PowerPoint presentation convinced Westbrooke to quit Coventry for Gas

Zain Westbrooke has revealed a PowerPoint presentation convinced him to join Bristol Rovers amid fierce interest from several clubs in the summer.

The midfielder, who has started every League One game for the Gas since his move from Coventry City in August, was not short of suitors after an impressive campaign for the League One winners last season.

But, speaking on the Sky Blues Extra Podcast, the 24-year-old has admitted he did not want to leave Coventry and was “devastated” to call time on his spell with the club.

Westbrooke was offered a contract to extend his stint with Mark Robins’ side at the start of the year, but as the months went by the former Brentford prospect felt less central to Coventry’s plans and made the difficult decision to find a new club.

“I didn’t want to leave Coventry,” Westbrooke said. “I loved it there. I often said it wasn’t work, I was going in to see my mates every day and play football.

“I didn’t want to leave but it was a weird scenario that I never really got to the bottom of, and didn’t need to in the end because I felt like I wasn’t wanted in the way I was when the contract was being offered when I was playing every week in the team.

“I just felt I had to make the decision for my career.”

Clubs in League One were queuing up for Westbrooke’s signature when word got out he was available.

He has admitted Ben Garner’s Gas were not initially on his radar until a PowerPoint presentation sold him on a move to the blue half of Bristol.

“I was in contact with quite a few teams and I had to make a decision as to what was going to be best for me, playing wise,” the 24-year-old continued.

“But it was a move for me that I felt would take my career on and keep me happy. And that’s the main thing, especially when you are away from home and not with your family.

“I was speaking to about five or six clubs and (Rovers) weren’t a club I was speaking to, so they weren’t in the mix.

“But they called my agent and said they’d like to speak to me and show me their plans.

“They sent me a powerpoint with quite a lot on me, a bit like when Mark Robins spoke to me when I joined Coventry, and I felt that instant want for me, and the part I would play – the big role.

“I said to my dad, ‘that’s what I want, for someone to want me to be the main player,’ rather than just go there to be a number.”

Coventry’s promotion charge was underpinned by a mastery of the 3-4-2-1 formation with the box midfield of two holding midfielders and two attacking midfielders.

It is Garner’s preferred shape and Westbrooke sees plenty of parallels between the Sky Blues’ blueprint and the Gas boss’ project at the Mem.

“The gaffer was saying he was trying to change the team to kind of a Coventry model with young…