‘Missing a trick’ & ‘wouldn’t touch Derby with bargepole’ – Coventry City’s & rival verdicts as transfer plans begin
Coventry City opinion from CoventryLive as we get the views of our football writers covering rival Midlands clubs on the forthcoming January transfer window
While there were plenty of positives from Coventry City’s summer transfer window when seven new players came through the door at Ryton, plans will already be underway regarding what the club needs to do in January.
A poor start to the new Championship campaign for the Sky Blues has brought that more into focus, certainly from the fans, many of whom felt Mark Robins was left short in central midfield, right back and at centre-half where some much-needed experience wouldn’t go amiss
The January window provides plenty of scope to make one or two additions although it is perhaps the hardest window as prices tend to be inflated because it is the middle of the season. Here CoventryLive has linked up with sister titles DerbyshireLive and StokeonTrentLive as Leigh Curtis (Derby) Pete Smith (Stoke) and Andy Turner (Coventry) identify the transfer needs of each club, review the window and who they would pinch off each other for the clubs they cover.
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First up is Derby County reporter Leigh Curtis:
What is your club’s need in the January transfer window?
I don’t think there is any dispute that Derby need a striker after the failure to land one on deadline day. Apart from Jerry Yates, it can’t really be considered a Championship level strikeforce, but credit to Derby because they are finding goals from a variety of sources helped by being incredibly strong at set-pieces.
I suspect there may be some movement in January, but they might have to move a couple of players out to bring players in purely because the club has hit the 25-man squad limit and they have five loan signings. But if they could serve up a forward and just help take the pressure off Yates, who has been excellent albeit without scoring this season, it would just help strengthen their hopes of achieving their ambitions.
What did you make of the summer window?
The only disappointment really was not being able to land a centre forward but that was as much to do with finance and circumstance more than anything else. They liked Ali Al-Hamadi of Ipswich but he ended up staying put. Tom Cannon moved for big money when you take into account the wages and loan fee and that was out of Derby’s reach. And they found themselves competing in the same pool with a lot more financially established clubs with far deeper pockets. However, apart from that, the window was very good. All the signings have hit the ground running. David Ozoh, Ebou Adams and Kenzo Goudmijn has given them a blend of tenacity, creativity and aggression. Kayden Jackson has hit the ground running and Marcus Harness was on the scoresheet last weekend so kudos to Warne and his recruitment team because there have been far more hits than misses.
