Steven Pressley has the remedy to inspire hard-up Hearts and Rangers fans

Coventry boss Steven Pressley has used the adversity surrounding his cash-strapped club to get the very best out of his players.

Being sent to Coventry isn’t generally a good thing.

Yet when Steven Pressley leads his City side out at the Emirates on Friday night, his chest will struggle to contain the pride he feels for his young players.

In what is an inspiring tale for fans of his former clubs Rangers and Hearts managed by his old team-mates Ally McCoist and Gary Locke the Sky Blues have drawn strength from adversity.

Forced to play away from home, severely restricted as to who they can sign and lumbered with a 10-point penalty, Coventry have not merely survived, but thrived.

They sit eleventh in League One and would be in a play-off spot but for their points handicap. And on Friday night they will face Premier League leaders Arsenal in the FA Cup in front of a live TV audience.

That is a remarkable turn of affairs for a club forced to offload 19 players in the summer, with just three coming in the other way. It is one Pressley attributes to a simple formula.

“For me, it is all about trying to control the controllables,” he says.

“I’m sure Ally and Gary will have been trying to put over a similar message to their players this season. When you are a football manager, you don’t determine whether your club has to operate under a transfer embargo.

“You don’t determine whether you start off with a minus points penalty because of financial issues. And, in our case, you don’t even determine which ground you play your home games in!

“What you do is deal with what you have got. I got the players together and said: ‘Listen, the authorities have put some restrictions on us. There is no way around that. What they can’t do is stop us being the fittest team in the league.

“‘They can’t stop us being the best-organised team in the league. And above all, they can’t stop us being the group with the greatest unity.’

“That was my message and I got a great buy-in from the players. They seized upon the idea of being positive about what they CAN do. Through their efforts, we have had great results in the league and great results in the cup.

“It is a terrific feeling when that happens. But, of course, I have sympathy for Gary Locke, who is finding things a struggle. There have been some terrific performances from the young Hearts kids, who I know are going to benefit from the run of games they have had this season.

“But it has been too much, and that is down to off-the-field mismanagement in the past, and the continuing failure of the authorities to place controls on the people who run our leading clubs.

“It is a similar story with Rangers. Ally has done extremely well to get the team to the position where they are just now, on top of the league and certainties to be playing in the Championship next season.

“But we are still looking at a situation where Lewis MacLeod, a talented young player who has had a great season, is having to sit listening to someone from the Boardroom tell him he might have to take a 15% pay cut.

“That can’t be right, especially when Rangers fans have rallied round, as they have with Hearts, to buy season tickets and shares. I find it dispiriting to hear these kinds of stories. There is so much that is good about the game of football but it has to get its finances in order.

“I got the job at Coventry, at least in part, because of the work I had done at Falkirk with the Academy kids, and that has been my great pleasure here. Our graduates have given us a great energy and passion and, thanks to their efforts, we now have a tremendous occasion to look forward to on Friday night.

“Arsenal have led the Premier League all season and have done so playing some terrific football. Guys like Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere are excellent to watch.

“Our older fans used to go to Highbury regularly to see Coventry play Arsenal, but for the new generation this experience will be a first. For me it is a chance to pit my managerial wits against Arsene Wenger, which is an opportunity that doesn’t come round very often.

“More than anything, though, I am delighted my young players are going to get to perform on the stage. Aided, of course, by a couple of good Scots in the shape of John Fleck and Andy Webster.”

Bookmakers have dismissed the visitors’ chances, offering prices of up on up to 18/1 on a Coventry victory. The number seems harsh but ‘Elvis’ accepts the logic that lies behind the calculation.

“I think if this was the League Cup maybe two or three years ago, you might have been looking at a scenario where Arsenal would put out a very young team themselves,” he says.

“Arsene sees it as a good way to ease in players he thinks a lot of. It has worked with a lot of them. When you have very young ones like Wilshere, Walcott and Gibbs to bring through, it makes sense.

“Now, though, I think we are looking at a different situation. Arsenal have not won a trophy since 2005 and, for a club of their size, that brings its’ own pressure. They have an excellent side and will see this as a great opportunity, not just to win the tie but to go on and win the FA Cup itself.

“The league title is going to be a hard battle, for sure, when you look at the resources of Manchester City and Chelsea. But they have the right to believe they can beat anyone in oneoff game. For us it is a bonus but what a bonus.”