By AD
February 11 2011

Over the last few weeks one or two things have been happening in and around the Ricoh that seem a little bit odd or unusual. But what, if anything do they mean? Are they harbingers of doom? Are they the first stages of a new strategy intended to try and get us out of the doldrums? Or do they quite simply mean nothing at all?

Firstly, the club had an alarming lack of incoming activity during the transfer window. Every club is always scouting for new players who would make their team better. After all, standing still is going backwards. But in the transfer window not one solitary player came in to improve the Sky Blue ranks. 

And that can hardly be because the team can’t be improved. Coventry are free-falling down the table of late and have picked up a not insubstantial amount of injuries. Whilst many long-suffering fans would have hoped to see a bit of cash splashed, I think most wouldn’t have been expecting it given the financial position of the club. But a few loans would surely have made a difference and although the emergency loan window is still open, the best choices will have already gone. 

Secondly there’s the issue of selling our promising young players for a quick buck. Being a hedge fund, there will always be a few sceptics trotting out the asset stripping line, but buying good young players and selling them on for a profit in order to buy more up and coming players always seemed to be the general ethos as to how the Sky Blues intended to progress under SISU ownership, and selling Scott Dann and Danny Fox was an unfortunate part of that. 

But since then there haven’t really been any players brought in that have increased in value, and the other two main assets, Westwood and Gunnarson, are out of contract in the summer. Meaning that the only assets left to sell are exciting academy prospects. Hence Conor Thomas upping sticks to Liverpool with the intention of a permanent transfer. The cupboard is now practically bare and isn’t creating a great deal of money anyway, which seems to leave the options of either new investment to restart the policy afresh or a terminal decline in the standard of the team. 

The Conor Thomas issue has also indicated a fractured relationship between the board and the owners. Gary Hoffman, a lifelong City fan, has resigned due to the affair and Joe Elliott has been moved to a more ambassadorial role. Coming in are John Clarke, Leonard Brodie and Ken Dulieu, a former Chairman of Southampton who haven’t exactly been the most financially stable club in the last decade or so.

Although Ranson is still publicly supportive of the clubs owners, he has for the first time admitted he’s disagreed with certain decisions in the past (the sales of Dann and Fox). In fact Ray was so unhappy at the time he offered his resignation, but was convinced to stay by Hoffman and Elliott. With these two allies gone and rumours rife that he’s very unhappy with the transfer of Thomas too it may only be a matter of time before Ray follows suit. In an interview after the board changes Ray said “I’m not denying the fact that I’ve been disappointed with certain discussions and that was a long time ago. I’m a big boy and can look after myself. It’s not about Ray Ranson, it’s about Coventry City Football Club."

But perhaps the biggest question mark over SISU’s ownership comes from rumours that they’re looking to buy Swedish club Malmo, who are a reported £30m in debt. Sounds very similar to the situation Coventry City were in when they took over.

This has got a lot of City fans asking “if it’s true, why aren’t they investing that money in us?” Well, the fact is £30m will go a lot further in the Swedish league than it will in the English league. In fact an investment here that may just about help you get into the Premier League could quite possibly win you the title in Scandinavia, and the European riches that would bring.

We shouldn’t kid ourselves anyway – SISU are in it to make money. It’s their job and they admitted so from the off. If someone had come in two weeks later and offered them a profit they’d have sold there and then. But as far as most people could see the only way they could realistically make a profit was to improve the club and get it into the Premier League. The supporters and SISU both had the same goal, just for different reasons.

Investors don’t tend to be particularly patient people though and after three years and an overall investment rumoured to be in the £40-50m mark without seeing any return, it seems SISU’s may be fed up of waiting.