Gus Hamer puts in the hard yards to earn Coventry City place back

The 29-year-old rejoined the club in the summer, sparking an out-pouring of excitement and affection for the Brazilian-born player who’d previously served his first English side so well for three seasons in the Championship between 2020-23, having only cost a million and turning out to be bloomin’ brilliant!

Fast forward another three seasons – City having pocketed £15m from selling him to Sheffield United – and Doug King appeared to have bagged himself a buy-back bargain.

However, having only cost £6m, we’re still waiting for him to be flippin’ brilliant again. So what’s gone wrong and why are we still waiting to see the Gus we all know and love make his mark in Frank Lampard’s team?

So far this term the one-time talisman of the side has played just 44 minutes of top-flight football for the Sky Blues with four substitute appearances from the bench against Arsenal (8 mins), Hull (19 mins), Man City (5 mins) and Tottenham (12 mins) while being an unused sub on three occasions, against Brighton, Forest and Newcastle.

Elsewhere, he’s played one 90 minutes against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup, having also started against Plymouth at the start of the season and getting 70 minutes under his belt.

Of all of his showings to date, his performance against Villa was arguably the closest he’s come to reminding supporters of the talent that lies in his boots – a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Lampard, who remarked afterwards: “I liked him last night (against Villa). I enjoyed watching Gus. I think he’s a player who can make things happen and you want the ball to arrive to him.

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“I thought he worked really hard. And I saw some elements of why the fans love him here. He didn’t score his goal or whatever, but I feel like I know a good player in that position when I see one, and he trains at a high level in terms of his finishing around the box.

“Between him and Torpy, they’ll be the best finishers at the club when you’re talking about that area just outside the box. It’s quite clear, isn’t it! So I thought that was a positive last night and it’s another 90 minutes for a player who had a move over the summer and hasn’t been able to get clear minutes. And that’s only good for him.”

Another former legend of this parish, Kyle McFadzean, used to say about Hamer, “it’s too easy for him,” – the defender never ceasing to be amazed at his technical ability and what he could do on a football pitch. Indeed, during my time covering City, there are few players I have enjoyed watching as much as Hamer.

He’s one of those players whose name you’d see on the teamsheet and think, ‘we’ll be all right today, Hamer’s playing,’ because he was that good, and will hopefully prove to be so again. He was a joy to behold, a dynamic player who could do anything from tracking back to make crucial tackles, to getting the ball up the pitch and scoring goals out of nowhere – 19 to be precise in his first spell at the CBS Arena.

He has so much talent and needs to be playing. Whether it’s fitness or form, or a combination of the both, that’s holding him back, the fact remains he needs to get himself up to speed and contributing more on the pitch. The good news is that he appears to be doing everything possible to get to that point.

Just hours after returning from Tottenham in the early knockings of Tuesday morning, he was turning out for Liam Kelly’s Under-21s side at the Alan Higgs Centre, helping the development squad to a 2-0 win over Swansea. Joining Jake Bidwell as the only two seniors in the side, one can only assume that Hamer volunteered to take part, rather than being ordered to play. Either way, he’s clearly determined to hit the heights required to get him into the first team and is going exactly the right way about it.

We know he can cut it in the Prem, having played 36 of the Blades’ 38 top-flight games in the 2023/24 campaign when he scored five times. And he will surely make his mark again, hopefully sooner rather than later, and the good news is he appears to be going about it the right way.

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