Coventry City announced the signing of Premier League icon Yakubu in 2017, but it proved a disastrous signing
The majority of football fans will recall Yakubu as a Premier League star who enjoyed years of success in the highest division of English football, but Coventry City supporters will recall something
In a desperate bid to stave off relegation, the Sky Blues confirmed the signing of the large Nigerian striker during the 2016–17 campaign as they were slipping towards the bottom of League One.
Though fans of Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, and Everton will likely have many happy memories of watching Yakubu play, it’s safe to assume that the Sky Blue army won’t. It was a disastrous move.
Yakubu’s signing demonstrated how poorly Coventry was being managed at the time and turned out to be a completely useless move.
After leaving Kayserispor at the end of the 2015–16 campaign, the 34-year-old became a free agent. In February 2017, after more than half of the season had passed with no action from the veteran, Coventry made a move to sign him as they attempted to make a League One survival challenge.
But after going unsigned before moving to the Midlands, it wasn’t long before it was evident why the Nigerian was a free agent and that he was obviously unfit.
The day after signing, he came off the bench for 20 minutes in an away 1-1 tie against AFC Wimbledon to make his debut.
There were two more appearances that were made from the bench.
After making his home debut a week later in a 3-1 loss to Swindon, when he did provide the assist for Coventry’s lone goal of the match, he would play 20 minutes from the bench in a 2-1 victory over Gillingham.
He played just 69 minutes of League One football with the Sky Blues, and those were his only appearances for the team.
He was a proven Premier League striker in the past, but with Coventry he was nowhere near that level and, because of age and infirmity, he was a shell of the player he once was.
After making three substitute appearances, he had a hamstring injury while playing for the team, and his contract was cut short two months after he signed.
His 20 minutes off the bench against Swindon was his last game as a professional football player, and while he appeared to be playing with a ruptured hamstring in the video above, it’s unlikely that anyone involved would remember it favourably.
Even worse, Coventry’s terrible season ended as they were demoted to League Two at the conclusion of the 2016–17 campaign.
In 2003, Yakubu transitioned from Israeli football team Maccabi Haifa to Portsmouth, originally on loan.
After playing for teams like Middlesbrough, Everton, Blackburn, and Leicester City for the next nine years, he took time off to play in China and Qatar.
Though it was evident that Yakubu loved the English game, he had a less successful period in Reading (2015) compared to his time at Coventry.
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