Peterborough United can’t afford to strike a deal for West Ham hopeful Conor Coventry, director of football Barry Fry has told the Peterborough Telegraph.
Move over Morten Thorsby and Yangel Herrera, perhaps West Ham don’t need to splash out on a central midfielder after all.
In 21-year-old Coventry, Hammers boss David Moyes appears to have unearthed a playmaking diamond during pre-season. The Waltham Forest-born maestro is capable of setting the tempo, pulling the strings and breaking the lines in a manner reminiscent of a young Michael Carrick.
Now, we’re not saying Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek should be glancing nervously over their shoulders just yet but, after scoring a well-taken goal against Northampton and then running the show in a 3-0 win at Reading, academy graduate Coventry has certainly given Moyes a welcome headache ahead of the new Premier League season.
Will Conor Coventry get his big break for West Ham this season?
Championship newcomers Peterborough thought about approaching West Ham for the Republic of Ireland U21 international.
But, according to Fry, a series of eye-catching performances this summer means those plans have gone up in smoke.
“Conor has been playing in West Ham’s first team all summer,” said Fry, who admitted last week he had also been priced out of a move for Rangers defender George Edmundson, who joined Ipswich Town instead.
“(Coventry) is a good player and we were thinking of bidding – but then we found out how much it would cost. So it’s not on at the moment.”
Coventry isn’t the only West Ham youngster to catch the eye in recent weeks.
New winger Armstrong Okoflex poured plenty of salt on Celtic’s wounds when he scored in a 6-2 thrashing of his former employers, while two-footed full-back Ben Johnson capped a superb performance against Reading with the sort of stampeding solo goal Michail Antonio would be proud of.
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