En legend på besök
Dion vill se City ta sig i kragen
DION Dublin says it’s crucial that Coventry City come out with all guns blazing when they launch the new season with a Capital One Cup tie at Dagenham on Tuesday night.
That hardly comes as a major surprise as he was speaking during a whistle-stop tour of the provinces to publicise the latest incarnation of the competition formerly known as the Milk / Littlewoods / Rumbelows / Coca-Cola / Worthington / Carling Cup over the past half-century.
But Dublin insists that a good performance at Victoria Road would set the stage for the massive effort required to drag the Sky Blues out of League One at the first attempt.
“You don’t want a losing start – Coventry have had too many of them over the past few years – so come Tuesday they need to pull their finger out really,” said the former Sky Blues skipper.
“This is a great chance to get a win on the board and generate some good revenue. You should want to win whatever competition you enter and I’m hoping that most clubs will put out their first teams to try to get some momentum.”
Dublin is a reminder of the days, not so very long ago, when City’s sights were set on the top half of the Premier League and they had plenty of cash to splash in pursuit of those ambitions.
Signed from Manchester United for £2million in 1994, he became an England international in 1998 after leading the club to 11th place and sharing the top flight’s golden boot with Liverpool’s Michael Owen and Blackburn’s Chris Sutton.
And although he promptly committed the ultimate sin by signing for Aston Villa, outraged City fans could at least console themselves that the club made the best part of £4m profit.
“When you go to a rival club you expect a bit of stick and I knew what was going to come but I get on perfectly with 99-per-cent of fans here,” said Dublin who still looks fighting fit four years after hanging up his boots and opting for a media career.
“And I feel for them because it’s incredibly sad to see Coventry in the third tier. It’s shocking really, and my opinion is that ever since they left Highfield Road it’s just toppled.
“The Ricoh’s one of the best stadiums around – it’s got the hotel, the casino, everything’s there. It’s absolutely perfect and potentially it should be packed every week and making an absolute fortune
“I was here in 94-98 and they haven’t achieved anything since. We achieved nothing as a team either, but we achieved staying up.
“We had a bit of guile about us – Gary McAllister, Gordon Strachan was playing at the time. You had the Huckerbys, the Telfers, the Whelans and I scored a couple of goals. When I was here we held on to our players and added to it with the Salakos and the Eoin Jesses.
“We played well together – the Shaws, the Williams, the Oggys would die for the cause and you need that kind of player in the trenches with you.
“You need brave footballers. That’s true at all levels but especially in the lower leagues in Britain if you want to stay up, get into mid-table and possibly go up.
“People have got to be prepared to put their face in the way of a boot if it means you winning the game 1-0. I wouldn’t think twice about doing that if it meant Coventry City were going to win a game of football.
“Every single player I played with would do that – I’d probably take Darren Huckerby out because he didn’t want to spoil his looks but we didn’t need him to because he was a flair player and I did all his work for him.
“You need players who, when you’re 1-0 down in the freezing cold on a Tuesday night at Doncaster or Hartlepool will take the ball under pressure, help other players, stand up and be counted by their actions, not just their mouth.
"That’s a different kind of bravery and sometimes it’s harder to find – we had that when I was here.”
Dublin believes that Coventry can halt their slide if they follow the example of another one of his former clubs, Norwich City, who climbed back from League One to the Premier League in the course of two seasons.
“It can be turned round as long as you get the balance right between senior and younger players in the squad and you’ve got a manager who sets boundaries for the team and the football club – time keeping, telephones, all that kind of stuff.
“I don’t know Andy Thorn as a manager. I had a few scraps with him as a player; he kicked me, I kicked him – you could do it in those days – and then we went into the bar and bought each other a beer.
“Richard Shaw will be a great asset and I’ll be coming to see him during the season but there aren’t many people here from my time.
“There’s Richard and Oggy, Andy Harvey – man of mystery – and a few ladis behind the scenes but then I start to struggle. It’s all changed.”
He is confident that if he does show his face he won’t have to endure too much grief from City’s supporters.
“They understand that sometimes you move on, sometimes you don’t. They’re like any fans – ‘just work hard for me, give me blood, sweat and tears and then I’ll keep buying my season tickets.’
“You’ve got to give people something to watch and hang on to. Supporters think, hold on we might just do this. Capital One Cup, here we go, this is us!”
Ending on a plug – the sponsors couldn’t have asked for more...
