Coventry City have made a positive start to the summer transfer window, and the signing of a free-to-leave top flight star would only add to that.
Coventry City were defeated in the Championship play-off semi-finals by eventual winners Sunderland, and now Frank Lampard is hard at work in the summer transfer window to go one better next season.
The Sky Blues have completed two signings so far, with Kaine Kesler-Hayden joining Coventry from Aston Villa in a deal worth £3.5m, after his standout campaign on loan at Preston North End.
His acquisition came after the Sky Blues signed Spanish full-back Miguel Angel Brau, and recently it has emerged that Coventry are set to sign Carl Rushworth, with the goalkeeper joining on a season-long loan deal from Brighton.
Now, Lampard must turn his attention to recruits in forward areas to help boost Coventry’s top-six aspirations, and an out-of-favour Premier League striker who the Chelsea icon knows well would be the perfect signing.
Photo by Michael Regan/Getty ImagesCoventry City must sign Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford after Daniel Farke admission
After Dan Ballard’s late Sunderland goal condemned Coventry to another season in the second tier, fears amongst the fanbase will be rife regarding the future of their prized assets.
EFL Analysis exclusively revealed earlier this summer, via information from our Chief Football correspondent, Graeme Bailey, that recently relegated duo Leicester and Ipswich, like Haji Wright, and could plot a move for the forward this summer.
Coventry fans fear losing Wright this summer, after the USA international scored 12 goals in just 21 league starts last season.
However, after Wright withdrew from the USA’s Gold Cup squad last month with injury, there are fears over his fitness as well as his future heading into the 2025/26 Championship.
As a result, Coventry should target Leeds United forward Patrick Bamford this summer, who is now free to leave the 2024/25 Championship title winners ahead of their Premier League campaign.
Via the BBC, Leeds boss Daniel Farke said recently: “I had a really open and honest conversation with Patrick, which was important,
“But he is a player who needs to be the main man. He needs an arm round the shoulder after some difficult seasons. I was not willing to tell him he was the main man at Premier League level.
“In the second day of pre-season, I got him into my office and told him he is not in my plans for the upcoming season.”
With the door open for a Bamford departure from Elland Road, Coventry must capitalise amid the uncertainty over Wright’s future, and the connection to Lampard is clear given the former Chelsea star’s previous comments on the striker.
Photo by Mark Leech/Offside/Offside via Getty ImagesFrank Lampard knows Patrick Bamford well from time at Chelsea
In their Chelsea playing days, Lampard and Bamford crossed paths when the current Coventry boss was still a key figure in the Blues’ midfield when Bamford arrived at Stamford Bridge from Nottingham Forest as a teenager in 2012.
Although Bamford never made a first-team appearance for Chelsea, he made a significant impact after he joined Middlesbrough permanently in January 2017.
Bamford scored 14 goals in 53 Boro appearances before joining Leeds, where he became a cult hero at Elland Road by playing a pivotal role in Leeds’ promotion back to the top flight.
Patrick Bamford’s goalscoring record for previous clubs, data as per Transfermarkt
In December 2020, ahead of Leeds’ trip to Chelsea, Lampard told Sky Sports on Bamford: “I remember him well,
“He was a young player when he arrived at the club. Clearly he had great finishing abilities and an eye for goal.
“Obviously, it didn’t quite work out for him; that’s probably more due to the competition he faced during that period up front for us.
“I think he should be proud of the way his career has gone; to make different moves and come back and be one of the leading scorers in the Premier League, in a very good Leeds team.
With Bamford now not in Farke’s plans on the back of an injury-ridden campaign, his former Chelsea teammate, Lampard, could be the ideal manager to help Bamford rediscover his best goal-scoring form.
Bamford will be desperate to prove Farke wrong, and he could do that by helping fire Coventry to a top-six finish in what could be the best Championship yet, if the Sky Blues capitalise on his Elland Road exit.