Just in: Michael Rose shares his feelings when his former employer accepted a position at Stoke City: “I’ll be honest.”

Michael Rose acknowledges crying a little as he stands on the sacred Wembley field and gazes up at the sea of sky blue from over 36,000 spectators.

The defender left Coventry City on May 27, 2023, after four years there. He is sad to be leaving the team, but he has many fond memories there. He has continued to grow with the club, gaining a promotion from League One and becoming a Championship player. In January, a league competitor made a £750,000 bid for the player.

It says volumes about the 27-year-old center-half, who only a few seasons ago was referred to by Mark Robins as his “best defender,” that the Sky Blues turned him down. Eventually, a deal was on the table as he entered the final year of his contract. What went wrong, then?

Here, the well-liked Scot thinks back on his exciting time with the team, says how much he loves the “different class” support, and explains why it’s time to move on.

Rose is yet another outstanding illustration of City’s excellent development strategy, which involves acquiring gifted young players with room to improve and advance in the game. The player said he had his job cut out for him from the start after joining from Ayr United in the Scottish Championship in the summer of 2019.

“When I first met the manager, I remember him telling me that I wasn’t his signing, and I kind of thought he maybe saw me as part of the Under-23s, which had never crossed my mind at all when I signed,” he said in an exclusive interview with CoventryLive. “I signed a pre-contract agreement in January and came down in the summer, and in my mindset I was coming to play.”

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