The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
I will post some info about the man and his time at the helm of CCFC so far.
Background
Doug has obviously been a success in his working life.
He graduated with a degree in Mathematical Engineering from Loughborough University.
This information is available on his LinkedIn account, and in an "about" section on the RCMA capital website, a company in which he held the position of CEO and COO.
Taken from -> https://rcma-asset.com/team/Doug has over twenty years of experience in trading grains, non-grain feeds and petroleum. After graduating in mathematical engineering from Loughborough University in 1990, he joined Cargill as a graduate trainee. Over the next seven years, he rose to head both the UK non-grain import business and the UK grain business based in Liverpool and Swinderby. In 1997, he moved to Cargill’s petroleum business in Geneva as head of gasoline and crude trading and rose to head global petroleum trading by his departure in 2000. Over 2001 and 2002, he was head of global petroleum trading in Crown Resources and an energy market consultant for a large US hedge fund in 2003. In June 2004, Doug joined Mike at Aisling Analytics becoming co-owner/partner shortly after.
Doug obviously used his mathematical brain to make decisions on trading in the various commodities he's been responsible for over the years.
Including crude oil and grains.
Doug has 8 Appointments on the Companies House website, which you can view below.
https://find-and-update.company-informa ... pointments
He's involved in various ventures with family members. Of course, there is King of Shaves. The company was founded by Doug's brother Will King comes across as a bit of a free spirit who has become a cult figure with a certain section of the Coventry City fanbase for reasons known to those fans.
The King's grew up in Lowestoft, Suffolk. With some interest in Norwich City growing up.
https://www.pinkun.com/news/23138610.no ... od-canary/I come from Lowestoft. My career has taken me around the world. Norwich City is my first club. In that part of the world it is either Norwich City or Ipswich, and it was Norwich City for me.
In 2023 The King of Shaves logo adorned the front of the Coventry City home shirt. There was a subsequent delay in the shirt being released, as King of Shaves was a late selection after Doug failed to secure a lucrative front-of-shirt sponsor.
The Takeover
Doug King's takeover came out of the blue for us supporters. It was around the point that the then Ricoh Arena was going to be available to purchase, part of the long legal nightmare we'd gone through with Sisu/Council/Wasps. I'd prefer to forget about it all tbh.
In November 2022, King made a bid, thought to be around 25 million pounds for the Arena following his acquisition of 85% of the football club. It was all too late though as far as the stadium was concerned with Mike Ashley's Frasers Group the preferred bidder.
The optimism was admirable. The mathematical engineer and experienced commodities manager would have likely known the chances of it coming off were low though, to say the least.
On January 27th 2023 Doug King purchased the final 15% of the shares to make himself 100% owner of the club.
We were in 13th position.
Doug King, taken from https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64432560To ensure that a new era for Coventry City Football Club begins with full transparency and clarity, I am happy to announce today my full 100% takeover of the club with my purchase of the 15% SISU shareholding
All good Doug, we love transparency and clarity.
The Achievements
Of course, we had a magnificent run until the end of the season which resulted in us getting to the playoff final.
King took the adulation that came his way, a song even appeared for the owner. Never a good idea if you ask me.
Still, I think people were just still high on Sisu leaving and with a string of good results there was just a feel-good factor about the club that we were heading in the right direction.
In reality, with no transfer windows or any actions required of him of note. There was little King could have done to positively influence what was happening on the pitch he was simply in the right place at the right time.
Squad when Doug took over
- Simon Moore - GK
- Ben Wilson - GK
- Tom Billson - GK
- Cian Tyler - GK
- Jonathon Panzo - CB - Loan
- Callum Doyle - CB - Loan
- Micheal Rose - CB
- Kyle McFadzean - CB
- Brooke Norton-Cuffy RB - Loan
- Josh Wilson-Esbrand LB - Loan
- Luke McNally CB - Loan
- Todd Kane - RB
- Jake Bidwell - LB
- Josh Reid - LB
- Fanky Dabo - RB
- Julien Dacosta - RB
- Jack Burroughs - RB
- Liam Kelly - CM
- Jamie Allen - CM
- Callum O'Hare - CM
- Ben Sheaf - CM
- Josh Eccles - CM
- Ryan Howley - CM
- Gustavo Hamer - CM
- Kasey Palmer - CM
- Martyn Waghorn - CF
- Viktor Gyokeres - CF
- Sean Maguire - CF
- Matt Godden - CF
- Fabio Tavares - CF
- Will Bapaga - CF
Viktor Gyokeres - to Sporting Lisbon - £30 million - roughly and eventually - see -> https://www.skybluesblog.co.uk/details- ... -sporting/
Gustavo Hamer - £15million - reported in various outlets
Obviously, those above are the two main transfers. Bringing in a large amount of money.
Footballing commodities well traded?
Of that initial squad, we have also sold Matt Godden and Kasey Palmer. Those fees are undisclosed but I'll put a figure of around £1.5 million for the pair given the contract situations and age etc of the players in question.
So perhaps the transfer revenue generated by King during his time so far is around £46.5 million pounds. All for players he had no part in bringing into the club.
Current Squad
- Brad Collins - GK - £500,000
- Oliver Dovin - GK - £2 million
- Ben Wilson - GK
- Cian Tyler - GK
- Luis Binks - CB - £1 million
- Liam Kitching - CB - £4 million
- Bobby Thomas - CB - £2 million
- Joel Latibeaudiere - CB - £500,000
- Milan Van Ewijk - RB - £3.4 million
- Jake Bidwell - LB
- Jay Dasilva - LB
- Jamie Allen - CM
- Ben Sheaf - CM
- Josh Eccles - CM
- Jack Rudoni - CM - £4 million
- Kai Andrews - CM - At least seems to be in first team squads if never used
- Victor (do you remember that goal?) Torp - CM - £1 million
- Ellis Simms - CF - £5 million
- Norman Bassette - CF - £2 million
- Haji Wright - LW - £7.5 million
- Raphael - RW -£500,000
- Fabio Tavares - CF
- Brandon Thomas-Asante - CF - £2 million
- Ephron Mason-Clark - LW - £4 million
- Tatsuhiro Sakamoto - RW - £1.2 million
With the exception of Haji Wright, who Doug King broke from the norm with CCFC transfers and announced the player's fee in a news article on the CCFC website. Alongside a photo with the newly crowned Coventry City record signing.
Ins vs Outs
Net sales seem to be roughly £46.5m in - £40.6m out = + £5.9 million
I may have missed or forgotten about some players. Obviously, we've lost Callum O'Hare on a free too after King and the club failed to get him to sign a new contract.
In terms of the income, we've had a run to the playoff final and also the FA Cup semi-final. Those would have been worth around 4 million in competition and TV money.
We've also enjoyed record season ticket and shirt sales.
I have no idea how much the season tickets and shirts add up to in terms of revenue. It must be a nice chunk of change though.
The transfer surplus and the competition money of the last 2 seasons looks to be around £10 million pounds unspent on the playing side though.
Which I personally find disappointing given the lack of balance in the squad currently.
King has invested some of the clubs money into improving the training ground at Ryton. It's clearly been important for him to set some foundations. Which is fair enough.
Quote taken from -> https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/cove ... dK9Kj16JAI“I came in quite cold and had a look at our training facilities at Ryton and thought that it was unbelievable, if I’m honest,” King says.
“That an elite club in the Championship, one of the top 44 clubs in the league structure, had the facilities that we had was… wow, interesting.
“For us to change from that mindset, where we were scavenging around for astute transfers, relying upon extremely good development and people who could cope on small budgets, was necessary.
“We would never have attracted the quality of player we have today if we had not done the work immediately at the training ground and the Arena. Quality players would have taken one look at it and thought ‘It’s a bit rubbish’. I focused very quickly on remedying that part of the business.”
Coaching Staff
We've seen key staff members Adi Viveash and Dennis Lawrence leave.
Incoming we've had Rhys Carr and our old friend George Boateng join the first team coaching staff. Along with John Dempster and Mark Delaney. There is confusion amongst fans about who actually does what. Mark Robins has said following the Leeds game when questioned about this that each coach is responsible for a distinct aspect either in and out of possession of the football.
Fair enough.
Dr Claire-Marie Roberts has come into the role of Performance Director at the club. She herself was an elite athlete and the club stated that...
OK, more infrastructure investment from Doug King.She brings a wealth of experience in high-performance sport to Coventry City and will ensure the highest standards in all aspects of performance and preparation for elite football are delivered sustainably across the whole Club.
Mark Robins
Everything has changed around the gaffer. The surroundings at Ryton, the amount of fans in the stadium, the coaches, the playing staff.
My fear is that with the club being changed in so many ways, coupled with the terrible start to the season is that he might be the only thing that King thinks he can change next.
I'm not writing this to talk about Robins current performance. I think he's got plenty wrong lately but he's also been the best manager Coventry City has had in my 30 years of following them.
Robins seems to be on the same page as King. I presume there is a good relationship between the two.
Mark clearly admires Doug King for the process he's been putting in place.He came in and he really wanted to make a strong impact, and still wants to make a strong impact in every aspect of the business. He’s a brilliant, brilliant person. He’s outstanding. I really enjoy working with him and I really like him. He’s head strong and he’s really bright and he has the most energy of many people that I have ever met.
The Future Under Doug
I am unsure where we go from here. King has made mistakes, and been big enough to admit them with regards to the JSB misstep where only kids with season tickets were going to be allowed into the JSB club.
I still think the Tottenham prices were wrong for kids, and the season ticket pricing could be better.
If the players on the pitch are commoditised and he sticks to this strategy of only buying young players who could develop into salable assets then we re-invest and improve gradually, I just don't see how we reach the playoffs 3 out of 5 seasons (including this and last season) as was his stated aim.
The Premier League Package season ticket and the playoff aim above tell fans to expect instant success.
This is the main problem at the moment, and Mark Robins is fighting back against these expectations lately by mentioning it as "dangerous" in post-match press conferences.
King needs to come out in January and fiercely back the manager in the transfer window if he wants instant success. If he doesn't he's got some awkward commercial reversing to do and needs to manage the expectations of the fans far better.
Am I happy with what King has done for the club? I think he's doing OK but not especially good.
The playoff final etc, was all Robins. So we've not really seen success from the King tenure yet.
I think he needs to change his stance on loan players too, as we're cutting off a market of players from the Premier League that could have helped us cope with the early part of this season's injuries.
The goal of promotion to the Premier League is fine in face it's what 99.9% of fans dream of.
It just feels like we're trying to get there with a strategy akin to that of saying in investment you need to buy low and sell high, or to lose weight you just need to burn off more calories than you consume.
"The Brentford model" or "The Brighton model" meaning just buying young players and selling them for loads of money is not realistic.
We need to use loans and experience in conjunction with some very astute business in the transfer market.
