Coventry City Football Club have signed up 10 first-year Academy scholars who will join the City Under-18s squad next season.
Reece Ford, Dan Smith, Konrad Skuza, Chris Camwell, Kyle Finn and Tom Bayliss are the Sky Blues’ own products and have gone through the youth programme, while Ronee Hendricks, Dagry Mantsouga and Jak Hickman are welcomed from West Bromwich Albion. Jordan Thompson is also welcomed from Premier League side Queens Park Rangers.
The players went through their induction at Ryton training ground this week where they met the City Under-18s coach Jason Farndon and were talked through their LFE programme by Head of Education and Welfare Rob Heath.
Academy Manager Richard Stevens, who has witnessed the players’ progression over the years, admits he is excited by the group and also praised the role of Head of Academy Recruitment Carl McNally in helping bring in four players.
Stevens added: “I think we’re bringing a really exciting group of players for the staff to work with next year.
“Four of them have been at the club since they were seven-years old and we’ve taken four from other clubs, three from West Bromwich Albion. It’s the end of their first journey but it is the start of a completely new one.
“They will be going full-time next season and it will present a different challenge to them. It’s taken us a bit of time to get to where we want to get to but it is a really strong group.
“They’re all hungry to be footballers and the personality is a key feature of what we look for when signing young players. As an Academy, with the players we’ve developed and the players we’ve recruited, we can be really pleased. Carl McNally put in a lot of work identifying the types of players we needed and I think the club will benefit from the recruitment process we’ve now put in place.”