With Coventry City’s promotion to the Premier League almost a certainty and with superb owners who purchased their home stadium earlier this season and with a world-class manager at the helm, how did they get here?
Picture the scene – Coventry City had just won their first game under Mark Robins on the 21st March in 2017 – nine years ago, sat rock bottom of League One, destined for League Two football just 16 years after Premier League relegation.
Relegation was confirmed to the fourth tier on the 14th April in bittersweet fashion following a joint protest against owners from Charlton Athletic – the club was at an all-time low, where did they go from here?
Despite one of the worst seasons in the clubs history, the fans were reunited at Wembley following an EFL Trophy final win over Oxford, arguably one of the reasons that the club didn’t sink even further into the footballing pyramids.
For the first time since 1958/59, the Sky Blues were going to play in the fourth tier of English football under Mark Robins, in his second stint after he left for Huddersfield in 2013.
With nine players leaving and 14 new editions ahead of the season, expectations were high, promotion was needed – the Sky Blues had to escape at the first time of asking.
With an average crowd of 9,255 at the then-known Ricoh Arena, the squad knew they had it all to do to win over the fans.
A topsy-turvy season ended in style as the Sky Blues finished sixth, their highest finish in any division since the 1969/70 season, and secured a spot in the playoffs against Notts County.
The Magpies were no match for Mark Robins side, winning 5-2 on aggregate – including an impressive 1-4 victory at Meadow Lane which set up a final at Wembley against Exeter, all or nothing.
Coventry City ended up winning 3-1 on the day, with impressive goals from Jordan Willis, Jordan Shipley and Jack Grimmer which secured an important return to League One.
Following a return to the third tier of the English pyramid, nine players left the Sky Blues in the summer of 2018, nine players left – including star striker Marc McNulty to Reading.
There was 12 incomings in total in summer, including strikers Amadou Bakayoko and Conor Chaplin joining the club along with Chelsea loanee Dujon Sterling.
After a disappointing start to the season after life back in League One, the Sky Blues endured a thrilling remainder of the season – finishing 8th, with a lot to build on ahead of the 2019/20 season.
However, it wouldn’t be Coventry City style for everything to go swimmingly and push for promotion with ease.
It was announced on June 7th 2019 that the club will have to groundshare with Birmingham City during the 2019/20 season after failing to agree a deal at the Ricoh Arena with Wasps Rugby.
This was not the first time the club were forced to groundshare – the same situation happened in the 2013/14 season where they played at Northampton Town.
Despite all the nonsense going on behind the scenes and with very little money to improve on the pitch, expectations were mixed going into what should’ve been a promising season.
The Sky Blues found themselves quickly as a team who would be pushing for promotion, going unbeaten in the opening ten before losing two on the bounce.
Going into the New Year, Robins’ side sat 3rd in the league and proceeded not to lose another game before the season ended which eventually led to the Sky Blues going top.
The final game of the season was on the 7th March, a 1-0 victory away at Ipswich before COVID-19 stopped the world at its feet.
It was announced on the 9th June 2020 that Coventry City were League One champions and would be promoted to the Championship, despite not playing a single home game in Coventry.
After hopes of a return to Coventry in the first season back in the second tier, it was announced that the Sky Blues would continue to play at St. Andrews in the 20/21 season.
Some of Coventry’s most influential joined the club in this season, including Callum O’Hare making his loan permanent – Gustavo Hamer joined and Viktor Gyokeres was signed on loan in January.
Despite a tough start to life in the Championship and two wins from the opening 11 and hovering outside the relegation zone, Robins’ side went on an eight game unbeaten run to ease fears of any possible relegation.
However, following struggles after the new year – the Sky Blues went on a run of just four wins in 15 games and sat six points clear of the relegation zone in 21st with six games remaining.
It all changed away at Rotherham, a relegation six-pointer which the Sky Blues won 1-0 late on from a Leo Ostigard header to go nine clear of Rotherham in 22nd and started a run which saw City win four of the last six and finish 16th, ultimately avoiding relegation.
The 21/22 season saw Coventry return to action at the Coventry Building Society Arena and solidify their place in the Championship with a respectable 12th place finish, with a play-off push on throughout the season.
Memorable moments such as 4-1 wins at home against Fulham and Sheffield United and a 1-3 win also away at Fulham, made this a season to remember.
A season full of hope and promise was compromised early on after the news that the pitch was left in an unplayable state following the Rugby Sevens games in the Commonwealth Games and the Sky Blues were forced to postpone their first three home games.
This saw the Sky Blues rock bottom of the Championship after ten games played, with everyone else on 12/13 games played.
However, Coventry City continued to defy all odds and miraculously secured a fifth place finish and set up a playoff semi-final against Middlesborough.
A Gustavo Hamer goal in the second leg was the only difference between the sides throughout the 180 minutes and sent Mark Robins’ side to Wembley for the Championship playoff final against Luton Town!
With both sides in League Two in the 2017/18 season, whichever team got promoted would have made for a superb story and it was Luton that took the victory to the Premier League.
The two sides couldn’t be separated after 120 minutes of football at Wembley and it went to penalties where The Hatters won 6-5 following Fankaty Dabo’s crucial miss.
Following the departure of star players Gustavo Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres, it was always going to be a tough challenge to maintain a promotion push.
New club record signing Haji Wright had a lot to prove following his move, as well as Ellis Simms, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Milan van Ewijk also costing a lot.
The Sky Blues promotion push was hampered by an exciting FA Cup run which saw them reach the semi-final following a heartbreak against Manchester United at Wembley.
Little squad depth meant that Mark Robins didn’t have the squad levels to compete in both the Championship and FA Cup and the cup run came as a priority the deeper into the competition they got.
After a tough start to the season, the Sky Blues found themselves in 17th place after 14 games and decided it was time to replace the popular and successful Mark Robins.
Following a month of trying to find the perfect replacement for the legendary manager, it was announced that Chelsea and England star Frank Lampard will be the new head coach for the next two and a half years.
He lost just nine of his 29 games in charge and oversaw a rise from 17th to 5th and another playoff finish for the Sky Blues as they went on a record breaking ten wins in 11.
The fans quickly adapted to having Lampard replace Mark Robins, despite the initial shock and disappointment of his sacking.
A two-legged tie was set up against Sunderland, who lost 3-0 at the CBS Arena just two months prior to this game but Sunderland led the first game 1-2 after victory away in the first leg.
The Sky Blues led 1-0 at the Stadium Of Light and took the game to extra time where it was almost certainly set to go to penalties until Dan Ballard won the game in the 122nd minute and ended Coventry City’s season.
After playoff heartbreak at the end of the 24/25 season, it was all about how the Sky Blues were going to regroup and start again to push for promotion.
With the Sky Blues keeping their key players and improving in the summer, it was hopeful that the Sky Blues may be serious contenders for automatic promotion.
A record-breaking start saw the Sky Blues top of the league with one defeat in their opening 18 games and sat ten points clear of second after 17 games.
With a difficult Christmas period, it saw the lead at the top slowly decrease to the point where they ended up dropping to second and there were serious doubts whether Coventry would get promoted.
However, a good run of form following this has seen them return to the top of the league and now sit nine points clear of second with seven games remaining.
It is looking promising for the Sky Blues to finally achieve their promotion back to the Premier League after 25 years out of the top flight.
