"I'm not convinced" - Coventry City urged to swerve deal for ex-Burnley star | OneFootball

Coventry are interested in the former Burnley winger Anass Zaroury, but our resident Sky Blues pundit isn't convinced he's the player they need.

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…

Coventry City's 2024-25 season ended in heartbreak after defeat in the Championship play-off semi-finals to Sunderland, but they're rebuilding to go again.

The Sky Blues have work to do this summer, with plenty of competition for places near the top of the table, and there have been reports in the French media that they are interested in the Lens winger Anass Zaroury.

Zaroury signed for Lens from Burnley for an undisclosed fee in the summer of 2024, but with Will Still having left the club for Southampton, French newspaper L'Equipe has reported that the Ligue Un club could be open to selling him, which has alerted Championship clubs, including Norwich City and Coventry City, to his availability.

Coventry warned that Zaroury is "not the player we need"

Football League World have spoken to our resident Coventry fan pundit Chris, and he isn't persuaded by this news: "Zaroury is move that I'm not convinced by. I don't think he's the sort of player we need. He had a really good first season at Burnley, the following season not so much when he went on loan to Hull. He didn't do anything particularly special for them, so he went back to Burnley and then to the French league to Lens for about £8m."

"That's a hell of a lot of a fee for a player who hasn't really done much for Lens either; he scored two and assisted two," he continued, "Unless we're planning to sell someone like Sheaf, let Jamie Allen go, or maybe Eccles for a few million, I can't really see where Zaroury fits into a midfield which already has Matty Grimes, Jack Radoni and Victor Torp."

Chris believes that there are areas in which Coventry do need reinforcement, but there are other positions in which this money could be spent: "The sort of money we need to spend on a player like this could just be spent so much better elsewhere. We need a goalscoring striker, we need someone consistently to score goals in this league. We quite clearly can't trust Simms any more, Haji Wright looks like he can't be bothered and we've just sold Luis Binks, and now we need cover at centre-back. I think there are just so many areas that we need reinforcements to recruit for. Zaroury is a good player, but I don't think he's the player we need."

Zaroury's career has failed to find its feet since the 2022 World Cup finals

With Will Still having left Lens, the club could be open to selling Zaroury because, according to reporting from L'Equipe, he's unlikely to fit into the plans of new head coach Pierre Sage.

His is a career which has started to run a little dry over the last couple of seasons. He started in Belgium with Lommel and Charleroi, where his performances were sufficient to get him a move to Burnley in 2022, and he was put into the Morocco World Cup squad for the 2022 World Cup finals as a late replacement for Amine Harit.

But his two years at Turf Moor didn't go according to plan. He was loaned out to Hull City, where he could only manage 12 appearances, and his transfer to Lens hasn't gone as he'd have hoped either. Moving back to England could be a good option for him, but whether Coventry would be the right fit for him is very much open to question.

Championship clubs who aren't in receipt of Premier League parachute payments have to be careful with their spending, both in terms of transfer fees and wages, and FLW's fan pundit quite clearly feels that he would be a gamble that the club cannot really afford to take.