Aidy Boothroyd – no loan arranger

Having praised his goalkeeper Michael Quirke for his performance against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night, Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd deserves a bit of credit himself for going with the youngster and not making an emergency loan signing after losing both Keiren Westwood and Daniel Ireland to injury.

Those fans who made the trip to the Keepmoat Stadium would have been much happier to see someone who had come through the ranks at the club get his chance rather than a player signed just hours before and who would in all probability make just the one Sky Blues appearance.

Boothroyd has by and large eschewed the use of loan signings in his first season at the club, a positive move when looking back at the sides put out at various points during Coventry’s decade in the Championship, some of which were more than 50% made up of loanees.

Some teams are clearly reaping the benefits of having certain Premier League players on their books of course, whether it be Wayne Routledge at QPR or Paul Konchesky at Nottingham Forest.

Would pushing the boat out when the Sky Blues were well placed in the league before Christmas have made any difference to our fortunes? Impossible to say of course but clearly the funds haven’t been in place and for better or worse City are trying to build a squad of players that are their own and handing opportunities to youngsters.