Doug King makes Ipswich Town admission and reveals how he’s overcome ’embarrassment’ at Coventry City
Coventry City news from CoventryLive as Sky Blues owner Doug King makes big admission about Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final date with Manchester United
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.
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.”
