"All eyes are on the Viktor Gyokeres saga" - Claim made on Coventry City's transfer situation in January | OneFootball

The Sporting forward could hold the key to a strong window for Coventry, but his future right now is uncertain

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 have work to do to improve their place in the Championship, and the January transfer window cannot come quick enough to assist.

The Sky Blues currently sit in 18th place, just one point ahead of Luton Town in the dropzone, a fact that will not have escaped the notice of Coventry fans.

Supporters are now eagerly awaiting whether the decision-makers at the club will pull the trigger in the transfer market to bolster the squad for the second half of the season. Survival will be on the line if they don’t act.

We asked our Coventry Fan Pundit, Ryan Murphy, about whether he thinks owner Doug King will provide sufficient funds for Robins to strengthen in January.

Coventry supporter feels Viktor Gyokeres could be vital for transfers

The Sky Blues fan believes that a new central midfielder and a centre-back are vital to success in the second half of the season.

Speaking to Football League World, Ryan said: “In January, I would expect the owner and manager to already be working on targets to get a central midfielder in.

“We’ve been crying out for that, we rely on Sheaf heavily. He is injury-prone, and even with Sheaf fully fit, I still believe we need another midfielder, an experienced head maybe, that can come in.

“And, also, another experienced head at the back, because we’ve got a very young backline that does concede a lot of goals.

“So, I believe two would be the minimum, and I would expect both a central midfielder and a central defender, and at least one of them to be a more senior player.

“But all eyes are on the Viktor Gyokeres saga. Is the Sporting manager going to go to Manchester United? Will he take Gyokeres with him?

“If Man United were not interested, I’d expect another big team to definitely be all over Viktor Gyokeres in the January transfer window, which could mean that big money transfer for him, but also we’ve got a transfer fee percentage in the deal that we sold Viktor Gyokeres to Sporting.

“So, the club might well be looking to see what happens there to see if we get a big windfall of cash to then go and strengthen in January ourselves.

“But, without that, I would still expect us to get at least one in.

“So, yeah, 100 per cent expecting some deals to be done and central midfield is definitely a position that we could do with, possible centre-back as well.”

Coventry may need to find funds elsewhere

As reported by the Coventry Telegraph, Gyokere’s reported £85million release clause from Sporting would net the Midlands club around £6million, but it now seems the club are willing to accept as little as £50million, which would mean a drop to around £3million for Coventry.

Although potentially not quite as much as they had first hoped, £3million is still a significant sum of money to be able to spend towards the bottom of the Championship, and could still help bolster the squad.

However, the same report expects that Gyokeres is more likely to move in the summer rather than in January, meaning that Coventry will be without the windfall this summer and will have to find any funds from elsewhere.

Ryan is correct in identifying experience as a potential pitfall.

Coventry have already shipped 17 goals in just 12 games, an unsustainable rate if they hope to comfortably stay in the division.

The fact that they have the seventh-youngest average squad age feels relevant, and adding some experience to the core of the XI, as Ryan suggests, could be a quick fix to stabilise in the short term.

Who those two figures may be remains to be seen, but it seems likely that Coventry will need to fund any moves without the help of additional money from the sale of Gyokeres.