Coventry City: Back on the cusp of the Premier League after 25 years away

Coventry are almost there. Nearly back in the Premier League after 25 years away, and a lot has happened since.

As Frank Lampard's side near Championship promotion, we chart the fall and rise of the Sky Blues...

After 34 years in the top flight, Coventry City were relegated from the Premier League in 2001.

There had been plenty of escapes over the years. In fact, on a remarkable 10 occasions they had survived on the final day.

But this time the Sky Blues would drop into the second tier under Gordon Strachan for the first time since 1967.

At the time, only Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool had been in the top flight for a longer consecutive spell.

This time, their fate was sealed on the penultimate day. Despite leading 2-0 at Aston Villa, they succumbed to 3-2 defeat and were relegated with a game to spare.

"It still hurts to this day, to be honest," Chris Kirkland, who kept goal for the Sky Blues that day, admitted a while after. "It was really, really tough and unfortunately the club was never the same again."

And so the spiral downwards began, albeit slowly.

The first season, when Roland Nilsson took over from Strachan after a month, they found themselves sat in fourth, occupying a play-off place, with four games remaining. But they collapsed and eventually finished 11th.

They would spend 11 years at second-tier level. Only finishing in the top half three times.

In 2005 they moved from their home of 106 years in Highfield Road to the newly-built Ricoh Arena.

Problems began before they had even moved in, to highlight what was to come. "It's been absolutely horrendous," said Mike McGinnity, Coventry's chairman at the time. "From one problem to the next."

That was just referring to the move itself, not the financial problems in the background.

The club sold its 50 per cent share in the part council-owned stadium to repay mounting debts, and they ended up on the cusp of administration in 2007.

London hedge fund Sisu Capital completed an 11th-hour takeover of the club, but they were unable to halt the decline and eventually the club were relegated to League One in 2012 - 48 years after they had last played at third-tier level.

Relegation wasn't even the end of the misery. They could only finish 15th in their first season in League One, as they went through three managers. One of which was Mark Robins, who lasted just five months between Andy Thorn and Steven Pressley.

More on Robins later.

And then, in 2013/14, a dispute with the owners of the Ricoh Arena left them without a stadium. They were forced to groundshare with Northampton Town - a round trip of 70 miles from Coventry. A protest from the fans was launched, but to no avail.

A Sky Blues trust spokesman said at the time: "The clock's ticking all the time. There are no season tickets being sold - people need to know where we're playing and that should be in Coventry. We have a perfectly good, purpose-built stadium here which we should be playing at."

The club would resolve the dispute and they returned to the Ricoh the following season, where they would spend three more years in League One, before being relegated to League Two in 2018.

In 2016/17, with the club sliding towards relegation in League One, Robins would return as manager for a second spell.

He was unable to prevent their relegation to League Two, but he did pick up the Football League Trophy along the way in front of more than 40,000 Coventry fans at Wembley, as they beat Oxford 2-1.

It reminded many of the size of the club, the vastness of what was going to waste.

"We know we're in a difficult situation but all we can do is try and keep going," said Robins after the win. "It was a great day and it was all for the fans and the players.

"It was really important for us as a football club to show we're still alive and kicking."

He committed to returning the club to their former status, even as they plummeted into the fourth tier for the first time since 1959.

Robins took Coventry back out of League Two at the first time of asking. They finished in the play-offs in 2017/18 - their first top-six finish as a club in 48 years. Before achieving promotion at Wembley.

"The connection between the players and the fans is everything," said Robins after another triumph at the national stadium. "The support all season has been phenomenal. Football is all about winning for the supporters and thankfully we did that today."

And after stabilising again in League One the following season with an eighth-placed finish, he took them to promotion the campaign after.

But, in true Coventry fashion, it was not straightforward. They were forced to groundshare, again, this time with Birmingham at St Andrew's.

"It is a complete and utter disgrace that the Ricoh Arena, which again, was built as the home of Coventry City Football Club, is owned by a rugby club [Wasps] that has its roots in Buckinghamshire. How can that happen?" said Robins.

"It is in Birmingham, 20 minutes out of the city, at a Championship ground and our closest available ground. I would prefer to have a different set of circumstances, but we have what we have. This situation is historical and has to be, and now will be rectified."

And then Covid-19 struck.

The club were top with 12 games to play in March 2020 when the pandemic saw the season initially suspended, but they were deservedly awarded promotion automatically when the campaign was eventually curtailed a couple of months later.

For the first time in eight years, Coventry were back in the Championship. Again, they were forced to groundshare at Birmingham again.

But Robins still took them to a 16th-placed finish.

2021/22 marked their return home to what is now known as the Coventry Building Society Arena. Robins took them to 12th.

A season later, in 2022/23, they were forced to postpone their first three home games due to pitch issues. Their stadium had been used for rugby sevens during that summer's Commonwealth games, and was deemed unplayable until the end of August.

"It's ridiculous," Robins said. "It's a ridiculous situation. People are saying, 'it's not my fault'. We need a football pitch. It was part of the agreement to get back into Coventry. It was the stadium that was built for us and we can't play there, so that's the feeling of everybody.

"It's an utter disgrace that we are this point in time because of the amount of work that goes on and continues to go on. You just need that little bit of assistance from someone, whoever it is, but they need to sort it out quickly, to say, 'right, there's a new pitch going in there'. I don't know when that can be."

A couple of months later they were served an eviction notice from the new owners of their stadium, before eventually managing to secure an agreement to play there until the end of the season.

The situation took an upturn in the boardroom and on the pitch, however.

Doug King, a local businessman and Coventry fan, completed his takeover of the club, as Sisu Capital were removed after 16 years.

And Robins steered Coventry into a late-season surge to reach the play-offs, and then Wembley.

They came within a penalty kick of the Premier League, but lost out in the shoot-out to Luton Town.

"We gave everything," said Robins. "This has to be fuel for us moving forward. It takes a feeling like this to make the good times feel better. There is pain now but we have to acknowledge it's been a magnificent effort."

For the first time in decades, Coventry City went into a season with actual expectations.

Unfortunately, in the summer, Robins lost his two standout talents from his squad in Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer.

Owner King reinvested in the squad but they missed out on the play-offs.

They did, however, come within a whisker of reaching the FA Cup final. Battling back from three goals down against Manchester United at Wembley in the semis, they thought they had won the game in extra-time, only for Victor Torp's goal to be ruled out when Haji Wright was judged to be just offside by VAR. United went on to win the shoot-out.

"Had [Wright] cut his toenail, we wouldn't be talking about penalties," Robins said after the game.

Coventry started slowly in 2024/25 and Robins was controversially sacked in November.

The outpouring of emotion from fans over his dismissal showed what a popular figure he was at the club, after steering them back from the precipice.

The following appointment didn't help matters. Frank Lampard was given the job after 18 months out of the game since a miserable ending to his second spell at Chelsea.

He had previously been sacked by Everton, and the Blues before that.

But he quickly silenced the doubters and took Coventry from 17th to finish in the play-offs where they lost to Sunderland in the semi-finals - a last-minute goal from Dan Ballard in the second leg condemning them to another season in the Championship.

"Where we've come from, 17th in the league in December, the players have been brilliant in the second half of the season," said Lampard. "We're competing with the parachute teams in terms of where we finish.

"They don't deserve it, the players. I'm a lot older, I've been around a lot, so I've taken whacks and I've had success.

"They're going to Wembley, but in a football sense I feel massive pride."

There would be no hangover, however.

Coventry went their first 12 games unbeaten this season under Lampard, and have occupied top spot for every week, bar one, since early October.

Amid all that, Coventry also completed the acquisition of the CBS Arena, meaning they finally owned the home in their city for the first time since leaving Highfield Road 20 years before.

"Today is a defining day for Coventry City Football Club," club chairman King said. "For too long the question of stadium ownership has cast uncertainty over our future.

"By bringing the arena under the club's ownership, we are safeguarding not only the present but for future generations. This is our home, and it now belongs to the football club and its supporters.

"This is more than a transaction. It is a statement of ambition and belief in Coventry."

Eventually, despite a mid-season dip, Coventry romped away in the Championship. For the first time in 25 years, the famous old club are set to return to the Premier League. The fall and rise very much completed.