About to embark on his eighth season in charge of Coventry City, Mark Robins hosted the media at Ryton for the first time in four years on the eve of the new Championship campaign.
Pre-match press conferences have been conducted on Zoom since the pandemic but normality has been restored. Squeezed into a new purpose-built press suite at the revamped and refurbished training ground, the Sky Blues boss was in good spirits and on good form. There’s a fresh feel about the place, not just from the recently painted walls but from a general feel-good factor at the football club going into an exciting new season on the back of two relatively successful and certainly memorable campaigns.
Adding undoubted quality and attacking options has left the manager and fans alike, optimistic and full of hope that the players can go one better this time around and live up to and fulfil the huge expectations around the club.
“We have had a decent pre-season and I am looking forward to it,” he said, leaning back as he faced the written and broadcast media ahead of Saturday’s opening day trip to Stoke City.
Asked if it feels different this season, whether those expectations to get promoted are higher, he said: “That’s the aim of the majority of the 24 in the division. We have added new faces and things have changed. There’s been money spent on and off the pitch. The expectation levels have gone up with the good results we have had in recent years, and that was ramped up when Doug came in and made clear that he wanted three play-off seasons out of five.
“I am looking and thinking that we have had one, then we missed out last season, but why not? You have to aim high and I am fine with that. Allied to that you have also got to be realistic, but we have added more than we have in the past. We have lost a few in Callum O’Hare, Liam Kelly and Matty Godden, but the players we have brought in are good ones too.
“And while there is a period of settling in, we have had a good enough pre-season to hit the ground running. But every week you come up against teams who are out to derail your plans.”
Robins has brought in six new players so far in Oliver Dovin, Brandon Thomas-Asante, Jack Rudoni, Raphael, Ephron Mason-Clark and the returning Luis Binks, and we await to see if any more will follow in the final three weeks of the window. But whatever happens, the manager insisted: “What we have is better depth than any other squad we have put together in my time here, so the expectation levels come with that and 22,000 season ticket holders, probably more than that now.
“So we have to make sure we go into this season full of hope, courage and the usual optimism that comes with that.”
Aside from losing O’Hare at the end of his contract, Robins is pleased to have kept his squad together without having to make any big sales this time around.
“Yes, and that’s been a big part of things as well,” said the 54-year-old, who officially named Ben Sheaf as this season’s captain. “Obviously when you speak about the squad we got together last season, this time around we have tried to add players pretty quickly. There is always work going on with new recruits and they worked hard to get them in quickly, and thankfully we had early meetings with the players, their agents and some of the clubs and managed to get things across the line. I am happy with the business we have done and look forward to seeing them in the Championship this season.”
The excitement is certainly there amongst the fanbase.
“I was delighted with nearly 20,000 at the CBS for the Everton game the other week and it just shows the anticipation that has built around the place, and you have got to run with it and then feed off and into that,” said the manager, who is under no illusions that it will be another tugh nine months ahead.
“It’s going to be competitive again, as it always is, and there will be teams tipped for promotion and there will be expectations at those clubs, like Leeds United who feel it a lot higher than here. That’s one of the good things here, and being able to build, because it’s not a demand. There’s no divine right to be successful but you have got to work into that and that takes time. We have got to attack the season and have a real good go and show great courage in doing so. The difference for us is we have a different feel and different squad this time.”
City have got off to stuttering starts in the last two seasons – something Robins is determined to address this time around so that it doesn’t return to haunt the team come next April and May.
“A good start is obviously about results but it’s also performance levels, and we have to focus on that, along with the development of players within the team,” he said. “But we are in a better place than we have been previously, more aligned to where we want it to be so it feels like we’re more ready and looks like that as well.”
Only time will tell, of course, but an opening day win will go a long way to getting City off on the right foot.
Discussion about this post