Doug King admits he would ‘swap’ Coventry City’s FA Cup semi-final Wembley date with Manchester United for a place in the automatic promotion places in the Championship.
The Sky Blues’ owner insists that he’s ‘super excited’ about Sunday’s big game at the national stadium when Mark Robins’ men play in only the club’s second ever semi-final, and the opportunity to reach the final of the competition they famously won in 1987.
“I’m feeling excited. I think we are going to have 36,000 fans there, going fully decked out and hopefully they will help us get to where we need to get to,” said the executive chairman, speaking to talkSPORT.
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Put to the businessman that he seems to have the Midas touch, and asked how he has turned everything around at the club, King replied: “I have only been here for 15 months but getting out of League Two to One and then into the Championship and stabilising was a huge job from Mark (Robins) and his team driving it forward. Coming in at this point, we’re trying to go that extra mile which is always the most difficult one, just to get out of the Championship which we know is skewed against us.”
He added: “I said I wanted a Cup run because we were a little bit disappointed last year when the Hollywood boys (of Wrexham) came up and took us out on the third round. And here we are in the semi-final, and I know the guys are up for it. It’s hugely exciting for our city and hopefully people can see what we’re doing from a wider scale and get re-engaged with us after a period of being out and about at different stadiums and having our challenges. So, for me, I’m super excited and it’s going to be a huge weekend for us.”
Presenter Jim White mentioned City’s recent dip in league form and put to him that Ipswich are riding high on 89 points, with Coventry ‘cut adrift’ in eighth place on 63. King was asked if he could swap with Ipswich and take their place at the top of the Championship and give them an FA Cup semi-final?
“I’d probably take you up on it,” he said, without hesitation. "Look, it’s so romantic (the FA Cup), 37 years on (from winning it) and everyone getting inspired again and we’re just rekindling people again after having gone away for a bit, and that’s what the FA Cup does.
“Our goal is to get out of the Championship and, as you say, we came back from the international break and won at Huddersfield, slipped up against Cardiff, took Leeds and then went a little bit off colour (at Southampton) and then obviously the Birmingham one, with a big game coming up, we’ll just gloss over that. But in my view we’re still in it and we’ll see what happens this weekend, see how this works through.
“Everyone is dropping points and so it’s never over until it’s over and there could be many twists and turns, even to the last day, so hopefully we can keep our hopes alive until the last game of the season and hope for Birmingham to do us a favour against Norwich or West Brom slip up, those types of things.
“But listen, I would swap it to be honest with you because that’s our goal, and once we get this club out of the Championship it re-establishes us for good, or a longer period and that will be hugely welcome to what we can do at the club.”
Sky Blues at Wembley - get your copy now!
Coventry City continue to make new history under the management of Mark Robins who has guided the club to their first FA Cup semi-final since winning the famous competition in 1987, in what is still regarded as the Sky Blues’ finest hour.
Having beaten Wolverhampton Wanderers some 37 years later in the quarter-finals, City now face the mighty Manchester United in the last four at Wembley on Sunday, April 21 – only the second time the club have ever reached that stage.
To celebrate and mark the achievement, the Coventry Telegraph has produced a bumper 40-page souvenir publication, packed with exclusive interviews with Mark Robins and his trusty assistant and head coach Adi Viveash, as well as a look back at the 1987 road to Wembley.
Hear how former Man United striker Robins feels about pitting his managerial wits against the club he still supports and has much affection for from his playing days, and how City’s esteemed coach Viveash helped plot Wolves’ downfall, and his fascinating take on how to beat top end Premier League opponents for a second time. He’ll be talking tactics, attention to detail, mind games and, of course, one of the biggest ingredients for success – belief!
Order your copy now and get it delivered direct to your door. On sale in selected independent retailers and supermarkets in Coventry from Wednesday, April 10, 2024.
He added: “Honestly, they went to Wolves and put in their best performance of the season. We deserved to win that game. Obviously this is going to be a huge occasion and how you handle that is going to be everything. Mark has been to Wembley four times, the experience of Adi (Viveash) to keep things balanced and ready; those will be all the things that will be pumped into the players and then it’s down to the guys who I know can play to a huge level, and an extra five to ten percent might just be enough to get to where we want to go.
“We know what we have got to do to get the chance to get to the final and the chance to win the cup again.”
Co-host Simon Jordan asked: “You walked into Coventry, which I looked at in the past, what have you made of it all because you came in and almost got promoted last year, this season you’re in an FA Cup semi-final, you must be thinking this is moderately easy?”
King replied: “Believe you me, I do not think that for one moment at all. I think it’s an interesting and wild business with lots of people doing things which I think they ought not to be doing in our league. It’s obviously a difficult league with the skew of the parachute payments, which is very distorting. And for us trying to break out of it, means that some people can take risks that might hurt them if it doesn’t work through.
“I look at it very calmly in the respect that I want to get to operating at a sustainable level, and that’s very difficult. But that’s the goal I have set and that means huge cost control. But it means we need commercial growth, we need the stadium full and to have the boxes rocking. We need to re-engage commercially and we are starting from a low point because it has been hidden away for quite a few years and commercial entities in the local area have probably not thought about coming in and re-engaging.
“But it is starting to change and we are having great meetings with proper businesses whose employees are coming to the games and can see how exciting it is. We had over 30,000 against Leeds and we’re selling out the Arena two or three times a year.
“Listen, you have got to believe where you want to go and if only 20,000 turn up then I’m going to have to cut back and we’re not going to be able to have the team that we want to get us out of the league, so everyone has got to get on it. And I have been consistent with that message and they can see that I am investing in the playing quality to ensure that we will challenge upwards.”
King finished by mentioning the refurbishment at the club’s Ryton training ground, saying: “I have also been doing some long overdue work on the infrastructure of the football club which, for me, was terrible. It was a debacle, an embarrassment, and for me that attracts better players and gives more pride to our community who want us to be doing the right things.”
