Hammer looking to nail it
CONOR COVENTRY is determined to join Declan Rice on West Ham’s academy wall of fame – but knows he might have to look outside the club for opportunities, again.
Hammers midfielder Coventry, 22, spent last season on loan in the EFL – first with Peterborough in the Championship and then with League One’s MK Dons.
He could have spent the last campaign as a bit-part squad player at West Ham, but a summer deadline-day move to Posh was arranged due to the later arrival of Alex Kral on a season-long loan from Spartak Moscow.
“Mark Noble spoke to me last summer and said I should go and see the manager [David Moyes],” Coventry recalled.
“Nobes said that he trusted me, the senior players trusted me and that the staff all agreed. He thought I should stay instead of going on loan.
“So I went to see the manager and he said that
he agreed with that – I would be treated as a firstteam player and be on their schedule. But he was honest with me too that the club were looking at bringing in another midfielder and that it would be best to go out and play games.
“I appreciated him being up front with me so I knew exactly where I stood.”
It was the loan to MK Dons for the second part of last season – playing 22 times as they reached the play-offs – that has given Coventry an extra boost during this pre-season with the Hammers.
He has been involved in the first-team’s games but once again the arrival of another player for his position – Flynn Downes from Swansea for just shy of £10million – has put him in a tricky position.
Coventry said: “As much as I’d love to play for West Ham, at the same time I have ambitions to play for the Republic of Ireland and for that to happen I have to be playing.”