A-Z of Coventry City transfers: A for Atkinson

John Sillett may have hoped to shop at 'Harrods rather than Woolworths' but it was Ron Atkinson who became the first Coventry City manager to get almost complete freedom in the transfer market when he arrived at Highfield Road early in 1995.

The club had an ambitious chairman in Bryan Richardson and wealthy benefactors, including Geoffrey Robinson, and Atkinson's arrival was meant to be the final piece in the jigsaw, capable as he was of attracting the kind of players Phil Neal could not.

And the players certainly arrived! Atkinson spent in the week he arrived, in his first close season, throughout his only full season in charge and again the following summer when Gary McAllister arrived for a club record £3m fee.

Some signings worked (Richard Shaw, Paul Telfer and Paul Williams gave good service to the club) and some bombed (Eoin Jess notably) but Atkinson's arrival at the club set City on to a different path which ultimately ended with even bigger spending, relegation and the financial meltdown which followed.


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