"Doubled our money" – Claim made on Milan van Ewijk as Coventry City exit nears | OneFootball

Football League World's Coventry City Fan Pundit gives his view on Milan van Ewijk's departure from the club to Wolfsburg.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

As they seek to mount another promotion challenge from the Championship this season, Coventry City are set to sell defender Milan van Ewijk to Bundesliga giants Wolfsburg.

Whilst a deal that will always be a frustrating one for supporters, it isn’t expected to be season-defining for the Sky Blues, and there are perhaps even quite a few positives to come out of it.

Frank Lampard led Coventry to the semi-finals of the play-offs last season, and a top six challenge, at least, is again to be expected for the 2025/26 Championship campaign.

Van Ewijk a great servant for Coventry, but already replaced

Coventry’s recruitment has been very impressive in recent years, with their ability to identify cheap talent and sell it on a very high asking price, as shown by Gustavo Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres’ moves to Sheffield United and Sporting CP respectively.

As much as Van Ewijk has been a good player for Coventry since his move from Heerenveen in the summer of 2023, FLW’s Sky Blues Fan Pundit Chris Deez explains why it is not the end of the world.

Chris believes: “It’s a difficult one with Van Ewijk. He’s a fantastic player and by and large, his time with us has been largely positive.

“He had a great first season, before a difficult start to the second season under Mark Robins, but then picked up towards the end.

“He obviously made that mistake which pretty much cost us the play-offs, but I don’t think anybody really holds that against him because he has been a great player for us.

“He’s been really positive, he seems like a good lad, he comes across really well.

“I would be disappointed if we didn’t already have his replacement. We signed Kesler-Hayden from Villa for around £3.5 or £4 million and he has looked fantastic in pre-season. He had a brilliant season last season out on loan from Villa, so he knows the Championship well and I’m really excited to see what he can bring to the team.

“Also, we spent around £4 million on Van Ewijk, and so if rumours and paper talk is to be believed, we are set to get around between £9 and £12 million, some places have even said £12 to £15 million.

“Even if you are looking at the lower end of that, for £9 million we will have doubled our money and that should hopefully mean we can bring in a couple more recruits over the next four weeks before the transfer window ends.

“It is a difficult one. I would have liked Van Ewijk to stay because he’s a fantastic player and we would have liked him to help us push for promotion again.

“I don’t think hold it against him that he’s leaving as I think he’ll go and do brilliantly for Wolfsburg, and I can only see his career going from strength to strength. I think he has a very high ceiling.

“I am surprised that it’s Wolfsburg because there was Premier League interest from the likes of Fulham, and the likes of Galatasaray were linked, but if a player wants to leave you can’t hold it against them.

“We were happy to see Gus Hamer go off and do well, and the same for Gyokeres, so we will absolutely support Van Ewijk in whatever he does next.”

A sign of good recruitment at Coventry

A sign of a team with their ducks in a row and a good level of alignment at all levels is if they are being proactive in the transfer market, and that has certainly been the case with Coventry.

Anticipating the departure of Van Ewijk this summer, the arrival of Kaine Kesler-Hayden has already filled the void that will be left, and now the funds, if they are to be freed up for further transfer activity, can be prioritised in more exciting, and potentially promotion-winning, areas of the pitch.

Alongside the arrival of Kesler-Hayden, Coventry have also brought in full-back Miguel Angel Brau on a free transfer from Granada, as well as goalkeeper Carl Rushworth on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion.