A regional daily has taken the unusual step of issuing a front page appeal to the owners of its local football team to sell the club.

The Coventry Telegraph has called on Sisu to put Coventry City on the market, after what it called nine years of “failure” on and off the pitch.

City currently sit bottom of League One, English football’s third tier, after years of turmoil which saw the club relocate to Northampton in 2013 after a rent row with Coventry City Council.

The club returned home in 2014 following a campaign by the Telegraph – but by then council had sold the arena to rugby club Wasps, which granted the Sky Blues a tenancy due to expire in 2018.

In an opinion piece accompanying yesterday’s front page, pictured above, editor Keith Perry wrote: “After nine miserable years of failure and mediocrity and the departure of another executive after less than a year in the job, is there anyone out there who has any faith in the ability of Sisu to bring success to a club that hasn’t had a top-six finish in any league since 1970?

“The rot set in at the Sky Blues long before Sisu took over but the club has sunk to a new low since they plucked it from the jaws of administration in 2007.”

The call comes after the departure of executive vice-chairman and managing director Chris Anderson.

The Telegraph has already won the backing of Guardian journalist David Conn, who posted on Twitter: “Takes a lot for a local paper to condemn its football club’s owners.”

Keith told HTFP: “With the departure of yet another executive, who leaves with the club in arguably a much worse position than when he arrived, we feel enough is enough.

“After spending £60m only to take the club from the Championship to the bottom of League One, the owners surely can’t deny they have failed the fans.

“Time is running out on both the rent deal at the Ricoh Arena and the Academy’s use of its training base, while promotion back to the Championship seems a million miles away.

“We are the voice of Coventry and Warwickshire but that only means something if we use that voice to stand together with and up for the community we serve.”