The new season is quickly approaching, and things are much different from this time last year. The club hasn’t seen this much change over such a short period since the ‘Sky Blue Revolution’ of the 60’s, but maybe the time has come for another upheaval of a similar magnitude?

Apart from the first few years, when we made our meteoric rise through the ranks to join the elite, and an FA Cup final win, just exactly how much of the Sky Blue Revolution is worth keeping? Apparently the club has a ‘proud tradition’. Of what? Are relegation battles, financial worries and underachievement something to be proud of now? In the last 40 years we’ve only finished in the top six once. Supporters under the age of 25 have no first-hand recollections of ‘proper’ success. Sky Blue have become bywords for failure and irrelevance.

The trouble is the stigma has stuck and players are aware of this ‘proud tradition’ too. How many big signings have turned up and failed to justify their reputation? Are we just unlucky enough to always pick up players just at the moment they lose all their ability? Or is it because they see the club as an easy meal ticket? “It’s OK to do the bare minimum at CCFC because Coventry only ever just stay up anyway. The fans are happy as long as you escape relegation.” Whilst other fans around the country are celebrating promotion or European qualification, we jump around like we’ve won the lottery because we’ve once again just managed to avoid the trapdoor. Are we really happy with that?

Maybe the time has come to show we expect more. In the past few years we’ve seen a lot of change – a new stadium, new owners, a new philosophy on how the club should be run – but a lot of the past is still there, reminding us and everyone else of previous failures and disappointments. So maybe we should have a clean sweep and change everything - the club colours, the crest, the nickname, even the mascot - if we’re to have a hope of distancing ourselves from that reputation.

Sky Blue’s a bit of a wishy-washy colour anyway and hardly likely to strike fear into the opposition. It’s the colour of boys, not men. As a nickname it’s hardly an inspiring battle cry either is it? Not like The Red Devils or The Gunners. Compared to the city’s other teams (Bears, Blaze, Bees, Jets, Harriers and Crusaders) the Sky Blues is a bit weak.

The mascot is an elephant, which is hardly an athletic animal. The club crest is a great design, but people associate it with a club that goes nowhere. It’s been subtly altered at least twice since The Revolution anyway.

Ray Ranson and SISU are making wholesale changes throughout the club, but it will take years for them to have a lasting effect if supporters cling to the remnants of our not-so-great past. Jimmy Hill and Derrick Robbins weren’t afraid to change everything 50 years ago to improve this club and it took us so far. Now we need to have their courage and do the same if we want to once again move onwards and upwards.

Maybe by encouraging change it’ll indicate to future managers and players that the supporters are no longer willing to accept the low standards we’ve put up with in the past. If we’re willing to let go of the things about our club we, for some inexplicable reason, hold dear then anyone coming into the club will see that our expectations have grown.

The Sky Blue dream has become a nightmare, so maybe it’s time we woke up to change.

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