Haji Wright has been linked with several European clubs this summer but will now move to the English Football League Championship.
Coventry City has agreed to a deal with Wright’s current club Antalyaspor for a €9 million move to England. Wright signed a four-year contract with the second-tier club on Friday.
“We are delighted to welcome Haji to Coventry City,” Coventry boss Mark Robins said. “He is a quick, powerful striker, and a very good finisher, who will add another exciting attacking dynamic to our play and clear quality to our squad.
“This is a significant transfer for the Club which we know supporters will welcome and be excited by, and we look forward to working with Haji.”
The 25-year-old Wright was linked with both Scottish club Rangers and La Liga side Villarreal earlier this summer. He led Antalyaspor in goals in each of the last two Super Lig campaigns, which included 16 tallies in 2022-23.
In total, Wright registered 31 goals in 64 combined appearances for Antalyaspor.
Prior to his move to Turkey, Wright featured for Schalke, VVV-Venlo, Sonderjyske, and Sandhausen.
He has scored two goals in seven caps with the U.S. men’s national team to date.
Coventry City reached the EFL Championship Promotion Playoff Final last season before losing to Luton Town at Wembley Stadium.
The Sky Blues open their league schedule on Sunday against Leicester City.
I would like to see a push from Greg to a 3-5-2 formation. Do in large part because you can get Weah at the RWB and Robinson at the LWB positions. Basically I continue to have concerns about the continued 4-3-3. You could push Pulisic up with Balogun dropping Pulisic a little behind with Reyna, McKennie as the dual attacking 8’s and probably Musah at the 6 while Adams continues to get back healthy. After Adams is healthy then Greg will have depth and decisions to make about personnel.
Pulisic, Balo
Wes, Reyna
Jedi, Mus, Weah
Ream, Richards, Miles
Turner
I’ve been advocating for this for awhile now (actually I’ve been advocating for a 5-3-2, but basically same difference). Jedi always plays like a wingback. Dest always plays like a wingback. Weah now is a wingback. Pulisic is best when he’s allowed to roam around underneath as a second striker and find his spots. And I am utterly, completely, 100% convinced that Jesus Ferreira is one of our best 23. I just think he’s a lot more like Pulisic, a second striker or a 10…and not a true 9, where his lack of size and physicality gets exposed against better teams.
James Sands is another reason. I like him. A lot. Not necessarily to start, but because he is both a good CB in a 3-man backline and he’s also shown he’s quality as a 6. Which means with Sands, you can get away with bringing one fewer CB, because you have him to cover both spots.
That in turn allows you to sneak another attacking player into the 23. In a long tournament, that’s huge.
Also, a 3-5-2 essentially guarantees you’re now playing with a double pivot and a 10…and this also suits our midfield personnel. Tyler Adams is our one pure 6 and he does best in a double pivot. Musah, McKennie, de la Torre, Acosta, Busio, Aidan Morris, and Tanner Tessmann – who I think is going to factor sooner rather than later – are all 6/8 tweeners whose skillsets would slot nicely into a double pivot; they are box-to-box guys but are not scoring threats in the final third. Obviously Gio Reyna is a natural 10…and IMHO, so are Malik Tillman, Djorde Mihailovic, and Diego Luna, who like Tessmann could well be far too good to keep out of the 23 for long. Alex Zendejas had a lousy Gold Cup but he does have talent and he always plays like a 10 no matter what wing you put him on.
Then there’s the pile of CB’s we have emerging – Richards, Trusty, Miles Robinson, and Jalen Neil – as well as some holdover vets like Ream and Zimmerman who are going to be hard to displace. (Plus, of course, Sands.) We didn’t have nearly the CB pool to play a 3-man backline in the 2022 cycle…with Robinson and Richards now healthy, Sands showing once again he’s both versatile and useful, and young guys like Trusty and Neil emerging we absolutely do.
Berhalter did use the 3-5-2 (a bit) at Columbus, though if memory serves he was pretty much a 4-2-3-1 guy. Whatever, he wasn’t married to the 4-3-3…which IMHO we definitely need to go away from. If you’re going to play a 4-3-3 you need either wing forwards or slick shifty dribbling machines who can also cross…and aside from Pulisic – who is also just fine and maybe better as a second striker since it puts the ball at his feet more – we just don’t have those in the pool right now.
It’s a new cycle. Hopefully Gregg Berhalter 2.0 will have some new ideas.
Gregg did use 5 man backline at times with the Crew but it generally wasn’t very good, oddly I feel like they gave up more goals when they used 3 CBs.
Quozzel – you state that “I am utterly, completely, 100% convinced that Jesus Ferreira is one of our best 23″….so who are you leaving off the 23 to take Ferreira? Our 2 best CFs (lone or in a 4-3-3) are Balogun & Pepi. Our Best wide attakers are Pulisic, Weah, Aaronson, and probably Booth.
Is Ferreira going to beat out one of these 6? Is he going to beat out Reyna @ the ACM (a position Pulisic or Booth can also play). Or Malik at the ACM? If you go to a 2 Striker formation is Ferreira going to beat out Pulisic or Weah as the 2nd striker paired with Flo or Pepi? I just don’t see Ferreira making the cut if everyone’s healthy.
If we go to a 3 back or 5 back formation they’re not going to add an additional attacker in place of a defensive player. Instead you’ll see an additional CB taken and 1 fewer attacker taken. Essentially adding Sands or Tessmann and dropping Booth or Tillman.
One of the issues we had at the 2022 WC was that our starting XI were exhausted by the 4th game due to Gregg’s poor substitution and player management. Granted we didn’t have a lot of talent on the bench, but much of that was due to GGG’s squad selection(s)….Roldan, Long, Moore, Morris, and yes Ferreira. Because of the players selected there was too significant a drop-off between the starters and the bench.
I’m not worried about the talent of our player pool ahead of 2026. I worry that Gregg will once again fail to properly select players for the squad and will again mismanage the tactics(formation) and substitutions.
“you can compare their stats at the end of the season.”
Yes, you could but why bother? Those stats will tell you how they are with their club in the Championship.
Coventry, WBA and Norwich are not the USMNT.
If you think the stats will help you with the USMNT the answer is not necessarily. Ferreira and Wondo before him, prove that goal scoring ability does not necessarily translate when you switch teams and leagues.
Of course many of you will choose their favorite and then use those stats to prove that their guy is the one.
That’s fine but for me, Dike is not quality, Hadji is barely quality and Josh has some quality.
None of them is a very good international forward. I don’t like any of them and going over their club stats is a waste of time. Pulisic’s abysmal Chelsea stats didn’t stop him from having a really good World Cup.
Or put it another way if any of these three are starting then the USMNT is in trouble.
The best you should hope for if you are a USMNT fan is that those three are not in the discussion when roster selection time comes up..
Assuming all three play their best, all three are in a promotion push and Gregg is Gregg, josh wil get the call in.
I think Dike’s improvement has been seriously hampered by injury. He has played with more skill that you might expect of a guy with his build and athleticism, but that and his soccer IQ both need to improve. Of course potential is not what the USMNT needs it needs to see the result of that improvement and injuries have kept that from happening if it ever will.
We all like to think “he’s young he has time to get better”.
These players will only get so much time to prove themselves worthy of getting the time they need to get better.
There are people in the “soccer business” who will be the ones to decide if Dike will get another chance to take that “next step”.
Every time Dike gets hurt and ruins a season for himself and his club, a few more of “those people” write him off.
Gregg, for example, was never a big fan and probably, is even less of a fan now.
Development is never linear. All of these guys have a shot going towards 2026. Injuries happen. We need all potential of layers firing on all cylinders come 2026. I foresee the roster size staying at 26.
“Development is never linear. All of these guys have a shot going towards 2026. Injuries happen.”
You’re right of course. Those cliches are all true.
Which means that the other big cliche applies, the one about how it is way too early to be confident about the composition of the 2026 roster.
For example, history suggests Adams will be injured for 2026. He and Gio are competing for most games, career, missed due to injury. And at the moment, he’ll be playing in either the Championship, one of the most brutal competitions in the game or the EPL where he missed a huge part of last season.
I don’t think it makes sense to take speculation on the potential USMNT 2026 WC roster very seriously until after the 2024 Copa America is done.
That will be Gregg’s one, best chance to give his team a meaningful test run, dress rehearsal against teams that are worth a damn. You would think he will use that to test himself and his players.
You all are focused on the development of these various players. And we can see that. By selection time we can all see what we will have to chose from, more or less.
But the development that really matters won’t be so obvious.
Gregg gets only one chance to show how he has developed and that is Copa America.
Probably about the right level for Wright. I always thought he was a starter in the Championship and a backup in the Prem. This gives him the opportunity to show he can be more than that…or not.
Good move for him overall for many reasons
Brings the USMNT striker tally to three in the Championship. Now there can be a proper comparison between those three.
“a proper comparison between those three”
That seems unlikely to happen.
You’re trying to compare three very different players.
Dike is a pretty raw battering ram.
Wright is a more experienced and “sophisticated” battering ram
Josh is the most versatile and experienced of the three.
All three teams will probably be promotion contenders so there is that but last season Coventry and WBA both went with variations of the 2-3-5 or the 5-3-2.
Norwich is probably going to go with a variation of the 4-4-2.
More important, Josh is now the unquestioned #9 and is coming off a good season.
Daryl is coming off of a bad achilles injury and may not be playing the second half.
Wright is healthy but he’s moving to a new country, league and team.
No one should be shocked if Josh gets off to a great start. Hadji, takes some time to adjust and Daryl struggles until next season if he does not get cut before then.
Absolutely you can compare their stats at the end of the season.