Coventry City Robins reveals recruitment shift as Doug King gets ‘teeth into’ transfers

CoventryLive brings you the latest transfer news about Coventry City while we examine the comments made by Sky Blues manager Mark Robins over the club’s evolving business practices.

Coventry City, like other football teams, like to keep their transfer business under wraps until the deal is signed, at which point they will be happy to announce their new additions.

Mark Robins doesn’t feel bad about keeping his cards closer to his chest than other managers do when it comes to prospective ins and outs in any particular window. Some managers are more transparent than others. It’s interesting to note that the Sky Blues manager has acknowledged a change in roles when it comes to hiring, stating he is no longer in charge of closing deals but is still closely involved in the process.

The shift in focus was revealed when CoventryLive questioned him about whether the team had received any interest, queries, or bids for any of its players this month following recent rumors linking players like Ben Sheaf with Luton Town interest.

He revealed something a little shocking when he stated, “Um, well I don’t deal with any of that anymore.”

Since Doug King is in charge of that and collaborates closely with Dean Austin, the head of recruitment, on it, I believe Doug would have mentioned that in his media appearance this week if that had been the case. However, I’m not aware of anything at all.

Over the weekend, there was a lot of talk that City had lost out on a very ambitious bid to recruit Argentinean winger Benjamin Rollheiser for an outrageous £6.5 million upfront fee, with rumours that the price may have reached £9 million. But the 23-year-old turned down the Sky Blues and instead to sign with Portuguese powerhouse Benfica.

I asked the manager whether it is a sign of the club’s ambition, assuming it’s true, that they are looking in that type of market right now; whether the club’s recruitment has increased owing to the money that the club are able to spend now following the sale of high-profile players last summer. He acknowledged that he is unlikely to confirm or deny the accuracy of the story.

He remained silent on transfer rumors, saying, “I’m not commenting on it and I never comment on things that may or may not be.”

He continued, giving an explanation of his thinking, saying, “It’s just not the done way since there are so many competitors out there who want to strengthen, so why should we do all the work and then inform everybody? I disagree with that. It ought to be done internally, in my opinion.

These days, a lot of people are involved, and things might get out in the public domain before they should or should not, which makes it challenging. Honestly, I think we should be allowed to go about our business, take care of their medical needs, let them into the facility, have them sign the papers, and then let them go. My ‘perfect world’ head is that one. In the end, I don’t want to get into too much detail.

Naturally, it’s uncommon for any club to be able to hold off on making an announcement. Thanks to a leak from the Danish press, the unveiling of Victor Torp came as close to being public as it gets these days, with the deal remaining a closely guarded secret until the morning of the day City revealed everything.

He went on, “We’re always trying to do things and improve things, and that will remain the case,” hinting that the team is still looking to strengthen in the current window, which ends next Thursday night (Feb. 1).

Conversely, CoventryLive has learned that the team did, in fact, lose out on Josh Stokes, a 19-year-old midfielder for Aldershot Town, this week. The teenager chose to sign a £250,000 contract with Bristol City and then return to the selling club on loan for the balance of the season.

He responded, “I think what I would say is you are looking everywhere to try to pick up good players,” when asked if the City are actively attempting to reinforce at the younger end of the club and searching for “ones for the future” in every window that passes. I promise never to discuss specific people, but we do cast a wide net, and we are looking everywhere.

“Even though our recruitment department isn’t very large, they are putting in a lot of effort to try and bring names and information about where they stand and where they would fit into the club and system in a pathway.” This is the actual situation.

“It’s about the eyes and understanding of what we need to do going forward that comes from the experience of the people that work in the recruitment department.”

After a summer of significant investment by the club’s standards over the past ten or more years, Robins went on to confirm that the owner of the team still believes in the ambitious recruitment effort.

The City manager concluded by highlighting how involved King is at the team. “I think Doug has bought into that brilliantly and he’s running with it and is prepared to back it, so that’s fantastic,” the manager added.

He seems to be really interested in it, which is something he probably likes and wants to get his teeth into. He is directly collaborating with Dean, who is working tirelessly with his team to turn things around as soon as possible. As I mentioned earlier, some excellent work has been done, and it will get better over time.

What do you think about Doug King getting involved in transfer deals? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.