Coventry City manager Mark Robins has told Coventry Live he won’t necessarily be getting the cash generated by the sale of Conor Chaplin to spend on new players.
The former Portsmouth man made a £700,000 switch to Barnsley yesterday, prompting hopes Robins would be able to make a permanent move for Nottingham Forest’s Tyler Walker.
He impressed on loan at Mansfield Town last night and is widely believed to be a target for Robins, but it seems that he’ll only be investigating a loan deal, rather than a permanent move.
Despite the big sale yesterday, the ground share with Birmingham City will limit the club’s income, something Robins has to be aware of.
When asked if he would be getting the money from the Chaplin move, he said; “No, not necessarily.
“I have not asked for that and I don’t necessarily need that. And I have got to be mindful because we have to manage the spend, and obviously moving stadium means we’re going to have a shortfall in revenue, and that’s unknown.
“That’s the thing about spinning plates. We have brought players in and the net spend will be negative and we have got to be like that otherwise we’ll put ourselves in trouble.
“We know what we have sold season ticket-wise now but we don’t know what the following will be to Birmingham. We know the away following is always spectacular but we don’t get any of the revenue from that, so it’s all those things that have a knock-on.”
That has prompted the Nottingham post to suggest any move for 22-year-old Walker will be a proposed loan deal.
Our View
The full impact of Coventry’s ground situation won’t be felt until the season is underway. Quite how much revenue they lose or how it limits Robins will perhaps be evident in the January window, but until then they’re stepping into the unknown.
We can’t see Walker leaving permanently anyway. Forest have sold Jorge Grant, another promising youngster, but they waited until he was 24 before finally conceding he wasn’t going to make the first team.
Walker is younger, he’s been more effective in his loan spell and is probably worth more than Grant as well. He’ll likely be loaned out, but not before new manager Sabri Lamouchi has had a good look at him.
