"Way out of his depth" - Coventry City: Russell Slade namechecked in manager debate | OneFootball

FLW's Coventry City fan pundit has named the club's worst ever manager

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Coventry City parted ways with Mark Robins after seven years back at the club earlier this season.

The 54-year-old enjoyed a successful stint back with the Sky Blues, cementing himself as a fan favourite in that time.

He will go down as one of the club’s best ever managers, guiding them from League Two back to the Championship, and within one game of the Premier League.

However, the second division side have also had their fair share of disappointing coaches at the helm over the years.

Supporters will be hoping that the next manager is closer to Robins than some of the worst names to take over the team.

Russell Slade, Coventry City claim

When asked who the worst manager the club ever had, and why it went so wrong, FLW’s Coventry fan pundit Ryan Murphy picked Russell Slade.

He believes the manager wasn’t backed by the owners, but that he didn’t help himself by making poor signings of players that were well beyond their best by the time they joined the team.

“Russell Slade has to be the worst manager,” Murphy told Football League World.

“He came in at the worst time possible as well, so that didn’t help.

“He was given no money, every player he signed was old, way past it.

“People like Yakubu, who were class about 15 years before, and other players, I think Stephen Hunt was one of them.

“Players that were way past it.

“He was just way out of his depth at Coventry City, but he also didn’t get much backing from the board, the owners.

“That’s probably why they went with Russell Slade, the cheap option.

“But a few months later he found himself sacked and basically we were rock bottom of League One, going into League Two, which we went on to get relegated later that season before Mark Robins came back for his second stint.”

Russell Slade’s Coventry City stint

Slade took charge at Coventry in December 2016, and oversaw just 16 games before being dismissed.

He departed in March 2017, with just three wins and five draws to his name, and with the team struggling in the League One table.

The now 64-year-old was replaced by Robins (pictured below), while he waited just a month before returning to management with Grimsby Town.

Slade’s most recent managerial gig came with Hereford, taking over the non-league side in August 2019, before departing again in January 2020.

Coventry are beyond the days of Russell Slade

Coventry have come a long way in the time since Slade was appointed manager.

Robins played a huge role in that, and he has brought an immense amount of stability to the Sky Blues.

Whoever replaces Robins will be under a lot of pressure to maintain that stability, as supporters will not want to go back to the dark days of around the time Slade was in charge.

The 64-year-old was simply out of his depth at Coventry, and that is reflected by the fact he never worked at that level again.