Revealed: How Coventry City almost beat Celtic, Leicester City to Crystal Palace star | OneFootball

The Sky Blues looked to add the Eagles winger to their ranks on Deadline Day

Coventry City were unable to land the services of Jesurun Rak-Sayki from Crystal Palace on Deadline Day amid interest from local rivals Leicester City and SPFL giants, Celtic.

The Sky Blues entered the current Championship season off the back of a successful run to the second-tier play-offs under Frank Lampard, with the 47-year-old now in his first full campaign at the CBS Arena.

After losing out on a return to the Premier League at the hands of eventual promotion winners Sunderland, there is genuine cause for optimism that the West Midlands side can end their long hiatus from English football's elite - a period which will stretch to 25 years by the end of the current campaign.

Lampard has a handful of the Championship's hottest properties and strongest creative forces at his disposal. Yet, amid calls that Coventry needed to bolster said departments for the remainder of the season, they were unable to fend off competition from divisional rivals and those north of the border and land a major transfer coup for the Palace winger, who already has a bulk of previous EFL pedigree.

Rak-Sayki first gained major attention during a loan spell with Charlton Athletic in the 2022/23 season, during which he posted a total of 15 goals and eight assists in 43 League One appearances.

After spending the following season back at Selhurst Park amid limited minutes under Patrick Vieira and Oliver Glasner, the winger spent last season on loan with Sheffield United, scoring seven times and registering a further two assists in 35 league appearances for the Blades as they narrowly missed out on an immediate return to the top-flight, losing the play-off final against Sunderland.

Since returning to South London once more, speculation regarding the 22-year-old's immediate and long-term future away from the FA Cup holders had been rife across the entire summer transfer window, with links to several Championship sides including talk of a return to either The Valley or Bramall Lane.

With clubs getting desperate ahead of last Monday's deadline, it was reported that United, Leicester City and Celtic all held interest in striking a last-gasp deal for Rak-Sakyi. However, none of the aforementioned clubs were able to land his services despite Alan Nixon describing The Hoops as "serious late players" in the transfer saga after it was reported they, alongside Rangers and the Foxes, had submitted loan bids.

The aforementioned transfer guru has since revealed - via Patreon - that the Sky Blues looked to take advantage of those transfer mishaps and acquire Rak-Sakyi themselves in order to add further depth and quality in wide areas.

The potential fee which City were prepared to part with for the winger is yet to be revealed, with Palace now looking to send Rak-Sayki to the Belgian Pro League, with clubs in the division able to do business until Monday 8th September, although that may be on a temporary basis.

Coventry City would have given Frank Lampard a major transfer wish with Jesurun Rak-Sakyi deal

It was reported that a winger was on Lampard's list of priorities heading into Deadline Day. However, a deal for their number one target in that regard clearly failed to materialise.

Some supporters, including Football League World's Sky Blues fan pundit, Chris Deez, were left slightly confused as to why the club then sanctioned a loan move for Raphael Borges Rodrigues, who departed for Wigan Athletic, with the club light on wide numbers if one of Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Ephron Mason-Clark suffer an injury issue.

Rak-Sakyi's previous numbers would have also struck further fear into opposition defenders on top of an extremely potent Sky Blues attack, with Lampard's side by far and away the top scorers in the Championship thus far, netting 14 times in just four games.

Those at the club will surely be monitoring developments given Nixon's aforementioned claim of a potential temporary move to mainland Europe, and it remains to be seen if nothing materialises, whether Coventry make an early move for his services when the January transfer window opens.