FOOTBALL – Chris Waddle believes Coventry City must spend £300 million to survive in Premier League
CHRIS Waddle believes Coventry City must spend £300 million if the Sky Blues are to survive in the Premier League next season.
Waddle won more than 60 caps for England and featured prominently for Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Marseille and Sheffield Wednesday.
The former England star praised the work done by Coventry boss Frank Lampard but feels the Sky Blues would need to buy as many as eight players to have a chance of survival next term.
And Waddle advised Coventry to invest heavily in the playing squad to try and match the success of last season’s play-off winners Sunderland in the Premier League.
Speaking to FruityKing, Waddle said: “I think Frank Lampard’s done a great job. Of course he can help his players and talk to them about what it takes to make it in the Premier League but unfortunately he can’t kick the ball for them.
“Sunderland have done well because they’ve spent £300 million. If Coventry have dreams of staying up then they can survive but if they can’t spend £300 million themselves they are probably going to get relegated.
“But you can take the money and run, go back down, take your parachute payments, and go back up stronger.
“Many teams have done that all these years, and that’s buying the right players to do it right, by the way.
“Lampard’s got a nice football team at Coventry but the Premier League is different and Frank will know that.
“Unless he’s allowed to spend and bring in seven or eight players then I think he’d be doing a great job to take the money and go back down to come back up again.”
Coventry won the Championship title with two matches left to play while Ipswich Town made an immediate return to the top flight on the final day of the season.
However, Waddle expects the Sky Blues, Tractor Boys and play-off final winners to suffer relegation from the Premier League next term.
Waddle added: “The Championship is such an ordinary league this year that, for me, it’s the easiest the Championship has ever been.
“Would Ipswich have the money to do what Sunderland did and spend £300 million? No, I don’t think so.
“Whoever goes up, that’s the goal, to win promotion. It’s another goal entirely to stay in the league.
“Burnley struggled. Sunderland did well because they spent a fortune.
“Leeds have struggled because they didn’t spend like Sunderland did, and Leeds were the best team in the Championship last season with Burnley.
“Burnley hardly conceded a goal in the Championship and look what happens to them in the Premier League. It’s a completely different competition.
“Looking at all the clubs that could go up, I would say the three that will go up will be the three who come back down next season.”
