The players who could leave Coventry City on deadline day
It’s been a relatively quiet mid-term transfer window for Coventry City so far despite a lot of speculative noise linking Frank Lampard with a host of players.
The Sky Blues have made one statement signing with the arrival of Matt Grimes from Championship rivals Swansea City, the 29-year-old midfielder joining the CBS Arena for a reported fee of between £3.5m-£4m on Friday.
As for outgoings, striker Fabio Tavares has been farmed out on loan to League One Burton Albion to get game time while young midfielder Kai Andrews has joined Motherwell in the Scottish Premier to get vital match experience between now and the end of the season.
READ MORE: Frank Lampard reveals players’ reaction to first session with Matt Grimes & why he stayed away from Swansea
Decisions are yet to be made on recalled pair Ryan Howley and Jack Burroughs and it remains to be seen whether they will be redirected on another loan or stay close to home for the remainder of the campaign.
Versatile Burroughs – who has predominantly played as a wing-back/full-back in recent seasons – was recalled from Kilmarnock last month, cutting short his season-long loan to return to his parent club. Since then he’s featured for the Under-21s and was on the bench as an unused sub against Watford.
Howley, meanwhile, who can play in midfield or as a centre-half, has returned from Scottish Championship side Ayr United and also featured in the Under-21s as well as being an unused sub at Swansea this weekend.
Asked what the plan is for the pair, whether they will be re-directed out on loan somewhere else, move on permanent deals or stay close to home and be part of the Sky Blues squad for the remainder of the season, Lampard said: “No decision has been made.”
Asked if he’s keeping an open mind on the duo, he added: “Yes, and it will be a case of what’s best for us and what’s best for them. If they get good opportunities then maybe they can go and play games, which for young players is always great. It will have been good to sit on the bench and feel that today (for Ryan) but there’s no plan for them at the minute.”
The only other players who might be considered for a deadline day exit are goalkeeper Brad Collins, now that Ben Wilson is back to full fitness, although Lampard may well be reluctant to leave himself short just in case the latter has a setback with his knee following several months out injured.
Elsewhere, winger Raphael Borges Rodrigues could arguably benefit from regular games, and a loan spell might speed up his progress rather than getting the odd few minutes here and there from the bench, as he did on Saturday when he went on in the 89th minute at Swansea. But given the fact that Lampard has been short on numbers in training, he may well want to keep the winger in the Sky Blues fold.
