“It’s perhaps a surprise” – Shrewsbury close in on Coventry City midfielder: The verdict | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict‘ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Shrewsbury Town are near to completing a move for Coventry City midfielder Jordan Shipley, as per a report from the Shropshire Star.

Shipley, who has featured just 11 times in the Championship all season, has seen his game time decrease this season, following 1370 minutes of second-tier action last time out.

The 24-year-old featured fairly regular the year before that, surpassing the 2000-minute mark during Coventry’s title-winning League One campaign of the 2019/20 season.

Speaking after yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Stoke City, Coventry manager Mark Robins revealed that the Sky Blues had received and accepted a bid for Shipley.

Three of our writers here at FLW have shared their thoughts regarding Shrewsbury as a potential destination for the 24-year-old…

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Chris Gallagher

This would be a very good bit of business for Shrewsbury.

Shipley has had a frustrating campaign for the Sky Blues, with injuries restricting his impact, but the truth is he wouldn’t be in the best XI if he was available. So, whilst he is a good squad option, you can understand why Coventry are open to a sale. Similarly, from the midfielder’s perspective, he will want to go to a place where he can play week in, week out.

However, it’s perhaps a surprise that he would move to a bottom half League One side, as Shipley’s contributions to Coventry at that level in the past proved he is a very good player in the third tier.

So, it’s a deal that Shrewsbury will be desperate to finalise and at 24-years-old Shipley could go on to become a key player for the club in the next few years.

Shipley was a regular figure for Coventry when they were in League One, but it’s safe to say that he’s not exactly made the same impact in the Championship.

A lot of his 27 appearances last season were off the bench but when Callum O’Hare is your competition in the attacking midfield role, then it’s going to be hard to feature a lot.

Having featured even less in 2021-22, it seems inevitable that Shipley will move on to a club that will give him regular first-team football.

At 24 years old, Shipley is at the age where he does need to play regularly to kick on and Shrewsbury could help him do that – they are a mid-table League One club where he could go and start every week, and you’d probably fancy him to make an impact there.

George Dagless

I think it could be shrewd from the Shrews.

Shipley is a good player and is one that has plenty to offer the right club.

He hasn’t had much luck at Coventry in terms of playing time where he has had to be used as a sub and I am not surprised to see him being linked away from the club this summer.

Moving down to League One might be the best thing for him and if he can just get regular starts under his belt once more we’ll soon see his quality.

I think Shrewsbury are very wise to be looking at this one.