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The January transfer window will be closing soon, and there's one defender that FLW's fan pundit believes will be staying to the end of the season.

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…

Coventry City arrive at the end of the January transfer window in a less certain condition than they've been for much of this season.

The leaders of the Championship have undergone a dip in form which has seen their lead at the top of the table cut to just three points, with Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town keeping the heat on them.

One area that manager Frank Lampard may look to strengthen at the end of this window is his defence.

The Sky Blues haven't kept a clean sheet in the League since Boxing Day, a run of six games, and further strengthening may help his team's cause over the final third of the season.

But to make such changes may require moving players on in order to accommodate them, and one player who's attracted a headline or two in 2026 has been Bobby Thomas, who was sent off at the end of their 3-2 defeat at Birmingham City on January 4, and has been linked with a possible to move to the Premier League, with West Ham United and Everton both reportedly interested in him.

Bobby Thomas backed to stay and help Coventry City promotion push

Football League World have spoken to our Coventry City fan pundit Chris Deez about the possibility of Thomas leaving the club by the transfer deadline, and Chris is concerned by Thomas's loss of form over the last couple of months.

"I'd be really very surprised if we lost Bobby Thomas before Monday's deadline, but honestly if we did, I wouldn't be that sad," Chris told FLW.

"He's a fantastic defender, don't get me wrong. Him and Kitching for the first half of the season were incredible, and I don't know what's happened to them over the last couple of months, but they've both completely lost the plot."

Chris is unhappy with Thomas over his loss of composure at the end of the Birmingham City match, which saw him hit out at an opposition player and miss the next three matches.

"What annoyed me most about Thomas was the way he acted at the end of the Birmingham game, when he got himself sent off and missed three games for us and we really, really struggled without him," Chris added.

"Latibeaudiere stepped up, but Thomas is our most natural leader, so that soured my view of him a little bit and I know it soured the view of a lot of Cov fans."

"He is fantastic. He's clearly one of the best centre-backs in the League. I can't blame teams. Everton were linked, West Ham, Sheffield United were at one point, but that's not going to happen.

"We'd surely be looking for at least £20 million for him. I don't think he's necessarily worth that, probably more like between about £12 million and £15 million, but at this stage of the window, the only way you could possibly let him go would be, first of all, to have someone else lined up, and second of all to be asking for at least £20 million for him.

"I don't think he wants to go, because he has been linked away and nothing's come of that. He was linked earlier in the window, so there was plenty of time that he could have made that move and it wouldn't have left us in the lurch as much."

And ultimately, Chris believes that there is no desire for Thomas to leave the club before the end of the window, and that he could write himself into the pantheon of Coventry legends, if he can help to get the club into the Premier League by the end of this season.

"I get the feeling that all parties involved would want him to stay," Deez concluded.

Lampard will want us to stay. The fans for the most part would want him to stay. He's the kind of player we need. Even though he's a bit hot-headed, he's exactly what we need to get help us get promoted, and for everything he's done over the last few seasons he deserves to help get us promoted. He deserves to be one of those players who's idolised in Coventry folklore forever."

Bobby Thomas is a key component of the Coventry City defence, even after Birmingham City mishap

Bobby Thomas has been a hit for Coventry City since joining the club for an undisclosed fee from Burnley in 2023. The defender was a product of the academy at Turf Moor, but was unable to break into the first-team squad, spending spells on loan at Barrow, Bristol Rovers and Barnsley before making the move to The CBS Arena.

Over the course of the two and half years since then, Thomas has become a mainstay of the Coventry City defence, running up 119 appearances for the club in all competitions, and scoring nine goals.

The red card against Birmingham City was a blot on his copybook with Coventry, though it is worth adding that it was the first of his senior professional career, despite having run up almost 200 appearances for all the clubs for whom he's played. He has had a dip in form recently, but this is counterbalanced by the string of excellent performances that he put in earlier in the season.

The matter of whether he leaves before the end of the transfer window will remain an open one until the window actually closes. Coventry City have no particularly urgent need of the money, but if an offer comes in that is way over their valuation for the player, they would be foolish to ignore it.

But Frank Lampard will be all too aware of the importance of retaining the best players he can for the final straits of the 2025-26 season. With in the region of £200 million at stake as a result of getting promotion to the Premier League, any financial gains made in the short-term by selling Thomas would be obliterated, should they fail to get promotion at the end of the season.

As such, it seems most likely that the only way in which the player would leave the club would be for a premium price and with a ready-made replacement lined up. Football clubs can come up with surprises at the end of a transfer window, but as things stand the most likely scenario sees Bobby Thomas at least see out the remainder of this season with Coventry City.