Sky Blues should copy Sunderland transfer to boost Premier League survival hopes

The Sky Blues might have waltzed their way to the Championship title but Frank Lampard is wise enough to know that a squad overhaul is needed this summer to survive in the best league in the world.

Lampard sits fourth on the Premier League’s all-time appearance list as a player and the Sky Blues will need to acquire some players who know the league they’re going into.

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Of the current squad, Frank Onyeka – who is set to become a permanent addition from Brentford on July 1 – is by far and away the most experienced Premier League player with 75 top-flight matches to his name.

Luke Woolfenden has played just over 1,000 minutes in the Premier League, while Ellis Simms, Matt Grimes and Kaine Kesler-Hayden have briefly graced the promised land.

If you add up all of their minutes, Coventry’s squad has 4,939 minutes of Premier League experience between them.

Contrast that to the Championship, where Coventry’s players have played 3,296 games and 240,528 minutes. No team in last season’s Championship boasted more second-tier experience than the Sky Blues.

Is anyone surprised that the team with the most knowledge of the league ended up winning the league? Experience counts for a lot in this game.

Now, signing a bunch of proven Premier League players might be what Lampard wants, but it’s unlikely to be the preferred recruitment method of Sky Blues owner Doug King.

Players already operating in the Premier League come at a premium and that is no longer £10million, or even £20million, you’re talking more than that.

Sunderland revamped their squad by spending £155m last summer on 14 new players.

The Black Cats will be held up as the example to follow for newly-promoted clubs after emphatically bucking the trend of promoted clubs getting relegated.

Regis Le Bris’ team sit 10th in the table on 51 points, with Leeds United 14th on 47 points, meaning that two of last season’s three promoted clubs have survived. The six teams promoted before them were relegated at the first time of asking.

Understanding the scale of their task in a shortened summer after winning the play-off final, Sunderland targeted athletic players from France and Belgium in the main before an eye-catching deal that few people saw coming.

Sunderland needed a proven Premier League performer to guide their young squad and plumped for 33-year-old Granit Xhaka. Xhaka arrived on Wearside with more than 200 Premier League appearances to his name and he’s added another 33 for Sunderland in a season where he has been Le Bris’ on-field conductor.

Coventry could do with a similar player to help an inexperienced bunch along in what will be the club’s first top-flight campaign in 25 years.