Yahoo Sport 
Lampard, Carsley and THAT Viveash interview cleared up - Coventry City next manager questions answered
What a week it has been at Coventry City – one that will go down in the history of the club as the end of an incredible era under Mark Robins.
Sky Blues fans have been trying to come to terms with what has been a hugely unpopular decision, and trying to digest the reasons why Doug King took the decision he did on Thursday, November 7, 2024. Rather than dwell on what’s happened, we are now starting to turn our attention to what happens next.
Sky Blues reporter Andy Turner has been in conversation with colleague Brian Dick to chew over what's gone on, the way forward and what's next for Coventry City in terms of its footballing model and managerial/coaching direction.
READ MORE: Alan Shearer issues warning to Doug King after 'harsh' Mark Robins decision
READ MORE: Club owner says ex-Coventry City boss Mark Robins is ‘unbelievable fit’ for Championship rivals
BD: First of all, just give us a little bit of insight into the background to 'that' Adi Viveash interview cited by Doug King and the relationship between Adi and Mark Robins that seems to have been so pivotal in the manager’s exit.
AT: If we go back to July 1st in the summer, I have to say that my heart sank when the football club announced Adi Viveash’s departure because as most Coventry City fans know, Mark and Adi were a double act. They were a team, very much a force in this division, really.
Everybody recognised that Adi was as important to Mark Robins as Mark Robins was to the football club.
They both had different qualities, different skills. Was it a marriage made in heaven? No, I don’t think it was. They didn’t always see eye to eye and the interview with Adi sort of came off the back of some comments that Mark had made about him.
Adi had always been sort of a figure in the background that we didn’t really know much about, and because of his success – and we know that he was an outstanding development coach, brilliant tactician and all the rest of it – it was always fascinating to hear about Adi because we rarely got to speak to him.
I was in a weekly pre-match press conference one time and I asked Mark about Adi’s role and his qualities and all that sort of stuff. And Mark was always up front and happy to credit him, previously said that he was the one that ‘paints the pictures’. So he always gave credit where it was due.
But then he came out with this line, which was that he could be difficult at times. And what he meant by that, and he did qualify it, was that Adi wasn’t a ‘yes’ man. And he said he didn’t want a ‘yes’ man. He said he wanted somebody who challenged him and had their own opinions and input rather than just going along with what he said. And so that’s the dynamic, really. That’s how it worked. And I took that as quite a positive thing.
Now, I think Adi secretly was a bit put out about that comment and took it more literally. And so when I eventually got the opportunity to speak to him it was just one question I put to him amongst many in a long and in-depth interview. And that interview was approved, by the way. Doug King mentioned that there was a second interview that wasn’t approved.
I don’t operate that way. The way it works at Coventry City, as at most clubs these days, is that you make formal interview requests and have to get approval. I certainly wouldn’t go behind the manager’s back because it wouldn’t be worth me doing that and upsetting him when I have to maintain a working relationship with him on a weekly basis.
So it was all set up for me to find out all about Adi’s background, chat about his journey at City, his coaching philosophy in his first press interview in his seven years at the club. I met him at the CBS Arena after an open training session and sat there in the media suite with the press officer there as well.
I thought it would last about 15 to 20 minutes but it turned out to be so fascinating, and he was so engaging and interesting with lots of stories and insight that we talked for almost an hour. We talked about all manner of things and the relationship with Mark was obviously something I wanted to ask him about. But it was just one small part of this long interview, which I split into three parts because I had so much copy.
There was so much interesting stuff that came from the interview that I wrote three different features that ran over a few days. So I wonder whether Doug King got a little bit confused there and thinks that maybe the second or third interview, whatever it was, was a separate interview. But in actual fact, it was all the same interview but just published in three parts.
BD: What’s your take on the change of model from a traditional manager and assistant to a head coach and sporting director?
AT: The modern way these days is that a lot of clubs have head coaches and a sporting director or director of football, and that’s what Doug King has said they want to do now. They want to shift the model now that Mark Robins has gone and it appears that, effectively, they’re looking for an Adi Viveash, Mark II. They’re looking for somebody with experience that’s brilliant at developing players, which Adi certainly was with the likes of Viktor Gyokeres being his biggest success along with the likes of Gus Hamer, Callum O’Hare and Ben Sheaf... The list goes on.
So they’re looking for that as well as a brilliant tactician and coach. And then there’ll be a sporting director above who, I suspect, will probably be Dean Austin. I don’t know that. I mean, he is head of recruitment at the moment, but I suspect given that a sporting director is going to be quite expensive, I would have thought that he might step up into that role in the coming weeks and months.
These days a lot of the top or up and coming coaches have not necessarily been brilliant players. There are a lot of young coaches, like Ruben Selles at Reading, for example, who did his coaching badges at the age of 25 after a very modest playing career. So there are people like that out there, I think, that they’re more interested in.
BD: Yeah, it’s interesting you mentioned Ruben Selles because I’ve seen his Reading team play this season and how that guy is getting such a good tune out of such a small group of young players against such a difficult backdrop of the Reading ownership situation is really impressive. He leaps off the page for me as somebody who probably deserves an opportunity at a higher level.
AT: That’s exactly what Mark Robins and Adi did, largely on a shoestring and amid the backdrop of off-field turmoil, developing players and getting up the leagues.”
BD: Have you seen the change in direction in terms of the footballing model coming, with a head coach and sporting director?
AT: Yes, very much so. One of the big things that Doug King has done since he’s come in is modernised the football club in terms of the infrastructure. I mean, the stuff he’s done at the training ground is incredible. It’s like driving into a five-star hotel these days whereas before it was like driving into the Steptoe and Sons scrapyard. It really was that bad, with scruffy old Portacabins and all sorts. So credit there, he’s transformed Ryton into an elite training facility.
He’s also brought in people like Dr Claire-Marie Roberts, who’s the performance director. And there’s a lot of misunderstanding about her role as well. She has been getting a lot of unfair criticism and stick about her role. What she does is oversee the whole operation, makes sure that the players have got the right gym equipment, right medical and sport science support. She went in there and now they’ve got this amazing, huge gym. It’s a temporary structure at the minute but it’s going to be a permanent structure eventually. And it has got everything in there. You know, all the kit they need for rehab and prehab. She made sure of that, and she made sure that the manager and players have got all the support staff for an elite level club and environment to work in.
They have boosted the numbers in terms of the backroom staff after years of operating on a skeleton staff. I mean, Mark Robins and Adi had just one analyst for years, Paul Travis, and the poor lad, he was working almost 24/7 to provide them with all the stats and the information they needed. And now they are playing catch up and getting all the staff in, all the equipment and facilities that they need to be an elite Championship club.
BD: Frank Lampard’s name is doing the rounds, what are your thoughts and understanding of where that is?
AT: Well, after the forum on Monday night, Doug King did some press interviews, including with myself. We spoke for the first time in two years, by the way, despite continued requests to speak to him. But yeah, he revealed in one interview that he was asked about whether Frank Lampard was interested and said, ‘I haven’t spoken to Frank Lampard and Frank Lampard hasn’t spoken to me. Make of that what you will.’ He then revealed that Lampard had put his CV in. Now the fact that Coventry haven’t been proactive and haven’t approached Frank Lampard, I think, to me, speaks volumes. And also his comments about not having spoken to him. I think if Coventry City wanted Frank Lampard that they would have spoken to him last week or over the weekend, or even before Doug King took the decision to sack Mark Robins.
Also Frank Lampard was certainly a manager rather than a head coach at Derby where he had Jody Morris and Chris Jones, who is now working with the England set-up, doing the coaching and Frank was very much a manager. And he did really good things, got them to a play-off final, but I don’t think he fits the model that Doug King wants. He wants someone to come in and see Coventry as a project, you know, as a long-term thing to pick up the stability that he’s got rid of, ironically. He doesn’t want a manager that’s going to use Coventry City as a stepping stone. And with all due respect to Frank Lampard, I think because he’s such a big name, because he’s already managed at the highest level and done impressive things in his first spell with Chelsea, I think he’d see Coventry as taking a step back to take a step forward. And if he got any sort of success with the Sky Blues, then I think he’d look to move on. I mean, Ruud van Nistelrooy is another one that’s been mentioned in the betting odds. But, again, assuming they could afford him or even want him, I think he’d clearly use Coventry City as a stepping stone, and that’s not what they want. That’s not what they need. I’m not saying he wouldn’t do a great job but what I’m saying is it’s not a long-term position. It wouldn’t be a long-term appointment.
So I think they’re looking for stability and that elite coaching remit, somebody who’s going to develop the players. That’s the model they work under. They develop young players and they sell them on, make a profit like they did with Gyokeres and then that gives them the funds to replenish the squad. That’s how they operate. That’s the business model.
BD: Another name that’s been linked is Lee Carsley. He’s a coach and probably more of a head coach than a manager type, isn’t he?
AT: Yeah, and I think he’d be amazing. I think Coventry City would be really lucky to get him. Whether it’s the right time for Lee in terms of his career path, I don’t know. It appears from the outside looking in that he’s in a really comfortable position with England Under-21s. You know, it’s a secure position, I would have thought. And whether he would risk losing that by going into a Championship job and all the uncertainty and insecurity, I don’t know.
But what I do know is that he knows the club inside out. He lives down the road and he ticks all the boxes in terms of coaching development of young players and that head coach remit on tactics. He wants to play football the right way. I know it hasn’t always worked out when he’s taken the England job on a caretaker basis, but he wants to play front-foot football, attacking football, entertaining football, and that’s in Coventry’s DNA since Mark Robins and Adi Viveash have been at the club.
Lee was a player here and was in the team that got relegated from the Premier League. And I know he always wanted to put that right. When he came back as a player under Aidy Boothroyd a few years later, he came in as the captain and said at the time that he had unfinished business, that he was in the team that got relegated and he wanted to help get them back up.
Now that didn’t work out but I know he would love nothing more than to get Coventry back to the top flight. And that is the remit from Doug King. That is what everybody wants. That’s what the owner demands and so, for me, I just think he would be really invested in the club like Mark Robins was. And he would be the perfect fit. But as I said, whether he would leave his current role with the 21s, I don’t know.
BD: What can you tell us about the timing of a new appointment, can we expect someone in before the Sheffield United game next week?
AT: My gut feeling is that I don’t think there will be anybody in place by then. I might be wrong but knowing what they’re like, I think they will go through a thorough recruitment process. I think they will be drawing up a shortlist and then interview people. That all takes time, getting people in. And Doug King has already said that he’s more than happy for Rhys Carr, who is interim head coach, to carry on for two or three more games, if needs be. He did a great job at Sunderland where Coventry came from behind again from two goals down to get a draw at the league leaders. So credit to Rhys for doing that. So in the short term, I think he feels that the club are in safe hands for the next few games.
But what they have got to do is get the next appointment right. They can’t afford to make any snap judgments and calls and an appointment that they might regret. So I’m sure they are going to do their homework.
