‘We believe in him’ - Can Haji Wright make the Premier League leap? Frank Lampard on USMNT striker’s next step at Coventry City

Lampard arrived at Coventry City in 2024 with something to prove and one clear objective: reaching the Premier League. As he assessed his new squad, Haji Wright quickly stood out as a player who could help take them there - just not in the role he had been playing.

“When I’ve come in, you evaluate the squad,” Lampard recalls, “and, as a coach, you always want strikers who can score goals because they win you games, effectively...Haji was playing a little bit on the left wing sometimes, and I just saw his profile as an absolute No. 9. 

“When we had a conversation, that's exactly what he wants to be. So I think that was a nice marriage between him and me early on, where I was like, ‘I see him as a nine, and he was like, ‘I want to be a nine’. That was a good start.”

Wright has, of course, been one of the Championship's top strikers during his tenure. After scoring 19 goals in his first season, he scored 12 in 27 in his second as Coventry fell short in the promotion playoff. They wouldn't need a playoff last season, as Wright's 17 goals led the team as they won the league and Premier League promotion outright.

Lampard’s belief in him was a key part of that. Strangely enough, so was that time as a winger prior to Lampard’s arrival. In some ways, it prepared him for the different challenges he’d face once he was moved back inside.

“It allowed me to be able to create my own chances,” Wright told GOAL last year. “Obviously on the wing, you're a bit more isolated, and you're not necessarily having players create chances for you, so most of the time, it’s driving to do it yourself if you're that type of winger. When I was a winger, I'm more the kind of winger who's gonna give you goals as opposed to assists.

It allowed me to be more comfortable on the ball, to be able to get into spaces and turn on it and progress the ball as well. Then it allowed me to improve my defensive work, which is also positive.”

The ability to do all of those little things will be vital, because, at this higher level, Coventry will need every last one of them.

The Championship is a grind.

Its punishing schedule and relentless physicality harden those who survive it. The Premier League, though, is another level. Add many of the world’s best players to those demands, and you get a competition that tests players physically and mentally from August to May.

That’s the challenge facing Coventry City this season, their first in the top flight since 2000-01. To put into reference how long ago that was, their manager, Lampard, was still at West Ham that season. That campaign was their 34th consecutive in the top flight, but it’s taken 25 years to get back, which goes to show the level of challenge it is to get through English soccer’s lower leagues.

“The Championship? It's not an easy league to play a part in,” Wright said this summer. “It's a lot of physicality in all the games. I think that the amount of games that we play, three a week, it's difficult to maintain that physical edge over everybody.”

And still, the highest league is the highest for a reason. Coventry, admittedly, are going into it without much experience. They've signed Frank Onyeka from Brentford, Gustavo Hamer from Sheffield United and Loum Tchaouna from Burnley, all of whom bring top-flight experience. They've also spent big on Caleb Yirenkyi from Nordsjaelland and Aurele Amenda from Eintracht Frankfurt. Still, most of the squad is like Wright: players who have thrived in lower leagues with points to prove.

Wright, of course, has done that at every level. After leaving Schalke in search of more playing time in 2019, he's scored goals in Denmark, Turkey and, of course, the English Championship. Lampard and the club are betting that Wright can be a player who adjusts to the Premier League. If he doesn't, though, it seems there already is a contingency plan in place.

At the moment, Wright is dealing with a quad injury that Lampard says remains somewhat unclear. The good news is that Coventry may be able to survive without him. 

Ellis Simms and Brandon Thomas-Asante each scored 13 league goals last season, while midfielders Ephron Mason-Clark and Victor Torp each chipped in 10. All are back for this Premier League run. There’s firepower there and, while Wright was last season’s leading scorer, there are pieces from that run that, like the American, will look to ride Championship confidence into the Premier League.

However, Coventry have also taken a big swing by signing Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi. The club completed a permanent move for the 29-year-old Monday, reportedly paying £9 million for a player with four seasons of Premier League experience. Awoniyi scored 21 league goals during his time at Forest, and his arrival gives Lampard a proven top-flight option at No. 9.

That creates real competition for Wright, particularly as he works his way back from the quad injury that kept him out of preseason. Awoniyi’s arrival doesn’t mean Wright has been replaced, but it does raise the stakes. Lampard now has Wright, Awoniyi, Ellis Simms and Brandon Thomas-Asante competing for minutes in an attack that will need several players to deliver this season.

How Lampard fits those pieces together once Wright is healthy remains to be seen. His message about the American, though, is clear: He believes Wright will be ready when his opportunity comes.

Lampard knows what it takes to succeed in the Premier League.

He did it as a player, and he’s faced different challenges in it as a coach. He led a young Chelsea side, then came back to help a reeling Chelsea side, and an Everton team battling relegation. Now, he's back with a new challenge as a newly promoted team.

To survive, promoted teams generally need to smash and grab. They need to win the little moments and steal points wherever they can. The best way to do that is to have someone who can steal some goals. Wright, at different levels, has proven he can do that.

“He looks like a striker: six-foot-three, a strong boy, can run, can create things out of nothing, can score goals,” Lampard says. “It's just making sure that he has that real competitive edge and trains like that all the time.”

The challenge has been set, then. Lampard, Wright and Coventry have work to do to meet it. It’s an uphill battle, many would say, but success is also somewhat relative. The goal this season is survival. The hope is to avoid another odyssey through the lower leagues.

Wright has had his own odyssey, and it's finally brought him to the Premier League. Now, it’s up to the 28-year-old striker to seize the moment he’s been waiting for for so long.

“I'd gotten comfortable with moving around, every other season, being somewhere new, but no, I never felt comfortable in the sense where I'm more than enough,” he says. “I've always wanted to strive for more. I've never wanted to just be stagnant, and I've always felt like I can improve in certain areas. That’s what I've always tried to do.”