Realistically, does Tyler Walker have a future at Coventry City? | OneFootball

Coventry City’s second season back in the Championship has been one of progression and development, with several players showing promising signs such as Callum O’Hare, Gustavo Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres.

One who fell by the wayside though is Tyler Walker, who is currently not at the Coventry Building Society Arena after joining Portsmouth of League One on loan during the January transfer window.

Having spent time out on loan at a plethora of clubs whilst a Nottingham Forest player, Walker finally left the City Ground in the summer of 2020 after it became clear that he had no future at the Reds.

Quiz: Are these 12 Coventry City facts from this season real or fake?

1 of 12

Coventry played Barnsley on the opening weekend of the 2021/22 campaign

Real Fake

Walker had played 40 Championship matches for Forest in his career but at the age of 24 he was hoping to get regular starts and goals with the Sky Blues and push on.

In a Coventry team that wasn’t always flowing with goals, Walker performed reasonably well in his debut campaign, scoring seven times in 31 Championship outings, but by the time the 2021-22 season came around, manager Mark Robins had bolstered his strike-force with two new options in Viktor Gyokeres and Martyn Waghorn.

With Matty Godden also still around as well, it meant that Walker became fourth choice forward at the club and he rarely started in the first half of the campaign – just three times to be exact – although he did find the back of the net against Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End in back-to-back matches.

By the middle of this past January though, Walker clearly had to consider his future and he jumped at the chance to potentially get more minutes at Portsmouth, who were in need of more fire-power following the departure of John Marquis to Lincoln City.

Robins’ decision to not let Walker feature much has perhaps been vindicated though as in he has only scored once in 15 appearances under Danny Cowley and has only started in nine of those outings.

Walker is finding it pretty tough this season wherever he’s been, and because of his lack of goals this season at both clubs he’s played for, it’s difficult to see him being part of Robins’ squad next season.

Coventry want to keep on progressing and get closer to the play-offs in 2022-23, so they’ll need better than Walker in the final third to do that.

He will be in the final year of a three-year contract though, which may mean that League One clubs will take an interest in potentially trying to snag him on a permanent deal, and that may suit Coventry who could recoup some of the money they paid to Forest to bring him to the club in the first place.