West Ham United midfielder Conor Coventry has revealed that faith from manager David Moyes led to him staying at the London Stadium this summer, despite interest from other clubs.
The 22-year-old midfielder has been a Hammers player since the age of ten, but following loan spells last season with Peterborough United and Milton Keynes last term, Moyes recently revealed that Coventry had attracted interest from other clubs in the summer transfer window over a potential exit.
Coventry was, however, always keen to stay with the Irons. A feeling only made stronger when discovering that Moyes was keen to keep him at the club and put him in his group of midfielders alongside Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek, Flynn Downes, Lucas Paqueta, and Manuel Lanzini.
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“Ultimately, I wanted to stay at the club and want to play here,” Coventry told football.london, “I just spoke to the manager, and it turned out that he wanted me to stay as well and as soon as I heard that, I wanted to stay and fight for any minutes I can get and just work hard in training and see how well I can do.
“You look around training, and it is a squad of internationals, and we’ve got some real top players and top talent there, and the team seems to be getting better and better. It’s great learning from these players every day, and I’ve really enjoyed it.
“[I aim to] just play as much as I can, work hard in training and just try and get more opportunities, and hopefully, when I get them, I take and play well and see where that takes me.”
Already this season, Coventry has made five appearances in all competitions, with a late cameo against Manchester City on the opening weekend of the Premier League campaign seeing him make his top-flight debut.
This season, Coventry has gone one step further and made his first two starts for the Hammers in the Europa Conference League during home wins over Danish sides Viborg and Silkeborg and is in line for another start on Thursday night in West Ham’s final Group B game against FCSB in Bucharest.
Against Silkeborg, Coventry was among a few bright sparks in a largely flat performance and almost scored his first goal for the club at senior level, turning a first half shot wide from just outside of the penalty area.
Coventry has loved the competition, where four of his five appearances so far this term have come.
“That is ultimately what I want to do, play as many minutes as I can,” explained Coventry. “It was great to play, and obviously, I love playing. Hopefully, I can get another opportunity and hopefully, we can finish the group off with a win.
“I thought I scored, but I suppose I just have to keep getting into the right positions and try and take that chance next time it comes.”
The season is not even at the halfway stage yet, but already, it has been an eventful term for Coventry in international colours.
The 22-year-old is the Republic of Ireland’s most-capped player in the nation’s history at under-21 level and made his final two appearances for them in September in a qualifying play-off against Israel, where a win for Ireland would have seen them qualify for next summer’s European Championships for the first time in their history.
Following a 1-1 draw in Dublin, the two nations played out a goalless draw in the second leg in Tel Aviv four days before penalties separated the two sides. Coventry scored in the shoot-out with his final kick of his 28th for Ireland’s under-21s, but as captain was not able to prevent his side from penalty shoot-out heartache.
Coventry loved the experience but admitted he and others who were hoping to qualify before not being eligible anymore were gutted not to make history.
“I loved it, I just really loved the whole campaign,” recalled Coventry. “We’ve got a great group of lads, and we came really close to qualifying and just ultimately fell short on penalties. It was gutting and devastating, but as a group, we just loved it, and it was a great experience.
“It really hurt us because that meant a lot of us are done at that level now, so we wanted to carry on as a team, but that is football, I guess, small margins.”
Coventry’s return to Rush Green this summer after a full season away on loan has seen him spend the summer settling into first-team life alongside the likes of the eight summer signings West Ham spent around £160million.
The likes of Paqueta, Gianluca Scamacca and Nayef Aguerd are among top international stars, but the arrival of Flynn Downes from Swansea City is where Coventry has quickly formed a strong friendship.
Downes, born in Brentwood, Essex, has been a lifelong West Ham fan and has been helped to settle in by his young but seasoned West Ham colleague Coventry, who jokes about taking the former Ipswich Town midfielder under his wing.
“We’re good mates, to be fair, he obviously came in, and I took him under my wing a bit and showed him the way around,” said Coventry. “We’re really good mates, me, him and Jonno (Ben Johnson) as well, but sometimes, he big times us off a little bit. It’s been great to have him in, and he’s done really well since he’s come in as well.
“We’ve probably got a lot of similarities like personality-wise, live not too far away and a lot of similarities.”
Coventry was speaking to football.london as part of West Ham United's Players' Project, whereby men’s, women’s, and academy players regularly show their support to causes across the local community. Coventry, Darren Randolph and academy duo Kamarai Swyer and Remy Coddington visited Ripple Primary School in Dagenham to assist with the West Ham United Foundation’s Planet League Cup activities. The duo joined a lesson to talk to the children about the importance of protecting the environment and tackling climate change before taking part in a ‘Cook-Off’ to create a meat-free meal.
A total of 77 clubs across the country are taking part in the Planet League Cup, which encourages people to ‘go green for their team’. There are over 50 activities in different categories – such as energy, creativity, food, nature, travel and water - and for every environmentally friendly action taken, teams score goals for their chosen football club. Ripple Primary School are currently the highest-scoring team for West Ham United and are ranked third in the whole country.
However, while Coventry enjoyed getting involved and cooking against teammate Randolph as he attempted to make chickpea burgers, the 22-year-old admits he is not the most proficient of chefs, with his mum cooking for him at home.
“It’s great fun. I’m not the best cook, but I’m trying my hand at the moment, so it’s good fun to see the kids all happy to see us, and it’s great to be here,” added Coventry.
“[I don’t cook] at all. I’m back at home with mum and dad now. Mum is doing all of the cooking, but she’s not much better than me, to be fair, but at least I don’t have to do it. Hopefully, I can teach her a thing or two or teach myself something.”
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