Mark Robins makes Ipswich Town comparison in Coventry City transfer admission | OneFootball

Coventry City boss Mark Robins is hopeful that his team can retain the vast majority of their key players beyond the end of this summer, speaking to Coventry Live.

In the end, the Sky Blues fell well short of the play-offs, with their form during the latter stages of the 2023/24 campaign letting them down in the end.

They may have reached the FA Cup semi-final, but they have missed out on promotion, meaning some of their players may depart beyond the end of the summer transfer window.

The transfer window hasn't opened yet and the season has barely finished, but some of their key first-teamers are already being linked with a move away from the Coventry Building Society Arena.

Ben Sheaf and Jay Dasilva are both thought to be attracting interest from other clubs - and Callum O'Hare seems destined to leave the club on the expiration of his contract this summer.

Following last summer's departures of Viktor Gyokeres and Gus Hamer, Robins will be keen to keep hold of the vast majority of his key stars, even if O'Hare's exit is inevitable.

Coventry City: Mark Robins makes Ipswich Town comparison

Robins will be keen to secure another promotion sooner rather than later with the calibre of players he has at his disposal.

Asked whether he's hopeful of retaining his key players, with the exception of O'Hare, he said: "Yes, absolutely I’m hopeful because if you want to build and do better, as Ipswich have shown, if you keep the same players together for a couple or three years then it stands you in good stead.

"You have to achieve during that time, and this team has achieved some great things this year. The FA Cup is the standout feature of this season, there’s no doubt about it because we were a fraction away from being in the FA Cup final.

"There are some really good stats and some not so good stats that we have got to improve on. And we will set out to do that. But I am proud of the way the players have galvanised and gone about their job, and whilst there have been difficult times in terms of the amount of games we know we have been up against it.

"We have lost key players at key moments. And hopefully we can keep the majority of the squad together, the players that we want to stay, the players who are in contract.

"And we’ll certainly be strong on that and will try to add to the team where we can to give us a better chance of getting results next season, which we want because we want to be in that top six."

Ipswich Town are a good example to follow

They managed to do this by retaining stability at Portman Road.

Some key players may have come in during the past couple of windows, with Omari Hutchinson and Kieffer Moore doing well during the season, but many others were there before the start of 2023/24.

Leif Davis stayed put, as well as many others including Luke Woolfenden, who has been a rock at the back at times for the Tractor Boys.