---
title: "Coventry tipped to break into first team – can he reincarnate Rice?"
canonical: "https://readwestham.com/2019/08/22/coventry-tipped-to-break-into-first-team-can-he-reincarnate-rice/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Alex Turk"
section: "Feature Writers"
published: "2019-08-22T07:30:38Z"
modified: "2019-08-22T07:30:38Z"
---

# Coventry tipped to break into first team – can he reincarnate Rice?

Connor Coventry made his senior West Ham United debut last season in that 8-0 mauling of Macclesfield Town and has gradually been spending more and more time with the first team since.

West Ham journalist Sam Inkersole can see the 19-year-old going one step further this season though, and believes he’ll make at least one Premier League appearance for the Hammers this term.

Writing on [football.london](https://foreverwestham.com/2019/08/blog-topics/inkersole-coventry-could-make-premier-league-bow/), Inkersole claims the exciting prospect will be hoping to change the few squad appearances he made last season into actual game-time in the top flight:

> Coventry made his senior debut against Macclesfield Town last year too and has been in and around the first-team training sessions at Rush Green for some time. He will be hoping to make a Premier League bow this season having been named in a couple of squads around Christmas last year when the Hammers team was stretched.

### READ WEST HAM’S VERDICT

Coventry is rightly deemed as one of the more promising starlets in the Hammers youth set-up and it’d be great to see another midfield rise through the ranks and become a first-team regular.

Does that ring a bell? Declan Rice had a similar rise and now 19 – weirdly enough the same age as Coventry – starts week-in-week-out as a pivotal part of Manuel Pellegrini’s plans.

It’s more than likely Coventry will view the England international as a role model after taking the holding midfield position and making it his own over the past couple of seasons.

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this star.