Coventry City told to sanction shock Haji Wright sale amid Besiktas development - "I'll drive him there myself" | OneFootball

Haji Wright has most recently been linked with Besiktas, citing a damning reaction from Coventry's FLW fan pundit

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Haji Wright has been linked with a move away from Coventry City this January, with Turkish giants Besiktas the latest club to show interest in the USMNT forward.

It has been an incredible season thus far for Coventry City, and with the January window just a week away, key decisions over incomings and outgoings must soon be made.

Frank Lampard has surpassed one year in charge of the Sky Blues and has built upon the strong foundations laid by former boss Mark Robins during his seven-year reign at the CBS Arena.

Coventry remain by far the top scorers in the division and are on track to score over 100 goals in the league should they replicate their form in front of goal in the second half of the season, with the likes of Haji Wright, Brandon Thomas-Asante, Ellis Simms, Ephron Mason-Clark, and Victor Torp all contributing to that impressive display.

USMNT international Wright has been linked away from the club in recent weeks, with rumours of West Ham tracking the forward emerging, whilst Turkish giants Besiktas have been the most recent club linked with the 27-year-old.

Wright has scored eight goals and grabbed one assist in 18 league appearances so far this season, and is well on track to hit double digits for the fifth consecutive season, and his third for Coventry, yet may not have the chance to do so amid recent rumours of a switch to Turkey.

Football League World's Coventry fan pundit, Chris Deez, has provided their damning take on Wright amid his rumoured move to Besiktas this January.

Chris told FLW: "I quite frankly don't care where Haji Wright goes, just as long as he goes. I'd be more than happy to see him leave in January, and wherever he does end up going, I'll drive him there myself just to make sure he goes."A lot of our fans have this idea that he's a great striker. I just, I don't see it. I've never seen it."He scored 16 goals in the league in his first season with us, and then 12 last season. Yes, he was out injured for four months, but still."Currently, this season, he's on eight. It looks great on paper, but if anybody has watched him play for more than 5 minutes, you'll understand what I'm saying."He makes Dimitar Berbatov look like the most engaging and hard-working player of all time. He's so incredibly lazy. He looks great when he's on it, when he can really be bothered - so not like the playoff semi-finals last season against Sunderland."When he can be bothered, sort of like once a month, maybe twice a month, depending on if we're on TV or not, he looked great. He scored that amazing hat trick against Sunderland last season when he came back from injury, and then he did nothing for the rest of the season."He doesn't work hard, he doesn't work for the ball, he has no physicality at all. So seeing Premier League teams linked to him is hilarious. He wouldn't last five minutes in the Premier League; it's far too physical for him."But West Ham and Leeds seem to think he's a good player, so give us £20 million - £25 million, and, as I say, bite their hands off, I'd take him there myself."I'm still furious that we didn't go for Oli McBurnie when he was a free agent. We let Patrick Bamford come and train here and get back to fitness and go to Sheffield United, and now he's scoring goals for them."Everybody laughed at me when I mentioned those two players, and look who's laughing now, because McBurnie's banging them in for Hull, and, as I say, he's a bit part player at Sheffield United, but Bamford's doing brilliantly for them already."I would rather have half of one of those players over Haji Wright. I have never seen him look like he actually cares; he just looks disinterested, looks like he doesn't want to be there."He looks like he just doesn't want to play for Coventry most of the time; he looks like he thinks he's bigger than us, like he's better than us. He's not bigger than the club in any way, shape or form."I don't think he'll go on to have a great career, because his stats from before he joined us weren't exactly incredible either. He scored, give or take, a dozen goals in the three seasons before he joined us. He's not a 20 to 30 goal-a-season striker. He's maybe a one or two goals a month."I'm still baffled. I can't get my head around why Frank Lampard dropped Simms when he was in such good form for Haji, and since he's come back into the team, he has proven me right again and again and again. He offers nothing."

Haji Wright has a strong goalscoring record since his move to Coventry City, though Premier League doubts remain

Since his £7.7 million arrival from Turkish side Antalyaspor in the summer of 2023, Wright has proven to be a decent force in front of goal.

The American has recently hit over a century of appearances for Coventry, and in that time has scored 40 goals and grabbed 11 assists, directly contributing to a goal every other game.

Yet, despite this fact, and with links to West Ham and Besiktas prominent, there remains an air of doubt as to whether Wright is capable of making the step-up to the Premier League.

Chris shares a fairly damning opinion on Wright, but it's not completely without merit.

Throughout his time with Coventry, Wright has consistently scored directly in and around his xG (expected goals), meaning he is scoring almost exactly at the rate you would expect him to.

If the Sky Blues are to be promoted, their chance creation will likely take a hit upon the jump in level to the Premier League, meaning Wright will therefore almost certainly not hit the back of the net as much as required to keep them up.

Indeed, finding a striker who consistently outperforms their xG for a reasonable fee is no easy feat, though if Coventry are promoted with the £25k-per-week man still in the squad, they must either be brutal and look to replace him, or pray that he can make the required set-up in level.

Lampard has openly stated he is keen to keep him and Simms at the club, saying: "I’m very keen to keep hold of them because they’re two very, very big players for us, amongst others.

"And if we want to do what we want to do this season, we have to keep our best players and look at how can we add to make the squad even more competitive and even stronger."