DONE DEAL SUPER STAR FROM WOLVE ON LOAN WITH OPTION TO BUY PUT PEN TO PAPER
As they struggle to gel with their new-look side, the Sky Blues may need to strike some more deals at the start of 2024
HIGHLIGHTS
- Coventry City’s slow start to the season can be attributed to their radical transformation and big-money sales. New signings need more time to gel.
- Coventry City’s midfield lacks a replacement for Gustavo Hamer, and they may need to sign one or two box-to-box midfielders in January.
- Jake Bidwell, who was a regular starter last season, may want to leave in January as he finds himself as a backup. A versatile player like Tatsuhiro Sakamoto could take his place.
Having undergone such a radical transformation over the summer, it’s no surprise that Coventry City have had a slow start to the 2023-24 season.
The big-money sales of Viktor Gyokeres to Sporting CP and Gustavo Hamer to Sheffield United left the Sky Blues with a mass amount of funds to spend, and Mark Robins’ squad certainly looks different now than it did back in May when they were defeated in the Championship play-off final by Luton.
It’s clear City’s new faces haven’t fully gelled yet, and also Robins may need some significant help in the January transfer window when it opens in two months time.
Let’s take a look at the deals that Coventry need to do at the start of 2024 to make sure they have a dream window.
A new midfielder or two
Coventry’s biggest miss in the summer transfer window was that they did not land a Gustavo Hamer replacement – although they had a lot less time than they did to seek out their Gyokeres successor.
Finding the right player to do all the things that Hamer was able to do will take time to find, and rest assured, Coventry’s scouts will have been looking since the market closed on September 1 ahead of the start of 2024.
Yasin Ayari, on loan from Brighton, hasn’t had a major impact so far, but he is a different kind of player to Hamer in his own right – Robins needs someone who can pass, tackle, dribble and score at a very high Championship level all in one.
Granted, that player will be hard to find, and it may be a case of signing two box-to-box midfielders in January instead of just the one to compensate for that, and getting that depth would be perfect for Robins’ options.
Jake Bidwell to depart
At the age of 30, most Championship players are still at the peak of their powers and will want to be playing football – Jake Bidwell however finds himself on the sidelines at Coventry.
Despite being a regular starter last season under Robins, Bidwell now finds himself as backup to Jay Dasilva, so it wouldn’t exactly be a shock if he were to want to leave tbs CBS Arena in January and the club were receptive to it.
Bidwell wouldn’t necessarily need to be replaced either as Tatsuhiro Sakamoto is a versatile left-footed player who can play at wing-back, attacking midfield or as a winger, so the Japan international could battle himself with Dasilva for a starting spot.
A loanee striker to sign
This seems somewhat of a strange one considering both Haji Wright and Ellis Simms were purchased for relatively large sums in the summer, but Coventry may need a different type of attacker come the January window.
Wright and Simms are similarish strikers in the sense that they are strong but perhaps lack very quick pace, and then there is Matty Godden, who has experience but little pace as well.
If the Sky Blues are going to go back to outscoring teams like last season, then they could do with staying with a two up-front system with Callum O’Hare in behind, but that will mean another option with express pace is needed.
Young Premier League strikers in recent years such as Tom Cannon and Cameron Archer have had successful Championship loan stints after signing in the January window, and this is a market that Coventry need to shop in too – perhaps someone like a Callum Marshall who has scored 13 goals in eight under-21’s matches for West Ham this season so far in the Premier League 2 and EFL Troph
