Coventry City manager Andy Thorn has said his young striker Lukas Jutkiewicz will one day play in the Premiership and hopefully he will still be playing at Coventry City.
Thorn recommended Jutkiewicz to the club when he was working as a scout and was instrumental in bringing him to the club and has a very high opinion of the player.
He said to the CT: “I brought Juke to the club so I know how good he is and his time will come. He’ll play in the Premiership one day, and hopefully that will be with us."
“I think the world of him because he’s got loads of talent but I think the world of Coventry as well and that’s why it was important to keep him in the window."
Since the new season began there has been a stream of speculation linking Jutkiewicz with moves away from Coventry, with Southampton and Middlesbrough known to be interested in the former Everton striker.
“I’ve had a good chat to him and he’s been as good as gold, completely professional about it throughout and is now looking forward to getting back to playing football, said Thorn.
Thorn admitted though to a certain feeling of trepidation at the start of the deadline day and massive relief when it ended as he was unsure whether Jutkiewicz would be sold in order to raise funds.
Indeed bids did come in for Jutkiewicz, but were rejected by the board, mainly because of the sale of Ben Turner to Cardiff City for between £750,000 and £900,000 and because Coventry will receive a handsome payout in the form of a sell on fee from Birmingham City after they sold former Coventry player Scott Dann to Blackburn for £7.7m.
Thorn, in jest, said: “It was a real relief because I woke up on deadline day morning, opened the curtains and nearly talked myself into going back to bed, but I’ve got what I wanted, to get Cody McDonald in and keep hold of Jutkiewicz and I want to just keep building on what we have been doing here.”