Romain Esse

Right Midfielder - Coventry City
29 Sep 2026
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Romain Esse

3 Edition

The Coventry City Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Business is business: Milan van Ewijk goes

Brentford paid $10.2M and Coventry City took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Player ratings

Romain Esse, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82

A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

The terraces

Supporters turn on the $10.2M sale of Milan van Ewijk

He is going to Brentford, the club has $10.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.

Squad

Tempers go at Coventry City

Frank Onyeka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

The terraces

Coventry City supporters have found a favourite in Romain Esse

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Romain Esse has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

Match

Coventry City find a way past Stoke City

Stoke City made Coventry City work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

Matt Grimes falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

No hiding place for Norman Bassette

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Norman Bassette, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Haji Wright stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.94 on the card, and the Coventry City support went home talking about one name.

In brief