In Steven Pressley’s second loan move of the day, the former Southampton centre-back Danny Seaborne signed on a short-term loan deal from Championship side Yeovil. This takes Coventry’s number of recognised senior centre-backs up to two, if you consider Jordan Clarke or Jordan Willis not to belong in that category. The 26 year old has participated in two sides’ promotion bids from this division, Southampton and Bournemouth, playing an important role in both sides’ defences so has a strong pedigree.
His season so far has seen 10 league appearances in Yeovil Town’s relatively strong defence, but has fallen out of favour under Gary Johnson in recent weeks with the Shane Duffy and Byron Webster forming a solid duo. Seabourne in fact was a summer target for Coventry but chose to accept Yeovil’s offer given their Championship status and lack of a transfer embargo. Clearly he is a player that Pressley has thought about for a while, rather than panicked into signing after the previous two results. It will be interesting to see how temporary Seaborne’s move is and the implication it has on the first team.
Coming in at 6 foot 3 he offers height to the back line and is left-footed making it seem likely that he’ll take Jordan Clarke rather Andy Webster’s spot in the side. However given that Clarke and Webster are both right-footed it seems to me that either could be taken out of the firing line to make way for our new loan signing. Given Jordan Clarke’s recent defensive lapses it’s tempting to give him the shunt, or move him to right-back and either drop or move further forward Cyrus Christie. From looking at the permutations already we have a few more options in defence and this may be the importance of Seaborne’s arrival.
So far today’s business has been about taking advantage of whoever’s available but there has been a method. Seaborne adds options in defence where there were few previously and Dagnall seems ready-made to aid our pressing game. At the moment we’re still lacking in a couple of areas and in an ideal world we would be able to add a left-winger, a more physical striker and a central midfielder. However that would perhaps be a bit too disruptive, although a left-winger would be the highest priority if I was in charge. Overall though the two moves make sense and should bring some freshness to address a few concerns that we have at the moment.
Sideways Sammy 