Coventry City transfer dilemma issued over £3.5m player - he's been "nowhere near good enough" | OneFootball

FLW's Coventry fan pundit has given his verdict on Ellis Simms' future at the club

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 are facing a big summer following their failure to gain promotion to the Premier League last season under Frank Lampard.

The Sky Blues reached the play-offs with a fifth place finish in the table, but suffered defeat in the semi-final stages to eventual promotion winners Sunderland.

The summer transfer market represents the club with the dilemma of sticking with the team that came so close to the Premier League, or ripping it up and trying to go again with a host of new players.

A lot of business may yet also depend on the level of interest the club receives in their own players, which could dictate incomings significantly this year.

Ellis Simms’ Coventry future addressed after indifferent 2024-25 season

When asked about Simms’ immediate future at the club, given he has two years left on his current contract, FLW’s Coventry fan pundit claimed that he’s been too inconsistent in his second season at the CBS Arena.

However, he believes he is worth keeping in the team and that he’d choose the 24-year-old over his strike partner Haji Wright, if given the choice, despite the American scoring more goals.

“Ellis Simms is a weird one, isn’t he?” Deez told Football League World.

“He had a great first season alongside Haji Wright, and then second season obviously not great, not great under [Mark] Robins for the first half of it and then Lampard comes in and still nothing from the lad.

"He works fairly hard and he creates space for the likes of [Jack] Rudoni behind by leading defenders away, so he’s a very useful player.

“He’s an intelligent striker, but his returns are just nowhere near good enough.

“When he’s on it, he can be great, but when he’s not on it, he looks lazy and uninterested.

“I got a lot more time for Simms than for Haji Wright, but I think it’s looking quite unlikely that we’re going to sell Wright now that he’s injured for the next month or so.

“If Lampard can get the absolute best out of Simms that we had in his first season, then I would absolutely say that we should keep him.

“But I think we missed him in the play-offs - I would have absolutely had him playing.

“I would probably say to sell Simms or Haji, not both.

“I think we absolutely need to keep one of them - my preference would be to sell Haji, but it’s looking unlikely.”

Ellis Simms' Coventry City future may depend on outside transfer interest

Simms’ goal return last season wasn’t as strong as anyone involved with the club would’ve liked, but he still proved a useful part of the squad under Lampard.

Unless a worthy offer arrives, then Coventry could be better off keeping him and hoping that his goal-scoring form returns over the next 12 months.

It’s been reported that the initial fee paid to sign him was £3.5 million, so Coventry should be looking to at least earn a profit in any deal to sell him, if interest is shown elsewhere this summer.

Given how close the team came to promotion last year, this should be a quieter window for the club, as they should look to keep this team together for one more campaign together.