Robins: We’ve got a number of options
“He did great for us last year and we have to move on to other people. While we have had a knock-back on Jake, that’s not the end of the world.
“There are other players out there. We didn’t have Jake the year before and the recruitment department have got a n number of ideas and targets, and that’s only right, and we have to make sense of it and then say, ‘right, that’s fine, we can move on that one but not that one,’ so there are all those things that are going on at the moment.”
So is he confident he can get an alternative left-sided centre-back identified by the club’s recruitment department?
“I am heavily reliant on them, there’s no doubt about it, and as managers we are dependent on our recruitment teams because that’s what they do, that’s what they are paid to do 24/7, 365 days a year,” he said.
“So you rely on them a great deal but we also have our own opinions and ideas on certain individuals, so we will be pressing ahead with others.
“There’s another one we may do in the next few days, but we are looking at trying to strengthen as we always do and obviously that depends on a number of different factors.”
Manchester City’s
Egan-riley has been on the Sky Blues radar for some time.
The 19-year-old defender played 90 minutes for Pep Guardiola’s side against Sporting in the Champions League last season and was also handed his top-flight debut in May in the 5-0 demolition of Newcastle United.
A right-sided centreback and current England Under-19 international was due to report to Ryton yesterday for a medical ahead of signing on a season-long loan.
However, the Coventry Telegraph understands that the teenager is set to join a Championship rival that has just dropped out of the Premier League instead.