Coventry City are within touching distance of promotion to the Premier League and a world of opportunities and challenges
Brian Dick Reach Football Correspondent
13:53, 09 Apr 2026
Christian Purslow
Former Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa chief Christian Purslow(Image: Getty Images)
Christian Purslow has laid out the challenge facing Doug King when Coventry City secure promotion to the Premier League.
That could come as soon as this weekend if the Sky Blues beat Sheffield Wednesday and both Millwall and Middlesbrough drop points, a sequence of results that would confirm an end to their 25-year absence.
As joyous as that would be, planning for the daunting task of staying there would be ramped up and Purslow, who held executive positions at both Liverpool and Aston Villa, has described the scale of the task and the financial disparity the Sky Blues would face.
Speaking on The Football Boardroom podcast, Purslow said: “One of the issues that I think is really weighing heavily at the moment on the top end of English football is the fact that gap between the Championship and the Premier League is so wide, £26million average wages in the Championship, £140million in the Premier League.
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“How do you bridge that in eight weeks after promotion if you're Coventry City? Answer, you probably don't.
“You give it a go but are you going to, in eight weeks, bridge that level of investment You're never going to do that.
“My point is that I think an increased frequency of the same clubs going up and coming back down, these hybrid clubs, it's almost like the Premier League is 20 plus three or four.
“They're called the parachute clubs, they can come up and go back down, listen, there are always exceptions, and Coventry are an exception this year, and Sunderland were an exception last year.
“Just because statistically every now and then somebody achieves the near impossible feat of getting promoted from the Championship with a wage bill that is a third of a parachute club isn't an argument that the system's working. It's an anomaly. It's a fluke.”
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