Football League World
·8 November 2024
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·8 November 2024
Coventry City have had real success in recent seasons signing players from abroad, and they could turn to this avenue in a bid to find their new boss.
Coventry City shocked most EFL fans when they decided to sack long-term manager Mark Robins on Thursday following an indifferent start to the season.
The West Midlands side confirmed their decision via a statement from chairman Doug King on their website where they thanked the 54-year-old for his services during his seven-year stint with the club.
During his tenure, Robins orchestrated promotions from League Two and League One, and came agonisingly close to securing Premier League football when Coventry were narrowly defeated by Luton Town on penalties in the play-off final.
Additionally, just six months ago, he led the team to an FA Cup semi-final, where they pushed Manchester United to the limit in a thrilling contest.
However, football can be a ruthless business, and the decision to part ways with Robins was likely driven by a desire to salvage the season and propel the team up the Championship table.
To do this, a new manager or head coach will have to be identified as soon as possible and turning to a similar pathway to Sheffield Wednesday and Queens Park Rangers may not be a bad idea.
Just last year, we saw both QPR and the Owls utilise the foreign market mid-season by appointing bosses who had no prior experience of managing in England.
For both teams, this option was effective, as Marti Cifuentes and Danny Rohl applied their methods to steer their respective sides away from relegation.
While Rohl has continued to thrive at the Owls, Cifuentes has faced challenges at QPR, with the club securing just one win in their first 14 games of the season.
However, there remains a sense within the club that, with more support from those above him, he has the potential to turn things around.
From a Sky Blues point of view, these relative success stories may encourage them to look abroad for young aspiring coaches who could help them reach the next level.
In previous years, we have seen them utilise this market for players, with the likes of Milan van Ewijk and Gustavo Hamer having a real impact upon their arrival, and then there is Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Haji Wright, Victor Torp and Norman Bassette who have all come from overseas too.
Now, a replica of this in coaching terms would be brilliant and could be just what they need to help them reach the promised land of the Premier League.
While searching for players is very different to assessing a manager, Coventry clearly have a good set of scouts outside the United Kingdom.
Acquiring players at a relatively low cost and selling them on for significant profit has been their forte, and it’s plausible they could uncover a hidden gem of a coach somewhere in Europe.
Furthermore, recent concerns about the depth of English coaching talent may push the Sky Blues to look abroad.
Statistics (see below) indicate that countries like Spain and Germany have a far greater pool of highly qualified coaches, and taking a chance on one of them could be the right move for Coventry.
Trust will be crucial in this decision-making process, but given a successful track record of signing talent from abroad, taking a similar risk on a foreign coach could very well pay off.
Of course, the safe move would be to sign a coach who has experience in the second tier, but could that get the Sky Blues to their ultimate target of Premier League football?