“Back In The Premier League” – Jay Bothroyd On Coventry Hopes, Wolves Pain And Midlands Pride

Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports former Coventry striker Jay Bothroyd has spoken about his memories playing for the club at the start of his career including making his debut against Man Utd and his hopes that someday the club returns to the Premier League.

The former England International has spoken honestly about Coventry's high-flying start to the season, stressing that they still must spend to reinforce their squad in January and earmarks the man in the dugout Frank Lampard for bigger pastures in the future.

Elsewhere he admits that former manager Rob Edwards always looked like a future manager, he talks about the depth of football in the Midlands and gives his prediction for the clash between his former clubs when Arsenal vs Wolves play at the weekend,

Coventry City

Memories For Coventry:

Making my debut against Man United was unbelievable. I always thank Gordon Strachan for that. He brought me in, and he was kind of like a father figure to me in terms of he always put his arm around me, around the training ground, he looked after me. He gave me my debut against Man United.

I genuinely feel like if he had told me during the week or the beginning of the week that I was playing against Man United on Saturday, it would have given me the opportunity to get my head around making my debut against the best team in the country at the time, one of the best teams in the world. But he told me on the morning of the kick-off! Straight away, my hands broke into sweat.

I remember the midfield, I think it was like Keane, Scholes, Beckham, Giggs, Cole and Yorke up front or something like that. I remember thinking, ‘How are we going to get a result today?’ I was playing up front with Mustapha Hadji, a really good player. We lost the game. He brought me off at half-time. I remember going to speak to him during the week, and he said, ‘You played well, but I just wanted to bring some experience on,’ and I was fine with that. But that was probably my best experience.

Then I really enjoyed it when Gary McAllister came in as well. Because after Gordon Strachan left, there was a lot of questionable decisions about management and whatnot, and who is going to be the best person to take the club forward. But when Gary McAllister came in, he applied that passing philosophy because he was a baller.

He didn’t want to see the ball flying over his head as a midfield player; he wanted to get involved with the game. He actually played me off the right side of the three; that was the first time I really played as a right winger. Normally, in my youth years, it was like a 4-4-2, and I might drop in the hole and, even when I went to Coventry initially, Gordon Strachan sold it like it was going to be, and Robbie Keane playing up front, but then Robbie Keane left and went to Inter Milan, I think. But the Gary McAllister days were enjoyable.

I’d love to see Coventry back in the Premier League. The last time Coventry were in the Premier League was when I was there. That’s a long time ago. So I would love to see them back. They have gone through a lot of financial instabilities over the years, transition, stadium issues and whatnot. But it seems like Coventry are on the right track now. It seems like they’ve steadied the ship, they’ve got some good players, and they’ve got a fantastic manager.

“Impressive”, Coventry Must Spend

Frank Lampard has got them playing such good football. I’ve seen games this year, they play really good football and have got some dangerous attacking players.

I probably would say that Coventry City need to bring in some players in the January window. Not too much. But definitely in defence. Because there have been games in which their starting backline have had suspension or injury issues, and they’ve been a bit more fragile at the back. So if I was looking at any players, it’d be defensive players.

Keeping Lampard

I don’t think it’s the players. The players are in a good spot. Unless huge money comes in for any player, then it’s a different conversation. But I don’t think that’ll happen. They’ve got some very good players that are in a good situation. They’ll want to get promoted with Coventry. I think the problem could be Lampard.

But even with Frank, I still feel like he’s going to want that stability and say ‘ok, listen, I want to stay here, I’m part of something, I’ve started something, we’re in a good position even though they lost the other day - and I want to see it through to the end.’ Unless one of the huge jobs becomes available that you can’t turn down.

Then it’s a different conversation. But I think for now, Frank Lampard is really happy with the players he has. I think he is really happy with where Coventry are. Obviously, they are top of the league, in the driving seat. But the Championship, there are so many games there, it’s just relentless, especially at this time of the year. So the squad is going to be stretched.

But I think Frank Lampard is a good, experienced enough manager now that he might look at it and think we need to bring in a couple in here or there in a few positions, but no drastic changes.

Depending on what happens with Coventry at the end of the season, that then is going to be a conversation. Because if he does get promoted, win the league, win it in style, then teams are going to be looking at him, saying, ‘You know what, we’re going to take a punt on Frank Lampard.’ And it could be like some of these teams, like if we see Iraola leave, for example, at Bournemouth, or Glasner leaves Crystal Palace, those kinds of teams.

I’m not entirely sure Frank Lampard will get a big job straight away after the Chelsea situation and Everton, but I definitely think he is a very good manager who will get a good job again.

The England job, if that becomes available again, that’s a conversation. Who is really out there that would take the England job? The only one that springs to my mind is Eddie Howe. After that, you’ll probably be interviewing Frank Lampard.

Midlands Football

Rob Edwards Destined To Manage?

Yeah, I did actually. Me and Rob didn’t live far from each other when I was at Wolves, so sometimes we used to do the car pool, he’d drive, I’d drive, so we used to kind of rotate there, but he is one of those players that I did think could have a chance of becoming a manager.

Because of the way he’d applied himself in training. No disrespect to him as a player, he wasn’t the most talented player, but he got 100 per cent out of himself. He worked really hard, he always had the right attitude, and he never moaned if he wasn’t playing.

And he always spoke about tactics and personnel and how he could get the best out of others. We were pretty much the same age, but he was kind of talking to me, saying, ‘You can do better at this, you can do better at that, ’ so to be honest, I did see him as potentially being a manager or a top coach, and I’m glad to see he’s back at Wolves.

He’s had a lot to do with the under-23s and under-21s in the youth system, so that’s good, and now he’s gone back as first team manager, but one thing I would say is Wolves really need to support him. You can’t bring Rob Edwards back, an ex-player who has had a good career, and then not give him the means to try and strengthen the squad to go and get results, because right now things are looking really bleak, and you can only change so much.

If you don’t have the quality within your squad to go and win the games, you’re not going to. So they need to support him, give him the money to spend, and bring some more players in.

But Wolves are where they are because they’ve sold so many top players. That is the reality. And if that’s going to be your model, training players up and then moving them on, a bit like Brighton, then your recruitment has to be very good as well. And right now, the recruitment hasn’t been great. And they’ve let go of some amazing players.

Midlands Football

All the teams in the Midlands are pretty close to each other, West Brom, Villa, Birmingham, Coventry, Wolves, so there is always going to be that kind of rivalry, even if it’s not a direct derby like Villa v Birmingham. Even West Brom and Coventry is still a derby because they are so local to each other. It’s a nice part of the world. I used to live in Solihull, which was lovely. It’s nice to see the rivalry there.

Weekend Predictions

Preston vs Coventry

I’m going for Coventry. They lost at the weekend, but I think they’re going to bounce back. Frank Lampard’s going to have them fired up. They’ve got some top players. They’ve got a talented squad. I’ll go with 2-1 to Coventry.

Arsenal vs Wolves

I’m an Arsenal fan; I grew up five minutes from Highbury. I think Arsenal have a deep squad; they are going to have to bounce back from that loss against Aston Villa to get back on track. I think they will do that. If this was any other game, I’d want Wolves to win. I’d want to see Rob Edwards get his first win. But Arsenal need to win, and they need to bounce back in style.

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