FORMER Sky Blues striker Dion Dublin has taken a swipe at the club’s owners down the years and blames them for its dramatic demise.
Dublin was a firm fan’s favourite during the club’s Premier League era before leaving for fierce rivals Aston Villa.
Since then Dublin has watched his former club lose their top flight status and fall further back into the third tier of English football.
Off-field problems in recent years between current owners Sisu and the company which runs the Ricoh Arena (Arena Coventry Limited) temporarily forced the club to play home matches in Northampon.
The Sky Blues are now back playing in Coventry with the future looking bright under new boss Tony Mowbray, and Dublin feels a run in the League Cup could lift spirits at the Ricoh.
He said: “It’s been a demise at Coventry, the club hasn’t been run very well – even when I was there you could see signs that it wasn’t being run in the correct way.
“What’s happened is I think fans have become disheartened with Coventry City, and disheartened by their best players leaving.
“When I was there we had players like Gary McAllister, Gordon Strachan, George Boateng, Darren Huckerby, Noel Whelan.
“We had a really good squad of players, but it’s not like that anymore, and Coventry really need to get back and a good way to do that is having a good run in this cup.
“They’ve had several managers and they’ve not been able to turn it around but Coventry City is a big football club with a big stadium and a big following, but a lot of that following has dropped away having lost their stadium for a little bit of time and then playing at Northampton for a while.
“Going away to Rochdale will not be easy, Rochdale will look forward to hosting Coventry because they have been in a bad way for some time. I hope Coventry can go to Rochdale and get a result, but it’s Cup football.”
Dion Dublin was speaking following the Capital One Cup Round 1 Draw on behalf of Capital One – the credit card in your corner. Visit facebook.com/CapitalOneUK