It's our time | Coventry owner Doug King reacts to Sky Blues promotion to Premier League

And from a key player on the pitch we've been joined by the owner of Coventry City, Doug King, the owner of Premier League Coventry City. How does that sound Doug? That sounds, yeah, surreal but I guess we needed a point and we got one. We've been great all year. The boys did it the hard way but they did it and listen behind that what it means to the 7,500, 8,000 fans who've come here. I mean they've been starved of it for a long time and you can feel it. Yeah, back on the Premier League map after 25 years, talk to us about the significance for not only the football club but for the city as a whole. Look, 25 years is a huge amount of time and when you get relegated I think you know you might bounce back or whatever and if you don't get back and you go through some tough times you you feel like it's never going to happen but things change. Getting out of this league is really difficult, really difficult and we did it. No parachute, great recruitment, great coaching, great lads. Just got it together, you know, we got our whole city together, we got the club together and we changed the direction of everything so I'm super proud of everybody. They've had the whole of the season, you know, in front and I think it's really difficult to be a front runner for that long and they're not used to that but they handled it and today they handle again just about, go over the line and you can hear it. Talk to us about the manager because when you made the decision in November 2024 to change the manager and let Mark Robbins go after all his achievements and bring in Frank Lampard, there were many people who questioned you. They're not questioning you now. There were a lot of people who questioned that because they know what Mark had done and the depths they'd been to and what he had done to drag them from those depths and he did an incredible job and you know he knows that because we had some good times together. He's been on the media today, he's been really generous and he knows I love working with him. We made a change, we felt like we had to change a bit of direction after the coaching team sort of changed and we moved in with Frank and here we are and I'm sure Mark will get his moment with Stoke. Great city, it's a great city, great football club but this is our time, it's our moment and he started that and we've finished it. We're grateful that you've left the party to come and speak to us but I'd like you to look at the monitors down here. We've just got some images of you a few moments ago with the players and the fans. What was this like, this moment? Listen, the voice is incredible. There we go. I don't know, look at that, it looked like it was waddling or something. It wasn't a very elegant one, was it? But you know, there it is. They've been amazing, the fans. Look, they didn't agree with a lot of that, didn't agree with the Mark move but they realised that I would explain it to him and they listened to that. They saw what we did. I've always tried to be transparent about what we're doing. It's a hard job to get out of this league. It'll be a harder job next year to do what we're going to do but I'm not thinking about that. I'm loving this moment because it's been so long in coming. You never think it's going to come but it did come and I was up there and I had a little tear in my eye because I know how hard they worked and we've all worked for this moment. Doug, you talk about it maybe feeling like it's not going to come. You've had to have a playoff final defeat, the semis last year which was a real sickener given the type of performance but does that make tonight and the success even sweeter and do you feel actually you're probably in a bit of a better position now to move forward with that challenge of the Premier League? Yeah, you know, it felt a light bit early at Luton but it was so close. Then we had the semi in the FA Cup that was madness and then we had obviously, it hurt last year I would say. I felt we were good last year. I was up there with my son and on that corner against Sunderland he put his tie over his eyes and I said don't do that and then it went in it was like oh my god. It was a bit like that today to be fair but we were where we are. When you get in those good positions you get used to it and they got used to how it felt. It felt a bit better maybe than it did in those earlier times and we saw that they handled that pressure throughout the season and got it done. There's a man who took this club, his name's Jack Walker and he was 26 years in the wilderness but to the Premier League and in three years they won it. Are you dreaming of that? Listen, I'm not dreaming of that today because we know how things are in the Premier League but I am enjoying and thinking about the challenge. I think it's another challenge for us to navigate. We're a big club, we're a big city, we've got a huge following, you can feel it and you'll be going mad today in the city, mad. We'll get behind us and we'll see what we can do. We'll think about it very carefully and we've got a really good team at Coventry with Frank, with Dean Austin and those guys and we'll work well on trying to make a good stab of it. How much in terms of irons in the fire preparations have you been able to start already? I think we've been top of the league for a while so we look at all the scenarios and work out what we may or may want to do. We're very closely held on how we think about stuff, we have to be. We have to try and find our advantages. We're coming up and we know who we're competing against but I'm feeling like we've done some great work, we've expanded that recruitment part of our business really effectively and efficiently. We'll give it a good go. I told my guys, don't think about it, let's just keep it nice and calm, a bit of philosophy and think about where we want to go because we have to do it our way. If we follow others, okay fine, but we'll do it our way and hopefully if we can follow what we've done here maybe we'll do okay. I've heard some Coventry fans saying they're concerned about Frank leaving. Is there anything you can say to them now? I know he's got another year left on his contract but anything you can reassure them? Frank's done an unbelievable job. He put himself in the arena in November of 24 and he didn't know how it would go. He had a feeling that he wanted to be back, he liked the project we were working on. He knew he had to get something done and it was a big moment for him and look what he's done. No parachute, we haven't gone mad in the market, we've improved a lot of our players, we've kept them together, they know how it works, you've got a close-knit community there. Listen, he's a very, very talented head coach. I love working with him, he's articulate, he's clever, he's smart, he's challenging when he needs to be challenging and I hope he's learned a bit with us and I've learned a bit with him and hopefully that'll continue. Some nice moments there, we've seen you a short time ago embracing on the pitch. He knows I love him, come on Frank. Doug, just on that in terms of you know Frank and the job that he's done and I'll just go back to the January window where you really did need that little bit of a boost and one thing I've got to give you huge credit for, you've never sort of over-promised, you've been very open with the fan base about the investment and I can imagine Frank knocking the door down saying listen, if I'm going to be here we want a challenge but you went and did that and you did back him in January with signings that you made, not just on Jaka but some of the players who ended up being squad players but really pushed on some of the boys that were playing. Yeah, I mean we felt like we were lean, let's put it like that, as we went into the season. I was okay with that but we knew there would be tougher times ahead. We had a great start, we were really shooting the lights out weren't we. When you're in a position like we were in, you don't get many of those so you have to hit the studs in, right. I know that. You have to be careful, everybody thinks you're going to go crazy. I think we worked it well but we knew we were going to reinforce and we were going to make sure this was our moment because look, we may never have had a greater chance and we haven't been there in 25 years and when you realise that, you don't muck about and we didn't muck about. Absolutely. Doug, thank you very much, we must go and let you enjoy it. Enjoy your night. Listen, thanks guys. Congratulations. Really appreciate it. Yeah, really nice to see you. Many, many congratulations. I'll take that for you.