1998–99 Coventry City F.C. season

Coventry City

1998–99 season
Chairman	Bryan Richardson
Manager	Gordon Strachan
Stadium	Highfield Road
Premiership	15th
FA Cup	Fifth round
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Whelan (10) All: Whelan (13)
Highest home attendance	23,098 (vs. Tottenham Hotspur, 26 December)
Lowest home attendance	6,631 (vs. Southend United, 16 September)
Average home league attendance	20,773
← 1997–98 1999–2000 →

During the 1998–99 English football season, Coventry City competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary

Coventry City finished 15th in the Premiership – four places lower than last season – but were never in any real danger of being relegated, despite the loss of key striker Dion Dublin to local rivals Aston Villa.^[1]

The biggest news of Coventry's season was the announcement of a move to a new 45,000-seat stadium at Foleshill, which was anticipated to be ready by 2002. Manager Gordon Strachan then signed Moroccan international football star Mustapha Hadji, knowing that it would be important to have a top quality team to match the forthcoming new home.^[2]

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	22	13	3	80	37	+43	79	1999–2000 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Arsenal	38	22	12	4	59	17	+42	78
3	Chelsea	38	20	15	3	57	30	+27	75	1999–2000 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round
4	Leeds United	38	18	13	7	62	34	+28	67	1999–2000 UEFA Cup First round
5	West Ham United	38	16	9	13	46	53	−7	57	1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup Third round
6	Aston Villa	38	15	10	13	51	46	+5	55
7	Liverpool	38	15	9	14	68	49	+19	54
8	Derby County	38	13	13	12	40	45	−5	52
9	Middlesbrough	38	12	15	11	48	54	−6	51
10	Leicester City	38	12	13	13	40	46	−6	49
11	Tottenham Hotspur	38	11	14	13	47	50	−3	47	1999–2000 UEFA Cup First round ^1
12	Sheffield Wednesday	38	13	7	18	41	42	−1	46
13	Newcastle United	38	11	13	14	48	54	−6	46	1999–2000 UEFA Cup First round ^2
14	Everton	38	11	10	17	42	47	−5	43
15	Coventry City	38	11	9	18	39	51	−12	42
16	Wimbledon	38	10	12	16	40	63	−23	42
17	Southampton	38	11	8	19	37	64	−27	41
18	Charlton Athletic (R)	38	8	12	18	41	56	−15	36	Relegation to 1999–2000 Football League First Division
19	Blackburn Rovers (R)	38	7	14	17	38	52	−14	35
20	Nottingham Forest (R)	38	7	9	22	35	69	−34	30

Updated to games played on 16 May 1999.
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹ Tottenham Hotspur qualified for the UEFA Cup as League Cup winners.
² As Manchester United qualified for the Champions League, their UEFA Cup place as FA Cup winners defaulted to Newcastle United, the losing finalists.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results Summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
38	11	9	18	39	51	−12	42	8	6	5	26	21	+5	3	3	13	13	30	−17

Source: 1998-99 FA Premier League table

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Ground	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H
Result	W	L	D	L	L	L	D	L	W	L	L	W	W	L	D	L	L	D	D	L	W	L	W	D	L	L	W	W	D	L	W	W	L	L	L	W	D	D
Position	2	8	10	16	18	19	19	19	19	18	19	17	15	16	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	16	16	17	18	17	15	15	16	15	15	15	16	16	16	16	15

Source: 11v11.com: 1998-99 Coventry City results
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Results

Coventry City's score comes first^[3]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
15 August 1998	Chelsea	H	2–1	23,042	Huckerby, Dublin
22 August 1998	Nottingham Forest	A	0–1	22,546
29 August 1998	West Ham United	H	0–0	20,818
9 September 1998	Liverpool	A	0–2	41,771
12 September 1998	Manchester United	A	0–2	55,193
19 September 1998	Newcastle United	H	1–5	22,656	Whelan
26 September 1998	Charlton Athletic	A	1–1	20,043	Whelan
3 October 1998	Aston Villa	H	1–2	22,654	Soltvedt
18 October 1998	Sheffield Wednesday	H	1–0	16,006	Dublin
24 October 1998	Southampton	A	1–2	15,152	Dublin
31 October 1998	Arsenal	H	0–1	23,040
7 November 1998	Blackburn Rovers	A	2–1	23,779	Huckerby, Whelan
15 November 1998	Everton	H	3–0	19,290	Froggatt, Huckerby, Whelan
21 November 1998	Middlesbrough	A	0–2	34,293
28 November 1998	Leicester City	H	1–1	19,894	Huckerby
5 December 1998	Wimbledon	A	1–2	11,717	McAllister (pen)
14 December 1998	Leeds United	A	0–2	31,802
19 December 1998	Derby County	H	1–1	16,627	Whelan
26 December 1998	Tottenham Hotspur	H	1–1	23,098	Aloisi
28 December 1998	West Ham United	A	0–2	25,662
9 January 1999	Nottingham Forest	H	4–0	17,172	Huckerby (3), Telfer
16 January 1999	Chelsea	A	1–2	34,869	Huckerby
30 January 1999	Liverpool	H	2–1	23,056	Boateng, Whelan
6 February 1999	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0–0	34,376
17 February 1999	Newcastle United	A	1–4	36,352	Whelan
20 February 1999	Manchester United	H	0–1	22,596
27 February 1999	Aston Villa	A	4–1	38,799	Aloisi (2), Boateng (2)
6 March 1999	Charlton Athletic	H	2–1	20,259	Whelan, Soltvedt
13 March 1999	Blackburn Rovers	H	1–1	19,701	Aloisi
20 March 1999	Arsenal	A	0–2	38,073
3 April 1999	Sheffield Wednesday	A	2–1	28,136	McAllister (pen), Whelan
5 April 1999	Southampton	H	1–0	21,402	Boateng
11 April 1999	Everton	A	0–2	32,341
17 April 1999	Middlesbrough	H	1–2	19,231	McAllister
24 April 1999	Leicester City	A	0–1	20,224
1 May 1999	Wimbledon	H	2–1	21,200	Huckerby, Whelan
8 May 1999	Derby County	A	0–0	32,450
16 May 1999	Leeds United	H	2–2	23,049	Aloisi, Telfer

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	2 January 1999	Macclesfield Town	H	7–0	14,197	Froggatt, Whelan, Payne (own goal), Huckerby (3), Boateng
R4	23 January 1999	Leicester City	A	3–0	21,207	Whelan, Froggatt, Telfer
R5	13 February 1999	Everton	A	1–2	33,907	McAllister

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	16 September 1998	Southend United	H	1–0	6,631	Hall
R2 2nd Leg	22 September 1998	Southend United	A	4–0 (won 5-0 on agg)	6,292	Boateng, Dublin, Whelan, Soltvedt
R3	27 October 1998	Luton Town	A	0–2	9,051

Squad

^[4][5] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Magnus Hedman 2 DF Roland Nilsson 3 DF David Burrows 4 DF Paul Williams 5 DF Richard Shaw 6 DF Gary Breen 7 FW Darren Huckerby 8 FW Noel Whelan 9 DF Muhamed Konjić 10 MF Gary McAllister (captain) 11 MF George Boateng[6] 12 MF Paul Telfer 13 FW Stefano Gioacchini 14 MF Trond Egil Soltvedt 15 FW Paul Hall 16 GK Steve Ogrizovic 17 DF Ian Brightwell 18 DF Philippe Clement 19 DF Marcus Hall 20 MF Gavin Strachan 21 FW Andy Ducros 22 MF Laurent Delorge 23 GK Tynan Scope

No. Position Player 24 DF Liam Daish 25 MF Willie Boland 26 MF Steve Froggatt 27 DF Marc Edworthy 28 FW John Aloisi 29 DF Sam Shilton 30 DF Barry Quinn 31 MF Chris Barnett 32 MF John Eustace 33 DF Mark Burrows 34 DF Richard Colwell 35 FW Martin Devaney 36 DF Jamie Williams 37 FW Craig Faulconbridge 38 DF Barry Prenderville 39 MF Rob Miller 40 FW Gary McSheffrey 41 MF Craig Strachan 42 FW Chukki Eribenne 43 GK Chris Kirkland 44 DF Craig Pead 45 DF Gerard Mooney 46 FW Stephen McPhee

Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 9 FW Dion Dublin (to Aston Villa) 9 FW Darren Jackson (on loan from Celtic)

No. Position Player 13 DF Jean-Guy Wallemme (to Sochaux) 22 FW Simon Haworth (to Wigan Athletic)

Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player - GK Morten Hyldgaard - DF Barry Ferguson

No. Position Player - MF Robert Betts - MF Daire Doyle

Transfers

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
4 June 1998	DF	Jean-Guy Wallemme	RC Lens	Undisclosed
1 August 1998	DF	Robert Jarni	Real Betis	£2,600,000
7 August 1998	FW	Paul Hall	Portsmouth	£300,000
26 August 1998	DF	Marc Edworthy	Crystal Palace	£1,200,000
1 October 1998	MF	Steve Froggatt	Wolverhampton Wanderers	£1,900,000
12 October 1998	MF	Laurent Delorge	Gent	£1,250,000
17 December 1998	FW	John Aloisi	Portsmouth	£650,000
30 December 1998	GK	Morten Hyldgaard	Ikast FS	£200,000
13 January 1999	DF	Muhamed Konjić	AS Monaco	£2,000,000
28 May 1999	MF	Youssef Chippo	Porto	£1,200,000

Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee
8 July 1998	MF	John Salako	Fulham	Free transfer
16 July 1998	FW	Viorel Moldovan	Fenerbahçe	£4,000,000
15 August 1998	DF	Robert Jarni	Real Madrid	£3,400,000
2 October 1998	FW	Simon Haworth	Wigan Athletic	£600,000
5 November 1998	FW	Dion Dublin	Aston Villa	£5,750,000
30 December 1998	DF	Jean-Guy Wallemme	Sochaux	£400,000

Transfers in: £11,300,000

Transfers out: £14,150,000

Total spending: £2,850,000

References

1. Culley, Jon (6 November 1998). "Football: Villa win race for £5.75m Dublin". The Independent. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
2. "'Detonator' breaks bank at Coventry". The Guardian. 20 July 1999. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
3. http://www.statto.com/football/teams/coventry-city/1998-1999/results
4. http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/eng/1998-1999/faprem/coventry.htm
5. http://www.11v11.com/teams/coventry-city/tab/players/season/1999
6. Boateng was born in Nkawkaw, Ghana, but qualified to represent the Netherlands internationally and would make his international debut for the Netherlands in November 2001.