Supporters and club insiders look back at the Sky Blues’ journey, from the depths of text-a-sub ridicule and fan mutinies to promotion
T
o understand the extraordinarily wild ride that Coventry have been on, culminating in the promotion achieved at Blackburn on Friday night, you need only look at the text-a-substitute idea that has become part of football folklore.
In less than a decade, the club were relegated from the top flight for the first time after 34 years, lost their stadium and came within half an hour of extinction before being bought by a Mayfair-based hedge fund in 2007. The story goes that, as a way to generate extra revenue, fans would be able to text substitution suggestions to a premium-rate number during a match. It is frequently recalled in local and national newspapers. Fans are still asked about it today.
But Leonard Brody, the Canadian digital guru who joined the board when Sisu took over and is credited with the idea, insists it was never seriously discussed at the club. “That whole texting conversation was taken out of context of more of a brainstorming conversation that was happening with a reporter, where they pulled out the idea to make it look like a stupid idea,” Brody says in a video call from Canada.
