Luis Binks’ unusual football journey and the permanent appeal of Coventry City
Sky Blues reporter Andy Turner sat down with Luis Binks to reflect on an eventful career path that has now led him to the CBS Arena
Luis Binks could have been forgiven for thinking he’d made a big mistake when Coventry City signed Liam Kitching on transfer deadline day – the centre-half joining for a significant £4.5million fee from Barnsley.
Binks hadn’t even kicked a Championship ball in anger at that point, having been biding his time on the bench and waiting patiently for his chance to impress other than in an EFL Cup defeat at AFC Wimbledon. But to see another new signing arrive in direct competition as a left-sided centre-back must have made him wonder what on earth was going on.
To be fair the club said to me when I signed that they were looking for another left-sided centre-back, whether I signed or not, so they were always going to be in the market for another one,” said the 22-year-old defender, who started out at Tottenham and can already see a permanent future for himself with the Sky Blues.
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“They said they wanted two players in every position so I was aware there was another one going to come in, but even if Liam doesn’t play they have Joel Latibeaudiere who can play on the left, and Bobby (Thomas) can probably play there as well. And I can play on the right so there are plenty of options.”
Binks also received some welcome reassurance from Mark Robins. “I spoke to the manager a few weeks ago now and he told me not to get disheartened that I wasn’t playing. He told me to keep training well and control what I could control. He said that if I am training well then he would have no problem with giving me my chance. And to be fair, I think that week I did. I was training well and he put me in, so he stuck to his word.”
That chance finally came at Hull, six games into the campaign, and he hasn’t looked back, going on to start the next four games before being rested against Norwich last time out – a fixture in which Robins opted to make use of his squad to cope with the rigours of three games in the space of eight days. With five centre-halves all vying for three available places, it appears that the manager would like to see a settled three establish themselves.
