Coventry City manager Steven Pressley feels that his Sky Blues side can do well in the forthcoming season despite having their budget reduced to £2m from £4.5m.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph's Andy Turner, the Scot who is looking for backing from the City support in attempting to create a siege mentality, said: “It’s an average budget in League One. “There’ll be eight or nine teams on the same and to be honest that’s why the club are fighting for a different turnover.
“We are, in many respects, regarded as a big club but in reality because of the new Financial Fair Play regulations and the percentages that you can spend our turnover and what we can spend is an average budget in League One.
“But I think if we get the right players in and the right recruitment, and we work exceptionally hard on the standards and culture at the football club; and if we can get the support behind the team who understand that we’re facing challenges just now, that we are a club that doesn't necessarily have the biggest budget but together we can see a cause, then I think we’ve got a chance.
“If people understand that our budgets won’t be anywhere near the big players in the division – and that’s not a gripe from me, because done properly we can really build a team and a philosophy and culture.
“We also need a bit of a siege mentality around the football club with our supporters and really give the city something to be proud of, and that’s what we intend to do and I’ll work hard with that.
“These are the challenges but I worked in these circumstances at Falkirk and that’s the reality. But the truth is for the last 15 years this club has spent a lot of good money on players and a lot of money on budgets but the reality is that doesn’t guarantee any degree of success.
“The money thrown at the club doesn't guarantee anything. What we need to do is start putting in foundations for the this football club.
“I think Jose Mourinho said you can either throw money at it like Man City and buy success or you can lay the foundations to create an identity of a football club that will last for years to come, and that’s what we need to do here.
"We need to stop throwing money that has not been successful and be shrewd with it to create an identity in the football team that we’re all proud of.”
Yeovil proved that you don’t need to break the bank to be successful when Gary Johnson got The Glovers promoted on a measly £1.25m last season, and will be lucky to get much more as he prepares for the club’s first term in the Championship.
“One thing I will say on Yeovil – and by the way the manager has done a wonderful job – they were a club that were coming from nowhere and no degree of expectation,” said Pressley.
“They are a club where no-one expected that from them but people expect something from Coventry, so the pressures are different. But that’s not to say that through prudent recruitment and the right culture that you cannot be successful.
“There has to be a cause for the supporters and the team to be successful this year.”
More on this; http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/steven-pressley-city-can-competitive-4327264
Source: Coventry MAD
Source: FOOTYMAD
