Coventry City favourite makes Mark Robins demand ahead of potential Viktor Gyokeres transfer boost

Darren Huckerby insists that Mark Robins should be given all of the profits to strengthen his Coventry City squad if Viktor Gyokeres is sold this summer.

The one-time Sky Blues favourite still keeps a close eye on his former club where he made his Premier League name back in the late 1990s, and is keeping his fingers crossed that the Championship outfit will be able to add to the ‘nucleus of really good players’ during the forthcoming transfer window, which officially opens on Friday (June 14).

It’s unclear at this stage how much cash Robins will have to spend but a significant sale or, preferably, a sizeable financial boost from the club’s sell-on clause for Gyokeres could fund several quality signings.

Gyokeres has had an incredible season in Portugal where he’s helped Sporting Lisbon win the title with a stack of goals that have made him the talk of European football and sparked interest with a host of clubs, including top end Premier League sides like Arsenal and Chelsea.

Asked if he thinks the Sky Blues, for whom he made 109 appearances and scored 34 goals between 1996-99, can strengthen and kick on next season, Huckerby told CoventryLive: “Yes, I think they have a nucleus of really good players. It took the forward lads (Haji Wright and Ellis Simms) time to get going last season but they have proved themselves at Championship level now.”

However, the 48-year-old warned: “There are three really good teams coming down from the Premier League and they’ll be among the favourites again next season, so it never gets any easier, but I am sure if Coventry get some more money from (Viktor) Gyokeres this summer, from their sell-on clause, you’d like to think it will be given to Mark Robins.

“I know they faltered a little bit towards the end of last season but I know they will be wanting to push on again.”

Coventry sold Gyokeres for just over £20m last July and are due to earn even more from the player via a sell-on clause, understood to be 10 percent of the difference between what City sold him for and his next sale price. That could be considerable given that there is an £86m release clause on the centre-forward, who has another four years left on his contract at Sporting.