Transfer news from Stoke City after a busy summer across the Championship
Coventry manager Mark Robins is braced for “the most difficult Championship season” as he allows himself an admiring glance at the kind of transfer business done at clubs like Stoke City.
Robins has overseen a busy summer himself after reaching the play-off final in May, where the Sky Blues lost a hard-fought game to Luton Town on penalties – and subsequently saw vultures circle over star men Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer. Striker Gyokeres, aged 25, ended up going to Sporting Lisbon for about £17 million while 26-year-old playmaker Hamer was snapped up by Sheffield United for about £15m.
By deadline day, Coventry had brought in 11 players – including the big money signings of Everton striker Ellis Simms and Antalyaspor forward Haji Wright, who were both also on Stoke’s radar.
A significant amount of business in anybody’s book yet still put in the shade by Stoke, where a thorough scaling back was followed by the arrival of 18 new signings under the watch of manager Alex Neil and technical director Ricky Martin. That includes three deals done in the final hours of deadline day, signing Lynden Gooch from Sunderland, Junior Tchamadeu from Colchester and Sead Haksabanovic from Celtic in moves that clearly caught the eye of other clubs.
Robins told CoventryLive: “You have to do things differently because those (Gyokeres and Hamer) were two of the best players in the division, and two of the best that the division has seen for a long time. So when you lose players like that it’s a big, big thing and then you have the responsibility of building a new squad in a really difficult league.
“We have had to do a rebuild because we weren’t that close. Now we have a little bit more but everyone is doing the same. Just look at Stoke on deadline day, and they have built through the window. They have built really well and the majority of teams have spent really well.
“And then you look at Sunderland who we drew with the other week and people were disappointed, and they ended up winning 5-0 against Southampton. That’s the league and if you’re not careful you can get turned over like that.”
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