Coventry City transfer news from CoventryLive as Frank Lampard reveals the decision behind signing another right winger
Coventry City boss Frank Lampard faces the press at Ryton
Frank Lampard has explained Coventry City’s decision to add a third right winger to the squad following the signing of Jahnoah Markelo on a permanent deal from Swiss club FC Zurich.
The Sky Blues have paid out a reported £4.3m for the 23-year-old Dutch forward who has been drafted in with a view to the longer term future as well as this season once he gets his fitness up to speed.
Lampard revealed that the player has been on the club’s radar for some time and that with “eyes” on him in terms of interest from other clubs, the time was right for City to make their move.
“We’ve been looking at him, as we do, as we try and make sure we make the right moves for the club going forward for the squad as it is,” said the head coach, who hinted that the new signing won’t be involved at QPR this weekend.
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“We know we’ve got two players (Romain Esse and Min-Hyeok Yang) with us in those positions now that are loan players for us so, as I say, we felt it was the right time to make a move for him.
“Adapting to the league as a young player will be a thing for him but we’re here to help him and work with him, and we’ve obviously got high hopes for him and that’s why we’ve brought him to the club.”
He added: “That’s how we felt because the club has to make decisions, not just for at this moment. We know that Romain and Mini came in because we needed them in the squad because of the fatigue over the Christmas period and getting good players in because they’re going to help us.
“And with Markelo, he’s here for us to hopefully help now. We’ve got three to four months of the season left and he we want to get him fit and then he can help us. But we also know that we lose those two loan players in the summer.
“And we know that sometimes young players that come in from different leagues, sometimes if we want them to be exposed to the training and to the league, for the feeling to get settled, and it felt like the right time and the right place.”
As for what he hopes the player will bring to the squad, Lampard said: “He’s a talented player and one that’s been on our eye for a little while now. He’s predominantly a winger but as also been playing as a wing-back, but he’s an attacking player on the side of the pitch with good speed, acceleration, one v one, can create and score.
“He’s a young player who will probably need some time to adapt to the league. He hasn’t played for a little while as well, in terms of proper games, so one he’s one for the future and if you can help us in the short term, that would be great too. He’s fully involved in the group but we just need to get him match fit. He’s a left footed player who can play on the right and he can play on the left as well.”
Asked if Markelo has development in him to be able to step up to the Premier League if City fulfil their promotion ambitions, Lampard said: “Yeah, well, I don’t want to talk about the Premier League but we feel that there’s development in him, sure. The recruitment team have obviously looked at him a lot and I’m obviously in that conversation.
“Of course, recruiting is never easy in bringing players in but we have to look in those markets to try to do good business, and we’ll work with him and feel that he’s a talented player that can help us going forward.”
As for how involved he’s been in the process, he revealed: “We spend time on that. My time is always focussed on the team and obviously this period has been really, really busy so it’s not been easy to do that. But he’s someone that I have watched and the recruitment team have watched many hours of him.
“And I know he was a player on a lot of teams’ radars as well, so eyes were on him as a player. But yeah, my role, the manager’s, the head coach’s role in these things is different to what it was. My role is to do it in the right way, which is be respectful to what the club want to do as well.”
He added: “We trust in Dean (Austin), I’m close to Dean and we talk a lot on the recruitment process. The owner obviously has the final and ultimate say to try and do the right moves for the club going forward. And every position, every individual is different. And I speak about Markelo, who’s one for now and the future.”
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