Mark Robins has explained Coventry City's transfer stance on Luke McNally and Michael Rose ahead of their first return to the CBS Arena.

The former Sky Blues centre-halves have been partnered together for the first time at Stoke City to good effect in the last four games when they've helped Alex Neil's men secure ten points from a possible 12 to lift the Potters from fourth bottom in the Championship to 13th.

Rose left Coventry on a free transfer last summer when his contract expired and made a permanent switch to the Bet365 Stadium, while McNally - who enjoyed an outstanding second half season loan from Burnley - was redirected out on another temporary spell by his parent club following the Clarets' promotion back to the Premier League.

Robins had expressed early interest in signing the 24-year-old right-sided centre-back, whom City wanted to buy rather than loan from Turf Moor, but then switched attention and signed Joel Latibeaudiere and Bobby Thomas instead - the latter joining for a fee from Burnley after a loan spell at League One Barnsley.

Asked how close City got to signing McNally in the summer, Robins revealed: "Well we spoke, but that's really as far as it went. I think Luke did brilliantly for us last year, as did Michael over a number of years - three or four years - and sometimes it's better for the player to move on. And that was the circumstance around Michael last summer. But they were both good servants to the club; Rosey obviously for a longer period of time and he's very highly thought of here."

Pushed further on McNally by CoventryLive, Robins was asked if it was the case that Burnley didn't want to sell, but only loan the player at a time when City's preference was to recruit more permanent signings of their own, he said: "Well I think there's an element of that but you know, ultimately, it's difficult to talk about individuals because he's not our player.

"We explored certain avenues in the summer and we went the route that we went down, and that's it. Sometimes things come off and sometimes they don't. You can go for things and sometimes they happen and sometimes they don't because of the circumstances. People that we were looking at came off and we were looking at the things that we've got there at the minute - we brought in Bobby and Joel and then Binksy and Kitch, and they're really good players."

Robins, meanwhile, hinted that just because City didn't get McNally last summer it doesn't necessarily mean that the club won't go back for him in the future. After all, he's on a season-long loan at Stoke and will be facing another crossroads in his career come next summer.

"While we had Luke last year and he did really well for us, the team dynamics changed," explained the manager. "And what's right at one point might not be quite right further on, but then it might come back round again. It's just how things move in the game but we're just we're just working towards the goal of getting this squad balanced right and again."