Was Ray Ranson right to sack Aidy Boothroyd?

Slight change in sport, but as a fan of Coventry City I feel the need to write my views on the club sacking Aidy Boothroyd today.

I wasn't overly impressed with Boothroyd's appointment at the time, I'm not a footballing snob that expects to see every team play the Barcelona way , but I'm also not a fan of the total long ball game, which is a Boothroyd staple.

A bit of variety yes, with route one used at times, but not 70 yards punts up field into the mixer from your goalkeeper for the whole 90 minutes.

The stats look awful for Coventry City, 10 managers in 10 years or something along those lines. It has been pointed out today in the local press and on the local radio phone-in that this kind of hiring and firing is no recipe for success. I think that goes without saying.

Where I disagree with most Coventry fans though, is on this view that this is a chairman panicking and pulling the trigger. Ray Ranson played football at the top level, he knows sacking a manager every 12 months won't bring you success.

That's why I have sympathy with Ranson and believe he was in between a rock and a hard place on this one.

There are constant rumours that the club is up for sale, also that they will go into administration. SISU - a hedge fund who own the football club - are rumoured to have lost interest, the only money they are (apparently) currently putting into the club, is the weekly deficit to keep the club afloat.

For all we, the fans know, Ranson might be fighting a battle behind the scenes to persuade SISU just to continue to back the club.

What chance SISU remaining on board if Coventry go down to Division 1? Add to that the fact that the TV deal in Division 1 is supposed to be £100,000, compared to the current £4M in the Championship.

If this is true and CCFC are struggling to survive as it is, then what chance does the club have if they get relegated? Suddenly the spectre of administration becomes more realisitc.

In some cases it isn't just as simple as a manger getting fired because he isn't living up to unrealistic expectations, I believe this to be one of those decisions, one based on other eventualities, rather than just results.

I know this might sound extreme, but Ray Ranson might have taken a decision today that could even affect the future existence of the football club. In getting rid of Boothroyd he might have saved the club from relegation and convinced SISU that the club is worth sticking with.

The decision might also condemn us to relegation, who knows. In a way though, I'd sooner have a chairman who acts, rather than one that sits on his hands and waits for the inevitable.

But even if I was to base the decision on footballing reasons, I think I would still agree with the sacking. 1 win in 16 games, apparently he had lost the dressing room. What choice did Ranson have?

When a manager loses the dressing room he is doomed, if Boothroyd had, then Ranson would be incompetent as a chairman if he had not sacked him.

On the 10 managers in 10 years stat, I believe where CCFC really let themselves down was in the reckless way they went through managers in the 2001-2006/7 period.

They started off sacking managers because they failed to make the play-offs, this is really coming back to haunt them now.

Because of this every time they now sack a manager, even if the manager had, or deserved to go, it just looks like another over reaction and the stat backs that theory up.

Anyway, just to cheer me up I noticed a story about an hour ago that Arsenal are trying to bring back 41-year-old nut job Jens Lehmann on loan until the end of the season, just when Arsenal fans thought things couldn't get any worse.