Six rising stars from Coventry City who could save the Sky Blues millions in transfer fees

Coventry City have prided themselves on producing homegrown talent over the years, with many Sky Blues Academy graduates progressing to the first team and in some cases being sold for millions.

Callum Wilson and James Maddison are among the most high-profile, while others have stepped up and established themselves as seniors and given good service to the club, such as Lee Burge, Jordan Willis, Gael Bigirimana, Ryan Haynes and George Thomas , for example, who helped City to the Checkatrade Trophy at Wembley.

Fast forward 12 months and Tom Bayliss – later sold for a significant fee to Preston North End – and Jordan Shipley helped the Sky Blues to promotion through the League Two play-offs. More recently, Josh Eccles is the latest Academy success story to firmly establish himself as a regular under Mark Robins.

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The higher you go in the leagues, of course, the harder it is for kids to break through, and game time can be limited for youngsters, some of whom may be sent out on loan to get first-team football, as it was the case for Jack Burroughs and Ryan Howley, who turned out for Lincoln and Dundee respectively last season.

But what about the next generation of young developments who will be fighting for the manager’s attention in the coming weeks, months and years? Here we take a look at six rising Sky Blues stars who are working hard to bridge the gap between development football and the first team.

Luke Bell, goalkeeper

Described as a “gutsy” goalkeeper, Luke trained regularly with the first team, coming through the Academy where he joined the under-15s. He suffered a couple of contact injuries from a dive at the feet of the centre-forwards and bravely went in with other opponents and was described by development coach John Dempster as a “brilliant shot-stopper” who “trained at a good level” with The first team.

Joshua Gordon, centre-back

Standing at 6ft 4/5, this lad has all the attributes to make an imposing and dominant centre-half while also being good with the ball at his feet – a prerequisite for centre-backs these days. Josh played for the Under-18s and moved up to the Under-21s last season.

Elliot Betjemann, box-to-box midfielder

Small in stature, Elliot is a high-energy midfielder who has an eye for goals but can also defend. He is a bit of a free kick specialist and takes most of the free kicks.

Kai Andrews, Attacking Midfield/Number Ten

Kai returned for pre-season last year after his first year as a scholar and “crushed” all fitness scores according to Coach Dempster. And off the back of that, one of the first team players went down with a minor injury and he was called up and really impressed the first team staff, making his debut against Middlesbrough aged 17. It wasn’t a very long appearance, but he got on the field in a championship game. He is seen as the No. 1 midfielder. 10 or attacking midfielder because he can move around the pitch and has good receiving skills which allows him to play in multiple positions. He was rewarded with minutes in the 5-0 thrashing of Rotherham at CBS in March and could feature in pre-season.

Justin Obikwu, forward

Justin was one of the fastest players, certainly from the Academy, so he has the ability to run in behind and stretch the defence. Standing at 6ft 3, he has a physical presence that will help him hold the ball up and bring other players into play. Has the ability to press from the front and make defenders make mistakes. The 20-year-old was loaned out to League Two Grimsby Town in January, where he made 16 appearances, including ten starts, and scored three goals. He suffered an ankle injury towards the end of the season but is expected to be fit to play in pre-season.

Aidan Dausch, center forward

Mark Robins is excited for City’s latest Academy prospect to get a taste of first-team football. The Sky Blues boss handed the centre-forward his second cameo in as many games, sending him on in stoppage time in the closing minutes against Ipswich on CBS, having come on late at Blackburn a few days earlier at the back end of the game . season. And the 17-year-old almost popped up with what would have been a stunning equalizer with a shot that sailed just wide of the top corner, which the manager said would have won him an end-of-season award had it gone in.

“It was a brilliant play because it wasn’t a great ball for him, but he got it out of the air and onto his left foot, so everything he did, the mechanics of that move were really good.” enthused Robins. “It was just the final execution but if it had happened it would have been the goal of the season. The way he moved on it, his first touch and vision to get into space and the execution of the shot – everything was there except the direction of the finish. It’s good, exciting!”

Expect him to be in first-team training this summer to feature in pre-season.

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