FORMER double promotion-winner turned pundit Curtis Davies praised Coventry City’s ‘shrewd’ business in the January transfer window.
Davies achieved promotion to the Premier League with Hull City via the play-offs in 2015/16 and also won the League One title with Luton Town at the start of his career.
The former defender also scored in the 2013/14 FA Cup final for Hull against Arsenal in a career which spanned almost 600 league games.
And Sky Sports pundit Davies believes the Sky Blues have ‘doubled down’ on their attacking options following the loan signings of Romain Esse and Yang Min-hyeok in the January transfer window.
Speaking to BetVictor, Davies said: “What they’ve done in this window is double down.
“Brandon Thomas Asante is coming back. Haji Wright scored recently, they’ve got Elis Simms scoring and they’ve already got Ephron Mason Clark and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto creating things.
“But they’ve added Romain Esse and they’ve added Yang Min-hyeok, which basically means that, whatever goes on in a game and the players Frank [Lampard] has chosen, they’ve always got someone who could come off the bench and make an impact.
“Esse is an excellent player who’s been frustrated and deprived of football recently at Crystal Palace.
“I think that’s really shrewd business by Coventry City and making sure that they keep, well, at least Middlesbrough at arm’s length, because I do think that Ipswich Town are going to come like a steam train.
“They’re flying, but you don’t rest on your laurels. It only takes a couple of injuries to derail your side a little bit.”
Coventry struggled over the festive period as the Sky Blues recorded two wins in eight games from the start of December to early January.
However, Davies does not think the period will define City’s season and believes almost every side goes through a difficult spell during the course of a campaign.
Davies added: “Every team has a wobble at some point. They got off to an absolute flyer but was that going to be sustainable?
“I recall Leicester under Enzo Maresca a couple of years ago, they did the same.
“Teams will get off to a flyer and then they’re going to be due a blip.
“Unfortunately for Frank [Lampard], his blip came around Christmas, when it’s kind of more highlighted because you’ve got four games in 12 days.
“It just happened so quickly that all of a sudden, the 12-point gap to Middlesbrough was down to three points.
“I totally understand why people may be slightly concerned, but I think in football you need to realise how long a season is and put it in context.
“You know, they’re still going over two points per game. They’ve still scored 61 goals.
“Where they are right now, after they lost the play-offs last season, they 100 per cent would have snapped your arm off for this position.”
