Even in their wildest dreams, Sky Blues fans couldn’t have imagined things would be going as well as they are, right here, right now, under Frank Lampard.
To say his appointment was greeted by scepticism in some quarters would be something of an understatement, especially given whose shoes he was recruited to fill, and at one point, merely staying in the division would have been regarded as an achievement, never mind challenging for a play-off spot.
There have been some bumps in the road; most notably taking an early lead, but then having the floor wiped with them by Portsmouth, and leading 1-0 at Norwich, going into four minutes of added time, only to contrive to lose 2-1.
However, the positives far outweigh the negatives to this point, and some long-standing demons have been exorcised as well – winning in Swansea for the first time in 75 years, and beating Preston in a league match, which hadn’t happened since September 2007.
How’s he done it? To this untrained eye, by instilling much-needed belief in the squad, working extremely hard, both on and off the pitch, collectively and individually with players to extract every last drop of positivity from them, and that approach is reaping huge dividends at the moment.
An outstanding example of that occurred just last weekend, at Oxford, when they took the lead twice, were pegged back twice, had a penalty saved at 2-2, and yet still went on to win 3-2.
Trust me, as someone that’s watched every game so far, that would not have happened earlier in the season.
Credit must go to Lampard’s coaches Joe Edwards and Chris Jones too – that’s clearly a dynamic that works extremely well, and speaking on behalf of all City fans, long may it continue.
