It's hard to believe that at the start of the 21st century, Coventry City were still an established Premier League outfit - fans of the club will feel like those days were a long, long time ago.

The Sky Blues had been founding members of the Premier League in 1992 but not long after the Millennium came about, Cov had exited the top flight - relegation to Division One came in 2001 after a nine-year stay.

Sadly for Coventry fans, the club have never really been close to getting back to where the once were - their best finish since has been eighth position in the Championship in 2006 but they've spent a considerable amount of time in League One and even a season in the fourth tier.

What hasn't changed though is the amount of prolific strikers that the club have seemed to house over the years - when one leaves they always seem to be replaced by someone who knows where the back of the net is.

Who's the best since the year 2000 though? Excluding Robbie Keane because he scored most of his goals from the 1999/2000 season in the first half of the year, let's look at the top 10 Cov strikers.

At one point in the 2018/19 campaign, it looked like Godden would be another one of those Peterborough striker success stories, but although he ended up with 14 League One goals, only four of them came in the second half of the season.

That's why they were happy to sell to Coventry for £750,000 in the summer of 2019, and in a shortened season due to COVID, Godden struck 14 times in 26 outings as the Sky Blues were promoted via points per game.

If it wasn't for two prolonged spells out with injury this season, Godden may have netted more than the five he has in the Championship this season, but for his exploits last season alone he's deserving of being on the list.

Despite being a fully-fledged Malta international when he arrived in 2006, Mifsud was pretty much an unknown quantity when arriving from Norwegian side Lillestrom in 2007.

Mifsud rose to prominence in September 2007 after knocking Manchester United out of the League Cup at Old Trafford single-handedly with a brace, and he finished the Championship season on double figures as well with 10 goals.

A move to league rivals Bristol City fell through in the summer, and although he wasn't as prolific in the following campaign, the Maltese striker was still regularly appearing and for his first-season contributions alone he makes the top 10.

There are a couple of loanees on this list that Coventry couldn't keep on a full-time basis, the first of them being Armstrong.

Having gotten some experience for Newcastle United in the Premier League, the Magpies decided to send then-teenager Armstrong out on loan for the 2015/16 campaign to Coventry, where he would link up with another talented youngster in James Maddison.

His spell at the Ricoh Arena may not have ended in a promotion-winning campaign, but the talent was there for all to see - Armstrong scored 20 goals in 40 outings and was named in the League One Team of the Year - unfortunately they couldn't get him back for another year as he was destined for the Championship.

McNulty played at a lower level to anyone else on this list for the Sky Blues, but his impact was astronomical.

The club needed a goalscorer to get them out of League Two in 2017 at the first time of asking, and after a less-than successful time at Sheffield United McNulty was brought in.

He proved to be the man that Coventry needed all along - the Scot scored 23 league goals in 42 games and put in a man of the match performance in the play-off final at Wembley against Exeter City.

McNulty didn't stick around for the League One campaign - Reading were suitably impressed by his record and signed him in 2018, but he was to be a big flop for the Royals.

It may be a bit harsh that Bellamy is down this list having been the only one to feature for Cov in the Premier League, but his goal record wasn't anything special.

He was however a very talented forward and became the club-record signing in 2000 to replace Robbie Keane, although he couldn't really replace his goals as the club were relegated at the end of the season.

The Welshman never really showed his best stuff at Highfield Road, however he has to be respected for leading Coventry's line in the top flight which is why he gets onto this list, despite not being that prolific.

McGoldrick spent just four months at Coventry, but his impact was impressive indeed.

Having fallen out of favour at Nottingham Forest, the striker moved on loan to Cov in August 2012 and in just 22 League One games, McGoldrick notched 16 times.

If the club were able to keep the Irishman for a full season, who knows where they ended up, however because of his record McGoldrick was destined to play in the Championship again, and Ipswich Town swooped in to take him on loan for the second half of the campaign.

That kind of record can't be ignored though, hence why he's so high on the list.

More League One strikers for Coventry that make it high up here and this time it's Leon Clarke, who's almost had more EFL clubs than birthdays.

Due to going on a lot of short-term loans in his career, Clarke had only one double-figure league scoring record in a season before joining Coventry in 2013.

Clarke scored eight times in 11 games for the rest of that season and he started the 2013/14 campaign in hot form alongside Callum Wilson, netting 15 times in 23 League One games.

That was always going to bring transfer interest and in January 2014, his former club Wolves swooped in a £750,000 deal.

Clarke had more prolific spells in the coming years, but Coventry fans will certainly remember all his goals for them.

If Wilson's goals came for Cov in the Championship, he would probably be top of this list and he's certainly one of the most successful players to come out of the club's academy.

Wilson made his senior breakthrough in the 2012/13 campaign, but it was the following season where he really made an impact, forming a prolific partnership with Leon Clarke for the first half of the season.

Wilson ended the season with 21 goals in 37 games, sweeping up the club's awards but lack of promotion to the Championship meant someone was always coming in for him, and he departed for Bournemouth for £3 million - a place where he went on to score many, many goals and make them a lot of money.

Putting aside Hughes' personal life after he left Coventry, he was a really good striker and that's why he moved teams for millions of pounds a few times.

Needing a striker to fire them back to the Premiership, Coventry paid £5,000,001 to bring Hughes to Highfield Road having scored 79 goals in 156 games for West Brom.

Hughes netted 14 times for the Sky Blues in his one season with the club, but his goals weren't enough to get them back to the top flight - West Brom came back in for him just one year after selling him following their own promotion and obviously things went downhill for him after that.

But there's no denying he was a good striker for Coventry - perhaps not the best though.

McSheffrey took a while to settle in the senior setup after coming through the club's academy, but when he did he scored goals for fun.

He wasn't always a striker and for a lot of his career he was positioned on the wing, but he was prolific wherever he played.

Between 2003 and 2006, McSheffrey hit double-figures for three seasons in a row, scoring 38 times in 99 games before Birmingham City swooped for him in 2006.

McSheffrey would return four years later though and carried on where he left off, scoring 16 times in the next two seasons.

He obviously wasn't the same player as his first stint, but for all of his performances and scoring combined he has to be at the head of the list.