Mark Robins has called on Coventry City’s fans to bear with and back the players as the team continues to grow and develop in a “new era” for the football club. The Sky Blues have undergone a major overhaul with 14 players leaving, including star men Gustavo Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres, and 11 new signings coming in.
Results have been hard to come by so far this term, with just one win, five draws and two defeats to date to leave last season’s Championship play-off finalists 18th in the table, just three points off the bottom three. But Robins is convinced his new-look outfit will improve, particularly with the encouragement of the fans whom he hopes will remain positive rather than lose patience and start getting on their backs.
“Our focus is on what’s coming next week and we just want to make sure that the performance level is there and that the support remains steadfast and strong because the players need that. They need the understanding from the supporters of what’s happening at the moment.
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“Our supporters have been magnificent and they do understand. But some people can be affected negatively by that and that’s something that we can’t afford to happen. We have got to make sure that whatever happens we will get this right, and it will become right. It isn’t majorly wrong, by the way. This is just a process we’re going through.
“We just need that support and that patience from them; to give the players every encouragement like they do and let them feel the power of their support because it really lifts everybody to work to their best and be confident in doing it.”
He added: “I have to point out that I think this season, because of last season, people expect the next step to be seamless. But it isn’t because we’re almost starting again. With Doug King coming in there’s been a change in emphasis and that’s brilliant. It’s fantastic and there’s a lot of positive things going on. But we can’t then just look at it and go right, okay, it’s gonna happen.
“There’s no magic wand. It takes time. This is a process. It is a new era. There is no doubt about that, and it feels like that and it’s exciting. And it will be exciting but it will become more exciting as time goes on. It is just a process and it’s difficult because we want things now.
“Everybody wants things now but that is very, very difficult to achieve and nigh on impossible to achieve because there are still so many other clubs at the level that out-spend and out-perform, and they’ve got really, really top players in there. But we’ve got better players than we’ve had previously right across the board.
“Other than the two we lost, who were the best players in the division in their positions. So it has an impact. We have got to get the new players up to speed. You’ve got to remember back to when Gus and Vik first came into the club. Vik wasn’t playing in the team and Gus took time to sort of settle and become really reliable. There were a lot of bookings, a lot of suspensions and a few sendings off and then, all of a sudden, he settled down and started to perform. So we mustn’t forget the process.”
