While the Sky Blues battled to safety at the tailend of the 2007/08 season there were many changes being made behind the scenes to ensure that not only will such a scrap be avoided in the future, but Coventry City also becomes one of the most forward thinking clubs in the Championship.

The elimination of City's financial worries and appointment of a new manager in Chris Coleman were job numbers one and two for Chairman Ray Ranson.

But the vision went much further than that and the men who will bring much of that together is new Performance Director John Murtough.

Sky Blues World caught up with John, who has previously held roles at Everton and Fulham before arriving at Coventry City, earlier this week to discover exactly what he'll be doing and what his hopes are for the Club.

"It's everything non-coaching, supporting the staff both on and off the field," he summarised.

"I'm not involved on the grass with the players, I leave that to Chris, Steve, Oggy and Frankie but I'll be supporting them in every way I can to help them perform and get the best out of the players.

"I'll be overseeing everything from recruitment to medicine, sports science, performance analysis and support with admin. It will be extremely wide and varied."

John has been involved with the Club for the last couple of months but says he had little input in the Sky Blues' relegation battle at the end of the 2007/08 campaign.

"I was more looking to the future. My role includes the organisation of pre-season, planning and preparing for the new training ground where we've got some really exciting proposals.

"We're looking at the structure of our squad for next season and starting to be pro-active in the transfer market; how we can strengthen and develop the squad further with the help of Steve Kean and Andy Thorn, our new chief scout.

"There's lots of planning and preparation and less affecting what occurs on a day-to-day basis in preparation for a Saturday. I'm here to put in place the strategies that will hopefully make everything tick.

"I've had a number of meeting with the senior management and backroom staff and we're putting plans in place to move forward and give the manager an enhanced squad of players to work with. Hopefully over the next few months there'll be a lot of new faces at Coventry City."

So what in John's opinion is required to transform the Sky Blues from a side flirting with relegation into promotion candidates? It's more than just an overhaul of the playing squad.

"There's a number of things," he explains. "We've got a great bunch of lads here and we've actually got quite a small squad in comparison to a lot of teams in the division. But there are definitely key positions that we need to strengthen in.

"We've brought in some fantastic new staff. Andy Thorns - he played with Chris at Crystal Palace and the Chairman at Newcastle and he's got a fantastic pedigree of scouting with Everton and Fulham.

"Mark Howard has joined us as fitness coach after being a member of Sam Allardyce's backroom staff at Bolton and Newcastle. We will also improve our football analysis side of things and bring in one or two developments to help recruitment and pre and post-match analysis."

We will bring you more from John throughout the summer on Sky Blues World. To subscribe for just £3.99 per month click here.