Coventry City transfer news from CoventryLive as Mark Robins opens up on the club’s ‘anxiety inducing’ transfer deadline day
Mark Robins has claimed that Kasey Palmer and his agent “forced” his deadline day move to Hull after failing to be offered a new contract at Coventry City.
The Sky Blues boss admits that while it may “feel” like his side has been left weaker, he doesn’t agree. He also revealed that the club did attempt to get a new player signed in the final 24 hours of the summer transfer window but that it simply didn’t “materialise” on the day.
Asked by CoventryLive to explain Palmer’s transfer for an undisclosed fee, the manager said: “That wasn’t our doing, that was forced through by the player and his agent. He’s in the last year of his contract. With Kasey you understand that as soon as you don’t offer him a new contract, and I wasn’t in a position to offer him a new contract, you know what he’s likely to do and how he’s likely to be. And there’s no point having him.
“He’s been brilliant while he’s been here but it’s just the nature of the beast. And it’s agents that agitate to get moves for their players when they want. We could have dug our heels in, that’s for sure, but to get a fee for him, a player who we got on a free transfer…”
He added: “It really isn’t ideal because you feel a little bit weaker coming out of it. But, ultimately, we’re not.
“Could we have done something else? Potentially, but it just came so late in the window and we had no time to react.”
Explaining the complexities of deals and the importance of getting the right players rather than just adding numbers, he said: “We have to do the work, have to do the due diligence. There were players that we quite like but they have already gone, so we end up in a position like we’re in.
“I think deadline day is something everyone watches and gets excited about. It’s like a spectacle for them. But for us, there’s anxiety there. It’s an anxiety inducing day. People are doing business, others aren’t but the reality of it is that we have done our business early.
“You don’t ever want to be in a position where you do things on deadline day because you get your pants pulled down because there are so many people who get involved and means it costs an inordinate amount of money and you end up in a situation where you are spending far more money than you need to.
“So as a business, we have got to things in the way we can do it because it’s our business model, and that is where we are. There’s still a discrepancy between the clubs and while we’re in a better position, there are clubs who have more money this time. So other clubs are starting to get money and spend money, and be confident doing it. And there are some really strong squads in the division and it gets harder all the time.
“And you have to make sure you do it the way you do it and progress your club in a way that means you don’t get points deductions because you have been chasing the dream.”
Asked directly if the club made any late bids on Friday, Robins said: “We were looking at something but it didn’t materialise, so it wasn’t for the want of trying. Doug’s been brilliant. Dean (Austin) has worked his socks off and what you can’t do is keep going to try to get more and more in because that’s how clubs get into trouble. The supporters have just got to remain really calm and not get carried away by the fact that we’re desperate to get promoted.
“We’re desperate to have a really good team in this division first because that’s the only way you can make the step. And look, if it gets away from us then so be it. But that will be because people will have lost all sense of reality. So we have to remain calm.”
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