Coventry City is one of the first clubs you tend to think about when it comes to mismanagement.
They join Blackpool, Blackburn and Leyton Orient, amongst others, where their poor ownership structure is slowly adding to the demise of the club.
This has led to a 12,000 signature petition calling on owners, Sisu, to sell the club.
That shouldn’t, however, take the gloss off Tony Mowbray’s role in the start that they have endured.
The Sky Blues have won just six games in League One since the beginning of 2016 and have in the process, made their worst start to a season since 1919.
In my opinion, his tactics have always been far too conservative.
They’re a good base for stopping free-falling clubs because they are more defensive minded and therefore, can provide that solid base that struggling teams require.
That, for me, is why he always makes a good start at clubs, but rarely finishes it.
It provides the base for momentum. Gets a lowly placed side winning and gets them, initially, up the league. The problem is, however, that momentum doesn’t last forever and when the team begins to struggle, it is the tactics themselves that eventually hold the team back.
It works initially because it freshens the environment up. But later on, it becomes stale again and the lack of alternatives or a ‘plan B’ means that the defensive emphasis becomes stale, bitter and old news.
This is why Mowbray failed to get Middlesbrough over the line and why, for me, after an initial good start at Coventry; has ultimately failed to deliver.
He provided a spark initially to turn their fortunes around, but the momentum has slowly fizzled out.
Coventry need to find that spark again, and quick, or they could be in for a very long season.
