In an attempt to keep myself sane over the course of the 09/10 season, I've decided to use this blog as a place to let off steam and vent my thoughts about Coventry City's progress.
The plan is to focus my attention on writing in this, as opposed to indiscriminate ranting at anyone who'll listen, which has been my main outlet just lately.
lt'll also be quite interesting to look back at how many times during the season I threaten to stop supporting them and form my own breakaway club; FC Coventry City Mönchengladbach Saint-Germain.
I doubt we'll get to hear the details of what we've received for him. You have to remember we paid a decent sum to bring him to club, and he's become a full Republic of Ireland international in that time.
A tribunal would have seen us get far more than the £500k that it's rumoured we received for him. I'm sure of that.
We've lost him on deadline day, with no sign of a replacement coming in and seemingly minimal compensation.
And on a separate note, his farewell to the club turned out to be a crescendo of undeserved boos, even given how vital he's been for us this year.
According to the Coventry Telegraph website, Wardy has said he's more than likely going to be leaving in January or the end of the season, because he doesn't feature in the manager's long-term plans.
That went well then didn't it. In front of a bustling crowd at the Ricoh..
Image courtesy of @downatthericoh
Circumstances dictated we were forced to field a reserve team to start the match, and a youth team to end it. But I surprise myself when I say this (especially as I usually cry myself to sleep for week when we're beaten); I couldn't really give a monkeys about losing the game.
There were only 2 things that annoyed me about last night and neither are a reflection on the team as a whole:
1) What in the name of Peter Ndlovu was this fixture doing being played during an international week anyway? 2) and Freddy Eastwood's continual inability to up his game.
Looking at the first annoyance, surely it needs to be acknowledged that The Championship is one of the top leagues in Europe before scheduling all these international fixtures? The clubs are so well supported, the teams generate so much money.. so while it may be a second tier league, they're going to attract some very good players.
Even on occasion, those international-type players...
You see where I'm going?
This would never be allowed to happen during a week when Premiership teams had domestic duties. But for some reason it's been agreed that it's fine for all (well, 4) of our first team players to be taken away, then force us to play in a competitive match? Agreed, we should have bigger squad. But if you look at it objectively - how many other squads in the Championship would be able to field a suitably competitive team (consistent with what league they're in) if you took away most of their first team?
I'd imagine most would (and they have) struggle a bit. Tis medium bullshine.
So that's why I don't have any real apathy towards the club for losing last night and congratulate Hartlepool. Although I still think we should have scored at least 2, and Dimi should definitely have done better with their goal. And should have bleedin' won you raging swines..
...Nope, doesn't matter. I'm fine.
Freddy disappointed me though. I'm in the camp of people who thinks he's got something, and is desperately waiting for him to show it for once. Last night appeared to be a good opportunity for him to stamp some sort of authority on a game and have a real influence. He was playing against players from a lower league, and was alongside a young lad making his debut.
He didn't manage it though. He still looks quite cumbersome, and just got in the way most of the time. I don't like to focus on him because it's not like it was an awful performance or anything. But I was really expecting a lot more from him last night, and he didn't deliver.
On a positive note, we've now been able to give a lot of our youth team some valuable first team action, which would never have happened otherwise. So that can only be a good thing for their development. And while in the main we lacked confidence when attacking, I was pleasantly surprised with Adam Walker who went some way to proving that he could actually be a good attacking midfielder in future.
He's the one from the new bunch who I've not been sure of, but last night he had a couple of good efforts and showed decent attacking instincts (take note Mr Osbourne).
I'm not going to rate the players, because over 120 minutes, that gave most of them more than enough time to go through periods of indifference. Dimi being a good example - made a couple of good saves, but let in a poor goal so I'm still cross at him. Harsh isn't it.
Martin Cranie, come on down..
On a seperate note, we appear to be pretty close to tying up young Martin Cranie from Portsmouth. Bravo Coleman and Ranson if this goes through - he's always impressed me.
Played in the European U21 Championships over the summer, and had a very solid tournament, especially showing some resilience in the first game against Finland, when most of the attacking players were running around with jelly legs.
My only worry is what this now means for Elliott Ward. I like Wardy and his new posh haircut, but it seems more and more likely that he might be on his way. That'd be a big mistake if you ask me. My reasoned argument for this is that Wright and Turner are simply not a sustainable partnership over the season ..
But what I really mean is Elliott Ward is just miles better.
Anyway, here is a video of Cranie scoring in those Championships, for your perusal (excuse the German commentator).
So minutes after I posted the last entry, I get a message to say that our new player is in fact a dutch defender going by the name Patrick van Aanholt. Close.
Apparently he's an 18 year old left back and has joined on loan until the end of the year. All the other juicy details are on the official site..
I will only be eating it if Beckford comes the other way, mind.
That's right, as the rumour mill predicted last night, Doyle has moved to Leeds on a season long loan. We've now got a tiny squad, which has been made even smaller. Surely Coleman has to have someone else lined up?
I've thought for a while that it is time for him to move on. It's become obvious that while he tries, and gives us a useful backup, Doyle has become synonymous with the under-achieving mentality of the club. Not his fault, but we needed to part ways.
With the lack of incoming players and the fact that we lost a couple of our best chaps, I couldn't see him being let go before the start of the season though. Our cover for midfield now stands at Isaac Osbourne and Adam Walker, so it's getting pretty desperate I'd say.
Wonder what surprises we can expect before Sunday....
With regards to Doyle going in the other direction - would Coleman really allow it? He's not first team anymore, that's been made pretty obvious.. but we're awfully lacking in midfield. We can't really afford to let him go.
Personally, I think this is a brilliant piece of business. If you'd told me at the end of last season that Michael McIndoe would be playing for us this year, I would have given you a stunned, and lengthy stare. Not like we've done much in the last few months to indicate we're on the up.
But anyway, I've watched him quite a few times, and although he's not getting any younger, he's still at an age where he's able to make an impact.
I'm constantly moaning about the lack of ambition shown by the club. Targets set too low, no pressure to achieve and seemingly minimal desire to move anywhere fast. Needless to say, the whole DannFox palava didn't do much to appease me, but the fact that we've signed a player who was on the verge of signing for Sheffield Utd is a very definite step in the right direction. It's just what we needed.
You now look at a possible midfield of Bell, Gunny, Clingan, McIndoe, and in that you have what appears to be a nice mix of drive, determination, technique, pace.. I best stop; getting a little ahead of myself there. It's only Michael McIndoe.
But it does look miles better than what we've been used to.
The fact that we've actually been looking at signing Peter Gilbert negates these positives slightly, but you know.. you can't have it all.
Have to say I'm a little surprised that we're in for him. Not in a bad way, but given he was apparently on the verge of joining Sheffield Utd, and the direction things have been going for us lately, nice to see we're actually still looking at the higher-end of players.
McIndoe has always impressed me for Bristol City. One of those players who seems to cause havoc in the mandatory 3-0 home defeat to them.
There could be worse strategies than buying all the players who can't seem to help but be world beaters against us. Now all we need are Richard Cresswell, Pablo Counago, Tommy Smith and Robbie Blake and that'd be a extra few points for us next season. Wouldn't that be marvellous.
Anyway, while writing this I've found out 2 things about Mr McIndoe;
But aside from those 2 blips, from what I've seen of him he's a very useful football player. So I'd rather we didn't mess this up. If we're in for him, lets bleeding well get him.
Had a little look around on Youtube for some videos to post of him, but all I could really find was this hideously dramatic tribute to his goal for Doncaster v Arsenal a few years ago.
Last week Coventry City sold Daniel Fox to Celtic and everyone got a little bit bothered by it all.
I was just the same and had some harsh words to say on the subject (Facebook has never seen such crossness).
Still can't quite work out whether it was the fact we'd sold another of our best players, or the ridiculous prices I was reading him being sold for, which riled me so. £1.5 million was the fee being banded around the big websites, which if true, is utterly ludicrous given those Kyles from Sheffield Utd cost Spurs £10 million all-together.
But anyway, enough of that mumbo-jumbo, I just wanted to share this.
Not condoning the potty talk (and hideous use of the exclamation mark), but this is actually quite funny. Made me chuckle anyway.
Comments [0]