By CCFC Sid
May 3 2004

Lunacy. Just when you thought CCFC were done and dusted with shooting themselves in the foot, they go and sack the best manager they've had in a while - days after dishing out another thrashing to D1 opposition. 6-1 away to Walsall, 5-2 away to Gillingham, 4-0 wins against Burnley and Millwall, and 4-1 against Preston - as free scoring a CCFC team as we have seen in decades? Five cracking results in just over twenty matches with Eric Black PROPERLY in charge. What more could we ask from a manager with no budget?

Not only that, but he managed to beat Notts Forest away (Usually a no-no for CCFC), Derby at home, we hammered Wimbledon away, and Cardiff away too - despite playing for 89 minutes with 10 men! Since EB took over, we have seen qualities sadly lacking in CCFC teams of previous seasons. It hasn't always been perfect, but its been far better than we're used too....

"Inconsistency" has been blamed - what rubbish! We've lost to Norwich, West Bromwich Albion, Wigan, Reading, West Ham (Being more than equal to at least a few of those teams, and only losing to one of those listed due to their tactics killing the game) - all teams above us.

Okay, so we also lost to a couple of teams we possibly should have beaten - losing to "lesser" teams in football happens! (If it didn't, what would be the point of turning up when you're playing away to a top of the table side?). And our strikers miss chances too? Big wow! Was Eric supposed to have re-trained them in four months? I'm fairly sure I've even seen Thierry Henry miss the odd chance or two....

While Gary McAllister took us too the brink of D2 last season, and was looking to repeat that this season too, Eric Black took us to the brink of the play-offs - with the same budget! (Nil). There is just no logic to this decision. His signings were better, his tactics were better, his results were better - but not good enough for a chairman that obviously believes we have a divine right to be in the Premiership. We haven't....

Even those CCFC supporters that don't particularly rate Eric Black have said the decision is a disgrace. The least any manager deserves is a full season, and the chance to build his OWN side. Delomeaux, Warnock and Gudjonsson (Two of whom are EB signings) need to be CCFC players next season (Presuming Mr. £200 million doesn't bring in Vierra, Figo, and Beckham instead), as they are above the average quality of D1 - without Eric they will more than likely all be plying their trade elsewhere. Lunacy.

Richard Keys (The man that once stated CCFC fans were out of order for having a go Bryan Richardson) has stated he "doesn't want to support a mediocre Coventry side" - under Eric Black he probably wouldn't have. We were going in the right direction, and playing decent football. Listening to his comments on a local phone-in, he seems to think we have a divine right to be in the Premiership too. We haven't....

And whose to say the supposed "big name" replacement (With Peter Reid seemingly the favourite) will fair any better than Eric Black? A big name boss doesn't guarantee success, else every team in D1 would be splashing the cash on the best boss available! Ron Atkinson was probably the biggest name to be in charge of CCFC, yet opinion seems to be that he did more damage than most....

When McGinnity took over he promised honesty - most of us are struggling to believe that there isn't more to this decision than we have been told. If you're going on Sunday, wear Black....