Coventry City have splashed the cash since Viktor Gyokeres got his club-record move to Sporting CP of Portugal – and their spending shows no signs of stopping
The departure of the Swedish goalscorer for pastures new has allowed manager Mark Robins – backed by new owner Doug King – to re-invest in his squad in multiple areas.
Fees have been spent on the likes of Everton striker Ellis Simms for an initial £3.5 million, Heerenveen right-back Milan van Ewijk for £3.4 million, Burnley centre-back Bobby Thomas for £2 million and around £1.2 million on Oostende’s Japanese wide player Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.
It is clear to see that Robins has been backed by King this summer, but it looks as though he intends to spend every single penny of the supposed £20 million that was banked for Gyokeres earlier in the summer.
Whilst Simms was thought to be the Gyokeres replacement though, it appears that Coventry were still after another expensive striker to go alongside the ex-Everton man – and it now appears that they have got their man.
Reports from Turkey earlier in the week suggested that out of the blue, Coventry had agreed a fee with Turkish outfit Antalyaspor for their USA international striker Haji Wright.
Yağız Sabuncuoğlu claimed that the fee was €9 million (£7.77 million), with a further €2 million (£1.73 million) in potential add-ons, meaning the deal eventually could total £9.5 million, as well as Antalyaspor retaining a 20 per cent sell-on clause.
The deal has seemingly moved quickly as Lyall Thomas of Sky Sports has now issued an update, stating that the 25-year-old American is now very close to becoming the latest Sky Blues signing.
Thomas has said that Wright has had a medical with the Midlands club, meaning that they are one step closer to landing their new record signing.
Coventry’s current record addition is that of Craig Bellamy, who arrived at Highfield Road in 2000 as Inter Milan-bound Robbie Keane’s replacement for £6.5 million from Norwich City.
But they are set to go above and beyond that figure by over a million pounds – and potentially £3 million should all add-ons be met – when a deal for Wright is concluded.
Wright has certainly had a mixed career so far, having played for five different clubs in Europe already.
He crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 2015 to sign for Schalke, but after scoring prolifically for their second team he didn’t get much of a look-in at first-team level, and in that time he was loaned out to Sandhausen.
Wright signed for VVV-Venlo of the Netherlands on a free transfer in 2019 but after just one goal in 23 matches, he was on the move again – this time to Denmark with SønderjyskE.
Having scored 13 times in 37 outings for the Danish outfit, Wright – who has seven caps for the USA and two goals – was loaned to Antalyaspor of Turkey, where he hit the back of the net 15 times in 35 appearances before signing permanently on a three-year deal.
Wright kept up his good scoring form in 2022-23 by scoring 16 times in 29 matches, which has led to Coventry splashing the cash for his services.
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