With the likes of Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer in their side, the Sky Blues made it all the way to the Championship play-off final, only to lose on penalties to Luton Town at Wembley.
Gyokeres and Hamer eventually left for Sporting CP and Sheffield United, respectively, with one year remaining on their contracts, leaving manager Mark Robins with a windfall to spend.
With Gyokeres on the verge of leaving, one of the first big signings in early July was Ellis Simms, with Coventry beating off competition from elsewhere to sign the 22-year-old, paying Everton an initial fee of £3.5 million in a deal that could be worth £8 million in the future.
How has Ellis Simms performed thus far for Coventry City?
Despite scoring seven times in just 17 appearances for Sunderland on loan last season, showing that he is very capable of being a top Championship striker, Simms has struggled to make an impact for Coventry so far.
Simms started three of their first four league matches of the season without scoring, but he was then benched for the following three games by Robins and was restricted to just cameos.
Back in the starting line-up though alongside Matty Godden against Huddersfield, Simms has finally gotten himself off the mark this weekend as City travelled down to West London to take on Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road. Simms opened the scoring for the Midlands outfit early on in the second half, pouncing from close range after Jay Dasilva’s free-kick ended up falling to him somewhat fortuitously. And eight minutes after Josh Eccles doubled Coventry’s lead, Simms met Jamie Allen’s low cross at the back post to fire home his second and City’s third of the match, in a game that they ended up winning 3-1 to record just their second victory of the league season. What has Ellis Simms said to Coventry fans after 3-1
Taking to Twitter following a rampant success on the road for Coventry, Simms sent a message to the Sky Blues fanbase after his two-goal salvo – especially to the travelling army that descended on England’s capital to cheer the club on to just their second league victory of the season.
It took a while for the ex-Everton man to find his feet, with his first few games seeing some rusty performances and then he spent some time on the bench, but this brace could be the start of a bright future at the CBS Arena for Simms.
City spent a lot of money on him and fellow strike partner Haji Wright, and it was about time that one of them started to hit the back of the net to start repaying the money – they may now be able to strike up a fruitful partnership going forward now they have both found the back of the net.
