Meet Coventry’s new midfield powerhouse tipped to thrive by Essien

With insight from Alexander Riget and Michael Essien at the player's former club FC Nordsjaelland, Adam Bate looks at why Caleb Yirenkyi could be a big signing by Coventry City; watch Arsenal vs Coventry live on Friday Night Football from 6.30pm; kick-off 8pm

One story sums up Caleb Yirenkyi. It was a training session with the first team early in his time at FC Nordsjaelland. Alexander Riget, then technical director, felt compelled to intervene. “He was smashing into many of our key players,” Riget tells Sky Sports .

Such was the ferocity, the coach could not take the risk. "I needed to say, 'Caleb, get out,' just so he could calm down a little bit and find out how to use his energy." It is an amusing anecdote now. But it reveals something about Coventry City's new signing.

There are no half measures with the Ghanaian midfielder. From day one in Denmark, he was eager to impose himself and make the most of the opportunity. He even lived at the Nordsjaelland facility, taking advantage by spending hour after hour doing extra work.

"He just wanted to stay here so that he could get the right food and get the right sleep," recalls Riget. "He even had a bicycle in his room so that he could do these things. Every time that the players have been off, he has been in the gym a couple of hours per day."

Nordsjaelland is a Danish top-flight club that, unusually, is owned by an academy - Right To Dream - rather than the other way around. The organisation has its roots in Ghana, developing a stellar reputation for bringing through high-quality talent to Europe.

Even so, Yirenkyi is different. With him, it is more than just appetite, more than a mere desire to succeed. "He is a player with a unique character, just to be completely honest," says Riget. "I have never seen a player like him from a personality perspective."

What exactly does that mean? "In his case, he is something special, so humble. I have never seen someone like that." Riget describes a player so focused on achieving his goals that he is able to shut out "all the other noise" and devote himself to football.

There have been guiding figures along the way, nobody more so than Michael Essien, the former Champions League winning midfielder. "It is crazy that we have a world star at the training ground." He is a major influence on the team's young Ghanaian players.

"Where should I begin?" says Essien when asked about Yirenkyi. "He has always been a hard worker with a great mentality, but also a great listener. Of course there were a few bumps in the road in the beginning, but he always kept at it. And that has really paid off."

Those bumps in the road are a reference to the fact that Yirenkyi did not go straight into the first team upon his arrival, spending a year with the development team in Denmark. "He had so much power inside him and he just wanted to get it out," Riget explains.

"We really needed to spend some time in the first year with him in terms of getting him more calm on the ball and his positioning and so on. Now he is at a good level on the ball but he is especially good without the ball.