Coventry City enter at the end of the January transfer window in a more uncertain state than they have been for much of the season.

The Championship leaders’ form has dipped, reducing their lead at the top of the league to just three points, with Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town putting pressure on them.

Manager Frank Lampard may try to bolster his defence at the end of this window.

The Sky Blues haven’t maintained a clean sheet in the League since Boxing Day, a six-game streak, and further strengthening could aid his team’s cause in the latter part of the season.

However, making such changes may necessitate moving players on, and one player who has garnered some attention in 2026 is Bobby Thomas, who was sent off at the end of their 3-2 defeat at Birmingham City on January 4 and has been linked with a move to the Premier League, with West Ham United and Everton both reportedly interested in him.

Bobby Thomas backed to stay and aid Coventry City’s promotion campaign.

Chris Deez, a Coventry City fan commentator, expressed concern over Thomas’s recent decline in form and the potential of his leaving the club before the transfer deadline.Chris told FLW that losing Bobby Thomas before Monday’s deadline would be surprising, but he wouldn’t be sad.Don’t get me wrong; he’s a superb defender. He and Kitching were amazing throughout the first part of the season, and I’m not sure what happened to them in the final few months, but they’ve both completely lost the plot.”

Chris is upset with Thomas for losing his cool during the Birmingham City match, resulting in a three-match suspension for hitting an opposing player.”What annoyed me most about Thomas was the way he acted at the end of the Birmingham game. He got himself sent off and missed three games for us, and we really struggled without him,” Chris continued.Latibeaudiere stepped up, but Thomas is our natural leader, so that tarnished my impression of him, and I know it damaged the view of many Cov followers.”He is wonderful. He’s unquestionably one of the top center-backs in the league. I can’t blame the teams. Everton, West Ham, and Sheffield United were once linked, however this is no longer the case.We’d probably be looking for at least £20 million for him. “I don’t think he’s necessarily worth that, probably between about £12 million and £15 million, but at this stage of the window, the only way you could possibly let him go would be to have someone else lined up and to be asking for at least £20 million for him.”I don’t think he wants to go because he was connected away and nothing has happened. He was linked earlier in the window, so he had plenty of time to make that move without leaving us in the lurch.”

Chris believes Thomas has no desire to quit the club before the end of the window, and that he can write himself into the pantheon of Coventry heroes if he helps the team reach the Premier League by the end of the season.”I get the impression that everyone involved would like him to stay,” Deez concluded.

Lampard will want us to stay. Most fans want him to stay. He’s exactly the type of player we need. Even if he’s a little hotheaded, he’s precisely what we need to help us get promoted, and he deserves it after everything he’s done over the last several seasons. He deserves to be one of the players immortalized in Coventry mythology.

Bobby Thomas is an important component of the Coventry City defense, even after the Birmingham City incident.

Bobby Thomas has been a success for Coventry City after coming for an undisclosed price from Burnley in 2023. The defender came through Turf Moor’s system but was unable to break into the first team, spending time on loan at Barrow, Bristol Rovers, and Barnsley before joining The CBS Arena.

Thomas has become a fixture of Coventry City’s defence over the last two and a half years, appearing in 119 games across all competitions and scoring nine goals.

The red card against Birmingham City was a blemish on his record with Coventry, but it is worth noting that it was the first of his senior professional career, despite having made nearly 200 appearances for all of the clubs for which he has played. He has recently had a fall in form, but this is offset by a streak of strong performances earlier in the season.

The question of whether he leaves before the end of the transfer window will stay open until the window is closed. Coventry City has no immediate need for the money, but if an offer comes along that is significantly more than their valuation for the player, they would be crazy to reject it.

But Frank Lampard will be acutely conscious of the significance of retaining the best players he can for the latter stretch of the 2025-26 season. With almost £200 million on the line as a result of promotion to the Premier League, any short-term financial benefits earned by selling Thomas would be wiped out if they do not get promoted at the end of the season.

As a result, it appears that the player would only quit the club if he was paid a premium and had a ready-made replacement set up. Football clubs sometimes spring surprises at the end of a transfer window, but as things stand, Bobby Thomas will most likely spend the rest of the season with Coventry City.