Source: FOOTYMAD
Turner off to Birmingham, or is it Cardiff?
Coventry may end up with a striker they don't want. Over the weekend rumours have been rife that Coventry City's central defender Ben Turner is attracting interest from both Cardiff City and Birmingham City. The speculation surrounding the Cardiff bid is that they have offered £750,000 plus striker Jon Parkin whereas Birmingham have made a cash bid of around £1m including add ons. Coventry City have a tiny squad and have not been able to add, other than to get in two goalkeepers to it despite losing several players during the summer. To add to their woes, they have an long injury list and no money to either pay for transfers of wages, so selling one of their better assets would appeal to Sisu, the owners of the club. Coventry City have plenty of central defender and it would not be the end of the world to lose one of them, but to lose Turner just to raise money for the beleaguered owners of the club Sisu, would not go down too well with the majority of City fans and to replace him with a striker that does not fit in with Thorn's style of play would be equally unpopular. Turner has been out of action since last November with a serious knee injury he sustained at Leeds. While he was recovering from surgery the 23 year old Turner signed an three and a half year extension to his Coventry City contract which still has three years left to run. Cardiff manager Malky Mackay confirmed his interest in Turner, saying, “It is something we are trying to get done and we are in talks with Coventry.” However the Cardiff offer may stumble over their inclusion of Jon Parkin in the deal. Coventry will not meet the 29 year old strikers current wage demands and although the City boss Andy Thorn is desperate to bolster his strike force, he may not even want to take Parkin. Parkin is out of favour at the Bluebirds and has only scored once in 12 appearances for them since his move from Preston North End earlier in the year. He made 108 appearances for Preston, 42 when on loan from Stoke and 66 times after he signed a three year deal, but netted a total of 31 times. Turner was born in Birmingham and may prefer a move to his home town rather moving to Wales, but £1m even for an injured Turner seems like a bargain when he has three years left on his Coventry contract.
