Coventry City transfer news from CoventryLive as Mark Robins addresses reports that the Sky Blues have been ‘considering’ a move for Matty James and explains the club’s current stance on signing free agents
Mark Robins has revealed that dipping into the free agent transfer market is not an option for him at Coventry City at this moment in time.
It had been claimed that the Sky Blues were “considering” signing former loan man Matty James, with the 33-year-old experienced midfielder currently looking for a new club after being released by Bristol City in the summer. But the City manager has dismissed the report as a “fabrication” and explained that the club completed their transfer business when the summer window shut.
Asked whether the club are looking at any free agents, Robins said: “I don’t think it’s an option. Prior to the window shutting we had a conversation with Doug (King) and Dean (Austin) and that was then shut down. The window, for us, was closed and I have not had any conversations to the contrary since then in terms of free transfers or anything.
“So anything that you may have read is a fabrication, to be fair, because I get brought the players and make a decision on them, ask if they are the right ones for us or at that moment in time. Financially and things like that are not down to me. What type of players we want, absolutely, that’s down to me and then obviously they bring players to me at certain stages and they either progress or they don’t, and that’s how things work here.
“But at this moment in time I don’t believe we are interested in anyone or can do anything. Again, we have got to be careful because there’s only so much you can do in any transfer window and I think we reached that point a while ago, although we were still interested in doing something but it wasn’t to be.
“So you move on and we will probably have to wait until the window opens again, whether that’s in January or at the end of the season, I don’t know yet but we haven’t got to that stage because the summer window has only just closed.”
It’s no secret that City attempted to sign New Zealand international midfielder Marko Stamenic in the summer, eventually losing out to Nottignham Forest, as Robins looked to strengthen his central midfield which has suffered in recent weeks due to an injury to key man Ben Sheaf.
Asked if there’s a reluctance to take free agents because they haven’t played, the City boss suggested it was more down to money, saying: “I think there’s a number of reasons but there’s only so much you can do financially, and we’re at that stage really. Sometimes you have to keep your powder dry.
“But we have a squad of players who are there and need to develop, and we need to start to win games. But anything people have read, people (agents) are busy and trying to find clubs for people who haven’t quite got them yet. And there are some really good lads out there, that’s for sure.
“But as far as we’re concerned, there won’t be any… Or I am not aware that we’re looking to do anything.”
Leave a Reply