According to Richard Cawley, West Ham are expected to complete the sale of Conor Coventry to Charlton Athletic on Friday morning after a row involving Sheffield Wednesday.
The sports editor of the South London Press reported on X (11 January) that the League One Addicks had won the race for the 23-year-old central midfielder.
Sheffield Star reporter Alex Miller shared (11 January) that Wednesday’s bid to bring Coventry to Hillsborough is on “life support”, according to a source.
But now Charlton appear to be big favourites to sign for Coventry, who are due to have a medical at the club on Friday (Natasha Everitt).
According to the Irish Independent (11 January), Charlton will pay around £1 million for Coventry.
The right time to leave:
Now is absolutely the right time for Coventry to leave the London Stadium as he is 23 years old, so he is no longer a kid waiting for a chance to break into the first team, but is at an age where he needs to be playing regular football among the senior players.
For a while it looked like he was going to go to the Championship and try to help the Owls’ fight to stay in the division, but on Friday it became clear that Wednesday were likely to miss out on his signature.
Instead, Coventry will stay in London and play for Charlton, who have already strengthened their midfield this month with loanee Tyreeq Bakinson – coincidentally from Wednesday.
Now it’s really only a matter of time before he is signed, it’s no longer a question of if, but when. This frees up some space for the Hammers, although it probably won’t affect the balance sheet too much.