Coventry City have taken the Championship by storm in the last few months, and the arrival of Frank Lampard in November has already proven to be a masterstroke.
The Sky Blues are now fifth in the league table, and have been the second-best team in the division in their last six games, winning five and losing only one.
Leeds United remain the only side to beat the West Midlands outfit at the CBS Arena in the Championship since Lampard took over the job, and what had once looked to be an incredibly difficult campaign, has quickly turned into an extremely promising one.
However, the gap to those above Coventry remains large, and they will have their work cut out in the play-offs, if they do indeed finish in the top six, to win a place in the Premier League for the first time since 2001.
Coventry warned over one issue that could arise in the summer
Mark Robins struggled with this Sky Blues team in the opening weeks of the season, and while the decision to sack him came as a shock, it has proven to be the correct decision.
Lampard has been a breath of fresh air and he has managed to scrape results when his side have not played well, while also being able to put teams to bed with the same expansive football that worked with Derby County in 2018/19.
The CBS Arena is a happy stadium once again, and Football League World has asked their Coventry Fan Pundit, Chris Deez, what is the biggest issue facing his club at the minute.
He told FLW: “This is a really hard one to answer. I don’t think we’ve got any particularly big issues at the moment. More issues will arise towards the end of the season or in the summer if we don’t go up via the play-offs.
“We’ve got a fair few players on decent money. I think our top earner is on £30,000-a-week, but Haji Wright’s got to be on around that, same as Matt Grimes. I would imagine Jack Rudoni’s not far off and Ellis Simms.
| Coventry City’s estimated top permanent earners (Capology) | |
|---|---|
| Player | Estimated wage per week |
| Luis Binks | £30,000 |
| Matt Grimes | £25,000 |
| Haji Wright | £25,000 |
| Ellis Simms | £25,000 |
| Brandon Thomas-Asante | £15,000 |
“It sort of ties into another big issue which is going to be losing any of our key assets and whether we’re able to replace them or not. Will Lampard be given all of the money to replace them or not? Will we just be looking at free agents or loans like we have to rely on for years and years under Sisu?”
Chris continued: “There’s still more than likely some money to come in from Viktor Gyokeres, hopefully another few million or so from his release clause. But if we lose the likes of Wright, Milan Van Ewijk and Rudoni, who is definitely going to have teams looking at him by now, as well as Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Ephron Mason-Clark, is Lampard going to be given the funds to replace them like for like?
“Or is it going to be a case of bringing in those free agents, bringing in slightly lesser players and having to develop them up to the ability and up to the levels of the players that we lose? We’re not a huge club. Even back when we were in the Premier League, we weren’t a huge club, paying out the highest wages in the league or anything like that.
“When you’re in a league where teams come down from the Premier League and have parachute payments and can still be offering players £50,000, £60,000 or £70,000-a-week like Leeds and Burnley, it’s hard for us to compete even though we’ve finally got a good owner who is business minded, knows what he’s doing and is shrewd with his money.
“I think that’s really what it’s going to come down to at the moment. I can quite comfortably say, for the first time in quite a long time, we don’t really have any pressing issues right now.”
Lampard must not focus on the future with Coventry
Although there could be a few problems for Coventry if they do not win promotion to the Premier League, Lampard must not focus on these and he has to carry on instilling confidence in his players so that they can have success.
This season looked to be a forgettable one for the Sky Blues, however, the 46-year-old has turned their fortunes around and he has got the CBS Arena rocking once again.
Form is crucial heading into the play-offs and if Lampard can keep his players operating at the standards that they are, then there will be few teams willing to face them over the course of two legs and even less so at Wembley.
Coventry missed out on promotion in the play-offs two years ago, but with momentum on their side, they may just be able to rewrite history in 2025.
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