EFL expert shares ‘powerful’ reason Championship clubs should fear Coventry City next season

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Coventry City could be a force in the Championship again next season, although that may depend on a few factors during the summer transfer window.

The Sky Blues made an assault on the Championship play-offs following Frank Lampard’s arrival at the club, but they fell short in the cruellest fashion when Dan Ballard headed the last ball of the game to see Sunderland reach Wembley.

They will have to rebuild with the likes of Kaine Kesler-Hayden linked to Coventry ahead of the 2025/26 Championship season already, with Milan van Ewijk possibly departing Cov.

As the ‘dust settles’ on the play-off loss for Coventry, they will also be desperate to retain Lampard and rebuild the team, but the Coventry boss could yet depart for Southampton. Irrespective of all the recent noise, though, there are a multitude of reasons to be positive.

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EFL expert Ali Maxwell offers Coventry City 2025/26 hope

EFL experts Ali Maxwell and George Elek of the Not The Top 20 podcast have spoken about Coventry for next season, with Maxwell particularly excited about what is to come after a disappointing end amid a plethora of causes for optimism.

He said: “Coventry’s season ends with them having had a remarkable trajectory throughout the season. A poor start, a slow start, the end of the Mark Robins reign which caught a lot of people by surprise, and then an incredibly strong first few months when Frank Lampard took over.

“And then that culminated in them making the play-offs, despite a not hugely strong end to the season. In these two games, they showed lots of positives. But also, a lack of cutting edge, really.

“Clearly, shot themselves in the foot in conceding on the counter-attack. They must have known that was Sunderland’s main threat in the first leg. Conceding a goal when you know that’s their main threat has to be, kind of, frustrating. Clearly, a huge error from van Ewijk and a set-piece goal.

“There’s no way that either side massively dominated the other here. But Coventry will feel like, the manner in which they conceded, they did let themselves down a little bit here. 

“Coventry fans will be feeling a bit down, no doubt. They would’ve felt like they had a good chance of making Wembley for the third time in three seasons and potentially making the Premier League.”

On next season, he added: “I do think, if you zoom out, I maintain that, of all the Championship clubs without parachute payments — and maybe leaving aside Sunderland as they might be heading to the Premier League — they are still in the strongest shape, I believe, overall.

“I think that there are some obvious areas in the squad that could do with improvement. But I actually think in terms of recruitment, and the general maintenance of their squad over the last three or four years, that they are the standout team.

“They have grown stronger and stronger as a result of that. They have a number of players who are worth some money if they needed to sell — probably no one on the level of [Viktor] Gyokeres and [Gus] Hamer — but ones who could certainly raise some funds.

“I think you’re also looking at — where can they improve? What gaps can they fill? But I think there’s something to be said that this core group of players to get better next season as a group.

“Sometimes just another year of experience, understanding of how each other play, and some changes in tactics can be as powerful as buying new players. So, I’m feeling good about Cov heading into next season, but they’ll be licking their wounds at the moment.”

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Frank Lampard’s Coventry City record

If the Championship season had started when Lampard took charge, Coventry would be fourth in the division. Not only that, but a real kick in the teeth is the fact that they would be nine points ahead of Sunderland as well and just three behind Sheffield United as well.

Cov must use this season as a platform for another promotion push next year, and a record of 1.79 points per game would see them finish on 82 points in a full campaign, which is pushing for the automatic promotion places in the majority of second tier seasons.

It wouldn’t take much for Lampard and Coventry to increase that number closer to 2PPG and make a real push for the top two. It’s a project with plenty of appeal and promise, which other players will know — thus helping to attract them to the club.