Mark Robins has traditionally shied away from dipping into the free transfer market – the only available means of drafting in reinforcements outside of the two available transfer windows in the summer and January.
There’s a glut of players currently out of work, having been unable to secure new clubs in the UK and across Europe, but managers are often reluctant to take a chance on players who may be used to or demand high wages, will take several weeks to get back up to speed after missing pre-season and might also be without a club for a reason.
However, given the Sky Blues current problems, not least in midfield where the team are struggling to adjust to the loss of Gustavo Hamer – a situation compounded by the news that the influential Ben Sheaf is out injured for a minimum of six weeks – might there be a case for drafting in some experienced back-up?
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“No, I don’t think so,” Robins told CoventryLive, albeit going on to not completely rule out the free market option. “I think we have got to utilise what we have. I think we can look to see what’s out there and always will but with the amount of change we’ve had we have to get everyone in and firing.
“Having an extra body doesn’t always work so look, we will try to use everything at our disposal really, and something out there may just tick a box but at this moment in time we have got to work with what we have, the players that we have, because there’s been a significant change.
“And we’ll find a way. We will find a way. It’s just taking that little bit of time but people have to remember we didn’t have that pre-season to work with everyone, so they have only been together, really, for a few weeks.”
