Speaking on the Football Daily Sunday Vibes YouTube video, Sky Sports presenter Joe Thomlinson has revealed how highly David Moyes rates Conor Coventry.
West Ham were quiet for large parts of the summer transfer window but in the 10 days prior to it closing the Hammers sprung into life bringing in Kurt Zouma, Nikola Vlasic and Alex Kral, although the latter was almost not required.
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Someone that could’ve been pushing for a place in the matchday squad on a regular basis is Coventry after apparently impressing during pre-season, according to Thomlinson but once Kral was destined for the London Stadium, Coventry was eventually loaned out to Championship side Peterborough on deadline day.
Thomlinson spoke about how Coventry could’ve provided depth in midfield this season.
(24:54) “They nearly didn’t sign Kral because Connor Coventry from the academy had an unreal preseason, like highly highly thought of in the academy in that sort of deep-lying midfield role.
“I know that David Moyes was really tempted just to have kind of Coventry as one of the key sort of backups in that midfield.
“I guess at the end of the day they just thought we can get Kral in on loan, we know the connections that are between the likes of Soucek and Coufal and we’ve had success out of there before so that’s just cost-free basically for them.”
TIF Thoughts on Coventry being close to the first team…
Coventry at 21-years old is potentially coming through West Ham at an awkward time as he has Declan Rice in front of him who plays as the holding midfielder and considering he’s an England international and being linked with £100 million moves, Coventry is not going to dislodge him any time soon.
However, Coventry has already made his first-team debut for West Ham which came in the Carabao Cup and his contract doesn’t run out until 2023, so this season will be a huge one for him and he must impress in the Championship to show he’s ready and good enough to feature in some capacity under Moyes.