Features
The Strachan Era
Many people said 'Good Riddance' when Gordon Strachan departed in September 2001 - and with good reason. The Ginger Scot had been manager of Coventry City since November 1996, and in that time City had been relegated from the top flight for the first time in their history. Worst Manager Ever. It's easy to say, and statistically it's hard to argue with it - certainly in the last 35 years even our most hated managers had never failed to keep us up.
But what can't be forgotten is that Strachan was the longest-serving individual manager since Noel Milne in the 1970s. Whenever previous bosses had made poor starts to seasons they had been sacked and replaced. For whatever reason, the revolving-door policy seems to have been scrapped circa. 1999 and the wee man was given second and third chances, and allowed to carry on. Even when relegation looked likely. Even after it happened. The policy didn't pay-off, and having the same boss for nearly five years seemed to make us less rather than more stable.
But maybe in time, we'll remember the good things of Strachan's tenure in charge: How he kept us up against the odds in '97. How we nearly got into Europe the following season. The 'entertainers' team etc. Of course, there were rather more bad times, which we'll remember with tear-stained cheeks. But it's all a part of our collective history, so let's look back on the career of Gordon Strachan as City manager...
1996-97
Ron Atkinson's spell in charge had been difficult. On one hand, he had raised the profile of the club to a level not enjoyed since the FA Cup win in 1987. On the other, he had spent a lot of money - by 1995/6 standards - and yet the players weren't gelling as a team. May 1996 saw us stay up on goal-difference after big Ron's first full season in charge, and everyone felt that the following year would see us come good.It didn't happen that way, a 2-7 home defeat in a pre-season friendly with Benfica was followed by a 0-3 thumping at Highfield Road on the opening day by Nottingham Forest who would eventually finish bottom. One of the few bright spots, however, had been the emergence of Gordon Strachan as Atkinson's number two - and he was impressive both on and off the pitch. It was decided that at the end of the season he would succeed his mentor as manager, with Big Ron stepping upstairs to become director of football.
After just one win in the opening twelve league games (2-1 at home to Leeds), the decision was taken to bring the transition forward by a few months. Strachan became the new boss.
But there was to be no new boys luck. Strachan took over towards the end of a run of six straight draws in the league, and his first game as manager saw us go out of the Coca-Cola Cup with an embarassing 0-1 home defeat to Gillingham. This was followed by a trio of 2-1 defeats (Villa home, Derby away and Spurs home) which left us rock bottom of the table in early December.
The team at the time had lacked inspiration. Striker Dion Dublin had lost form, while summer signing Gary McAllister was failing to ignite the midfield. Although the run of six draws included some good ones (0-0 away at Arsenal in a game where Ian Wright broke Oggy's nose, and 1-1 at Everton where we really should've won) we had now reverted to losing ways. Strachan looked like just another piece missing from the jigsaw.
But on a cold winter's night, a home game against Newcastle saw a young player, recently signed from our opponents, make a name for himself. Darren Huckerby scored an early goal, and set up a second for McAllister, and we held on for a 2-1 win - only our second league win of the season, and Gordon Strachan's first in charge. It moved us from 20th place to 19th.
Things started to improve. The following weekend we travelled to newly-promoted Leicester, and beat our rivals 2-0. A tactical masterstroke from Strachan saw Dion Dublin moved into central defence where he was superb - he still managed to score both goals.
The next game was on Boxing Day, and it was a happy Christmas as we came from a goal down to win 3-1 at Leeds, and this was followed by a 3-0 success at home to Middlesbrough. On New Years Day we drew 2-2 at home with Sunderland, and even though this was a relative disappointment, the string of wins had hauled us up into 12th place.
Gordon Strachan won the Manager of the Month award, and everything looked rosy. But it was not to last.
In the whole of January, February and March, we added only one more league win, a 1-0 success at Nottingham Forest, and went out of the FA Cup to Derby, after only narrowly scraping by non-league Woking in the 3rd Round. At the start of April we were back in the relegation zone, and hoping for a miracle or three to keep us up.
The signings continued but failed to make a difference. When he was first signed from Birmingham, Gary Breen was widely considered useless by the fans, while upfront Huckerby soon looked ordinary and Noel Whelan and John Salako struggled to make much of an impact. Some of the Atkinson/Strachan acquisitions simply disappeared months after joining - Isaias, Genaux, Evtushok and others.
As it happens, we did pull off a great escape, through victories over Liverpool and Chelsea, and a final day win at Spurs (read the Survival of the Fittest feature for details. And at the time, the players and Gordon Strachan were all considered heroes to a man. Whether we should've even been requiring snookers in the first place, with the squad we had is another story entirely.
League Record: 8 wins, 8 draws, 10 defeats (from 26 games played)
1997-98
Strachan's first full season in charge came at a time of change. Ron Atkinson left the club, having apparantly failed to either win friends or influence people as Director of Football, and there was a big player clear-out on the eve of the season. The Sky Blue Superplex website appeared in it's earliest form, and once again there was optimism among the ever-faithful City fans.Gordon and his team got active in the transfer market too, bringing in the likes of Magnus Hedman, Roland Nilsson Trond Soltvedt and various other bargain buys, while letting go off fan favourite Peter Ndlovu and some of the dead wood from previous seasons.
The season's start was exciting, with a 3-2 win over Chelsea (Dublin hat-trick) but soon settled down to solid respectability at home (unbeaten until late November) and feeble frailty away from home (no goals scored in any competition until early November, League Cup defeat at Blackpool). However, it seemed clear that Gordon Strachan was now comfortable with his first managerial role, and he definitely looked the man for the job.
But as Autumn gave way to Winter, things started to go wrong. City lost six games out of seven in all competitions, and but for the impressive 4-0 demolition of Spurs in the midst of it, we would've been in the relegation zone, and Strach's position under threat. A serious injury to captain Gary McAllister and lengthy suspensions for Dion Dublin following red cards meant that Strachan delved into the transfer market, signing striker Viorel Moldovan and midfielder George Boateng.
The final game of 1997 will be remembered as a classic for years to come. City took an early lead against defending Champions Man Utd through Noel Whelan, but then fell behind to goals from Solskjaer and Sheringham. But inside the final five minutes, Dublin scored from the penalty spot, and Huckerby scored a famous goal after a long and mazey run, and we ended up winning 3-2.
Huckerby was playing the best football of his life, and his partnership with Dublin was superb. The arrival of Moldovan only served to increase the competition, and spur both of them on, while new midfielder Boateng gave the team steel and fire. 1998 began with a convincing FA Cup win over Liverpool at Anfield, and although City were unlucky to only take a single point from big games against Chelsea and Arsenal, confidence was high.
The period from January to March 1998 was unforgettable - seven successive wins, including five in the league, and a first ever triumph at Villa Park where Moldovan scored the only goal of the game to send us through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
The long run of wins - with no goals conceded in open play - sent us up into the top half of the table, and made Gordon Strachan one of our most popular managers ever. There was serious talk of Europe and possible FA Cup glory after a particularly impressive 3-0 win at Palace and the news that we had drawn a club from a lower division - Sheffield United - in the quarter final.
Hope was premature though. Although we had a fantastic side, with Dublin winning player of the month for January, and Strachan scooping the manager award in February, the winning run was followed by a return to a large number of draws. The only losses we sustained in the second half of the season was a 1-2 home defeat to Villa, and the penalty-shootout exit from the Cup at Brammall Lane, but failing to win games was still costing us from a European perspective.
It was an exciting time to be a Cov fan - Darren Huckerby's hat-trick in the 3-3 draw at Leeds, and the emergence of Boateng as a shining star crowned by his first goal for us in a 2-0 win over Blackburn were dazzling highlights, and going into the final game of the season against relegation-threatened Everton, we had a mathematical chance of making seventh place, and therefore securing a possible European place.
It was a slim hope, and it was not to be. We finished in 11th place. But Strachan looked to have, in just one season, turned a relegation side into genuine Euro-contenders. Only the very best teams had lost fewer games than us, Dublin was joint top scorer in the league, and there was plenty of optimism over the summer that things would get even better now.
League Record: 12 wins, 16 draws, 10 defeats
1998-99
This was to be one of the more forgettable seasons in our history - no final day relegation battle, but no hope of doing anything spectacular either, it was characterised by the sale of Dion Dublin to Villa (low point), our subsequent 4-1 win at Villa Park (high point) and an anxious fortnight in April when we were still technically in danger of relegation, and playing really badly.But it felt like a serious failure, and therefore reflected badly on Gordon Strachan purely tyhe previous campaign had seen such an upturn, and we felt we could conquer Europe.
For the second year running we drew Chelsea at home on day one, and for the fourth year running we won the fixture, with the Dublin-Huckerby partnership grabbing one each. But we didn't manage another league win, nor Dion another goal until our ninth game of the season, at home to Sheffield Wednesday, as the team struggled to maintain any kind of form, and scoring goals was not proving easy.
It also has to be said that we had started getting on the wrong end of statistical anomalies at this point. We were in the midst of a run of almost two years without being awarded a penalty away from home (this finally ended in the 2-1 defeat at Wimbledon in December '98), and another long run which saw no goals scored from the defence in the entire season, for the first time in our history.
Dion Dublin just looked to have rediscovered his scoring form, when he followed up his strike against Wednesday with a bullet-header in the 2-1 defeat at bottom-of-the-table Southampton. But it was to be his last appearance in Coventry colours. Although he had signed a new contract just weeks earlier, he was sold to Villa in a grim week which also saw us knocked out of the League Cup by Luton Town.
Perhaps this was the first time during Strachan's reign that his authority was undermined. Nevertheless, he managed to win back most supporters almost immediately, by forging a new first-choice partnership of Noel Whelan and Darren Huckerby. They clicked instantly, and our first away win of the season at Blackburn was followed by a 3-0 home triumph over Everton that lifted us clear of the relegation scrap for the time being.
There was a quiet contentment with the Strachan regime in the second half of the season, and any doubts about his passion for our club were put to rest during a controversial and undeserved 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in January where he picked a fight with referee Jeff Winter.
There were big home wins - 7-0 over Macclesfield in the FA Cup, and 4-0 over Forest in the League the following week, with Darren Huckerby grabbing successive hat-tricks, and of course the triumph at Villa, and it seemed as though every time we fell into 17th place, we won a couple of games on the bounce and pulled ourselves clear. This pattern was to continue until the end of the season.
It could be argued that Gordon Strachan's achievement this season was steadying the ship and securing 15th place in spite of the sale of Dion Dublin, whom we had been practically building the side around for the previous four years. Others would argue that it was only because of our good results even distribution throughout the season that kept him in a job - maybe if we'd got off to a really bad start, or had a really bad spell in the middle, he the bad run would've cost him his job.
Certainly fans were beginning to question the wisdom of many cheap signings from Strachan's first couple of years in charge, most of whom never made it at Highfield Road: Jean-Guy Wallemme, Phillipe Clement, Martin Johanssen, Kyle Lightbourne and other Foreign players who were all quietly moved on. But the football had been better (since Dion's departure) and the brilliant Huckerby frequently kept us entertained, so the overall feeling was that club had moved on and could expect better things.
League Record: 11 wins, 9 draws, 18 defeats
1999-2000
Our 33rd season in the top-flight saw perhaps the most dynamic (and certainly the most expensive) side in our history, dubbed by many 'The Entertainers'. And yet we couldn't win a game away from home. If only we hadn't been on the wrong end of yet another statistical quirk, and managed to repeat just half of our Highfield Road form on the road we could've been challenging for Europe.At the start of the season, an exciting pair of Moroccans - Hadji and Chippo - joined the City ranks, but the early sale of Darren Huckerby and loss of form from Noel Whelan meant that the side didn't start well. Only one point was taken from our opening three games, and only one goal scored - a McAllister penalty.
Then came Robbie Keane. The record signing was brought in from Wolves to replace Huckerby, and immediately became the most exciting teen sensation in the Premiership, scoring twice on his debut against Derby County to kickstart our season. The team continued to score bagfuls of goals at Highfield Road, and Keano and the Moroccan's were complemented by captain Gary McAllister who was playing the best football of his Coventry career. Loan signings Cedric Roussel and Carlton Palmer both instantly clicked, and were recruited permenantly, as the final pieces in the entertainers jigsaw.
No-one ever really pinpointed the reasons as to why we were regularly scoring 3 or 4 goals at home, and often winning in style, and yet were so bad on the road that we lost 5-1 at Tranmere in the League Cup. However, there was really no pressure on Strachan or the board because the fare which was being served up to the fans at Highfield Road was of a high standard. The genuine feeling was that we had assembled the best squad we'd had since 1987, and that we would finish in the top half of the table for sure, just as soon as we got the away form right.
Of course this never happened, and the season gradually turned into one of frustration. The defence looked leaky, and even valiant away draws from the first half of the season gave way to defeats. Sure we won some thrilling 3-2's against Arsenal and Sunderland, but our volatile back line meant that we lost by the same scoreline at home to Division One Charlton to crash out of the FA Cup. It was entertaining, but ultimately a side with Keano, Hadji, Macca and the others in it should've managed better than 14th place and 44 points.
League Record: 12 wins, 8 draws, 18 defeats
2000-2001
Fans turned against Gordon Strachan in a big way, after the previous year's side, with so much potential was broken up, piece by piece. McAllister went to Liverpool on a free, and Robbie Keane was sold to Inter for £13m, robbing us of our top goalscorers. Although Craig Bellamy and David Thompson were brought in as big money replacements, it was clear that the magic had gone.This time we actually won our first two away games, to break the long duck, but narrow victories at Southampton and Leeds were offset by dreadful home form which was to last all season.
The first serious calls for Strachan's head since he took over came after the 0-3 home defeat to West Ham in late September, and as there was no indication that this would happen, the 'Strachan Out' lobby began to make their presence felt.
The club stumbled on through the first half of the season, only occasionally winning games, and for all their best intentions, failing to come together. Of course, they weren't bad enough to be in the relegation zone, but this was also a season when heinous conspiracy and statistical anomalies finally made a mockery of the whole game of football.
Maybe it's wrong to make Strachan a scapegoat, after all the team were very unlucky on a number of occasions. Every time we thought we'd found the turning point (like the Boxing Day victory at Everton that provided a launchpad for escape from the bottom three) we'd simply lose the next couple of games, whether deserved or not.
A key moment came in January when we lost 1-3 at home to Everton with a very poor performance. If we could steal points when playing badly, it would make up for not winning when we played well, but the formula was obviously wrong. Surely Strachan's eccentric team selections and personal grudges against players, which were becoming increasingly apparent, were a hinderence, rather than a help. A Sky Blue Superplex Poll - 'Is it time for Strachan to go?' conducted after this game saw the majority voting to sack him for the first time.
Without a 50% confidence mandate from the fans, Gordon Strachan was in real trouble, and had his work cut out trying to save a club that would remain in the bottom three for the remainder of the season. The eventual signing of John Hartson, the brief rally, and the everlasting hope and inspiration from escapes past proved to be worthless. 34 points. 19th place. Less than we deserved, yes, but football wouldn't be football without misfortune and conspiracies against us. Someone has to shoulder the blame.
And yet, even after relegation, CCFC stuck by Strachan, and decided to give him another chance/the benefit of the doubt/more rope to hang himself, depending on which way one looks at it. Sympathy for the unlucky, or punishment for the wicked?
League Record: 8 wins, 10 draws, 20 defeats