Coventry City’s stance on 30-something signings ahead of summer transfer business

Coventry City have a relatively young squad, with only three 30-somethings among Frank Lampard’s current roster.

Goalkeeper Ben Wilson and left-back Jake Bidwell are the Sky Blues’ elder statesmen at 32, having both been given contract extensions by Lampard last season, while midfielder Jamie Allen is the next oldest at 30 and is set to stay on for another season after the club triggered an option in his contract this summer.

For several years, City’s transfer strategy has been to sign younger players with the potential to develop into assets that can be sold for a profit. However, Doug King claims that the club has no policy of avoiding 30-something players with little or no sell-on value, and has already revealed that the club actively sought to bring in experienced players last summer.

Here’s what the City owner said about the matter last November, when some fans believed the club needed more experience.

“Listen, we want a team that wins,” he told them. “If we find a player that can mesh it together and they are identified and they have no sell-on value, I have no problem with that at all.” We want a team that works exceptionally well. Among other things, we need to get quality players who can be developed, as we shown in the prior setup. But we also need to understand that it isn’t that straightforward.

“We looked at players in the summer of 2024 who had no sell-on value. We attempted to sign guys with no sell-on value. That didn’t work, and if the manager wants to come knock on my door and say, ‘I’ve looked at the team and I need Robbie from wherever, and he’s going to be the pivot that’s really going to pull this group together,’ that’s fine with me.”

He continued, “Look, we’re not sitting here with some rigid model of whatever it is; we’re here to get out of the most hardest league in the best way possible. Among other things, we’re attempting to do so in a sustainable manner by bringing in high-quality players who we can grow and, of course, move on at some time in order to reinvest and reach where we want to go. There is no rigid model in which Doug says we can’t do that.”