West Ham are prepared to allow Conor Coventry to leave on loan this summer, despite impressing during pre-season.
The 21-year-old has been given the chance to impress David Moyes this summer, with regular midfielders Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek handed extended breaks following their involvement in Euro 2020.
And Coventry hasn’t disappointed, scoring twice and putting in a consistent show of good performances that led to fans expecting him to be handed first-team minutes throughout the upcoming campaign.
That would’ve made sense given the team’s lack of depth in midfield, with just Mark Noble the only natural back-up for Rice and Soucek, although Manuel Lanzini is being retrained to operate as a deep-lying playmaker this summer.
But having another body to call upon in midfield is crucial as West Ham heads into a Europa League campaign.
However, Football Insider have reported that Peterborough United have made a bid to take Coventry on loan for the 2021/2022 season and the Hammers have told the midfielder he is free to leave this week.
And West Ham fans are understandably upset by this news as squad depth remains precariously thin just two weeks before the new season gets underway, while there was genuine excitement that this would be the season a new academy graduate would break into the first-team.
Here’s what some fans have been saying about the news on Twitter…
were going down arent we
— malik (@flippedPoland) August 2, 2021
I get that Coventry needs regular first team football to progress but at the same time this really doesn’t make sense when we’ve got a thread bare squad and 50+ games next season…..
What is happening at our club??? 🤯— Roy ⚒⚽️ (@Cockneyboy76) August 2, 2021
Jesus, he should be ahead of noble ,, would beat noble to any ball over 5 yards
— Ian Taylor (@tayloriw) August 2, 2021
This has to be a wind-up surely
— jorgo ⚒ (@djorgo_) August 2, 2021
Why? Looked decent against Brentford. Give him a few more games and he should be good enough to provide cover
— apowell94 (@apowell941) August 2, 2021
That’s a stupid decision
— Richard Knott (@RichardKnott2) August 2, 2021
Thats a joke. We need players
— Tommb (@Tommb22) August 2, 2021
The outrage is understandable given the club’s current situation and it’s fair to assume Coventry would be far better off staying at West Ham and providing cover, while playing in the Premier League and Europa League, than competing regularly in the bottom half of the Championship.
The Championship is a very good and competitive league and Coventry needs game time in order to develop but, with West Ham potentially due to play 50+ games in 2021/2022, there will surely be enough opportunity for him to get the valuable experience he needs without having to leave us even more thin in midfield.
Declan Rice was thrown straight into the first team without a loan spell away from the club and look how well that turned out. Of course, not every youth player will go on to become as good as Rice, but he is proof that players like Coventry can develop into top players without being loaned out.
It will be interesting to see how this one plays out but if he is allowed to leave, David Moyes will need to spend money in the transfer window in order to bring in extra cover for that midfield. With that in mind, it just seems like an unnecessary deal to sanction with just a few weeks of the transfer window remaining.
