Rookie Coventry City goalkeeper Luke Bell has returned to the club with a glowing endorsement from Gloucester City where he “wowed” the fans with some of his saves.
The 20-year-old development player was recalled by the Sky Blues on Monday, a week shy of the end of his loan spell with the non-league club where he played nine first team games, having joined the Tigers to cover for injured first choice Jared Thompson.
With fellow Coventry Academy graduate Cian Tyler out injured and Frank Lampard’s number one, Oliver Dovin, out with a suspected serious knee ligament injury, Bell has been brought back to provide third choice cover in the goalkeeping department.
And while disappointed to be letting the lad go, Gloucester manager Mike Cook – who came through City’s youth system himself back in the mid-late 1980s when he won an FA Youth Cup medal – is backing Bell to go from strength to strength in his career, claiming he’s the best reaction shot stopper he’s ever seen.
Speaking to CoventryLive, the 56-year-old former midfielder said: “Coventry wanted him back. He wasn’t due to go back until after the game on Saturday when the loan was officially up. But that’s fine and he has done absolutely fantastic for us, been very, very good.
“We are a bit disappointed to lose him but fair play to him, and hopefully he will get his chance over the next couple of seasons.”
Bell joined the Sky Blues in early 2020 from Wolverhampton Wanderers, first joining the the Under-16s before moving to Under-18s from the 2020/21 season. He signed a new one-year contract extension last summer.
Asked how he’s done and how much he’s impressed in his two month spell, Cook continued: “He’s impressed us a lot and been a pleasure to work with.
“In the past we have had Zach Jeacock from Birmingham City when he was 17/18 and he did really well for us and played a few non-league games for us and then got into the England U-18s/19s that season, and so I think he really benefited from his non-league experience, if you like.
“And that’s what we were trying to do with Luke, who has come on leaps and bounds. He has got a little bit more confident in the changing room being around experienced players. Even at our level we have people who have played 200-300 league games, so they know what it’s all about, and he’s been welcomed into that environment and taken to it.”
As for his qualities, Cook said: “I don’t say this lightly, but I think he’s got to be the best reaction shot stopper that I have ever seen from someone taking a very close range shot, header or deflection. He’s made three or four saves over the last six weeks that have been so good that people in the stand have gone, ‘wow, what a save that is!’
“So I would say the biggest compliment is his reaction time to saves from close range. His decision making is very good, handling, basics, fundamentals are all very good.”
He added: “The one thing he probably needs to work on, which he is aware of, is just to get maybe another 10-15 yards on his kicks, but apart from that he’s the full package, I think.”
In terms of Bell’s character, he said: “Yeah brilliant, a really nice lad. It’s not always the case that just because you’re a young lad that you’re going to be walking into the dressing room and be quiet and unassuming. Sometimes they’re not like that at all but he is a very likeable person. His mum and dad came to all the games and I got to know them over the last six or seven weeks and he’s just fitted in brilliantly.
“And if he keeps doing what he’s doing then I am sure he’ll have a very bright future in the game.”
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