Robins aims to boost City forward line
MARK Robins is still hoping to boost his Coventry City firepower before the end of the summer transfer window but admits the striker market is limited.
The Sky Blues boss missed out on his No.1 target, Doncaster Rovers’ Andy Williams, after Rovers’ manager Darren Ferguson failed to land his own top target.
Donny are understood to have been willing to let the 30-year-old leave the Keepmoat Stadium to join City if the deal for their replacement centre-forward had come off.
City were also strongly linked with Coventry-born striker James Collins, who opted to join League Two rivals Luton Town instead.
Reports claimed the Sky Blues offered Crawley Town a six-figure bid for the 26-year-old, who signed a three-year deal at Kenilworth Road at the end of June.
Robins admits that the fact that teenage striker Jordan Ponticelli has come to the fore during the pre-season means he’s not panicking in that department, but continues to search for potential recruits.
Asked if he’s looking to bring in another striker, he said: “Well, Jordan Ponticelli has played his way into my thoughts, which was not necessarily the case before we came back.
“And I think I have to weigh things up carefully. I have got until the end of August with this window and if someone becomes available – because there isn’t a great deal out there – that we feel will add some quality to the group then I will look to do it.
“But I have to be careful as well and stay on top of that spend because of financial fair play and all those things that come into play.” Sky Blues Reporter VLADIMIR Gadzhev’s Coventry City career was over the minute Tony Mowbray left the club, claims the Bulgarian international’s agent.
The 30-year-old midfielder has just signed for Anorthosis Famagusta after being released by the Sky Blues this summer, now hoping to re-ignite his domestic and international career.
Gadzhev has signed a two-year deal with the Cypriot First Division side this week, looking to put behind him a disappointing and frustrating 16 months at the Ricoh Arena.
“Vlad’s delighted with his move,” said his agent Porfiris Lytras, owner of Magico Sports whose UK headquarters is in Coventry.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for him at a big club with a good history and decent track record.
“They’ve played in the group stages of the Champions League and Europa League, and we’re really happy with the deal.”
So where did it all go wrong at Coventry?
“Vlad was brought to the club by Tony Mowbray and Vlad is very much a Mowbray-type player, comfortable on the ball,” said Lytras.
“He would say he has soft feet, a technical player who didn’t really get a proper crack of the whip in the end.
“He’s a quality player but some players take time to acclimatise to a different country.
“Only a few years ago he was man of the match when Bulgaria played Italy, playing against Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi in the qualifying group for the 2014 World Cup.
“How many Coventry players from the last ten years can say they’ve done that?”
Gadzhev’s representative also believes the player was a victim, among others, of working under so many managers in such a short space of time.
“I think you have also got to look at the fact that Coventry had four different managers last season and not all of them appreciated a player of his quality.
“But he wasn’t the only player to suffer from the changes.
“He played every game under Mowbray at the start of the season, the first 12 league games and then had a spell on the bench under Mark Venus.
“But Russell Slade came in and he didn’t fit his idea of what football is.
“Maybe League One wasn’t right for him and maybe he would have been better off at a higher level with better players around him.
“It’s a shame it didn’t work out because he came to Coventry – a club with a big history and a good chance of getting promoted.
“Mowbray persuaded him that the club was going in the right direction when he signed in 2016 but the moment he was gone he was finished. It’s as simple as that.”
Asked how the move came about in the first place, he revealed that Gadzhev had joined a Russian Premier League club from Bulgarian side Levski Sofia just before but the deal fell through and the opportunity arose to come to England.
“Tony was looking for a ball-playing midfielder and he watched his video reel, showing his range of goals from 30-yarders to close range and his range of passing it long and short. “He had a 93 per cent pass accuracy rate for the previous three seasons and Tony wanted someone like that in midfield. “He did his research, made a number of calls and brought him in on trial where he was put through his paces and he impressed him.” Lytras insists that Gadzhev is not bitter about his time at Coventry, adding: “He made a lot of good friends and has some fond memories of his short time at Coventry where he was always the ultimate professional, a nice lad who got on with his teammates. “Unfortunately it didn’t work out for him but he was not alone in that last season. But I believe cream always rises to the top and I am confident he can get his career back on track at Anorthosis. “His international career has suffered over the last couple of years and his big motivation is to get back in the national side.”