The Coventry City model offering Portsmouth, Charlton Athletic, Derby County & Co Championship transfer inspiration
Coventry are soaring a couple of years after they sold Gus Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres for big money. Pompey chief, Andy Cullen, looks at the parallels between where the Championship leaders were a few years ago and where his club stand now.
Coventry City have been lauded as a shining example of the player trading model Pompey are looking to use as a springboard to Championship success.
And Blues chief executive, Andy Cullen, sees no reason why his club can’t replicate the second-tier leader’s recruitment approach as they aim to establish themselves at the level.
Pompey chief: ‘I’ve used the example of Coventry’
Coventry have been a revelation this season under Frank Lampard and are a whopping 10 points clear at the top with just 18 games played so far. The Sky Blues have built on their success last season as they reached the play-offs, only to be thwarted by late heartache in extra time against Sunderland in the semi-finals.
Lampard was successful in keeping the majority of that group together ahead of the new campaign, with that familiarity a cornerstone of their current success.
Coventry are now into their sixth season at the level, after returning to the Championship as League One champions in 2020.
Their player trading in that time has seen some phenomenal success, most notably in the cases of Gus Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres.
Coventry paid around £1.5m to bring in Hamer from Dutch side Pec Zwolle in 2020, with the midfielder joining Sheffield United for £15m two years ago.
Meanwhile, there was an even greater profit margin with Gyokeres, who signed from Brighton for around £1m a year later and moved to Sporting Lisbon for £17.5m two years later. Coventry then benefitted from a share of the proceeds, as the Sweden international moved to Arsenal for an initial £55m in the summer.
Gyokeres and Hamer kickstart Coventry player trading
That huge cash injection was used to fund moves for the likes of Haji Wright (£7.7m), Ellis Simms (£3.5m), Liam Kitching (£4m), Ephron Mason-Clark (£4.25m) Jack Rudoni (£5m), Victor Torp (£2m), Bobby Thomas (£2m) and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto (£1.2m), who’ve proved central to their current high.
Pompey seem a long way from repeating Coventry’s storming progress, but Cullen highlighted they have developed from a similar position to where his club currently stand.
‘Our focus still has to be on the development of up-and-coming players, and we believe we have strong assets who will enable us to go forward in that area.
‘I’ve used the example of Coventry City, where it took some time after promotion to realise player sales, but the results in selling Gyokeres and Hamer for a combined £34m were spectacular and a springboard for their trading model.
‘They were spending £1m, £2m and £3m on players before that and things developed from there.
‘That approach has now taken them to the play-offs and the top of the Championship, because they are now in a position where they’ve kept their assets together.
‘We can get there and are building by having young players come in, with some who may go on as they become more desirable.’