Coventry City: Haji Wright and Mason-Clark dilemma could be bittersweet for Robins 

Coventry City are poised to enjoy a fruitful 2024/25 campaign towards the top-end of the Championship after making a host of eye-catching summer arrivals – but that of Ephron Mason-Clark could provide Mark Robins with a real selection headache within his forward line, which contains Haji Wright.

The Sky Blues finished ninth in last term’s divisional standings amid a mightily-impressive charge to the FA Cup semi-finals, where they were somewhat harshly undone by Manchester United on spot-kicks. Indeed, Coventry’s sluggish finish to 23/24 can reasonably be attributed to the energy that was drained from the squad by putting blood, sweat and tears into a shot at improbable cup glory for the first time since 1987, so there is underlying context and subsequent latitude to factor in.

Nonetheless, Coventry have been steadily progressing under Robins’ tutelege for a number of years now and have committed to undertaking an ambitious summer window in order to realise their ambitions of finally returning to the Premier League, which many have tipped them to do this season.

The likes of Jack Rudoni, Oliver Dovin and Brandon Thomas-Asante have all signed, while Mason-Clark is now properly a Coventry player after being bought back in January but loaned back to Peterborough United as per the agreement between the two sides.

Ephron Mason-Clark could be a top signing for Coventry City

According to reports, Coventry shelled out £4.25m to acquire Mason-Clark from Peterborough earlier this year, with Posh owner Darragh MacAnthony believed to have been unwilling to sell the forward without the guarantee of a return clause.

The 25-year-old maintained his fine form in the third-tier of English football after returning to Peterborough for the second half of the previous season. He ultimately finished the campaign with 19 goals and 13 assists across all competitions as Posh won the EFL Trophy but fell short of promotion by losing to Oxford United in the League One play-off semi-finals.

From Dwight Gayle and Britt Assombalonga to Ivan Toney and Sammie Szmodics, Peterborough have a healthy reputation of developing and eventually returning significant profits for players to thrive at Championship level and beyond – and Mason-Clarke has all the ability to do exactly that.

Extremely quick off the mark and technically-gifted with superb 1v1 and creative qualities, Mason-Clark thrives in almost every relevant metric for wingers and is most at home on the left-side of a front three, where he blossomed into one of the most exciting wide players across the EFL while with Peterborough.

Mark Robins will have Ephron Mason-Clarke, Haji Wright Coventry City issue

Now, the conundrum is that Coventry already had a 19-goal left-winger before this summer in the form of Haji Wright. It had felt as though the USA international would feature as a striker for Robins’ side having previously played there in his career, but he was instead entrusted on the left-hand side last term and was one of Coventry’s top performers.

Of course, strength in depth is crucial at this level and Coventry have learned that the hard way in 23/24, but it will prove extremely difficult to leave one of the two on the bench in games.

Wright is a more direct outlet than Mason-Clark and certainly provides more refined goalscoring output after accumulating up a non-penalty xG of 15.2 last year. Then again, Mason-Clark brings more expansion and link-up qualities to Coventry’s possession play, is more assured on the ball and better equipped at taking on opponents and breaking teams down.

Perhaps, it will depend upon who Coventry’s opponents are. Wright may be the best bet in a game where Coventry are not going to see as much of the ball and will need to be more pragmatic and direct in transition, but Mason-Clark suits a ball-dominant approach – and the reality is the Sky Blues will likely have the lion’s share of possession in a lot of their encounters.

Wright’s positional flexibility means he can also play up top and that will probably be an option explored by Robins if Ellis Simms or Thomas-Asante lose form. The beauty of the headache is that the two players will keep eachother on their toes and provide incredible depth, but it may prove hard to keep them both happy.

Careful balance will be required then, if Robins is to avoid a selection headache that most managers would crave turning into a counterproductive one.