There was hope among many Skyblues fans that there would be at least some activity by the club on transfer deadline day. Like most deadline days for Coventry there was no new arrivals, instead there were some departures which can be looked at as both positive and negative for the club.
The club went into transfer deadline day with the special disposition from the Football League to sign players on a one out one in basis. They had already taken advantage of this with the signings of Manset and Webster after early departures. Two more players had left the club in the form of Dunn and Edgenguele which meant Pressley was free to make additions to his squad.
Pressley has been very selective in the individuals he has looked at bringing into the club and his record so far leads me into trusting his judgement. He has consistently stated that an area where he wants to strengthen is out wide. He wants some pace in the team and a pacey winger is exactly what he went out to get on deadline day.
Unfortunately this didn’t come to fruition and City were left with no recruits at the end of the day. It was confirmed by Waggot and later by Pressley that he had tried to sign an unnamed winger from a Championship club. Pressley has not given up hope of signing the winger though and intends to go back in for him when the loan market re opens.
This is positive news for the side and the scope to bring new players in doesn’t end there. Deadline day saw the three remaining members of the aptly named ‘bomb squad’ leave the club. None of the three were sold but instead paid off by the club to get them off of the wage bill.
Malaga, Jennings and Mcsheffery have all now left but at what cost. Pressley has admitted that the stumbling block which prevented the players from leaving earlier was the amount involved in paying the players off. In the end it seems like the club have paid substantial amounts to get these players off their books and away from the club.
This is never a good situation for any club but it seems strange for a club who is under conditions set by the football league due to financial issues that we can pay substantial money to get rid of players. Obviously it comes as no surprise though as nothing ever does with Sisu in mind.
On the positive side of this though it is three players who have left that were not involved in any way in the squad which now frees up some money to allow Pressley to bring in new recruits.
By no means does this now mean we will go out and sign five new players to replace the five that have left but it does give us some more freedom in looking for new recruits. There is the freedom to combine 75% of the wages of the players that have left in order to bring one or two in on higher wages.
Personally I am expecting just the one new arrival in the form of the winger that Pressley is chasing. I think this will take up two of the departing player’s wages leaving the rest free. This then gives the club the freedom to offer the clubs current crop of players new deals to ensure that the club gets a good price for its prized assets such as Wilson, Christie and Daniels if the club ever has to sell which is quite likely.
The other major positives of Deadline day was the fact we managed to keep hold of the likes of Christie, Wilson and Leon Clarke all of which had enquiries made about them. That was a real positive step to see the club reject approaches for their star players.
We have seen it all before where the club will sell off its most promising talent before they fulfilled their potential with the club. For once this may be different with at least some of these current crop of youngsters. Christie has been in and around the first team for a long time now and continues to improve under the guidance of Pressley. Wilson is a little different in that this is his breakthrough season, the real test for the club will be if they can keep him come the end of this season especially if he keeps up this early season form.
It was Wilson again who scored last weekend to give the Skyblues a hard fought point away at Shrewsbury. As a club we have an appalling record when playing away at Shrewsbury which was highlighted last year as we got beaten 4-1. This year though we went there full of confidence and playing with a lot of freedom. This showed from the off as Callum Wilson played in by returning captain Carl Baker went round the keeper and slotted confidently into the open net.
It was a great start after just six minutes and set the tone for another entertaining game. There was chances galore for both teams with last ditch goal line clearances keeping the score at 1-0 until in form Shrewsbury striker Bradshaw levelled the game up. Chances continued to be created by both teams but somehow the scores remained at 1-1 making it the lowest scoring game that City had been involved with this season.
The lowest scoring match before this unbelievably was City’s 4-0 win at Carlisle. It has been a hell of a ride so far this season and this weekend brings about a chance for the Skyblues to give themselves a positive point’s total. City now on minus two would make it 5 unbeaten if they win this weekend and make it 11 points from a possible 18 which is not bad return at all. It is in fact a return which would see them in and around the playoff places if it were not for the ten point deduction.
As each game passes I find myself feeling a little more positive about this season but as long as Coventry are playing away from Coventry that positivity is nullified as the clubs off the field issues continue to come to the fore.
PUSB!!
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