylvain Ebanks-Blake who had run off the end of the pitch, and yet was not judged to have been offside during the act of coming back on!

The FA's charges are pretty ridiculous, and will only increase their reputation for protecting the big clubs. I think it's fair to say we don't want Mr. Bennett turning up for any of our matches in the future.

Our rapid descent from play-off outsiders to relegation strugglers continues with another defeat, and it's still hard to see where our next win is coming from.

We've 47 points from 37 games, with which is only four more than at this stage last season. Coleman is a good manager, and Ray Ranson is a good Chairman. But, is four measly stinking points really all the progress we've made in the last season?

Westwood, Gunnarsson, Wright, Beuzelin, Eastwood and Morrison? Is the sum total of their contribution to get four points more than the players they replaced?

Clinton Morrison finally breaking his duck is good news, I suppose, but not when his touch was needless and denied Stephen Wright his first goal for the club. Morrison himself has missed so many chances lately, his good fortune today should not prevent him being dropped and another striker given the chance.

Now that the Chelsea-related hysteria has died down, we're starting to get a taste of the true experience of being a Sky Blues fan once again - and very little has changed!

Next Saturday's game at home against Doncaster will be a useful bellweather, but knowing us, you certainly can't count on three points.

SIGN 'EM UP

Chris Coleman and Ray Ranson are to underline the long-term ambition for the club by offering contract extensions and improved terms to Keiren Westwood, Aron Gunnarsson, Danny Fox and Scott Dann.

The quartet are all relatively recent acquisisions - Fox and Dann joined in the January transfer window just over a year ago, while Westwood and Gunnarsson signed in the Summer - and none of them are out of contract for a long while - but the club are keen to reward them for being our best players and, of course, to stave off approaches from other clubs.

It might not work. Offering these guys contracts now is a tacit admission that we're not going to go up this season, and it's going to take at least one more push. And if we lose our best players in the Summer, we'll be back to square one next season, which is obviously a situation we'd rather avoid.

Meanwhile, longstanding club servant Marcus Hall is set to be rewarded with a further years extension, keeping him with us next season, but keeper Andy Marshall has been told he will be released in the summer.

Oh, what a fucking surprise.

We lose to Bristol City, and we lose when Phil 'The Cunt' Crossley is refereeing. What a shock.

Honestly, I hope you all got down to the bookies in time to take advantage of the free money on offer here.

What I said the other day about the possibility of us not winning another game all season is still very much applicable. Of the remaining fixtures, Barnsley at home is the only one we won last season.

Does anybody seriously think we'll win at Preston on Saturday? Where we've never ever won in the league in history? Fuck Off.

Tonight, we're below Doncaster in the table. Yes, Doncaster - a team that was not even in the football league a few years ago. We're also, of course, below clubs like Cardiff, Preston, Swansea, and tonight's oppponents Bristol City, who were all playing a full two divisions beneath us relatively recently?

Is it fair? Hell, no. Is it sadly predictable? Hell, yes. And they can all fuck off and die. Except they won't, obviously.

Too many people 'supporting' Coventry City are delusional pipe-dreamers. The cuntspiracy against us is as rampant now as it ever was, and if Chris Coleman and Ray Ranson seriously believe they can change that, they're in for a rude awakening.

Of course, they're probably in on the deception anyway...

Well done, boys.

The Sky Blues emerged with pride intact, and avoided a hammering against a full-strength Chelsea side that outclassed us in every department, but there never seemed much chance of anything other than a Chelsea win here.

We can take positives from the game, like restricting them to only two goals, which is about par for most Premiership sides that entertain The Blues, though it's a shame we didn't manage to score, when Chelsea have conceded goals in all their previous FA Cup games, to Southend, Ipswich, and Watford.

So, it's been a big day, a full house at The Ricoh, and a fun experience, and now it's over. Where do we go from here?

Chris Coleman continues to talk about a play-off push, but that seems optimistic.

It would take several wins, yet looking at our remaining fixtures for the season, it's not beyond the realms of fiction that we might not win another game at all. The run-in is loaded with games we usually lose, like Bristol City on Tuesday night, and potential banana skins where we always drop points like home games against sides struggling against relegation.

It would be nice to make sure that doesn't happen, and build on the progress we've made this season. But without the cup run and the pending glamour ties, will the players remain motivated?

COLEMAN PICKS UP MANAGER AWARD

Chris Coleman has, as expected, been named Championship Manager of the Month for February, giving the side a little boost ahead of tomorrow's FA Cup Quarter-Final with Chelsea.

Unbeaten in the league during the month, we beat the top two, Birmingham and Wolves at home, won away at Norwich and drew at Burnley, as well as coming through two FA Cup games against Premiership opposition. Of course, March is a different month, and we lost to Sheffield Utd...

It's the first time Coleman has won the award since taking charge just over a year ago, and the first time a Sky Blues manager has won since Iain Dowie in August 2006.

This could well be the week when our season peters out to a void of meaningless nihilism.

Losing controversially to Sheffield United was a strategically devastating result in the league as the gap between us and our top-six opposition is six points greater than if we had one.

And while it's understandable that some players would be rested, and others would have one eye on Saturday's Quarter-Final with Chelsea, that's a game that we're also highly likely to lose.

This time next week, we'll probably be out the cup, still in mid-table, and facing the prospect of a dull end to the season and losing out best players in the Summer.

No, really.

CHELSEA SELLS OUT!

All regular tickets in both the Home and Away ends for Saturday's FA Cup Quarter Final against Chelsea have now sold out, ensuring that the Ricoh Arena will see it's largest attendance ever for a Sky Blues game.

And depending on corporate sales, and the number of seats in the isolation block, the final attendance could beat the record of 30,919, set for an England U21 game against Germany.

The previous record at the ground for a Sky Blues game was last season's 28,163 against West Brom in the FA Cup - which we unfortunately lost 5-0!