Coventry conned me into believing they’d survive.. they’ll go down for not signing some big, ugly b******s in summer

COVENTRY impressed me so much over the summer — but after all their talk, I now feel like I’ve been lied to. There was so much chat after their promotion about being pragmatic, adapting to opponents — and that meant I tipped them to stay up. Troy Deeney predicted Coventry will be relegated after poor recruitment Credit: Getty Images – Getty Deeney is worried about Coventry manager Frank Lampard’s future Credit: Getty Images – Getty Their start, four Premier League games without a point, or even a goal, is desperately disappointing. They have not backed up their talk from the summer, which made it sound like they were going to follow the lead of Sunderland, Brentford, Fulham or even the Watford teams I played in after promotion. Sign up for the Chelsea newsletter Thank you! The recruitment was desperately poor and it has left manager Frank Lampard with a team every other manager would relish taking on. You look at what Hull have done, or Sunderland last season, and that is the model to follow. They both signed experience, but also some big, ugly b******* who are ready for the top-flight fight. It is not about coming up from the Championship and impressing people, everything you do in that first season has to be all about surviving. And, increasingly, teams have to do whatever it takes. There is no room for nostalgia, some need 13 or 14 new players. When I was first promoted with Watford, at the start of the season there were four or five of us in the starting XI from the season before. Most read in Football SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET UP TO £100 BONUS By the end of the window, it was just me. That is the level of improvement needed. What is most disappointing is it looks like Coventry have come up and decided that they’re going to play, we’re going to do this and that and have nice forwards. The Premier League is horrible, you have to beat up other teams before you even think about earning the right to start playing. It feels unfair to dig anyone specific out, but Matt Grimes encapsulates the problem. He’s a very good football player, legendary in the Championship. But we’re now seeing the reason that people have never taken him in the Premier League. He’s not as mobile as everybody else. It’s not disrespectful, just factual. That is across the entire Coventry squad. They don’t have the pace or the power to compete with the rest of the league. That is the biggest test, the speed of movement and thought everyone else has. You cannot step up and outplay these players, they are better than you. You must make it a fight. A Brighton team without a number of key players steamrolled the Sky Blues at the weekend. I was on the end of some batterings with Watford, but against the big boys, like Manchester City. Brighton, half-fit at that, is a different story — that is a problem. The spending decisions have been hard to work out. Matt Grimes was great in the Championship… but that’s his level Credit: Getty Coventry have lost all their Premier League matches and have yet to score Credit: 2026 PA Media They’ve spent £22.5million on Carl Rushworth in goal, but there is no point having a mint keeper if no one in front of him can stop the shots. Could they have got him on loan for another season, with a clause to buy him if they stay up? And then invested in those ahead of him properly? Could Lampard not have tapped up his old club Chelsea to pick up some experienced bodies from their bomb squad? Chelsea have countless players surplus to requirements. Surely Cov could have moved for someone like Tosin Adarabioyo or Axel Disasi. When we came up with Watford, signings like Etienne Capoue raised the level for everyone and had us all on our toes. I still remember the first training session with Capoue after he arrived from Tottenham, and it was eye-opening. I went nine games without a goal at the start of that first Premier League season, having hit bucketloads in the Championship. Runs like that get in your head, and the Coventry players would be lying if they were to say the fear of not ever picking up a win was not building in the back of their minds. But part of the test is moving past that. After I scored my first, I felt like I was floating. They have to hold on to reaching that moment. For now, I’m not too worried about Lampard. He has done so much for them, it would be foolish to make a change now. But I am disappointed — and all that could change quickly. Comment now