After each matchday programme this season, we publish the regular column from the Coventry City board on our website. You can read Coventry City Chief Executive Dave Boddy's column our game against Nottingham Forest below:
Good evening and welcome to St Andrew’s for tonight’s game against Nottingham Forest.
I would also like to welcome the players, staff and officials from Forest too, in particular their Chairman Nick Randall QC and we thank them for the way that they looked after us at the City Ground earlier this season, at a time which was particularly difficult in the COVID crisis for them and their City.
Yesterday saw the fourth anniversary of me joining the Sky Blues and I look back with great fondness and pride on the journey that we have had so far. I was fortunate enough to join the Club a month before Mark Robins, who has been inspirational in leading us to a trophy success at Wembley and promotions from League Two back to the Championship, which included the League Two Play-Off win at Wembley and the League One title last season.
It has been a fabulous period in the Club’s history to be involved with and despite at times being a rollercoaster of emotions, I have enjoyed every minute of my time here so far.
The aim at the start of the season was to retain our Championship status and that still remains the clear aim and focus. Myself and Mark have got an excellent relationship and we both have a clear vision of where we would like to take the Club and how we are going to try and achieve that.
Our success along the journey so far has been a great team effort, with lots of outstanding people around the Club. The success we have achieved to date has only been possible with the backing of the Club’s ownership, in particular Joy Seppala with the outstanding support, we’ve had from Laura Deering and Tim Fisher.
The great staff around the building have all played a massive part in the success, from Adi Viveash and all the coaching staff, to Chris Badlan and his recruitment team, Dan Bolas and the Academy staff through to the non-football Heads of Department, and all of their staff.
On top of the ingredients that I have just discussed that have led to our success, another major part of the success and the journey has been you, the supporters. Your support of the team and the Club over the last four years has been phenomenal and without it I’m sure we wouldn’t have enjoyed the success we have had. I have engaged with many supporters over the last four years, whether in person at grounds up and down the country, in meetings or over email, and I have enjoyed interacting with Sky Blues supporters, which makes my job so much more enjoyable, and continue to admire your passion and dedication to our Club.
One of my main objectives still remains to try and bring the Football Club back to the Ricoh Arena. As we have previously stated, we cannot discuss the matter publicly due to the non-disclosure agreements that both ourselves and Wasps have signed but alongside the aspirations of the Ownership to build us a new stadium at the University of Warwick, in the short-term this remains a priority to me.
We will continue to work hard to try and drive the Football Club forward and achieve both our short and longer term goals. This is a fantastic Club that has made much progress over recent years and there are hopefully further great times ahead for us to all enjoy. Thank you for your support – PUSB.
Dave