"Worried" - Coventry City concern issued over key January departures | OneFootball

The Sky Blues' fan pundit does not want to see their most important players leaving after Mark Robins' sacking

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...

Football League World's Coventry City fan pundit is concerned about the amount of money that their new manager will be given to spend in the January window, as well as the possibility of key players wanting to leave the Sky Blues in the wake of Mark Robins' departure.

Coventry's season has not gone to plan so far, to say the least, and their issues were confounded by the announcement that legendary boss Robins had been sacked last week with the club in the bottom half of the Championship after 14 games.

The Sky Blues now face an uncertain future, both in the short and long term, with a new manager set to be appointed soon and question marks over the future of most of their squad, given every single player has been signed by the now departed former manager.

They certainly have the potential to be a play-off chasing side, after their respective fifth and ninth-placed finishes in the last two seasons, but for now, need to simply steady the ship and make sure they are not embroiled in a second-tier relegation battle as the campaign wears on.

Coventry fan pundit shares concern over potential January dealings

The Sky Blues have been hampered by numerous off-field events in years gone by, but their latest challenge is a new and massively unprecedented one, given that Robins had been the heart and soul of the club since being made manager in 2017, and led them from the depths of League Two to a penalty-kick away from the Premier League.

There is no telling just how affected the players will be following his sacking, but whoever is installed as the new boss in CV6 will certainly have a real job on their hands to convince the majority of the dressing room that they are a better fit than the 54-year-old to take the Sky Blues back to the top-flight.

Coventry have numerous players that would command sizable transfer fees if they are sold in the new year, and Sky Blues' fan pundit, Ryan Murphy, is anxious that some key players may wish to leave the club when possible, and is worried about the transfer kitty that the potential new boss is going to be given, after we asked him for the concerns he has for the club ahead of the January transfer window.

He said: “My main concern for January would be, how much money are we realistically going to be able to spend for the new manager to make his mark?

“And, are all the players that are currently here that will garner interest, such as Ben Sheaf and Haji Wright, key players, are they willing to stay? Or would they now prefer to go as they are Mark Robins’ signings and might not be fancied by the new manager?

“I'm worried about how many are going, and how many are incoming. As we all know, rebuilds take a long time for the team and players to gel.

“That would be my main concern. We don’t want too many in or too many out.”

Coventry must make a big appointment to keep their players on side

The Sky Blues' hierarchy are in a tough position as they seek to bring in Robins' successor as soon as possible ahead of the busy winter schedule and the January window, and an established, respected manager with pedigree at Championship level would surely go a long way to keeping their existing players happy at the club for the short-term at least.

The likes of Haji Wright, Ben Sheaf and Milan van Ewijk are all usually the first names on the team sheet for Coventry, when fit, and so they cannot afford to lose key players such as those three, as well as players like Ellis Simms and Josh Eccles, if they wish to challenge in the top-half as the season progresses.

Frank Lampard is the latest name to be heavily linked with the job, and while the former Chelsea and England legend may be a big-name boss, he does not boast credentials like Robins' in the second tier, and would certainly have work to do to convince both players and fans that he is the right man to take the club forward.

The Sky Blues are in a pretty volatile situation as it stands, and the manager they do bring in will no doubt be backed once they are confirmed as boss, but will likely be given a pretty short time to turn things around before unrest begins to rear its head if nothing changes in the short-term.

That could lead to a sizable turnover of players in January, and the club facing a battle at the wrong end of the Championship table, which would be a long way from the success they enjoyed throughout Robins' seven-year tenure. This next appointment is probably the biggest managerial decision that the club has ever had to make.