Coventry City should have seen 16/17 nightmare coming after Charlton Athletic red flags: View | OneFootball

The 2016/17 season will always be remembered by Coventry City supporters as being the year the club were relegated to League Two for the first time in 59 years.

A club of the Sky Blues' stature being relegated to the fourth tier of English football was a real shock, and Coventry were a club in crisis.

Three separate managers took charge at the CBS Arena that season, and one in particular proved to be a really poor appointment, both on paper and in reality.

Former Cardiff City and Charlton Athletic boss Russell Slade was handed the reins in December 2016, and he lasted just a couple of months before being sacked in March 2017. He took charge of just 16 Coventry City games.

Tony Mowbray began the season as Sky Blues' boss, but he was sacked at the end of September, and Technical Director Mark Venus took temporary charge before the club moved to appoint Slade in December.

Slade had a decent pedigree as a manager after a spell with Leyton Orient which saw him earn the manager's job at Championship side Cardiff City in 2014, but prior to moving to Coventry he had a poor spell in charge of Charlton Athletic.

The Reading-born boss signed a three-year deal at The Valley in the summer of 2016 after leaving Cardiff City, but he only lasted until November 2016, and he was sacked after a poor start to the season which saw the Addicks win just five games out of 21 in all competitions.

Despite this, he was appointed the Sky Blues boss a month later, and perhaps that should have been the warning they needed that he wasn't the right man for the job.

However, the poor spell at The Valley didn't deter the Sky Blues' hierarchy, and Slade took over at the club.

Slade's spell with Coventry was just as bad as his time with Charlton, and in his 16 games in charge across all competitions, his side won just three times, and he left the Sky Blues bottom of the league.

The warnings were there for the Coventry hierarchy, but they chose to ignore them, and Slade's appointment ensured the club were relegated.

Mark Robins replaced Slade in the Coventry dugout the day after he was sacked, and the rest, they say, is history.

When Robins took over at Coventry in March 2017, the club were bottom of the league and nailed on to be relegated, but he did improve their form somewhat and, despite being relegated, he helped them off the bottom of the table.

He also helped the club lift the Football League Trophy at Wembley, although he can't take all the credit for that as the final was the only game he was in charge for.

It begs the question of why Coventry didn't move to appoint Robins earlier, particularly as he knew the club and was out of work.

Robins took charge of the Sky Blues for a spell during the 2012/13 season, and he had been out of work since leaving Scunthorpe United in January 2016.

As we all know, the former Manchester United striker has done a outstanding job with Coventry, and he helped them win promotion from League Two at the first attempt, before winning the League One title in 2020.

His side are now one of the better Championship teams, and nearly won promotion to the Premier League last season, losing the play-off final to Luton Town.

Who knows what would have happened had Robins been appointed earlier, but Slade's time at Coventry was a disaster and the club shouldn't have appointed him in the first place given his earlier spell at Charlton.

Hindsight, once again, proves to be a wonderful thing.