[27 SEP 01]

The last column I wrote for CWN was only a week ago, yet since then the Sky Blues have played three times and they are still unbeaten under Roland Nilsson.

It is one of the curiosities of English football that so many matches can be played in so short a time.

It is also, by the way, what prompts the top managers to complain that we play too often, yet those same managers can’t wait to take their teams into the incredibly badly organised European competitions and add to their fixture list!

If you ever need any proof that football’s biggest enemy is greed you only to have to consider how the European Cup – once the greatest Cup competition outside the UK – has been devalued and reduced to an illogical, ill-conceived shambles as the European Champions League.

However, thoughts of Europe are hardly relevant to Coventry City right now. Mind you, when Roland Nilsson is confirmed in the manager’s job as I expect him to be before the end of the week, a swift return to the Premiership could be on the cards after all and Europe must then be our next target.

To get there Roland and his men have to negotiate their overcrowded, disjointed fixture list. Three matches in seven days, another to come on Saturday, then nothing for ten days because the home match against Crystal Palace (6 October) has been postponed due to the international fixtures.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the home Worthington Cup tie against Chelsea the following Tuesday (9 October), we would be two weeks without a match.

GORDON STRACHAN TRAINING - 18 SEP 95 [empics]

The problem this creates for manager and players is that of maintaining fitness levels. A typical week: day before a match (Friday) – light training; Saturday – match day; day after the match - warm down (very light training); next day (Monday) – full training; Tuesday (day before a match) – light training; Wednesday – match day; Thursday – warm down; Friday – day before a match – light training; Saturday – match day, and so on.

For a player on the fringe of the first team, playing in the reserves for match fitness, there’s even more light training thrown into the pot, because his fixtures have to be worked into that schedule.

Interestingly, although the Coventry City players have been very careful not to criticise Gordon Strachan, the one thing that most of them have said is that the training sessions are less strenuous altogether now. They say that they still work hard, but the Nilsson-Richard Money approach is to ease back from time to time from the constant 100% go-for-it style that was adopted before.

It is certainly working as the results show – 1 Worthington Cup-tie and 3 League matches won, 1 League match drawn, no defeats.

For the supporters it has also been almost like having a new team to cheer, with Delorge, Guerrero, Martinez and Edworthy given the chance to show what they can do. Two of that four – Delorge and Martinez have gone on to score goals, so the opportunities have not been squandered.

Youssef Safri has also arrived to deserved acclaim and has shown himself to be every bit as good as we were told he was.

And let’s not lose sight that all of these players arrived while Gordon Strachan was manager. He found them - Roland, Richard, Ray Clarke and Trevor Peake are getting them to play.

It was often said about the ’87 FA Cup winning team that Bobby Gould signed them, but John Sillett and George Curtis made them play.

If Nilsson and Money achieve anything approaching the success of the Sillett and Curtis years, we will all have good cause to celebrate.

With Magnus recapturing his best form, big Mo carving a reputation as the centre-back no-one wants to play against, Safri and Carsley controlling midfield, Chippo emerging from the shadow of Hadji, and Bothroyd, Martinez and Hughes all hungry for goals, there is every reason to believe that an automatic place is not beyond us.

Keep an eye on Wolves though. No one expected them to do quite as well as they are, but their manager - former City man David Jones - is repeating what he did at Stockport and was on the way to doing at Southampton.

They might just last the course, as well, and we have to keep our run going to catch up with them.

We should do it, as long as the players stay fit, and the fixtures don’ t get in the way!