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Front row (l-r);
By Jim Brown
Coventry City’s transfer activity in the summer of 1994 was minimal. Peter Atherton took advantage of freedom of contract to join Sheffield Wednesday for an insultingly low tribunal fee of £800,000. Paul Cook, a classy midfielder with a sweet left foot, arrived from Wolves for £600,000. Manager Neal and chairman Richardson had surveyed the players on show at World Cup ’94 with interest, and for a while coveted USA’s central defender Alexei Lalas. When the red-headed Lalas signed for Italian club Padova, City’s bosses turned to his team-mate Cobi Jones, a winger with a taste for dreadlocks. Work permit problems meant Jones did not make his City debut until mid-September, though that coincided with City’s first win.
Phil Babb went into the World Cup with only five Republic of Ireland caps, but returned with an enhanced reputation as one of the stars of the tournament. It was therefore no surprise that bigger clubs came calling and early in the season he joined Liverpool for £3.75 million, a British record for a defender and more than double what Newcastle had been prepared to pay six months previously. Neal, given a good slice of the fee, paid £2 million for Manchester United’s reserve striker Dion Dublin. He quickly proved to be a revelation, scoring sixteen goals in 38 games in his first season. Young central defender Steven Pressley, for whom Neal paid £630,000 to Glasgow Rangers, was not such an unqualified success. He collected seven bookings and a sending off in his first eleven games, and looked short of Premiership mettle.
The arrival of Dublin and Jones enabled City to get their second wind, so that when Liverpool came to Highfield Road in early December the Sky Blues lay tenth. It was not long, however, before Dublin picked up an injury that kept him out of the side for six matches. With David Busst also missing a run of games, City’s lack of strength in depth was rudely exposed. None of those six games was won, and only one goal scored. City plumbed the depths at Hillsborough, where they were thrashed 1-5, picking up more injuries in the process. Neal dived into the transfer market to sign West Ham midfielder Mike Marsh for £500,000, but that did not prevent City being on the receiving end of a four-goal blast from Tottenham on New Year’s Eve.
Dublin returned for the visit to his old club in early January, but the first six weeks of 1995 were generally depressing, with only an FA Cup replay victory at the Hawthorns to keep fans’ spirits up. The worse the results, the worse the mood of supporters became, and Bryan Richardson felt the need to publicly urge the fans to get behind the manager. In these brittle circumstances the FA Cup Fourth Round tie with Norwich assumed an importance far beyond it face value. The Sky Blues failed to capitalise upon home advanÂtage, and lost the replay at Norwich in extra-time.
By now, the knives were out for Phil Neal. In other circumÂstances a win at Crystal Palace might have brought breathing space to the embattled manager when they earned City their first league win in twelve games. But, ominously, that win arrived on the same day that Ron Atkinson agreed his pay-off from Aston Villa, following his autumn sacking from the club.
Events now moved swiftly. The following Tuesday Neal was sacked. Injuries and bad luck had conspired to dethrone an honest man who, in retrospect, was probably a useful assistant manager, but who never seemed to have the measure of the Premiership’s top managers. The next day Ron Atkinson was confirmed in the job. The very fact of his arrival sent a shiver of excitement through the most sceptical of fans. Big Ron was among the half dozen or so genuine heavyweight managers in the country, a man who had won things and wanted to win more.
His first task was to make sure City stayed up. He had only fourteen matches left and wasted no time bringing in reinforcements. Kevin Richardson, his former on-field general at Villa Park, arrived for £300,000, and two weeks later Everton full-back David Burrows joined the club for a massive £1 million. His most important capture however was to persuade Gordon Strachan to join from Leeds United initially as his assistant but soon as a reluctant player.
Big Ron made an instant impact. Not only were 5,000 extra fans lured along for City’s first home match under his charge, against West Ham, but City delivered his first win. Six games into his reign they were still unbeaten, had earned a precious point at Villa and demolished Liverpool at Anfield. Perched in ninth position City looked free from all worries, and Atkinson was named Premiership manager of the month after his first full month in the job.
Then, somehow, it all started to go wrong. City lost five games out of six, the last an embarrassing defeat at already relegated Ipswich. Strong action was called for, and several players were axed for the penultimate game at Tottenham. Inspired by Strachan, who had been press-ganged into service some weeks earlier, City won to guarantee Big Ron another season in the big time.
The season therefore ended on a high note, with strong hints that ahead lay a summer of rebuilding, and that at least one star performer could be on his way to Highfield Road.
