Before their first visit back to the CBS Arena, Mark Robins has provided an explanation of Coventry City’s transfer policy regarding Luke McNally and Michael Rose.
The former Sky Blues centre backs have clicked as a team for the first time at Stoke City, where they have helped Alex Neil’s team win 10 of a possible twelve points to move the Potters up from fourth bottom in the Championship to 13th.
The former Sky Blues centre backs have clicked as a team for the first time at Stoke City, where they have helped Alex Neil’s team win 10 of a possible twelve points to move the Potters up from fourth bottom in the Championship to 13th.
When his contract with Coventry expired last summer, Rose moved on a free transfer and permanently moved to the Bet365 Stadium, while McNally, who had a fantastic loan from Burnley during the second half of the season, was sent out on another temporary stint by his parent club after the Clarets were promoted back to the Premier League.
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Prior to focusing on signing Joel Latibeaudiere and Bobby Thomas, who joined for a fee from Burnley following a loan spell at League One Barnsley, Robins had shown early interest in the 24-year-old right-sided centre back, whom City wanted to buy rather than loan from Turf Moor.
“Well, we spoke, but that’s really as far as it went,” Robins said when a
sked how close City came to signing McNally in the summer. Luke and Michael both performed admirably for us last year, in my opinion, and sometimes it’s best for the player to go on. Michael played for us for three or four years. And such was the situation with Michael the previous summer. However, they were both excellent employees of the club; Rosey served there for a longer amount of time and is well-liked here.
CoventryLive put additional pressure on McNally, asking Robins whether Burnley intended to loan the player instead of selling him at a time when City wanted to bring in more long-term players.
During the summer, we travelled along the path we chose and investigated various options. Things seem right sometimes and wrong at other times. You can pursue things, and depending on the situation, they may or may not materialise. The individuals we were considering left, and we focused on what we now had there. Bobby, Joel, Binksy, and Kitch are all excellent players that we brought in.
Conversely, Robins made a suggestion that just because McNally eluded City in the summer doesn’t mean the team won’t try again in the future. After all, he is loaned to Stoke for the entire season and will have to make another decision about his career come summertime.
“The team dynamics changed while Luke was on the team last year, even though he performed really well for us,” the manager said. Furthermore, what is correct at one time could not be at all correct later on, but it might also turn around again. It’s just the way the game is played, but our only objective is to consistently get this squad balanced.
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