Sky Blues eyeing move for Wrexham promotion winner

Coventry City are interested in bringing in Wrexham midfielder Thomas O’Connor in the summer window, according to a report from the Mirror.

Who is Thomas O’Connor?

O’Connor came through the Southampton youth system after joining the club in 2015 from the Republic of Ireland, where the highlight was captaining the Southampton under-21 side throughout the majority of the 2018/19 season.

The Irish midfielder enjoyed two separate loan spells at then-League One side Gillingham across both the 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaigns, where he made 67 appearances, scoring one goal and assisting six. O’Connor began to show his versatility throughout this loan spell, making appearances at left-back, left midfield, central midfield, and central defence.

Despite a positive loan spell, Southampton decided to release O’Connor at the end of the 2020/21 season and Burton Albion picked up the midfielder on a free transfer, where he signed a two-year deal to continue playing at the League One level.

The Irishman only made 21 appearances during his six-month spell at Burton, where he began to demonstrate his goal-scoring prowess, before sealing a January 2022 deadline day move to Wrexham, who were competing in the National League at the time.

The 24-year-old’s Wrexham career has been very stop-start, making just 36 appearances out of a possible 79 across his 18-month spell with the Welsh club which has resulted in promotion to the Football League.

Despite his injury problems, the number 22 has received praise from journalist Mark Griffith, who noted that the player had begun to put in ‘heroic’ performances after settling into the club.

Would O’Connor be a good signing for Coventry City?

Coventry just narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League last season, losing on penalties in the play-off final to Luton Town, and as a result are expected to lose a number of key players this summer including Gustavo Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres.

O’Connor has shown in the past that he can perform when he faces Championship level opposition, with his 8/10 performance against Sheffield United in the FA Cup this season where he recorded a goal and an assist a testament to his quality and level of performance.

There will be question marks about if the Irishman would be a success at the Championship side, however, his positional versatility and his previously impressive performances in League One should give manager Mark Robins the confidence that should he be able to get over his injury problems, the left-footed midfielder could well be a success at the Sky Blues, and can potentially replace Hamer.