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Coventry City owner urges fans to embrace promotion excitement

John Bray,West Midlandsand
Lorna Bailey,BBC CWR presenter
News imageBBC A man with grey hair standing in front of a water cascade in front of a green and brown wall. the man is wearing a white polo neck jumper and grey jacket.BBC
Doug King paid tribute to Coventry City's recruitment team for "building a high quality squad that I'm proud of"

In early November 2022, businessman Doug King could easily have wandered around Coventry city centre unnoticed.

He wore a cloak of anonymity.

But later that month, he bought the city's football club - and now has one of the most recognisable faces across Coventry and Warwickshire.

The Sky Blues owner is tantalisingly close to becoming a Premier League chairman as the Championship season heads towards a potentially thrilling conclusion.

"It has been a huge journey," King told BBC CWR.

"We have done a lot in three years and we've had some great experiences.

"And here we are on the cusp of hopefully something great."

News imageA man in a grey jacket and white polo neck jumper in a radio studio. He is talking into a radio microphone with a purple head and BBC Radio CWR written on it. Behind him is a purple and pink wall.
On his increasingly high profile since buying Coventry City, King told BBC CWR: "They still don't know me in London. But round here they do, which is great"
News imageA championship football league table showing Coventry city at the top followed by Middlesbrough, Millwall, Ipswich, Hull and Wrexham. The white text is on a sky blue background with a Coventry City badge on the left hand side of the graphic.
Coventry City need to finish in the top two for automatic promotion and are nine points clear of third-placed Millwall with nine games left

King spent an hour talking on BBC CWR, with the radio station receiving many text messages from supporters wanting to thank their club's chairman for driving their team back towards the Premier League.

"It's well-documented that for Coventry City it has been quite messy in previous years," King said.

"But I have to say, football ownership is very difficult. I have been around a couple of grounds recently, at West Brom and Bristol, where the fanbase has been grumpy."

King firstly took ownership of the football club then managed to strike a deal to buy the CBS Arena.

"We've managed to get it together, so I'm proud that we've got it together because that was not so straightforward.

"But now we are together and we are having a season that probably merits us being together.

"We haven't had it like this for a long time, and you can feel it. It feels like 'wow, we're finally doing something properly at our great football club'."

He added: "I'm proud we've been able to do it. We've got to get over the line, but people have got to enjoy it and they should feel proud of living here and proud of their football club."

News imagePA Media Two men celebrating on a pitch at a football stadium. The man on the left is wearing a blue suit, white shirt and dark blue tie with grey hair. Next to him is a younger man with brown hair and a blue T-shirt. He is raising his left fist in the airPA Media
Doug King said head coach Frank Lampard had a "calmness" around his players "but he is focused" as Coventry City close in on promotion

King urged Sky Blues fans to enjoy the Championship run-in, saying: "Don't worry - just make the atmosphere crazy."

He added: "The fanbase has been incredible and it's rocking at the Arena. It's hard work but I am excited. If I can't get excited now, I'm never going to get excited."

He said he believed Coventry City could become established in the Premier League, but the first priority would be to survive the first season if promotion was secured in May.

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