Rumours about Sammy Clingan being pursued by Leeds do not make me happy.
Having already lost King, Westwood and Gunnarsson, along with the departure of a few slightly-less important names, our squad is looking mighty slim. Times are hard, and none of us are expecting to have a Football Manager-style squad to choose from next season, but Sammy Clingan controlling the middle is the difference between a solid Coventry City midfield, and down-right shoddy one.
The annoying thing here is that we’re once again left in a situation where a player of genuine monetary value is entering the final year of his contract, so can pretty much do what he likes. Having to part company with three contract renegades this summer for sod all was bad enough, but it’s not something any club can afford to get used to.
Unfortunately – and here is where I state even more of the bleeding obvious - while this financial instability looms over us, persuading good players to extend their stay here is going to prove incredibly tricky.
So what can we do? Putting finance and any other premature judgements based on Saturday’s game aside, I do think Andy Thorn has it in him to do well for us. I have confidence in him because I think that his approach is the right approach. He’s not a miracle worker though. Lose a couple more names from the squad, whoever they may be, and we’re relying on the injury and suspension Gods to smile kindly on us (and let’s face it, that ain’t gonna happen).
Lose Sammy Clingan, and we’re struggling regardless.
Options:
a) Sell Sammy, get a bit of money into the club and somehow hope we find a suitable replacement;
b) Keep Sammy, and let him go on a free come the end of the season. No money, but we keep a quality player for a year;
c) Persuade Sammy to sign a contract extension so we gain a bit more control on the situation;
Or
d) Find out that Hoffman’s men are well rich, let them buy the club, become brilliant, and have all our good players desperate to sign extensions, whilst we fly up the league on the back of Andy Thorn’s refreshing brand of football and ability to make everyone around him feel wonderful, yet maintain an underlying thirst to succeed.
I choose D, obviously. Unfortunately, I have a sneaky feeling if he doesn't go now, it’ll end up being secret option E: Sammy leaves for pittance in the January window - a rather annoying middle ground.
We wait in anticipation.
In other news, the notion of Clive Platt possibly going to Premiership Norwich made me laugh.
