Coventry City confirm major exit as Performance Director leaves

Coventry City have confirmed Performance Director Claire-Marie Richards has left the club.

The Sky Blues, who are preparing for their first Premier League season in a quarter-century, made the announcement with a short statement on their website.

It reads: “The Club announces that Dr Claire-Marie Roberts has left her role as Performance Director.

"The Club would like to place on record its appreciation of Dr Roberts' contribution to a highly successful period in the Club's history, culminating in its promotion to the Premier League.

"The club has been through significant change in the last three years and her commitment to developing and enhancing the Club's performance environment has been highly valued.

“Everyone at the Club wishes Dr Roberts every success in her future endeavours.”

That brings to an end a two-and-a-half-year stay at the CBS Arena, having been brought to the club by Doug King in February 2024 to ensure ‘the highest standards in all aspects of performance and preparation for elite football’.

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Dr Roberts, who has a background in psychology, arrived having spent nine years in various development roles at the Premier League and contributed to the club’s recruitment.

Part of her role was working in tandem with Head of Recruitment Dean Austin to make sure the Sky Blues recruited not only the right athletes – but the right personality profiles.

Speaking in 2024 she explained part of her role as making sure ‘we have got decent human beings in the squad that are going to want to develop and play, and don’t have an ego. People who are going to respond well to coaching and be able to meet the psychological demands of the game.

“We can do all the fitness testing and medical testing in the world. Everyone does that and there’s nothing different in what we do from the physical assessment side of things, but we are looking at how we measure character and how we select players on the basis of their psychological profile that’s going to enable us to get the best out of them.”

During her time with City the likes of Matt Grimes, Jack Rudoni and Frank Onyeka arrived at the club and have made a huge impact helping Frank Lampard’s men win the Championship last term.

Another part of her role focused on sports science, including injury prevention, strength and conditioning and nutrition.

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