Coventry City: Doug King hailed for Mark Robins, Frank Lampard call despite "unpopular" decisions | OneFootball

King has passed the two-year mark as owner, and it certainly hasn't been anything but ordinary at the CBS Arena since he arrived

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Some Coventry City fans may not have been happy at the time, but the decision for popular boss Mark Robins to be sacked and Frank Lampard to replace him is certainly paying dividends.

In early November, time was called on the long-term reign of Robins at Cov after a 2-1 home defeat to Derby County, with owner Doug King later explaining that the decision was made largely due to a fall-out that took place between the ex-Man United striker and his former assistant Adi Viveash.

That led to Viveash departing and a new coaching staff being assembled, but things were not working out as hoped, which led to Robins departing and eventually Lampard being appointed - Coventry were 17th when the former England international midfielder arrived, and he has overseen their rise to fifth in the Championship standings.

Coventry City: Doug King praised for Frank Lampard decision

King hasn't always made popular decisions since he took over at the CBS Arena, but under his ownership, Coventry have been a penalty shootout away from the Premier League, made big profit on some assets like Viktor Gyokeres and also ran Man United incredibly close in an FA Cup semi-final.

At the time, some vehemenelty disagreed with his decision to part ways with Robins, but Lampard's impact soon meant that was forgotten about, and FLW's Sky Blues fan pundit Chris Deez has hailed the decision from King to pivot to Lampard in the hot-seat.

"In his short time as owner of Coventry, Doug King has made quite a few unpopular decisions, most of them behind the scenes, financially motivated, changes to the family zone in the stadium, which made a lot of the fans very upset," Chris said when speaking to FLW.

“Obviously the big one though was Mark Robins, letting him go after everything he’s achieved with us in the eight years before that.

"I will always be incredibly grateful to Mark Robins. He helped me to see, to feel, to experience thing that I never thought I would as a Coventry fan - seeing us lift trophies, win leagues, go to Wembley multiple times, one kick away from the Premier League, but sadly his time was up.

"He’d lost the dressing room, he’d obviously had quite a big fall-out with Adi Viveash, his number two, which ended up with him leaving the club just before the season started, loads of new coaches were brought in.

"It was never really particularly clear what they were brought in for, they all seemed to be just there on their iPads. We suddenly had a very busy technical area every game, and it seemed like the call had been made by King rather than Robins on who to bring in - I love George Boateng, but I can’t imagine Mark Robins had him at the top of his list.

“Robins had unfortunately lost the dressing room, it was that simple. The players were not performing for him anymore and it was time to go, and it was obviously going to be difficult for any manager coming into the club and having to replace a man who had achieved so much and basically saved the club, and rebuilt it, and helped to mend the connection between the fans and the club.

"Frank Lampard gets a hard time and a bad wrap for his managerial record, even though he did a great job with Chelsea in a transfer embargo, helped them to win their Champions League group (in 2020-21) and did a great job with Derby where they narrowly missed out on the Premier League.

"But look at our upturn in form - without checking it, we must be the third or fourth best form team at the minute behind the likes of Leeds, Burnley and Sheffield United.

“I was somewhat happy to see the back of Robins, and I was somewhat happy to see Lampard come in. I was hopeful, I was a little bit dubious because he’d not managed in a little while, didn’t do too tell at Everton and was worried that it was a style over substance thing and because he was a big name and the links he’s got, but he’s turned things around incredibly.

"He’s been here for three months and we are literally the complete opposite end of the table. We were in a very real relegation battle and now we are fifth and pushing for the play-offs. We’re probably not going to get as high as fourth because Sunderland are quite far ahead, but to even be in with a shout of fifth or sixth is insane after how our season started.

"People are saying ‘Frank Lampard has found his level’ - that’s absolutely fine, I don’t see what the problem with that is. He’s found his level, and that level is taking us up into the play-off spots in only three months, breaking all sorts of records and cancelling all sorts of curses we’ve had, like against Swansea and Preston, and we’ve won eight out of the last nine league games, which is the first time we’ve done that in 55 years, which is just mental.

"I’ve got all the time in the world for Doug King, and even more time in the world for Super Frank Lampard."

Doug King has made brave Coventry City calls but Frank Lampard one may be his best yet

After the long and controversial stint at Coventry that SISU had, Doug King coming in and buying the club was much-needed at the time, and he was painted as the new saving grace that had been wanted for many years.

Difficult decisions were made, such as cashing in on Viktor Gyokeres and Gus Hamer, but King gave Robins the money to re-invest into his squad, and it is one that may have missed out on the play-offs last season, but did awfully well to get Cov to the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Things clearly weren't working as they used to be though earlier on in 2024-25, but sacking a popular manager, no matter if results were inconsistent on the pitch, could've gone down horribly.

Following on from that, Lampard's appointment was certainly met with a mixed response, but the numbers do not lie - 36 points from a possible 48 have seen Coventry rocket up the table, and it has only backed King's decision to let Robins go and wait a few weeks to get Lampard in through the door, especially when you see Robins is pulling up no trees at Stoke City.