Everyone knew there was not an overnight solution to Coventry's troubles, it would take a lot of time and effort to get them into the promised land.
Yet he now finds himself out of a job, with Coventry sitting 19th in the Championship, seven points clear of the bottom three.
Welcome to the cut-throat nature of the Championship or, more accurately, the cut-throat nature of football nowadays.
Ten months is not enough time to turn a club around.
Yes, Boothroyd has overseen a period of just one win in 16 league games, but he has proved in the past he has more than enough ability to turn situations like this around.
Take his spell in charge at Watford.
He guided them to safety in his first half-season, and in his first full season took them to the play-offs and, after victory over Leeds at Cardiff, into the Premier League.
Yes, their spell in the Premier League may have only lasted one season, but it was an improbable one season where Watford fans got the chance to see some of the best players in the world at Vicarage Road.
He also did a decent job at Colchester, who looked well set for a promotion challenge this season before Boothroyd's departure.
If Coventry's issue with Boothroyd is his style of play, they shouldn't have appointed him in the first place.
When you appoint a manager like him, Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis, you know what you are getting.
Strong, robust teams who will pump the ball forward whenever possible, with a tall powerful striker to aim for.
And it all started so well for Boothroyd at Coventry.
Not so long ago they were in play-off contention, but everyone knew their side was not good enough to compete at that level and so it came as no surprise when they slipped down the table.
The Sky Blues are now looking for their tenth manager in ten years. Good luck to Boothroyd's successor.
They will probably appoint someone with a similar ability to Boothroyd, possibly even a worse manager, like Gordon Strachan, Paulo Sousa or Alan Irvine.
Strachan left Coventry under a cloud and could see a return as an ideal way to right the wrongs of the past and rebuild his battered reputation after his much-maligned failure at Middlesbrough.
But none of these managerial suggestions have a promotion to the Premier League on their managerial CV. Boothroyd needed time and has been badly let down by his bosses.
Chairmen should stick by new managers when they go through a tough period, not stab them in the back the moment the going gets tough.
Coventry were set for a mid-table finish, with potential to push on next year, but now any stability has been thrown out the window and the whole club is left in limbo again.
With the spate of sackings in English football showing no signs of relenting, it begs the question: who would want to be a manager nowadays?
Managers get no time at all to put their stamp on clubs, with ex-pros now surely questioning whether they want to enter the mad world of football management.
Not so long ago Boothroyd was touted as a potential England manager of the future, now he has joined a host of talented managers on the footballing scrapheap.
City fans have expressed their anger at his sacking on social networking sites in the knowledge that replacing Boothroyd is likely to do more harm than good.
There should be something put into manager's contracts saying they must stay for at least two years (if the contract runs that long).
Only then will clubs in the Football League get some stability.
If Boothroyd was the right man 10 months ago, he is still the right man now.
Coventry are going nowhere and the board have brought it on themselves.
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