Coventry should swoop for Barnsley midfielder with £2 million release clause following Gus Hamer exit: Opinion
With the Sky Blues raking in £15 million for Hamer, they should put some money towards a potential deal for Hungary international Callum Styles
Coventry City fans who got an early night on Friday will have woke up to the worst possible news – Gustavo Hamer is no longer a Sky Blue.
Hamer’s departure may have been somewhat inevitable in the end due to his contract situation, but a transfer window where Cov lost both their top scorer in Viktor Gyokeres and their midfield general was never going to be ideal no matter how much of the money owner Doug King re-invests.
With Gyokeres sold to Sporting CP for £20 million and Hamer’s move to Sheffield United of the Premier League for £15 million, it has given Coventry a whole lot of cash to play with, and manager Mark Robins has been backed with what he wants and needs.
Permanent deals for Bobby Thomas, Brad Collins, Joel Latibeaudiere, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Jay Dasilva, Milan van Ewijk and then the most eye-catching moves of the lot with a £3.5 million swoop for Everton’s Ellis Simms and the club-record £7.7 million agreement for United States international Haji Wright.
Coventry will not stop there though with their spending, as evidenced by their bid for Barnsley’s left-sided defender Liam Kitching that was turned down – believed to be in the region of an initial £2.5 million according to the Barnsley Chronicle.
With Hamer’s departure to Bramall Lane though, a more pressing matter has emerged with a need for a new energetic, creative midfield player.
Whoever that player is has massive shoes to fill and it’s likely that one player alone is not going to be able to make half of the impact that Hamer had last season, but a couple of signings in that area should do the trick.
And with that in mind, Coventry should be heading back to Barnsley – not with another offer for Kitching right now but to bring a new midfielder in in the form of Callum Styles.
Styles broke into the professional game at a very early age with Bury when he was 16 years old, making his debut for the Shakers in 2016 and playing 27 times for them before securing a move to Barnsley, who spotted his talent from an early age.
After returning to Bury on loan in 2018, Styles did not really establish himself in the Tykes’ first-team until the final stages of the 2019-20 season, and despite being a natural central midfielder he found a starting spot at left wing-back under Valerien Ismael in 2020-21.
Styles flourished in that position as Barnsley made the Championship play-offs, but changes in managers during the following season saw him feature all over the park, including more advanced roles on the right wing and the number 10 role.
