ROBINS THINKS BIG ON SQUAD
STRENGTH IN DEPTH IS THE KEY FOR SKY BLUES THIS SUMMER
MARK Robins has laid out his aims to build a bigger Coventry City squad with greater depth this summer.
The Sky Blues boss and his recruitment department are currently working hard to add new faces in a slowgoing summer transfer window so far, not helped by the fact that the club have missed out on two central defensive targets in the last week.
City had hoped to secure the return of Jake Clarke-salter on a permanent deal from Chelsea but the player chose QPR instead after the rival Championship club made a late play for the defender following the appointment of Michael Beale as manager.
Rising Manchester City star CJ Eganriley is another, the 19-year-old development player having been booked in for a medical last week but has opted to move to an alternative second tier side. The England youth international and right-sided centre-half was hoped to be signed in addition to the left footed Clarke-salter, which shows that City are keen to recruit two new centrehalves this summer if they can.
There has been success further up the field, however, with the arrival of playmaker Kasey Palmer for an undisclosed fee from Bristol City.
Asked about squad depth this season and for his thoughts on numbers ahead of a season that will include plenty of midweek matches in order to squeeze them all in either side of the World Cup, Robins told the Coventry Telegraph: “In terms of squad size we are still short at the moment, clearly.
“This transfer window opened on June 10 when players’ contracts run until July 1, which is very strange, and
obviously we have been back in training early so it has been a very strange period of time.
“It’s different to what anyone has experienced before but this is uncharted territory because of the World Cup being in the Winter this year and all the games being front loaded to November 12th, so it’s going to be really interesting. I am going to need a bigger squad and greater depth, that’s for sure, and that’s what I will endeavour to do in this period.”
Providing a transfer target update, Robins said: “We had four players that were identified and lined up because we thought we may only be able to do that number but things may change. But we will work as hard as we can to try to knock things over the line. That’s really what’s happening.”
And hinting that he may be ready to draft in one or two development players hoped to be fast-tracked to the first team, he added: “We’re still working on trying to recruit and recruiting like we do is a balance between bringing in players who can be for the future and those who can be for the here and now.
“But the ones for the future have to be for the here and now as well because we have to accelerate their development, which is why they choose us, so all those things are taken into consideration during this period. So that’s where we’re at.”