RAY Ranson has revealed that Coventry City’s owners Sisu blocked a move to buy England striker Andy Carroll three years ago.
The former Sky Blues chairman says the club also had an option to buy Sunderland’s Jordan Henderson and Chelsea’s Jack Cork after their successful loan spells at the Ricoh Arena – but the board wouldn’t pay out what he insists would have been less than £2 million for all three.
They are now worth in excess of £60 million.
Carroll was sold by Newcastle United to Liverpool for £35 million in January while Henderson is now ranked in the £20 million bracket.
Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are all believed to be pondering summer moves for the winger, who made his England debut last year.
Cork, meanwhile, has been in impressive form during a loan spell with Championship side Burnley, although he is currently back at Stamford Bridge after being taken ill on England Under-21 duty this week.
Ranson also claimed that if he had been given £30 million – the amount Sisu have so far pumped into the club – to spend up front when he led the club’s takeover in 2007, he would have got City promoted by now or, at the very least, to the top of the Championship, as well as buying back half of the stadium.
If he had failed with that sort of financial backing he would have walked away, he says.
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And the ex-City chief revealed that if Gary Hoffman gets major investors to take over the club then he will come back and help build a promotion-winning side.
“If they had given me £30 million three years ago we would have been in the Premiership by now or, at the very least, the top of the Championship, and if not I would have held my hands up,” said the 50-year-old, who admitted that Sisu had asked him to leave at the end of the season at a board meeting two weeks ago, but that he decided to resign instead of staying on in a football advisory role.
“If I had been given the tools, I could have got Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Jack Cork for less than £2 million.
“Andy Thorn had been to watch Carroll when he was on loan at Preston before he had got anywhere near Newcastle’s first team and he thought he was a raw talent who would develop.
“I made an inquiry to buy him and was told they were looking for £700,000 to £800,000 with a sell-on clause.
“We took Jordan on loan when he was on something like £800 a week and we had an option to buy him and I wanted to buy him, as I did Jack Cork, who we also had an option to buy from Chelsea but, again, they wouldn’t do it.
“We could have got the three of them for about £2 million and we could have had a team with Westwood in goal, England Under-21 international Martin Cranie at right-back, Scott Dann, Ben Turner, Danny Fox, Jordan Henderson, Aron Gunnarsson, Sammy Clingan, Jack Cork, Gary McSheffrey and Andy Carroll up front, and you are not telling me we would be still be in this division with that team.
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“The fact is, if they had invested heavily early on when we took over we could have built a really strong side and acquired our 50 per cent in the Ricoh.
"But instead they have drip-fed it.”